Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence. The past decade has been a politically tumultuous one for Scotland, and for me personally. I began it as a freshly minted, typically …
Adam Dalgleish grew up in the rural town of Sanquhar in Dumfries & Galloway and attended Wallace Hall Academy in the village of Thornhill. He aims to graduate from the University of Strathclyde with an LLB in 2022 and then plans to complete the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice to become a qualified solicitor. Outside of …
Julie Calderwood Fitzsimmons is a teacher and playwright from Glasgow. She has written a number of plays for festival audiences, ranging from ‘Party Suzie’ for the Glasgow Comedy Festival in 2014, to an adaptation of ‘The Secret Agent’ by Joseph Conrad. Over Christmas 2017, Julie felt compelled to write a play ‘Our Generation’ (previously Once …
Keith is a 23-year-old Social Policy & Politics graduate who lives in Edinburgh. He has supported independence for over 6 years and was an active campaigner for a ‘yes’ vote during the 2014 referendum on behalf of the Yes Hawick team. More recently, Keith has been working as a full-time parliamentary assistant to Dr Philippa …
We all know the coming months to the next independence vote are going to be the most crucial for winning independence. This means these months are the most crucial for bring as many people round to the vision of an independent Scotland as possible. We need to have as many conversations and positive interactions with …
Read moreMichael Sturrock: 5 tools of persuasion you can use to bring people from #NoToYes
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference”. So goes the Robert Frost quote. The implication, of course, is that the road less travelled may be a more difficult one, but it is often a rewarding and fulfilling path to tread. This image—of striding out into the world and forging a path of originality—is one often touted by Tory hard-Brexiteers. Post-Brexit ‘global Britain’, they …
Read moreMichael Sturrock: Why an independent Scotland in the EU will benefit Scottish businesses
In a world of Trump, Johnson, Bolsonaro, Erdogan and Modi, good leaders are, it seems, few and far between. Thankfully, Nicola Sturgeon is one of the few. She has led both the SNP and the Scottish Government with honesty, clarity of message and evidence-led action. This cannot be taken for granted in these times. Even …
Read moreMichael Sturrock: Why Nicola Sturgeon is best placed to lead the movement from No to Yes
I was raised in Edinburgh before heading, as so many Scots do, off to university away from home. During my studies, and just before the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, I won a place on the EU’s Erasmus Scheme to spend a year studying in Paris, for which the EU paid my university fees and offered a …