3,989 at SNP Pro-EU March and Rally in Edinburgh
Pro-UK campaign group and think tank, A Force For Good (AFFG) has filmed and counted the SNP-endorsed march in Edinburgh on Saturday 2nd September 2023.
AFFG counted 3,989 and it took 38 mins and 42 seconds to pass our counting point, which includes 10 mins and 40 secs stoppage as the march was held up to allow traffic to cross.
People can count them for themselves from our video below:
Hailed as a "turning point" in the fortunes of the separatist movement, and a possible "pivotal moment for Scotland", the march entitled "For an Independent Scotland in the EU" – was organised by a group called "Believe in Scotland", in close collaboration with the SNP and The National newspaper.
"Believe in Scotland" is a relatively new organisation which – unlike the All Under One Banner (AUOB) group – is officially supported by the SNP.
Hitherto, the SNP has been reluctant to get officially involved with the AUOB group, because it is regarded as too much of a wild card.
Therefore, the SNP has been keen to develop a complementary marching organisation of its own – if not an actual rival to AUOB – which it can control and keep on message.
The "Believe in Scotland" organisation appears to fit that bill.
Humza Yousaf, who spoke at the event, even made a special video for the SNP's official campaign group "Yes.Scot" encouraging people to attend (broadcast 28-8-23).
THE NUMBERS!
Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, the organiser of "Believe in Scotland", stated from the stage, after the event, that "25,000 marched today". See video at twitter.com/markthehibby/status/1697998478142480439
The National newspaper (30-8-23) claimed that it was expecting "15,000" to be on this march.
Lesley Riddoch tweeted afterwards at 5.05pm on the day, that there were "Ten thousand" on it.
The rival AUOB group posted Facebook congratulations after the march, at 3.45pm, to the "6-8,000 individuals" on it.
The SNP might usually be quite good at keeping things on message, but they were all over the place with this one!
Clearly the video demonstrates the true numbers of 3,989 come nowhere close to those crazy figures! Indeed, AUOB itself has never even reached 13,000 (see link below).
Director, Alistair McConnachie, says:
"The big question is: Will the First Minister be able to get away with exaggerating the numbers considering this is an SNP-endorsed event, which it has helped publicise and organise? Will he use the same lying strategy of previous Scottish nationalist marches, or will he feel obliged to accurately reflect the video evidence, considering his position? That will depend on the extent to which the mainstream media holds him to the truth!
"A Force For Good has built a reputation for filming and counting the Scottish nationalist marches accurately, and revealing their gross exaggerations – which include exaggerating by 22 times, as in Edinburgh on 5-10-19.
"It is essential that we at AFFG record the truth for posterity. We ensure that their lying numbers do not get written into history, and we ensure that pro-UK people are not deliberately demoralised by false propaganda.
"As anyone can count for themselves from our video, there were 3,989, give or take a 2% margin of error."
NOTES FOR JOURNALISTS
About A Force For Good
We are Scotland's premier pro-UK campaign group and think tank. We were founded by Alistair McConnachie on 21 March 2012 and we're based in Glasgow.
You can find all the true counts for all of the Scottish nationalist marches to date, including our Counting Protocol, and our Counting Tips in our regularly updated article: "Fantasy Figures Exposed: All the Nationalist Marches to Date".
You can find out how the long-focal-length camera lens can give a misleading impression of size, in our article
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