THE Spirit of Independence truck, which clocked up some 2500 miles crisscrossing Scotland during the independence referendum campaign, is often misleadingly referred to as a repurposed fire engine.
In fact, conventional firefighting was its secondary intended use – it was actually designed to be used in the event the Soviet Union detonated a nuclear bomb in Britain during the peak of Cold War paranoia.
Chris Law, who reckons he doubled the vehicle’s mileage in the run-up to the historic vote, says he bought the vehicle for £3000 or less in 2007 from a seller in Harrogate.
The Green Goddess trucks had been sold off in the early 2000s by the Government who were no longer convinced of their use, though they had proven handy during fire-fighter strikes in 1977 and 2002.
He picked up the vehicle that would become the Spirit of Independence with plans to either turn it into the “world’s first mobile distillery”, take it on a massive trip from Scotland to South Africa or both.
Then working as a mortgage adviser, the future Dundee Central MP, never got around to any of those plans. But in February 2014, he was struck with an idea.
Nothing in how the debate was being presented in the media up to that point was giving it “life and colour”, he says.
He says he was struck by a vision of the van, painted in the colours of the Saltire rolling through the hills of Glencoe.
Law recruited some friends to help him sketch out a plan to get the Spirit of Independence on the road.
“Literally over an evening, the Spirit of Independence was born,” he says.
“The name came quite easily. I wanted something to be ‘the essence of [independence]’ rather than a party political view.”
The trip took him to every corner of Scotland, with the truck functioning as a “mobile library” carrying the pamphlets and leaflets of 18 different Yes campaigns, Law says.
It was not always positive, with Law recalling being on the end of some “vile abuse” from a fellow financial services worker in Perth – and a woman plastering “vote No” stickers on the truck while he was getting petrol in Musselburgh.
But overwhelmingly, Law says he received a warm reception on his travels, fondly recalling an event at the Queen’s Hall in Dunoon and an excited welcome when he ventured to Aviemore.
Less easy was driving around a vehicle which was, by that point, at least nearly 60 years’ old. The van was beset with problems. Law says he could never get the fuel pump working reliably.
In an omen that augured ill for what was to come, the Spirit of Independence broke down outside a pub in Anniesland, Glasgow on the eve of the referendum.
He was helped back onto the road thanks to independence campaigner Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp but the following day, despite tireless campaigning from the underdog Yes side, Scotland voted to remain in the United Kingdom.
Law went on to become an SNP MP – and in 2017 beat what he says were baseless accusations of financial impropriety in relation to his campaign.
The Crown Office dismissed the allegations on the basis of “insufficient evidence”.
Speaking at the time, he told The Courier there was “never any doubt” his finances were in order and said the experience while distressing had made him “more motivated than ever to stand up for my constituents”.
It certainly didn’t put him off Green Goddess trucks. Later that year he bought a second, yellow version – the Northern Ireland models were not painted the original green due to sectarian sensitivities.
