It was agreed that this campaign, known as "Independence First", should be grass roots generated - formulated without the undue influence of any political party. It was therefore decided that steering group members would be deliberately drawn from several different parties and from none.

After today, Independence First would welcome the future participation of MSPs, MPs, MEPs, Party officials etc. as individual members of the campaign, as well as general messages of support from such parties as see fit to do so.

The electorate have been encouraged to equate support for independence with the ballot total for pro-independence parties. However, for a variety of reasons, that is always a much lower percentage than that which actually supports independence itself. It is therefore not well known that there have been polls showing a majority in favour of independence in the past.

For example, ICM Polls carried out for The Scotsman between the 5th June 1998 and the 4th April 1999 indicated that, on average, 54% of those expressing an opinion, favoured Independence.

Independence First members therefore believe that refusing to test this issue in a referendum is intrinsically undemocratic and in effect a disenfranchisement of the Scottish people on this issue.

They therefore demand that a referendum on Scottish Independence be carried out and that all those who would claim to be democrats support that demand.

A member of Independence First; Niall Aslen said "While many believe Scotland suffers from an unequal union with a much bigger neighbour, and that that has mostly been to Scotland's disadvantage, there is also another issue involved here. One fundamental to the principles of democracy itself."

In the initial stages of its campaigning, Independence First plans to build up a network of local groups throughout Scotland, and to use these to build up pressure on politicians of all political parties to support their demand for a referendum on independence.

Anne Baird said: "I'm delighted. The Independence First campaign cuts out political differences and lets us get together on the real issue. Getting a voice for the people of Scotland is something we can all agree on. It's a campaign everyone can join."

(This article appeared in a number of different news sources including the Dundee Courier and the Scottish Standard.)