Selkirk & District

End Pensioner Poverty. Glagow March for Independence

Let’s End Pensioner Poverty

GlasgowP4Indy

End Pensioner Poverty was the theme of Saturday’s march and rally in Glasgow.

End Pensioner Poverty. Glagow March for Independence

.

Pensioners for Indy partnered with Believe in Scotland to put on this event. it was a big jog and we have been involved with the planning of it over the past six months. Members from our Fife, Glasgow, Selkirk and Ayr groups were in the steering group, along with some of the Believe in Scotland team.

.

Marlene Halliday, who is Treasurer of our National Coordinating Group as well as a member of the Glasgow Group,was one of the speakers at the rally.

There are two suggestions for action in Marlene’s talk. One is about addressing pensioner poverty by creating a Scottish Pensioners Payment similar to the Scottish Child Payment. The second is about addressing the two thirds of older voters who are still not convinced about independence. She intends writing her speech up for the National and if possible talking to Young Scots for Independence at their conference next month.

Here is her speech:

.

Mary McCabe, Co-Convenor of our National Group as well as a member our Greater Glasgow group, has written some more about the day:

Saturday was a glorious day in all senses. Even the sun turned out for the first pro-indy march of 2024. 

This was the first time Pensioners for Indy has been involved at the organisational level of a major demonstration (in partnership with Believe in Scotland) and members from our branches in Edinburgh & Lothians, Selkirk, Dumfries & Galloway, Fife and of course Greater Glasgow all brought their banners to march behind the big horizontal banner we’d commissioned for the occasion. Alan Logue, our National CoConvener, brought his Indy-Trailer to park beside our stall. Thanks also to Sheena Stephen and Neil Querns-Anderson who stayed in George Square looking after the stall while the rest of us were away on the march. 

Speakers included First Minister Humza Yousaf, Iona Soper, James Robertson, Jane McAllister, Pat Kane. Other celebrities who turned out included Martin Compston. Marlene Halliday, our esteemed National Treasurer, made a rousing and informative speech on behalf of Pensioners for Indy. She also got to walk along next to Martin Compston at the head of the March!

End Pensioner Poverty. Pensioners for Indy

We were joined by pro-Gaza marchers who chanted “Freedom for Palestine; Freedom for Scotland; Freedom for Everyone.” 

Our flags and T-shirts and Morag Simpson’s delicious fruit cakes flew off the Glasgow Pensioners for Indy stall. I sold a copy of my novel “Two Closes and a Referendum” and with donations we made £188.60.

Onward and Upward. There are at least a dozen more pro-indy marches planned for 2024 with the first (under the auspices of All Under One Banner) being again in Glasgow in a fortnight’s time, on May 4th.

Unfortunately the recording didn’t pick up Mary’s vote of thanks but it did get her very final words of the day. Let’s not forget them.

If you’d like to know more about how the thinking behind putting on this rally and what its aims are, have a look at our blog post Pensioners on the March!

Postal Voting – Still time To Register

GlasgowP4Indy

This is the time of Covid. It’s not the time to assume we’ll be able to vote at our local polling station 6th May. We know that any of us might have to self-isolate at short notice. So have a backup plan in place : register for a postal vote.

Is Postal Voting trustworthy?

Ah, but maybe you’ve got doubts about the safety of postal voting? Maybe you’ve heard scare stories about postal votes being interfered with? Or that get misplaced? Even that they get sent down south to be counted?

If you do have doubts and they are stopping you signing up for a postal vote, now is the time to find out if any of these and other concerns are valid. Perhaps they are valid but perhaps they are just myths perpetrated and circulating on social media.

Our discussion with Yes Stirling members, Greg and Gerry

Read More

It’s Quiz Time…… Scottish Place Names Quiz

GlasgowP4Indy

Jane Pearn of our Selkirk group writes….

We in the Selkirk group are looking ahead to better times, when we can make the case for independence person-to-person. We want to make our stall attractive and engaging, so we are trying to raise some funds to stock it. We hope that our Scottish Place Names quiz will entertain you while we are still locked down. Best of luck to anyone who wants to have a go!

Have a go, support Selkirk Pensioners for Independence, and maybe win a prize!

Enter the quiz by downloading the quiz form here, fill it in, and send it off. Only £1 to enter. The details of where to send it are included on the form.

Chronologically Gifted Voters

GlasgowP4Indy

A few weeks back, IndyLive Radio broadcast an interview with Marlene Halliday and Val Gauld, hosts of the Daytime Show,,with journalist and commentator Ruth Wishart. It’s called “Bringing Chronologically Gifted Scots to Yes.”

Chronologically Gifted is Ruth’s name for us older voters. Gifted because we’re still here, still breathing, and very importantly – still voting. You can listen to the interview here:

IndyLive Radio Daytime: Ruth Wishart on Bringing Older Voters Round to Yes

After broadcasting Ruth’s interview, the Daytime Show team talk to a panel of four people from four P4Indy Groups: Alan Logue from Greater Glasgow, Julia Laurie from Edinburgh, Lindsay Neil from Selkirk, and Morag Muego from Dumfries. Listen to what they think it will take to persuade more older voters round to Yes.

Got any suggestions of your own on how to get more chronologically gifted votes to Yes?

Tell us in the comments below.