Yesterday (Saturday 5 October) I took time off from work on setting up New Scotland Party to attend an event organised by National Yes Registry as part of that organisation's work developing IndyApp and the #GetCounted project. The latter is described by National Yes Registry as a "mission",
To register, count and network every YES supporter in Scotland into a highly visible non-party political mass membership.
As I understand it, #GetCounted's objective to have every pro-independence person in Scotland and beyond(?) sign-up so as to produce a complete(?) and accurate(?) picture of the level of support for independence. To what end is unclear. The project seems to end at generating this count, leaving it to others(?) to decide what to do with it - if anything.
The networking aspect of the mission is where IndyApp comes into the picture. The best and most up to date(?) description of IndyApp I could find is on the App Store download page. (The app is also available for Android devices from Google Play.)
The IndyApp is a networking tool that allows all autonomous grass-root groups around Scotland to work together and share resources, experiences, and campaign ideas.
Registering on IndyApp provides you with your own unique Supporter number for the grassroots Yes movement. Registering gives open access to the IndyApp Yes Directory, where you can search for and contact local Yes Groups, Yes Events and Yes Campaigns anywhere in the country.
Join any local Yes Group on IndyApp to upgrade from ‘Supporter’ to verified ‘Member’ of the grassroots Yes movement. Group membership provides access to the full networking capabilities of IndyApp; where ideas, equipment, campaign strategies and social events can all be easily co-ordinated and shared across the entire group network, locally, regionally and nationally.
If there are a lot of question marks in the above, it's because there are a lot of questions. First of all, we have to clarify terms. IndyApp and #GetCounted are not the same thing. IndyApp is the networking platform and #GetCounted is a particular project carried on that platform. At least, this is how I understand it. The distinction is not made clear. It could also be explained as #GetCounted being on offshoot of IndyApp which puts a counter on sign-ups to provide a running total. As noted previously, the utility of this count is vague, at best. But the utility of the IndyApp itself should be obvious to all.
The IndyApp has been in development for about eight years, but to date it has not achieved the level of take-up it deserves. It seems obvious that something which has the potential to connect all pro-independence activist groups(?) is a brilliant idea. Explaining why it hasn't been immediately seized upon by the entire pro-independence 'community' is an article in its own right. While this might prove to be a useful exercise, it is not the purpose of this piece. I just want to make it clear that whatever I may say about the #GetCounted project, this does not reflect on IndyApp. I'm a big fan of IndyApp. The #GetCounted "mission"? Not so much!
The overarching purpose here is independence. More specifically, the restoration of Scotland's independence. IndyApp has a well-defined function within the context of the overarching struggle to restore Scotland's independence. It is a tool which, used well, facilitates the connection and combination of all(?) the diverse parts of the independence movement. The value of such a tool is unmistakeable and undeniable. As Alexis de Tocqueville reminds us,
In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.
Anything that facilitates combination of all pro-independence activist groups(?) has plainly evident utility. I would urge everyone in Scotland independence movement to support and more importantly participate in this initiative. It is only useful if people use it. The more individuals and groups use it, the more useful it gets. So do it!
You will have noticed the question mark on the phrase "all pro-independence activist groups". The question mark must be there because the developers of IndyApp are vehemently determined that some pro-independence activist groups are to be excluded. Namely, political parties. Regardless of how committed they are to the restoration of Scotland's independence, or how active they are in working towards that end, or how much success they have in furthering Scotland's cause, political parties are totally excluded from a facility which purports to be the means of connecting all pro-independence groups. This dogmatic excommunication of political parties is a problem for IndyApp and symptomatic of a problem which besets the entire independence movement - an instinctual aversion to political parties which, while largely understandable at that gut, unthinking level, is incomprehensible in terms of a pragmatic and considered appreciation of Scotland's cause. I shall return to this. For now, I must deal with the #GetCounted "mission".
Like many (most?) such initiatives on behalf of the independence movement, the defined purpose of #GetCounted is endlessly elusive. Question the claim that it does something which measurably furthers Scotland's cause, and it morphs into something which is useful because it 'brings people together', or some other glittering generality. The distinct impression given by the way #GetCounted is presented on the National Yes Registry website is that the intention is to get a count of all independence supporters. It is when you probe this notion that the purpose gets slippery. Questions such as whether it is actually feasible to achieve such a count. Can #GetCounted produce a figure that reliably and accurately reflects support for independence? If it can't, what use is this information? If it can, what use is this information?
We already have professional, scientific polling which can provide a fairly reliable reflection of support for independence. What does #GetCounted do that the polls don't? What value does it add? What does the number of people signed-up to #GetCounted tell us above or beyond the number of people signed-up to #GetCounted?
Obviously, the aim is to get as many people as possible to #GetCounted, but once you've got as many people as you can get, what do you do with that number? More particularly, in what way does this achievement help Scotland's cause?
A common issue with such initiatives is that the project itself becomes the cause. The prize that eyes are kept on is the objective set for the project. Success in terms of the project supplants of becomes synonymous with success in terms of the struggle to restore Scotland's independence. This even though the endpoint of the initiative does not connect in any way with the end point of Scotland's cause.
I explain it thus. Start at the end point of Scotland's cause. Not 'independence'! That is far too vague a term to serve as an end point. The specific end point of Scotland's cause; the ultimate step in the process of restoring Scotland's independence, is an Act of the Scottish Parliament which dissolves the Union. (It might be more accurate to say that the necessary confirmatory referendum ratifying this Act is the end point. But since there can be no referendum without the Act, the two things cannot sensibly be separated.)
Work backwards from this end point towards what I can only hope is a realistic appreciation of where we are right now. At every stage along this reverse journey, you must ask what must happen for this to follow. You are asking what step must precede for you to be at that point. If you take the aforementioned constitutional referendum as the endpoint then, as stated, it must be preceded by the Act of the Scottish Parliament which dissolves the Union. That in turn must be preceded by the Scottish Parliament acquiring the capacity to legislate for constitutional reform and a proper constitutional referendum. That must be preceded by a proposal moved in the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish Government. Before that, there must be a Scottish Government prepared to put such a proposal to the Scottish Parliament. Before that, there must be a political party (or parties) prepared to submit for the approval of the electorate a manifesto commitment to put the proposal to the Scottish Parliament. And so on, all the way back to where Scotland stands now.
If your project isn't on that line, or if it doesn't connect with that line, or if its trajectory doesn't bring it into connection with that line, then it cannot claim to have the restoration of independence as its end point. The project is therefore a cause in itself, quite separated from Scotland's cause even if the two trajectories are parallel. Both are headed in the same direction. But only one reaches the destination. The other stops at whatever has been defined as its purpose. If that purpose is to get a lot of people to sign a document, the project ends when the signatures have been collected. Or it just goes on forever collecting more signatures. If there is no way to connect that document to the process by which Scotland's independence will be restored, it cannot be sensibly claimed that it is part of that process.
If #GetCounted is just a bit of fun intended to draw people into the IndyApp, fine! There's nothing wrong with that. But is it right that it should pretend to be something more? If it is just a gimmick to get people onto the National Yes Registry site so IndyApp cand be 'sold' to them, and if IndyApp itself connects with the process by which independence is restored, then #GetCounted can be justified on those grounds. Problems arise when attempts are made to justify it on more substantive grounds - as if it were in and of itself part of or contributing to the process.
The plain truth is that if it isn't a device to promote IndyApp, #GetCounted is a pointless exercise. The number it ends up with is quite meaningless other than as the number it ends up with. It can never be a reliable indication of support for independence. Even if the number were as great or greater than the number produced by the 2014 referendum, it could not hope to be as authoritative as that number. Even if the number it produced could compare favourably with other indicators of support for independence - such as the SNP's peak 140,000 members - it could tell us no more than that number tells us.
Even if it could be claimed that the #GetConnected number was such that were it a vote in a proper constitutional referendum it would result in independence, it could not result in independence because it is not a formal democratic exercise.
It is claimed that the #GetCounted number could potentially 'put pressure' on the politicians to engage with a process by which independence might be restored. But how big would that number have to be for us to even imagine it putting any pressure on politicians? It would have to be truly huge! And even then, we'd only be imagining this pressure. Look at these two statement from the National Yes Registry website.
Its time to end the UK gaslighting. Independence is normal and supported by +/- [sic] 53% of Scotland's population, NOT some party political minority interest. (emphasis added)
So, that is our template. Reach out and register as many of the existing 54% as possible. (emphasis added)
The stated purpose of #GetCounted is to count something that has already been counted! If "the existing 54%" hasn't 'put pressure' on the politicians, what reason is there to suppose that a recount might? Even if #GetCounted could match that 54%, what does it do that the "existing 54%" doesn't?
And how credible is it that #GetCounted could reach that number? According to National Records of Scotland,
The total number of people registered at December 2023 to vote in Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections was 4,241,800 ...
54% of 4,241,800 is 2,290,572. At the time of writing, the #GetCounted live count stands at 5,851. Only 2,284,721 to go!
Can #GetCounted achieve that number? How long will it take? How much effort will have to be expended? Can it possibly be worth it? After all, even if it does achieve that number, it's a number which they themselves assure us we already have - and it is doing precisely nothing to further Scotland's cause!
These are all perfectly reasonable questions. I don't know about anyone else, but I want answers to such questions before I get involved any project or initiative. I'm not getting any younger and independence isn't getting any closer. I want to be on that independence trajectory I mentioned earlier. That's where we all need to be.
I said I was going to return to the matter of political parties. But time and wordage have beaten me once again. I promise I will get to that vexed topic in another article.