TODAY'S socially-distanced Holyrood protest against Westminster's planned UK internal market has been hailed as a "great success" by its organisers.

All Under One Banner (AUOB) organised the “static, distanced demo” in response to “this latest, gravest, threat to our rights”.

Speaking after the event, the group's Andrew Wilson said: "We were focusing on two things. Firstly, the threat that the [UK internal market] white paper presents to the rights and people of Scotland, and secondly that the best way to look after those rights for the people of Scotland is independence.

READ MORE: AUOB to hold Holyrood protest over Westminster’s UK ‘internal market’ plan

"We think the demo went very well. It was necessarily something as far removed from what we normally organise so we thought a lot about the look and the feel of the event. It was by definition not tens of thousands of people - it was a small socially-distanced demonstration at parliament. 

"One thing that was similar is that we saw a great deal of representation of people from all across the independence movement - Celtic supporters, Rangers supporters, old people and young."

The National: AUOB protesters outside Holyrood made sure to maintain social distancing guidelinesAUOB protesters outside Holyrood made sure to maintain social distancing guidelines

Wilson added that they had worked "very closely" with Police Scotland "who were extremely helpful and seemed to be very happy about how the demo went".

"We had contact details for everyone in case they needed to be traced and we made sure there was two metres of distance between the groups and little bubbles [of independence supporters]," he said.

Speeches were given by The National's George Kerevan, the SNP trade union group's Chris McCusker, AUOB founder Neil Mackay and some members of the crowd.

Lynn Macdonald, an AUOB organiser, said: “All Under One Banner believes that now is the time to build on the huge and growing support for independence and for the Scottish Government to lay out its plans to intensify its efforts to campaign for independence in the here and now.

"There is no time to waste and everything to win. 

"AUOB has a fantastic programme to work with all of those pro-independence groups and looks forward to outlining a schedule of carefully planned and safe events until we are able once again to organise the massive marches for which we are best-known.”

The AUOB Twitter account later shared a post saying today's march had been a "great success" and announcing their next socially-distanced demo.

READ MORE: AUOB provide real food for thought on the way ahead for Yes

The protest will be held at Bannockburn on August 19 and those who wish to participate will need to register at auob.org/demo-registration-form

Though today’s protest was limited to 129 participants, one for every MSP, AUOB said they anticipate the next march will be bigger, due to the extra space that will be available.

However, they stressed that it would not be a public event, and registration to attend will still be compulsory.

Each march will have a specific focus, beyond the broad topic of Scottish independence, after the suggestion was raised at the Glasgow AUOB assembly in February.

AUOB said they wanted to highlight "specific implications of and for independence" across the planned demonstrations.