MORE than 1,300 artists have signed an open letter backing a Yes vote in the referendum, in the biggest cultural statement for independence.
The letter has been signed by a wealth of artistic talent from across cultural genres, including writers, musicians, actors, architects, poets, comedians, directors, authors and publishers. It was organised by the National Collective body of campaigning artists which has been a key feature of the grass-roots Yes campaign.
The wording of the letter says that the undersigned "believe that Scotland can and should be an independent country".
The list of signatories includes the Makar, Liz Lochhead, writers Janice Galloway and Alan Bissett, songwriter Karine Polwart, the playwrights Kieran Hurley and David Greig, and the journalist and broadcaster Ruth Wishart.
The poet and professor of Scottish literature at Glasgow University, Alan Riach, has signed the letter, as has leading writer Irvine Welsh.
Meanwhile, all the members of the rock band Mogwai, songwriter and author Aidan Moffat, Booker Prize-winning author James Kelman, musician and songwriter Emma Pollock, Deacon Blue singer and songwriter Ricky Ross, fiddler Aly Bain and poets Tom Pow and Aonghas MacNeacail have signed.
The wording of the letter says: "We believe that Scottish culture will flourish come what may, but that political independence will give the people of Scotland the opportunity to build a better country, both socially and politically."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article