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The Wee Blue Book

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The Wee Blue Book was a multi-format publication created to set out a factual and economic case for Scottish independence as part of the pro-independence campaign in the run-up to the referendum of 2014. 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.

It was written by Stuart Campbell, editor of the website Wings Over Scotland.

The book

The book had the subheading “The Facts the Papers Leave Out”, addressing a media bias in the independence debate claimed by the author. It was split into several short chapters, with most of the main chapters ending in a series of questions and answers. The chapters consisted of sourced data and quotations, combined with the author’s analysis. It made both a case that Scotland would be better governed as an independent state, and that Scotland would be financially better off as an independent country.

The book also commented on the constitutional status of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.[1]

Publication

The 72-page 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.[2] 300,000 copies[3] were subsequently printed, using money collected in an Indiegogo online fundraising campaign,[4] and distributed across Scotland from the first week of September.[5][6] It was also released as an audiobook[7] and narrated video,[8] translated into Gaelic[9] and turned into a standalone website.[10]

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. [11]

Reception

The book was viewed as an important asset to the independence campaign, being described by Spanish news website ABC.es as "[Alex] Salmond's secret weapon".[12]. Jim Sillars wrote in 2015 "Wee Blue Book introduced accessible, high quality analysis to [the] referendum campaign"[13]

However, the book was criticised by opponents; economist 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.”[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]

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,[17] and in The Scotsman journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch made it her top pick for its "portability and sheer audacity".[18]

The Wee Black Book

The book was followed in 2016 by The Wee Black Book,[19] a review of events since the independence referendum. The Wee Black Book was distributed as a free download and in a print edition on a cost-subsidised basis.[20]

Wee Blue Book “v2.0”

Following the vote in the Scottish parliament in March 2017 for a second referendum, Campbell stated he would produce a new Wee Blue book with a larger print run than the previous version. In July 2017, he said it would be “when the time comes”[21][22]

Reuse of concept

Subsequent political campaigns have imitated the Wee Blue Book. The MEP group of the Scottish National Party published a similar document - The Wee Bleu Book[23] - for the EU referendum campaign, and the movement for independence for the US state of California (which also appropriated some graphics from Yes Scotland) produced The Calexit Blue Book. [24]

The Wee Blue Book also inspired a Quebec independence publication [25]

References

  1. ^ Johnson, Peter (17 September 2014). "Carmichael sets record straight on independence comments". The Shetland Times. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  2. ^ Bryant, Ben (11 September 2014). "Cybernat Campbell: The Blogger Trying to Break Up Britain". Vice News. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  3. ^ Gray, Michael (15 September 2015). "Corbyn will fail for same reason Yes did not win". The National. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  4. ^ "Let's Hit The Streets: Story". Indiegogo. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  5. ^ "Time to get busy". wingsoverscotland.com. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  6. ^ Gross, Jenny; Douglas, Jason (2 September 2014). "Knock, Knock for Scottish Independence Ahead of Vote". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  7. ^ "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.
  8. ^ Scotland's Referendum 2014 - The Wee Blue Book Narrated. YouTube. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  9. ^ "An Leabhar Beag Gorm" (PDF). worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  10. ^ Rev Stuart Campbell (2014-09-18). "Reasons to vote Yes in the Scottish Referendum". The Wee Blue Book. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  11. ^ "Scottish independence: White Paper cost hits £1.25m".
  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. ^ "Twitter".
  14. ^ "Scotland and the SNP: Fooling yourselves and deceiving others".
  15. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20161113101349/http://www.scotlandinunion.co.uk/our_team
  16. ^ "twitter"".
  17. ^ "Books Of The Year 2014: Herald Choices". The Herald. 29 November 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  18. ^ "Leading Scots reveal their favourite books of 2014". The Scotsman. 2014-12-07. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  19. ^ "The Wee Black Book". Wings Over Scotland. 2016-03-24. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  20. ^ [1]
  21. ^ "Rev Stuart Campbell: What do we do about Scotland's Unionist media in the #ScotRef campaign? We bypass them".
  22. ^ "Twitter".
  23. ^ "Wee Bleu Book - Scotland in Europe". Scotlandineurope.eu. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  24. ^ "Yes California Independence Campaign". Yescalifornia.org. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  25. ^ "National Option Launches "The Book That Says Yes" (VIDEO)".

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