PRO-INDEPENDENCE blogger Stuart Campbell has revealed plans for a standalone pro-Yes party ahead of next year's Holyrood election are still under consideration.
Campbell told The Courier the Wings Over Scotland party would likely stand candidates in each of Scotland's regions, and that he too would hope to become an MSP.
He had previously suggested he would form his own party to stand on Holyrood's regional list if independence had not been achived by 2021.
The party would join a number of new pro-independence parties being formed ahead of the election, including Alliance for Independence (AFI) and the Independence for Scotland Party (ISP).
But Campbell has confidence in the fact that he has a large online following along with a "recognisable brand" under Wings.
“I’ve made no secret of my thinking on this,” he said.
“The reason I think small parties like Rise [who stood in the 2016 Holyrood election but did not win any seats] don’t work, and why I think other people like the ISP will have a difficult time, is that the key problem for small list parties is recognition.
“Outside of the Twittersphere, people have very little idea of what is going on in the margin of politics. And whatever else you think about Wings, we certainly have a recognisable brand.
“We are known by a large percentage of the Scottish population and there are other people who also fit those criteria – the most obvious being Alex Salmond, who may or may not be thinking about things like this himself."
READ MORE: Twitter instantly bans account for 'Wings Over Scotland Party'
Back in March, Campbell hit out at Twitter for banning an account for the Wings party as soon as it was created, saying it broke rules "against managing multiple Twitter accounts for abusive purposes".
He told The National at the time that creating the account was not an "official launch" of the party, but slammed the social media site for "directly interfering in national politics by silencing a political party in an election".
Last year, he suggested a Wings party could be a “positive option” for unhappy SNP supporters who were looking to make a protest vote.
READ MORE: Unionists attack BBC for broadcasting Nicola Sturgeon's Covid briefings
On why pro-independence voters would consider choosing an SNP alternative, Campbell said: “I think it’s partly people just want more pro-independence MSPs but I think, more than that, there is a very considerable groundswell of dissatisfaction with the SNP on a number of levels at the moment.
“People currently have no credible alternative pro-independence party to vote for.”
There has been much discussion on the idea of smaller independence parties standing against "both votes SNP", with some fearing it could cause risk to indyref2.
The SNP's Michael Russell recently voiced his opinion upon the announcement of the new AFI party, stating that he believes "that in order to get independence, we need a unified movement".
But ex-SNP MSP Dave Thompson, who is at the heart of AFI, says such a move from smaller parties could help create a “supermajority” in Holyrood at the expense of Unionists.
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