INDEPENDENCE supporters across Scotland are being urged to join a new online drive for Yes this week.
The Believe in Scotland initiative will include the unveiling of two new digital campaigns, leaflet and billboard designs, with campaigners given the option to vote to choose which designs are used.
Yes supporters will be urged to share why they back an independent Scotland under the tag #BelieveinScotland.
A new online quiz on Brexit outlining how it is impacting Scotland will also be launched.
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Newly registered supporters of the campaign will be able to download a digital copy of the recent Open Minds newspaper and get a free subscription to The National.
Believe in Scotland said the hope was to reach undecided voters and soft No and Yes voters with key positive messages about the need for independence.
Another aim is to kickstart a new, more positive online Yes campaigning atmosphere.
The campaign comes as Believe in Scotland’s Autumn of Indy action comes to an end this week.
Earlier this month the latest poll showed support for Scottish independence has risen to its highest level for a year.
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The survey carried out for STV News found backing for Yes was at 55% and excluding undecideds, suggested the results of the 2014 referendum could be reversed if another was held now..
And it came just days after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made a pledge that next year she will start the process to enable a Scottish independence referendum to be held before the end of 2023.
Speaking at the SNP conference, Sturgeon said that the party will “set out afresh the positive case for independence”.
“Next year, Covid permitting, as we emerge from winter into spring, the campaign to persuade a majority of people in Scotland that our future will be more secure as an independent nation will resume in earnest,” she said.
Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, founder of Believe in Scotland, said: “We may be as little as 18 months away from indyref2 and we need to get the whole Yes movement on a positive footing and campaigning now – that is what the ‘Autumn of independence’ campaign has been all about.
“We’ve reached millions of voters with this campaign, both online and in people’s homes and it has made a real difference to the movement.
“We have helped local Yes groups and even the SNP get on the front foot as we go into 2022, which will have to see a larger, more impactful, more professional and more coordinated campaign than Yes Scotland led in 2014.”
MacIntyre-Kemp said the massive boost in activity had only been possible with the help of partners including The National, the national Yes Network, the 112 Yes groups that registered as campaigning partners and the SNP.
He added: “We hope to work with even more campaigning groups next year and start moving other polls to significant Yes leads before we enter 2023, the year of indyref2.’’ The Autumn for Indy Action activities included a Day of Action held on September 18, when Believe in Scotland teamed up with The National, the National Yes network and 112 local Yes groups to put up Yes stalls in towns and cities across Scotland.
Believe in Scotland distributed free campaign packs, including 600,000 leaflets and 100,000 car stickers, postcards and other campaigning materials, in a move that helped restart scores of local Yes groups.
Independence supporters took to the streets across Scotland to hand out leaflets and set up stalls, with a giant Yes sign displayed outside Holyrood and activists praised it for helping bring a “buzz” back to campaigning.
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Another key part of the autumn push was producing in partnership with The National for an Open Minds 24-page newspaper supplement, with 60,000 copies distributed to Yes groups to give out on their stalls and as an insert in The National on the Day of Action itself.
Last month the organisation teamed up with The National and the SNP to produce another newspaper with a new message focusing on independence as being key to Scotland’s wellbeing.
The eight-page publication was one of the biggest newspaper printing operations in Scotland’s history and included exclusive pieces from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes, and Green minister for circular economy Lorna Slater.
The newspaper outlined how it would be possible to create a fairer, more resilient, greener, healthier happier and economically successful Scotland through a wellbeing economics approach. It was delivered to more than one million homes across Scotland by activists from Yes groups and SNP branches, potentially reaching half of the country’s voters.
MacIntyre-Kemp previously said that the publication “fired the starting gun on indyref2” but also set out how the campaign will be different from 2014.
To hear more about each initiative and to get a free electronic copy of Open Minds and a free trial subscription to the National Newspaper visit www.believeinscotland.org/pledge and register your support.
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