Indyref Events Questionnaire

There’s a host of organising and a pile of groundwork going on in tthe background. One repeated question is how do we learn from our own experiences to do better next time?

If you were involved in organising an event during the IndyRef campaign William at Gallus Events would like you to fill out a questionnaire. The hope is that we can learn from our mistakes and build on our successes for any future ScotRef campaign.

Fill out the questionnaire (will only take five minutes) and will be exceptionally useful as we plan ahead…

Comments (17)

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  1. C Neill says:

    If you were really serious about being better you would ask people who attended (or did not attend for some reason) events. Part of the issue here is that the referendum was lost. That suggests events failed to reach a lot of people who voted NO !

    1. e.j. churchill says:

      If anybody within SNP has done a *competent. *honest ‘who-shot-john’ of indyref-l, it is a well-kept secret.

      Q. What happened? A. Nobody knows.
      Q. Why not? A. We’re looking forward, not backward.
      Q. Doesn’t that risk repeating the same mistakes? A. I’m gonna tell on you, apostate heretic …

      ’tis sad

      ejc

    2. William says:

      Hi C Neill, thanks very much for your comment. I am in total agreement. My plan has always been to launch a survey at the end of July for those who attended (and didn’t attend!) indyref events.

  2. Dougie Blackwood says:

    I’m sorry but I’m not sure that Indyref events are effective. We ran numerous meetings and street events. In the main it was our own people that attended and made up the numbers. The people that we need to convince do not attend them.

    The most effective action last time was the RIC mass canvass sessions. I only attended one, in Castlemilk, and it was an eye-opener. It didn’t last long and I only got to speak to about 15 or 20 people. Of them, most had never seen a canvasser, some started out undecided and with a little explanation and persuasion some became committed yessers. One guy’s response, on first approach, was “I’ll vote no – unless you can convince me otherwise”. I think I did.

    Those the voted no were drip fed, as now, with Daily Mail, Express and other unionist organs shouting SNP Bad and every scare story that con be dreamt up. We will never overcome that persistent propaganda by holding street stalls and public meetings. We need to knock every door; yes, many will not listen but if we have committed and well briefed people talking to them it makes a significant difference.

    1. David Allan says:

      The second referendum needs to be an entirely Scottish media affair . It will be essential that some neutral body is created to control the London UK media and the flow of pro-union bias especially from the BeeB state propaganda machine .

      It’s 2014 coverage especially when the “London big shots” decanted to Scotland for the last two vital weeks was a crucial period, Brown and the Better Together side being provided almost hourly coverage.

      I fear If this important factor hasn’t been recognised and is similarly allowed to again influence the outcome of Ref2 all else won’t matter a jot.

      The UK Establishment will win again history has taught them how to win ugly.

      The YES Campaign was too passive and the GE17 SNP Election campaign demonstrated that lessons have not yet been learned.

      1. Dougie Blackwood says:

        We need to live in the real world. The unionist media is not going away and there is no way to make them “play nice”.

        We need to take the action to convince people; that noes not mean shouting in the echo chamber that is social media; we read our posts but nobody else does.

    2. William says:

      Hi Dougie,

      Thanks so much for your feedback. Will certainly include your views in the strategy review. I want the review to be as pluralistic as possible and I share some of your concerns about events; especially in the “opportunity cost” aspect, of what could we be doing instead of organising / attending events. However, events will happen (and are already happening) so I am sure you agree that it would be good to at least have a stab at supporting those groups with some practical support and an overall strategy as guidance.

  3. e.j. churchill says:

    “I’ll vote no – unless you can convince me otherwise”.

    assume that is your default ‘possible.’

    ‘… but if we have committed and well briefed people talking to them it makes a significant difference.’

    UNLESS/UNTIL you can answer the very legit question: ‘How’s this iScotland going to work in the real world?’, overslathering the pie with ‘moral’ meringue keeps professional clowns & door-to-door salesmen on the dole.

    ’tis sad,

  4. Dougie Blackwood says:

    The last referendum took those in favour from 30 odd to 45 percent. That was done with hard work against a constant barrage of negative publicity from every media outlet, including the BBC, except the Sunday Herald.

    The facts of the matter are not really in dispute. The media would have you believe that Scotland is subsidised by the rUK but if that were true why did they throw everything at us to stay?

    The GERS figures are loaded with London’s debt for things like Crossrail and all the other new toys for London. Before the last referendum they were more honest and showed the flow of cash going south and that includes many years before oil added many billions. Scotland earns it’s keep, and always has, by exporting more than we import. Selling each other insurance and houses is about as much as the rest does.

    Without Scotland, London would very quickly be thrown to the wolves by the financial markets.

  5. douglas clark says:

    I am not completely sure this is useful.

    Last time around I was pretty convinced that we would win our independence. I, frankly, didn’t do much more than put an enormous YES poster in my window. Hubris or summat.

    Having had the hangover of losing and having looked at the statistics, it became clear to me that it was my generation that had caused us to lose. Y’know, pensioners and that.

    So, I looked around and found some solace in ‘Pensioners for Independence’.

    I intend to try to persuade other pensioners that they would be better off, better treated, better cared for, in an independent Scotland.

    For, the last referendum was the last referendum. Persuading folk, one way or another, that the next one is different, recognizes my own inadequacy last time around, and will exercise our base support to try harder. I certainly intend to do that.

    And, finally, it will have to be a genuinely grass roots campaign. It will be one voter at a time.

    I think we should all look at it that way.

    1. MBC says:

      Getting to pensioners via their children and grandchildren is the best way to persuade them.

  6. Alin Scot says:

    Grass roots? Way beyond SNP leadership these days.

  7. Izziel says:

    There is a group of people, often pensioners, our recent migrants from south of the border… they moved to Scotland for what they considered a better way of life, Independence not being part of their mind set. Now faced with this possibility we need to persuade them to cut the tie with old political values right or left, and think differently.

    This is not anti English, we will still have all our English friends and relatives, some of whom are already envious of the fact that we CAN be a separate nation looking after our own affairs.

    I always ask the question … If Scotland is such a mess why on earth do the Westminster government want to keep us??

    Complicated of course, but energy is one reason, as we feed into the national grid in more than one way. A place to park Trident, which I am advised by Helensburgh does little for the local economy, homes, leisure facilities and shops etc are mainly on base nowadays. Just two of many reasons.

    1. David Sangster says:

      I thought it was a telling remark from one of those “recent migrants”, that he liked Scotland because it reminded him of England thirty years ago.
      I think we all know what he meant by that.

  8. Richard Heinsar says:

    It’s important we educate the people on our unequal status within the union. Our 59 MPs outvoted 11 to 1 and Billions of pounds of Scots taxation that London decides how it’s spent.
    The Brexit slogan “Take back control” should be employed.
    Keep it simple. Local groups more effective. Convert your neighbour, mates, family. Project a vision of the new Scotland.

  9. william thomson says:

    I’ve addressed some of the initial responses from the questionnaire in this piece: http://www.independentscot.org/indyref-events-questionnaire-update/ Do check it out if you are interested in finding out more.

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