Supporting the steps towards an independent Scotland with the voters of Dunbar and East Linton

A tribute to Alex Salmond

Yes Dunbar wishes to express its sadness at the sudden passing of our former First Minister, Alex Salmond on 12 October 2024 and to extend our condolences to Moira and his wider family.  Scotland’s independence movement owes Alex a debt of gratitude for his many years of exceptional leadership and for advancing the cause of Scotland, at home and internationally, while in government and also as a senior statesman. Alex had a deep love of Scotland and a deeper conviction that Scotland should be an independent nation again.  As Scotland’s most talented politician in a generation, Alex established the cause of independence in the mainstream of Scottish politics and civic debate, and brought us to the verge of winning our independence in 2014. We mourn and salute one the greats of our country and will continue our campaign to make his dream a reality.

Words by Yes Dunbar Co-Convenor Diarmid Jamieson. Our other Co-Convenor, Julie Watt, met Alex Salmond on several occasions – she says: “He was great company, the way he could recall facts and figures was remarkable and his anecdotes were wonderfully entertaining.” The picture shows Julie with her husband, Dougie (who spoke to Yes Dunbar in February 2024) when they met Alex Salmond when he was First Minister in his office in the Scottish Parliament in 2010.

Our campaigns

Yes Dunbar is actively campaigning to make the case for an independent Scotland.

Our focus is with the voters of Dunbar and East Linton to make the case for:

  • a Yes vote in any future referendum on independence; and
  • supporting pro-independence candidates in elections whether for Westminster or Holyrood. (Yes Dunbar does not endorse specific parties, but it is clear that as long as the UK Government resists calls for a further referendum, the level of support for pro-independence candidates in elections is the clearest measure of support for independence).

We do not have specific figures for Dunbar, but for East Lothian as a whole, in the first independence referendum in 2014, the East Lothian result was just 38% Yes and 62% No (this was lower than the 45% Yes vote across Scotland as a whole). However, two years later in the EU Referendum, East Lothian voted 65% to Remain in the EU and only 35% wanted to Leave. Numerous people have changed their mind about independence as a result of Scotland being forced out of the EU against its will.

We are determined that in any future votes, the support for independence from voters in this area should be much higher than in 2014.

There are many strands to this campaign, but our key campaign themes are:

  • the huge problems that drag down Scotland by being under the control of Westminster
  • the many advantages that the Scotland would gain as an independent country – we would then be a key European state similar in size to countries such as Denmark and Ireland.