Gearing up for Political Warfare, Pro-Union Group, Scotland in Union is developing into a campaigning force across Scotland, the SNP may not face off against a Better Together 2 but they just might face off against campaign hardened Scotland in Union if the second referendum happens, they will be the ‘shock troops’ on the ground against a feral SNP mob

Dear All

During the Better Together Campaign, the organisation which was at the forefront of the No Vote was Better Together, they held the ‘no’ franchise from the Electoral Commission.

After 2014, Better Together folded their tents and everyone wander off into the sunset, their job done, the Union saved!

When the SNP refused to accept the result and sought to talk up another referendum, another group emerged, this was called Scotland in Union. Scotland in Union has allsorts of different people in it from political activists to ordinary people. The Group is setting up a network of campaign teams; this has recently expanded and is expected to grow.

If, there is a second referendum, then it would seem logical that Scotland in Union would be the obvious vehicle to front the pro UK campaign. The reason for this is magnified by the decision of Kezia Dugdale to veto a Better Together 2 organisations working with the Conservatives.

As Scottish Labour has slipped to being the third party of Holyrood, the Scottish Conservatives would make the case that they should lead a Better Together 2 organisation with Ruth Davidson has the ‘leader’. You can see why Scottish Labour doesn’t want to be involved. I would say however thinking back to 2014, the Labour Campaign to save the Union was very poor by Scottish Labour; their activists didn’t really support the organisation in real numbers.

In Pollok, not a single Labour MP, MSP or Cllr came out to work with the Pollok Better Together Campaign during the entire campaign doing the hard slog of going door to door.

As I remarked, the people who saved Scotland’s place in the Union were the ordinary people of Scotland, not the politicians. I do give credit to Alistair Darling, Gordon Brown; George Galloway and to some degree Jim Murphy. Jim Murphy’s contribution was his ‘irn bru’ tour which basically was old fashioned soapbox street campaigning which got right on the tits of the SNP feral mob that turned up to abuse him. I have to say that wasn’t educational but it did have a certain amusement value which cannot be understated.

So; who are the Scotland in Union Team, well the best thing is to check out their website by clicking on this link.

http://www.scotlandinunion.co.uk/our_team

I know three of them, Alastair Cameron, Patrick Harkness and Andrew Skinner, Cameron is ex Military, Harkness works at Glasgow University and Andrew Skinner, their campaigns manager is ex Labour who was very prominent in United Against Separation before taking up his post. I have been to a couple of their events in Glasgow which were well attended most doing the street stall stuff. With the possibility of indyref 2 round the corner, the organisation is gearing up for the next possible fight.

The pro UK group aims to to ramp up their activities on the eve of  the  SNP  Conference to make sure the Nationalists know that they aren’t going away either. You may have seen the press story of them getting a huge Billboard awhile ago at another SNP Conference in Glasgow.

https://stv.tv/news/politics/1369782-unionists-erect-anti-independence-billboard-at-snp-conference/

It also made the printed press, in real terms, it was just a ‘noise up’ against the SNP, but it was a good PR stunt. Just as man cannot live on bread alone, neither can an organisation live off stunts, as I said to a well known commentator Allan Sutherland, Scotland in Union needs to develop, and if by magic, they are doing this very thing.

George Laird right again.

On the 14^th March in Glasgow around 200 backers are due to attend a SIU event at The Lighthouse in Glasgow. According to an email sent to me, the event kicks off at about 12 noon till about 2.30 pm with the Chief Executive Graeme Pearson giving a speech on the threat of indyref 2, a networking event, and a spot of lunch. I would expect that there is a sizeable press turn out for the event possibly even STV or BBC since this could be a contrast before the SNP have their Confernece.

Scotland in Union wants to sign 250,000 supporters opposed to independence, canvassing is one of the most time consuming activities that you can get involved in, aside from creating the database, the man hours going door to door are extremely high. It can take the best part of a year to get round a constituency of 60,000 voters even with an average size campaigning team.

So, what is the future of Scotland in Union?

That rather depends on them, they support the Union; political parties are talking about federalism, where do they stand on that?

Will they develop into a think tank?

Will they end up forming as a political party?

Will they end up ‘supplying’ activists to different political parties to help pro UK candidates?

Will they back a single party?

Will they come out at election time for the next Holyrood election and back the most likely Unionist Party to attempt to win Holyrood?

Scotland in Union has a lot of developing to do and a lot of thinking to do, at some stage they will be making decisions but for now, they can kick all of the above into the long grass, their focus is the threat of indyref 2.

I would say given that Brexit talks are the focus of Westminster, there is no danger that there will be any referendum this side of 2020.

Scottish Labour has also started an anti independence campaign, it is more a ‘connection’ exercise with the Unionist voters who abandoned them rather than anything serious.

Personally I don’t see that campaign being anything more than a ‘paper’ campaign which is why they should develop links with SIU to do joint projects.

Finally, I have no idea if SIU will do a demo at the SNP Conference, but you can imagine the angry look on Nicola Sturgeon's face, oh what a joy for ordinary Scots. 

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University