THE All Under One Banner group will spread its wings next year and hold marches and rallies for independence in eight cities and towns across Scotland, after the success of its huge event in Edinburgh on Saturday.
The National can reveal that AUOB will start its “tour” in Glasgow, and then move on to Inverness, Perth, Ayr, Galashiels, Campbeltown, and Aberdeen before returning to Edinburgh.
The group hopes it will not have to keep marching for independence but said yesterday they would do so “forever” if necessary, and even after independence is won it will hold marches to mark the history of its events.
Saturday’s march organiser Gary Kelly, said: “We have put in our applications already for most of the marches and today we have launched a crowd funder to pay for the national tour which will take in new places that we have not been to such as Campbeltown and Ayr.”
Kelly confirmed the group has heard nothing more from Historic Environment Scotland (HES) after the rally – which the quango had banned due to the event being ‘political’ – went ahead anyway after Police Scotland used their powers to maintain safety at the end of the march. HES said it was “reviewing the situation” but Kelly said AUOB would await any court action and contest it. A petition to change the policy is already underway and the matter could go to MSPs.
He said: “We are very confident that HES’s policy on ‘no political events’ cannot be legally enforced, and certainly it is a civil and not criminal matter. Furthermore we want to use Holyrood Park again next year or the Meadows if they are fully repaired.”
Following the confusion over the number of participants – Edinburgh Council and Police Scotland said 20,000, the organisers said 100,000 but most assessments said 70-80,000 – Kelly said: “The police didn’t take us seriously at first and have downplayed the figures even though their own estimate before the march was 30,000. I will be asking the police and the council to explain their figures which are so badly wrong.”
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