A group of almost 100 charity sector employees, trustees and volunteers have clubbed together to form a campaign group in favour of Scottish independence.
The members of Third Sector Yes have stressed that they are all operating in an “entirely personal capacity” and are “completely independent of any political party or campaign”, so as not to offend charity campaigning laws.
But they hope that their collective skills and experience in awareness-raising and influencing will serve to sway the public vote in favour of the Yes campaign in the independence referendum next September.
The Third Sector Yes website states: “We aim to use our experience in third sector issues to bring to life how and why we think independence would deliver better outcomes for vulnerable people and the environment.”
The group’s members point out that by trade, they tend to be “politically-aware, media-savvy, campaigning types” who spend much of their lives working out how to get key messages across to people, and win people round to support various causes.
“Scottish independence is not the most important thing in the world. Far from it. Those of us involved in the third sector often work on issues that matter to us a great deal more. But many of us see independence not as an end in itself, but as a means to an end – a means to a fairer, more equal, more compassionate place that better reflects the values of its people.”
They admit that at present, “too few people have been sufficiently persuaded to vote Yes” and warn that in the event of a No vote, “at Whitehall the files marked ‘Scotland’ will be returned to the back of the highest shelf”.
“Would it not be better to wake up on September 19 2014 (a bit later in the day than under the previous scenario, and with much more of a hangover) and emerge blinking into a Scotland that has, overnight, been transformed into a blank political canvas? A canvas on which Scotland’s civil society has a crucial role in painting whatever comes next?”
Announcing the launch of the group in The Scotsman yesterday, Mark Bevan, campaign director at Keep Scotland Beautiful and a former Amnesty employee, suggested that an independent Scotland could have a written constitution that could protect vulnerable people from controversial welfare cuts such as the bedroom tax.
He claimed a set of human rights enshrined in law should be the “jewel in the crown” of a modern society.
Third Sector Yes said that independence would deliver a “more equal, more compassionate, more communitarian, more sustainable Scotland”.
