SNP sources said the coming months would revolve around “galvanizing the base”, with local officials tasked with drafting plans to boost the campaign’s yes campaign and reach out to undecided voters. The estimated 119,000 members of the SNP received a personal email from Sturgeon on Tuesday afternoon following its statement to the Scottish Parliament, telling them that “the referendum campaign starts here”. He invited them to contact their local branches to see if they could help with the campaign this weekend. Sterzon revealed Tuesday that her government has formally requested a ruling from the UK Supreme Court on whether Hollywood is legally able to call a referendum without Westminster’s permission. However, there will be a long pause in parliamentary and legal activity in the summer as the Scottish Parliament takes a break this week and the UK Supreme Court rises for its summer break on 29 July, pressuring its supporters to keep their dynamics. The SNP and the wider yes movement also face significant challenges in shifting public opinion beyond their activist base: a recent Ipsos Mori poll found that only 32% of voters wanted a new referendum by the end of 2023 Support for the yes continues to be just under 50%, except I do not know, having reached 58% during the Covid crisis. Scottish Republic will not be “Boris Johnson prisoner”, Sterzon says in referendum – video The SNP, backed by its pro-independence partners, the Scottish Greens, must push for independence and an early referendum of well over 50% to bolster its political stance. Sturgeon said Tuesday that if the court refuses to approve a Holyrood-based referendum, as many constitutional lawyers expect, it will seek to use the next general election as a “de facto referendum” on independence. He would argue that Scotland’s will had been thwarted by Westminster rules. The message was tarnished by a mistake made by John Swinney, Scotland’s first deputy prime minister, after he had to post a correction on Twitter on Wednesday, clarifying what would constitute a mandate for independence in the election. Swinney told the BBC on Wednesday morning that the SNP only needed to win a majority of seats in Scotland’s Westminster to take office. However, Sturgeon told the BBC in a separate interview that they needed a majority of all votes in Scotland to secure the mandate. The SNP came very close to winning the majority in 2015, receiving 49.97% of the vote, but has not done so in any other election. Sturgeon’s announcement yesterday saw a surge in internet activity: digital SNP channels and yes reached more than 4 million people on Tuesday with pro-independence content via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. Party sources – who have privately expressed concerns about what they say is the mainstream media’s “hostility” to independence – underscore their history of digital activism and expect social media messages to become much more focused. The party’s Yes’s Independence campaign is producing short film explanations of the referendum mandate and the Scottish Government’s first independence document, as well as personal testimonies of dedicated activists and those who have changed from No to Yes since 2014. A Yes spokesman said: “Yesterday’s announcement by the Prime Minister really drew the attention of the people back to Scotland. “We have seen a significant increase in internet traffic and we have big plans – online and offline for the coming months.” Women for Independence (WFI), one of the most prominent grassroots groups in the 2014 campaign, is holding its first national conference in Dundee this weekend, focusing on abortion rights as well as independence. The WFI is now planning a “big boost” during the summer months, said committee member Suzanne McLaughlin. “We are targeting women who were spontaneous or indecisive in 2014, as well as women who voted yes and sank activism last time, encouraging them to get more involved,” she said. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST “The movement today is both a way of life and an infrastructure,” said Pat Kane, a member of the Scottish Independence Assembly and a veteran independence activist. In practice, this meant that discussions about narrating great campaigns to unite people, as well as tips for influencing conversations on a store counter, had already begun. Legal experts believe that the Supreme Court will decide that only the UK government can legislate to change the constitution. Lord Sambthion, a former Supreme Court justice, told the BBC that the first minister had set “a very difficult path” for herself. “The problem is that the constitutional relationship between England and Scotland is an exclusive matter under Scottish law, which means that the Scottish Parliament has no power to legislate on anything that affects the constitutional relationship between two parts of the United Kingdom,” he said. .
