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The Wee Blue Book

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First edition

The Wee Blue Book was a multi-format publication published in 2014 and written by Stuart Campbell, editor of pro-independence blog Wings Over Scotland. It set out an economic case for Scottish independence as part of the pro-independence campaign in the run-up to the referendum held that year.

The printed book was notable in the campaign for being created and published through crowdfunding, then being distributed by volunteers to locations where they could be picked up for free by the general public. It has subsequently formed the basis for several publications by other independence movements.

Publication

The 72-page A6-sized book was originally produced as a downloadable version following an initial crowdfunding exercise in March 2014, with it being published as a digital edition on 11 August 2014. Within a month, the digital edition had been downloaded 550,000 times.[1] 300,000 copies[2] were subsequently printed, using money collected in an Indiegogo online fundraising campaign,[3] and distributed across Scotland from the first week of September.[4][5] It was also released as an audiobook[6] and narrated video,[7] translated into Gaelic[8] and turned into a standalone website.[9]

In comparison, "Scotland's Future", the Scottish Government's so-called "White Paper" on independence, had a total of over 100,000 copies produced by the Scottish Government in four print runs at a cost of £1.25 million.[10]

Reception

The book received a mixed reception. Economics blogger Simon Wren-Lewis wrote of the book’s analysis “The arguments in the Wee Blue Book are exactly that: no sustained economic argument, but just a collection of random quotes and debating points to make a problem go away.”[11] Conversely, it was described by Spanish news website ABC.es as "[Alex] Salmond's secret weapon".[12]

At the end of 2014, some commentators named The Wee Blue Book among their favourite books of the year: author Chris Dolan described it as "iconic" in the Herald,[13] and in The Scotsman journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch made it her top pick for its "portability and sheer audacity".[14]

After the referendum, Merryn Somerset Webb, editor of Moneyweek and member of the advisory board of anti-independence pressure group Scotland In Union,[15] described it as the “Wee Book Of Nonsense”,[16] whereas former SNP depute leader Jim Sillars said that "Wee Blue Book introduced accessible, high quality analysis to [the] referendum campaign"[17]

The First Minister of Scotland at the time of the referendum, Alex Salmond, said of the book that "People started waving the Wee Blue Book at me, at meetings and in the streets, and that’s where I learned about it. It was going off the shelves like hot cakes in 2014. It had a big effect in the latter stages of the referendum campaign."[18]. In a speech in 2021 he added "Looking at the first independence referendum, when support for independence rose by 15%, there was one publication that stood out as winning converts to our national cause - the Wee Blue Book."[19]

Reuse of concept

Subsequent political campaigns both in Scotland and overseas have imitated the Wee Blue Book. The MEP group of the Scottish National Party published a similar document - the 60-page Wee BlEU Book[20] - for the EU referendum campaign, and in 2019 the pro-Scottish-independence group Believe In Scotland published the 86-page Scotland The Brief[21], billed as "All you need to know about Scotland's economy, its finances, independence and Brexit". In April 2021 the publishers claimed sales of 21,000 copies for the book[22], which unlike the others was sold to campaigning groups rather than given away for free.

The Wee Blue Book also inspired Quebec independence party Option_nationale to publish[23] Le Livre Qui Fait Dire Oui (translation: The Book That Says Yes) in September 2015[24], and Yes California[25], which campaigned for independence for the US state of California[26] produced The Calexit Blue Book in 2016.[27]

In spring 2022 the Alba Party, led by former First Minister Alex Salmond, published The Wee Alba Book[28], also in the service of the campaign for Scottish independence, with the assistance of the Wee Blue Book author Stuart Campbell and the Common Weal founder Robin McAlpine.

References

  1. ^ Bryant, Ben (11 September 2014). "Cybernat Campbell: The Blogger Trying to Break Up Britain". Vice News. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  2. ^ Gray, Michael (15 September 2015). "Corbyn will fail for same reason Yes did not win". The National. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  3. ^ "Let's Hit The Streets: Story". Indiegogo. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  4. ^ "Time to get busy". wingsoverscotland.com. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  5. ^ Gross, Jenny; Douglas, Jason (2 September 2014). "Knock, Knock for Scottish Independence Ahead of Vote". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  6. ^ "The Scottish Independence Podcast - The Wee Blue Audio Book (made with Spreaker) by Scot Independence Podcast | Free Listening on SoundCloud". Soundcloud.com. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  7. ^ Scotland's Referendum 2014 - The Wee Blue Book Narrated. YouTube. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  8. ^ "An Leabhar Beag Gorm" (PDF). worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  9. ^ Rev Stuart Campbell (2014-09-18). "Reasons to vote Yes in the Scottish Referendum". The Wee Blue Book. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  10. ^ "Scottish independence: White Paper cost hits £1.25m". March 11, 2014 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  11. ^ "Scotland and the SNP: Fooling yourselves and deceiving others".
  12. ^ Bergareche, Borja (2014-09-17). "El arma secreta de Salmond: el librito azul de la independencia y "lo que no cuentan los medios"" [Salmond's secret weapon: the blue book of independence and "we do not have the means"] (in Spanish). ABC. Retrieved 2016-01-13.
  13. ^ "Books Of The Year 2014: Herald Choices". The Herald. 29 November 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  14. ^ "Leading Scots reveal their favourite books of 2014". The Scotsman. 2014-12-07. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  15. ^ "The Scotland In Union Team - Scotland In Union". November 13, 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-11-13.
  16. ^ "twitter". twitter.com.
  17. ^ "Twitter". mobile.twitter.com.
  18. ^ "Wings Over Scotland: We'll print a million copies of 'Wee Blue Two'". The National.
  19. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH4l1hG1GYA
  20. ^ "Wee Bleu Book - Scotland in Europe". www.yeswecan.scot. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  21. ^ https://www.businessforscotland.com/scotland-the-brief/
  22. ^ https://www.thenational.scot/news/19257335.believe-scotland-unveil-positive-new-billboard-campaign/?msclkid=3e20eb86c2f711ecbb748f5c9081af4c
  23. ^ "National Option Launches "The Book That Says Yes" (VIDEO)".
  24. ^ https://www.renaud-bray.com/Livres_Produit.aspx?id=1767809&def=Livre+qui+fait+dire+oui(Le)%2CZANETTI%2C+SOL%2C9782923365534
  25. ^ "Yes California Independence Campaign". www.yescalifornia.org. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  26. ^ https://ballotpedia.org/California_Independence_from_the_United_States,_the_%22Calexit_Initiative%22_(2018)
  27. ^ https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/yescalifornia/pages/1/attachments/original/1475330254/Yes_California_Calexit_Book.pdf?1475330254
  28. ^ https://www.thenational.scot/news/20022870.alex-salmond-launches-100-000-wee-alba-books-setting-case-scottish-independence/

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