Local Scottish Independence campaigning group , Yes Orkney, has been encouraged by the positive responses they had on Saturday 1st of July to their street stall in Kirkwall.

The group were out in the busy toon speaking with locals and visitors. A spokesperson for Yes Orkney said that many European visitors were coming up to them and wishing them well. The activists were handing out leaflets with the message ‘An independent Scotland will rejoin the EU – Believe in Scotland’. From the reaction to the message by Orkney’s visitors from Europe it would appear that there is a lot of support and affection for Scotland in the EU countries, said the spokesperson.

Buoyed on by their success the Yes Orkney Group will be holding other events including attending the West Mainland and the County shows. They are also hoping to send representatives to the Chain of Freedom – Scotland event. It aims to create a Human Chain Across Scotland on the 14th of October 2023.

The Chain of Freedom, Scotland organisers say that the ethos of the event is to bring Independence people together. “To have a spectacular show of being United For Scotland’s Independence.”

COFS Admin Judith Reid said:

“We hope to galvanise a chain of Independence supporters, with their saltires, to link hand to hand the breadth of the central belt – East to West, Bowling Harbour, Bowling to Lochrin Basin, Edinburgh.  A distance of app 66 miles, which will should take around 77,000 people to complete the chain.  The route to be used is the canal/ cycle path (NCR754) – which the team are dividing into 11 sections with subsections of approximately a mile each. “

The event hopes to emulate the ‘Baltic Way’ of 23rd August 1989 when 2 million ordinary people joined hands to form a human chain spanning 690 kilometres (430 mi) across the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which at the time were occupied and annexed by the USSR.

L – R Judith Reid, Phil Murphy, Wilma Bowie of the Chain of Freedom, Scotland

Fiona Grahame