YesCymru plan to distribute newspaper to 1 million people in Wales on weekend

The movement for Welsh independence, YesCymru, are setting out to distribute a newspaper to 1 million people in Wales over the weekend.

YesCymru Chair Sion Jobbins said it was an attempt to reach people beyond social media before the start of the Senedd election campaign.

Delivering leaflets has been allowed in Wales since restrictions were eased on Monday of last week, although door knocking by activists is still not allowed.

The bilingual papers will be delivered by hand by volunteers to almost one-third of the households in Wales, Sion Jobbins said.

Over 30 YesCymru groups will be delivering the newspaper, with volunteers encouraged to contact their local group and offer to help out.

“Thanks to our members and supporters we’re now going to be producing a YesCymru newspaper that our members are supporters are going to be distributing across Wales,” the movement’s chair Sian Jobbins said.

“We’re hoping to reach over a million people with this. So if you see there’s a local branch distributing locally, please give them a hand.

“If a lot of people do a little bit, we can do a big massive thing here in Wales, which is push for independence – and reach those people not on social media.”

Membership

The leaflets marks a return to in-person campaigning by YesCymru after they were forced to cancel a series of marches in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

YesCymru also held the first ‘Yestival’ over the weekend, part of a year-long programme of discussions taking place entirely online.

The campaign received a fillip earlier this month as a poll showed the highest support for independence ever recorded.

The ITV / Savanta ComRes poll suggested that excluding don’t knows, 39% of Welsh people would now vote ‘yes’ in a referendum. That outstrips the previous high of 32% in a YouGov poll in August 2020.

Over the last year, YesCymru has increased its membership by nine times, to 18,000, making it the UK’s fastest-growing political organisation in 2020 and it currently boasts over 40,000 followers on both Twitter and Facebook.