A GROUP of more than 50 organisations along with members of the public gathered in George Square in Glasgow yesterday for the Yestival.
Alba MP Neale Hanvey was on the main stage, while former first minister Alex Salmond, The Proclaimers and actor Brian Cox voiced their support online.
Alongside live music by the likes of Sandi Thom and speakers from various Yes groups, Independence Live provided a livestream.
Yestival Glasgow 2022 -LIVE from Freedom Square, Glasgow. https://t.co/PMQwl2m03v
— Independence Live (@IndyLiveStream) October 8, 2022
Alba's Westminster leader Hanvey told the crowd: “When I was leaving the chamber when we were told we either shut up or get out, I looked Dominic Raab and Boris Johnson square in the eye and I told them: Scotland’s independence is happening and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
“And now we’ve got Liz Truss, who has made her contempt for Scotland and our democracy very, very clear in the absolute shambles of their leadership contest, and that has only gotten worse since she has assumed the role of PM.
“This is somebody who has single-handedly made the corrupt, dishonest Boris Johnson look like a safe pair of hands.
“In her conference speech, she mentioned growth three times. I’ve got something to say about her growth. What we’ve seen a growth of is poverty, inequality and excess deaths because of Tory party policies over the past 12 years and it’s got to stop.
“She used another word three times in that speech and on that I agree with her. Her policies are wrong, wrong, wrong.
“The independence movement brings so many people together, and we have shared a policy platform over the last 10 years that involves rational, sensible discussion and debate where the common good of the people is the key objective.
“And we expect our parliamentarians in Westminster to get the Tory party and the Labour party to understand those aspirations. That’s impossible because they don’t share those aspirations.
“The priority of the Tory party is, as it’s always been, greed. And nothing is more indicative of that than the huge number of billions of pounds that are sequestered away in offshore accounts that the HMRC will not pursue, but they’ll pursue ordinary people, they’ll destroy their lives but let the Tories continue to enact policies that keep pushing our money into the hands of large corporations and already financially wealthy people. It must stop.”