Today thousands of people will gather in Scotland’s capital city at Calton Hill. There will be a carnival atmosphere as citizens of Scotland are joined by people from across Europe who have come to support their Scottish cousins in our quest for independence.
Celebrities, politicians, and academics will mingle with old and young, middle class and working class, professionals, skilled workers, unemployed, students and every other branch of our rich Scottish society. They will join together and march under some of the most brightly coloured banners ever gathered together.
Today thousands of people will gather in Scotland’s capital city at Calton Hill. There will be a carnival atmosphere as citizens of Scotland are joined by people from across Europe who have come to support their Scottish cousins in our quest for independence.
Celebrities, politicians, and academics will mingle with old and young, middle class and working class, professionals, skilled workers, unemployed, students and every other branch of our rich Scottish society. They will join together and march under some of the most brightly coloured banners ever gathered together.
There will be singing, there will be music, dancing and speeches galore.
However at the forefront of everyone’s mind will be the reason for the gathering – the referendum to be held on 18th September 2014. A once in a lifetime opportunity will be presented to the people of Scotland.
The day after today’s rally the campaign will continue.
Newsnet Scotland will be in attendance, just as we were at the inaugural rally in 2012. Members of our team will be on hand to meet and greet well-wishers and have a chat. This year, as last, we have T-shirts for sale and car stickers. Free leaflets will be available for those who wish to help promote our site.
Our T-shirts will bear an image of our favourite wee Dug – Duggy Dug. Duggy’s first video ‘Scotland’s Oil’ will also be beamed on giant video screens situated around the venue.
However we are also using this gathering in order to kick start our audacious plan for a hard copy Newsnet Scotland newspaper to be printed in early 2014. We would like anyone who feels they can contribute in a significant sense towards this project to visit our stall and speak to our team.
In particular we are looking for people who can help with the distribution of a hard copy newspaper in areas throughout Scotland. Numbers would be in the thousands, which would suggest considerable logistical expertise and/or a network of reliable volunteers.
Newsnet Scotland online attracts well over 100,000 unique visitors every month. Our daily readership stands at well over 11,000.
However, impressive though these figures may appear, they are insignificant in terms of influencing the Scottish public. Few people have heard of Newsnet Scotland – even amongst those attending today’s rally the majority will most probably never have heard of us.
The hard copy is the final part of our magical journey which began four years ago with a small emailed newsletter later to become an online blog. We now count two freelance journalists amongst our regular contributors and are in the process of recruiting more writers.
There will be other initiatives including the taking up of the suggestions for our leaflets to be made available for printing. So, those wishing to spread the Newsnet brand will be able to do so by printing off a few leaflets for distribution.
Look out for the next Duggy Dug animation which will take a look at Unionist scares over borders – voiced again by Hollywood actor Brian Cox.
If you’re reading this before the rally and are planning to attend then have a good one – pop over and say hello. If you’re reading this after the rally then see you next year at the last one before the big day.
Finally, a special good luck and thanks to Jeff, Anne and the team for putting the whole thing together.