ALEX Salmond’s Alba Party have stepped up their independence push by launching a national billboard campaign across Scotland.
Alba said they decided to make the move after seeing the positive reaction to the “Enough is Enough. It’s time for independence” campaign, which has included front-page adverts in The National over the past month.
The first phase of the billboard campaign has been launched across Glasgow, Edinburgh, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, the north-east and the Highlands, including a site in Elgin in the heart of Tory leader Douglas Ross’s constituency. The billboards feature the faces of Westminster figures past and present and carry the same message as the advert.
Alba have also held 40 pro-independence events this year, which thousands of people have attended. They have also delivered more than 120,000 copies of the Wee Alba Book to households.
Alba general secretary Chris McEleny joked that the billboards will need to be “regularly updated to reflect the turmoil of Westminster”.
A new campaign is already being planned with new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak included.
McEleny said: “Every ounce of Alba’s efforts are dedicated to campaigning for Scotland’s independence, from the work our team are doing at Westminster to the dozens upon dozens of public meetings we are holding.
“There has never been a better time for Scotland to reclaim its independence. In the midst of energy being king, we have the absurdity of there being hundreds of thousands of fuel poor Scots in energy rich Scotland.
“Enough is enough. It is time for independence. And that is the message we are taking to communities across the country.”
Meanwhile, Alba claimed the SNP’s response in a row over a walkout by the latter’s MPs has backfired, as views of a video clip of what happened, posted on Alba’s Twitter account, reached half a million.
Last week, Alba expressed disappointment that the SNP staged a walk out of an Alba debate on Scotland’s energy resources being “robbed by Westminster”.
The party says the clip of the SNP group walking out as Alba depute leader Kenny MacAskill MP spoke has attracted condemnation.
Views of the clip rose from 250,000 on Friday after The National exclusively reported that SNP MP Pete Wishart had accused Salmond’s party of engaging in a “spectacularly silly, [and] worthless” point-scoring exercise against his colleagues.
