PEOPLE are being urged to rally outside Holyrood next week to coincide with a motion on Scottish independence being voted on.
Rally group Time For Scotland are encouraging people to make their presence known on Tuesday, May 26 from 6pm until 7:30pm to "show the world that we still care".
The team behind the Supreme Court rallies and Brexit anniversary torchlit procession were quick make the call for people to come together after John Swinney announced the date he would bring forward the motion.
The Scottish Government has tabled a statement and subsequent debate for Tuesday, entitled “ambitious for Scotland”, which will be the first chance the First Minister has to lay out his vision for the next five years since winning this month’s election.
Despite falling short of the majority he said should be the catalyst for another referendum, Swinney will force a vote of MSPs, which is all but certain to pass with 72 pro-independence MSPs in the Chamber.
A Time For Scotland spokesperson said: “A vote and a debate about Scotland’s right to choose its own future must be important for everyone who supports independence.
"Whether this feels like the beginning of a carefully orchestrated push for another referendum – if the cameras are there and they will be, we must be there too."
"So Time For Scotland, which has organised previous rallies outside the parliament and the Small but effective gathering just two weeks ago on election day, is calling on everyone to be at the Parliament at 6 pm on Tuesday 26.
"It’s only one and a half hours while all the main news bulletins are broadcasting probably live from outside the building and we must show the world that we still care".
Asked if he is confident the motion will be passed, the First Minister said: “There is the largest number of MSPs supporting independence, so I will put forward that proposition as part of fulfilling the commitments I made in the election and providing us with the opportunity to take forward the agenda to make sure that Scotland’s future is in Scotland’s hands.”
Time For Scotland, which first came together to stage a demonstration around the Supreme Court's ruling on a second independence referendum, is made up of a few core volunteers bringing together various strands of expertise, with little funding except small donations for each individual event from the Scottish Independence Foundation.
