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Welcome to the Scottish Independence Convention Blog. This weeks blog comes from Dot Jessiman, member of the Convention's Council If you would like to read comments or write one of your own scroll down the bottom of this page. |
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Dot Jessiman |
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Joe Middleton - Craig Murray Murray Ritchie 19th December 2009 Isobel Lindsay Stephen Maxwell Jamie, Earl of Mar and Kellie Stephen Maxwell - Stephen Maxwell - Stephen Maxwell - Isobel Lindsay - Murray Ritchie - Bill Scott - Stephen Maxwell - Niall Aslen - Stephen Maxwell - Murray Ritchie - Stephen Maxwell - Joe Middleton - John MacCallum - Chris Walker - Murray Ritchie - Jamie, Earl of Mar- Bill Scott - Murray Ritchie - Chris Walker - Jamie, Earl of Marl - Stephen Maxwell - Isobel Lindsay - Kevin Williamson - Murray Ritchie - Isobel Lindsay - Murray Ritchie - Murray Ritchie - Stephen Maxwell - Murray Ritchie - Murray Ritchie - Murray Ritchie - Stephen Maxwell - Murray Ritchie - Murray Ritchie - Murray Ritchie - Christopher Walker - 7th Dec 2006 Murray Ritchie - Stephen Maxwell - |
Power To The People - Fact Not Fiction. I spent much of last summer on the stump, guest-riding on Banff and Buchan SNP's stall at the major shows in the North East and the Highlands with the Independence Convention's Petition for a Referendum. What started as a straightforward bid for signatures developed - on the public's initiative not mine - into a series of discussions on referenda generally and independence in particular. At the time all I did was get on with it. Only when I got my weekends back did I have the time to reflect on a pretty astonishing experience, disclosing as it did a thirst for information on a subject to which we are told the Scottish "silent majority" are indifferent if not hostile. All in all I must have spoken to around 5000 people. Not the politically aware; not the sort of people who submitted contributions to the National Conversation - just ordinary folk having a good day out. What seems to have attracted them was the emphasis in our display "Let the People Decide" on treating them with respect in assuming they were capable of making up their own minds on a subject central to their future and that of their families. They themselves knew what the catch was. To make up your mind sensibly you need the facts on which to base a decision. Leaving aside the groups violently for or violently against, the biggest single group felt they did not have them. And it was facts they wanted. They were not interested in my opinion - they knew it - they wanted facts about revenue, taxation, the debts, the banks, the oil, their pensions, about defence When I took this back to my colleagues on the Convention Council we agreed this was a need that should be filled and it was clear on present form that the media was unlikely to do so. We knew that at some point before the Referendum Campaign/Scottish Parliamentary Elections the Government would be producing a reasoned case for Independence based on the results of the National Conversation. However, it seemed to us that there was a case for an interim stage providing straight facts for the public to digest. Later the conclusions we have all reached on the basis of those facts could be presented in a reasoned case. The leaflet Fact not Fiction - Your Questions Answered is the result. As I have said the questions are not ours - they are the Publics. I have to admit that I was surprised at the force of the case represented by the simple gathering together of facts already in the public domain. For leaflets Email Dot Jessiman, David McCann or Download from here (PDF)
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Craig Murray - Scottish dissident, human rights Brian Taylor's political blog on BBC The Truth About Scotland Independence Cymru Political News From Scotland Tartan Hero Scottish Roundup Ian Hamilton QC Scotland at the NPT: most states support elimination of Trident Scotland The Brand Alan In Dyfed |
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