THIS week, Yes Islay, Jura and Colonsay are getting ready to campaign and have fun at the highlight of the community’s year.
The Islay, Jura and Colonsay Agricultural Show kicks off today and will have the local Yes group, Jenni Minto MSP, Emma Roddick MSP and Cllr Dougie McFadzean in attendance. The Blether Box, merchandise and new campaign literature will all make an appearance at the three stalls that the group will be at.
Members are very excited to be back at the show, which has a reputation for being fantastic and is the first in three years due to the pandemic. The public will also have an opportunity to “sponge-a-representative”.
The group has other inventive ways to catch the eyes of the public and stay visible within the community. In 2021, they joined the International Coastal Clean-up Day, which coincided with the anniversary of the 2014 referendum. The Blether Box – which goes around the community for, well, a blether – doubles as a hub on wheels. They were also part of The National Roadshow and hosted the Wee Ginger Dug.
“We went round the beaches and the roadsides, collecting cans and washed up whatever and then had a branch BBQ – it was a really great day. That’s exactly what we want to do – take The Blether Box out there and be party neutral when we are campaigning for Yes, because we don’t have time to be fussy about who comes and joins us.”
Jim Love, 30, is a local activist who spent yesterday morning baking for the stall. Originally from Paisley and living in the Forest of Dean since he was eight, Love moved to Islay in 2018 and immediately signed up to be a member of the SNP.
“The day I moved to Scotland, I joined the SNP and went to the first branch meeting,” he said. “The Brexit referendum made me feel completely alienated in the Forest of Dean.
“Then, in the 2017 general election, even though the Tories lost their majority, and it was embarrassing for Theresa May, the actual constituency I lived in went past 50% for the Tories for the first time. So, I thought, I’ve got to move really – that was the last straw.”
As the islands span a large area and have a population of 3500, there is not an official Yes group. Love explained the reasoning and that the stalls this weekend welcome everyone wanting to campaign for independence.
“It’s a lot of time to have two different groups, two different meetings, when most of the members would be active in both. This weekend we are just Yes.
“Everyone is welcome to come to the stall, SNP or not. It’s for everyone that supports independence.”
Those are the aims of the group today – visibility and togetherness.
Love said: “We want to be as visible as possible and to get the information into people’s hands. We’ve got some of the leaflets that have been produced as a result of the papers that the FM released.
“It’s also just to get everyone who is sort of supporters or members who don’t take part usually in branch meetings and stuff, just to get them together and sort of explain what’s going to be happening, and we can then hit the ground running with plans.”
This is the first real campaigning the group has done since the independence referendum was announced. Love described the group as feeling optimistic and responsible.
He said: “We know it’s still going through the court process; we know it’s not concrete, but we’re still eager to continue getting the message out. There’s a sense of urgency with the cost of living crisis and Brexit and everything really.”
Local issues also instilled a drive in the activists.
Love said: “I think that Brexit is going to be a big thing. I think exporting as well with the distilleries that are here. Fishing and farming as well, especially with it being the Agricultural Show and then, obviously, the ferries.
“I’m predicting that’s going to come up, but I mean … they are being fixed now. Now they are being taken back into public ownership, the work has started again, and they are getting sorted, so even though it will be a tricky issue locally, we are positive about it.
“It is difficult because there’s not much of a separation between who owns CalMac and who runs CalMac, and I think it’s sort of sometimes treated as if Nicola is sat there behind the steering wheel of a ferry!”
The show starts at 10am, and Nicola will unfortunately not be driving the ferry to Islay, but everyone is welcome, and reminder: you can “sponge-a-representative”.
