Fundraiser update and a look to the election in May

I thought I’d publish an update on the progress so far of the 2026 Wee Ginger Dug annual fundraiser. This is always an anxious time of the year as I ask other people to put their money where my mouth is. The blog is free to read for all and eschews advertising, paid content or sponsorship deals so asking readers to contribute what they feel able is the only way I’m able to generate vital income.

I appreciate that times are tough for everyone, which only makes me appreciate the support of the blog’s readership even more. This year’s annual fundraiser was launched early so as not to overlap with the official campaign period for this year’s Holyrood elections. Like many of you I was deeply worried about how the elections would go for the pro-independence parties, the SNP has had a torrid time of it over the past few years, but although it’sd crucial to take nothing for granted and it’s going to be all hands to the deck in the weeks running up to the election, it now looks as though the worst of the storm has passed. Scotland, like the rest of the globe, has not escaped the rise of far-right populism.

In the UK that takes the form of Reform UK, hard right English nationalists who are home to the worst of the Tory party, Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick, and Nadine Dorries to name a few, who are instinctively hostile to the idea of Scotland as a country with a political identity of its own, seeing Scotland as nothing more than a region of a UK which is essentially Little England. Reform UK is not just aggressively opposed to Scottish independence, it would also hasten and deepen the undermining of the devolution settlement which we’ve seen with the so-called muscular unionism from the Conservatives and more latterly from Starmer’s Labour party. Reform UK look set to give us not muscular unionism, but roid-rage unionism. They represent an existential threat to Scotland. Scotland cannot be defended from the far right by a Labour party whose idea of challenging Nigel Farage is to agree with him. Electing a Scottish Parliament with a strong pro-independence majority is more vital than ever.

We have had two pieces of good news in the past week. Anas Sarwar’s abortive attack on Keir Starmer has fundamentally weakened the Labour party in Scotland, Sarwar is now telling us he has no confidence in a Prime Minister whose praises he was singing just a few weeks ago, he expects us to forget that. Labour’s Scottish branch office is now divided against itself and has a branch manager who has not only proven his own irrelevance, but perhaps even worse, has condemned the Labour prime minister for working against Scotland’s interests.

Secondly, although for obvious legal reasons we cannot go into the details of the case, former SNP CEO Peter Murrell’s trial has been postponed until after May’s elections, meaning that the case will not dominate the Scottish news cycle during the election campaign.

Also postponed until after the May elections is the case for £3 million in damages being brought by the estate of the late Alex Salmond against the Scottish Government. Irrespective of the rights or wrongs of this case, it should be noted that it is being funded by a millionaire Labour donor and Better Together supporter whose primary interest is to cause political harm to the Scottish Government, the SNP, and the wider independence movement. This case will also not figure much in the Scottish media until the election is over.

We all know what the Scottish media is like, pro-independence voices are few and far between and we are fed a barrage of attack stories which constantly do Scotland down, minimise this country’s potential and dwell obsessively on what the Scottish media identifies as the failures of the Scottish Government while never giving it credit for its successes. You wouldn’t know from BBC Scotland that child poverty is lower in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK or that Scotland is more than self-sufficient in energy while having the highest energy bills in the UK thanks to Westminster’s control of energy policy.

This is why blogs like this one are all the more important, although I harbour no illusions about how limited a reach it has. It can only keep going thanks to your support. The Scottish independence movement has no billionaires with deep pockets to fund it, because billionaires know that the entire point of Scottish independence is social justice, reducing inequality and ensuring that the wealthiest pay their fair share.

I’m taking nothing for granted and thanks to your support I will be blogging more than previously as the election campaign ramps up, but with these developments I am somewhat more hopeful about the outcome of May’s election than I was a few months ago. A record pro-independence majority in Holyrood is within our grasp. I’ll keep playing my small part in making that happen.

So without further ado, I’m delighted to tell you that just two weeks after the fundraiser was launched it has now raised a total of £4457, almost 90% of the £5000 target, just one more push and with your help it will get there. Thank you very much to everyone who has contributed, I will reach out to thank you individually in due course.

I will keep the fundraiser running for a few weeks more. There are a number of ways to donate. You can contribute to my fundraiser on GoFundMe, the link is here.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/wee-ginger-dug-annual-fundraiser-2026

By Default GoFundMe has configured the donation page to monthly donations. You can still donate as a one off When you Click donate, on the donate page under the title WeeGinger Fundraiser 2026 you’ll see two buttons, one on the left saying GIVE ONCE and one on the right saying GIVE MONTHLY. This seems to be a new thing with GoFundMe. Click the left GIVE ONCE button so it is highlighted in Green then choose the amount you want to donate or enter it in the box below. If not, you can always make a one off donation by PayPal or Ko-Fi

You can donate via Ko-Fi here:

Or click the following link https://ko-fi.com/weegingerdug

One of the easiest ways to support this blog is with a PayPal donation. Please log into Paypal.com and send a payment to the email address [email protected]. Or alternatively click the donate button below. If you don’t have a PayPal account, just select “donate with card” after clicking the button. You can also donate by PayPal by using my PayPal.me link PayPal.Me/weegingerdug
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/weegingerdug

If you would prefer to donate some other way, for example by bank transfer or cheque, please contact me at [email protected] for details. Once again, thank you to everyone for your support.

Source