Scottish Independence Congress overwhelmingly backs Believe in Scotland’s Citizen’s Convention proposal.
The Scottish Independence Congress meets four times a year and is open to all independence campaigning groups across Scotland. Believe in Scotland launched its Yes group organiser meetings in 2019 (initially called the Big Yes Gathering), which was renamed the Scottish Independence Congress in Feb 2023.
The Congress is the biggest meeting of grassroots independence campaign groups With an annual congress in February it hosts three to four Mini Congress’ a year to discuss topical issues.
On Wednesday the 21st of August, 119 local and national Indy campaign group leaders logged onto a two hour online conference to discuss Scotland's road to independence in these challenging times. Additionally, the representatives of several groups came together in one location to participate from the same location to be able to collectively agree how to answer the polls. We estimate around 155 campaigners participated in total, demonstrating that the Scottish Independence Congress the voice of the grassroots independence movement.
Chaired by Ruth Ritchie of Yes Annandale, the main speaker was Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp who outlined the proposal for the Citizens Convention followed by a 45 min Q&A. Jacqui Jensen of Yes Perth and Kinross hosted a creative thinking session where delegates made suggestions to improve the proposal and Mike Roberston of Yes Orkney coordinated the polling session that generated overwhelming support for the Believe in Scotland proposal as the way to break the constitutional deadlock.
What's the Scottish Citizen’s Convention all about?
If you are not up to speed with the Scottish Citizens’ Convention proposal, it's a proposal that will allow Scotland to exercise its democratic right to progress towards independence. Proposed by the 33 strong elected National Campaign Steering Group of Believe in Scotland, the citizens’ Convention can be seen open up a conversation about creating a better scotland which we believe in turn will progress us towards independence by circumnavigating the unfair and completely undemocratic roadblocks set up by Westminster. You can read the summary of the proposal here.
Polling Results from the Congress
The delegates were presented with six polling questions and given 25 minutes to consider/discuss how to answer. Delegates were asked how closely they agreed or disagreed with the following statements and the range of options included: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither agree nor disagree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. The questions and answers are reported below with Agree and Disagree options combined to give a single figure but then the breakdown in brackets. EG: 20% Strongly Agree and 20% Agree will be presented as: 40% agree (20%/20%) and so on.
Statement 1 - The proposed Citizens’ Convention will be the most effective way to drive citizen participation and civic engagement around creating a better Scotland.
- Agree 91% (50%/41%), Disagree 1% (1%/0%), Neither agree nor disagree 8%
Statement 2 - The three pillars approach 1) A strong and competent political arm, 2) An active and coordinated grassroots campaign and 3) A new national convention to engage the Scottish people on the task of creating a better Scotland, is the best way forward for the independence movement.
Agree - 92% (61%/31%), Disagree 3% (3%/0%), Neither agree nor disagree 5%
Statement 3 - The Scottish Government should fund the Citizens Convention as a way to unite the nation in looking for solutions to the challenges facing Scotland.
Agree 84% (55%/29%), Disagree 4% (4%/0%), Neither agree nor disagree 12%
Statement 4 - The approach most likely to deliver independence in the shortest possible time frame, once we have increased independence support to breakthrough levels, is to challenge the union via a de facto referendum.
Agree 84% (47%/37%), Disagree 1% (1%/0%), Neither agree nor disagree 15%
Statement 5 - The suggested non party-political approach to engaging the public, can fire up the indy campaign again and create a new and productive role for the grassroots independence movement.
Agree 96% (66%/30%), Disagree 0%, Neither agree nor disagree 4%
Statement 6 - BIS should continue its programme of offering meetings with other independence organisations in the hope that we can ‘walk side by side’ in mutual respect, towards our shared goal of regaining our independence?
Agree 98% (82%/16%), Disagree 0%, Neither agree nor disagree 2%.
Note: Almost all active independence campaigning groups are affiliated to Believe in Scotland. We have been writing to the independence supporting discussion groups, forums and think tanks and even some leading influencers to meet and understand one another's plans, hopes and ambitions for Scotland's independence. We will continue this outreach following this vote. Some people may not be interested in a united front, they may wish to do their own thing but that doesn't mean there should not be understanding and communication between the groups and we aim to facilitate that.
You can become an individual Stakeholder Member of Believe in Scotland with a small monthly donation to our campaign. As a Stakeholder Member you will be invited to our monthly online Stakeholder Members Meetings, hosted by Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, which take place on the first Tuesday of every month. Click here to join.
