A year or so ago some locals like myself got together and decided to set up a group on the Black Isle to campaign for a Yes vote in the referendum.

We held a meeting, got some more volunteers and started work. Initially we got some leaflets from the Yes Campaign and some newspapers from the SNP. Then we started printing our own, and also getting stickers and badges made up. One of the group supplied us with lots of postcards he's been printing at his own cost, and supplying to groups over the country. Someone else sent us lots of Gaelic Yes badges for us to give away for free. We send these stickers and badges to anyone who'll send us a stamped addressed envelope.

We support the official Yes campaign, but wouldn't consider ourselves to be a part of it - instead, we're an independed local group set up quite separately.

Since setting up I reckon our volunteers have delivered around 50,000 leaflets, newspapers and cards around the Black Isle, manned lots of local stalls and are now knocking on doors asking people how they'll vote and encouraging Yes supporters to get involved and be sure to vote in September.

I'm not a long-term political campaigner, but I reckon that we'd qualify if someone was talking about 'grassroots' organisations.

I love the idea of 'grassroots' - that a group of people, not politicians, come together at a local level to start pushing for a change.

We've not had much publicity - never been on the BBC, the national press or even the Ross-shire journal, we're just a grassroots group getting on with the job.

So I'm just a little bit annoyed today. A couple of days ago the BBC in Scotland reported that a new 'grassroots' organisation had been set up to campaign for a No vote. Called 'Vote No Borders', it was mentioned on BBC Radio and TV. Today it's been mentioned on the BBC again, with an item on the rolling TV news which will no doubt be on Reporting Scotland again tonight. It talks of Vote No Borders as "a grassroots campaign to rival that of the pro-independence campaign". Its website calls it "a grass-roots campaign".

The BBC and national newspapers who've reported on this have done nothing to determine whether this is "grassroots" or not. Instead it's fallen to many individuals and blogs to do a little research. It turns out that "Vote No Borders" has been set up by a millionaire Conservative and a company in London which which does "Country Branding" for Israel, Dubai, Bahrain and "England". Its website domain was registered by a chap who works at the Bank of England.

That's not 'grassroots' in my book. Why is the BBC reporting it? Is it because millionaires are more important to them than the rest of us? Or is it simply because the BBC will report anything which might put a positive spin on voting No?

If you'd like more information, see Wings Over Scotland and Craig Murray's blog amongst others.

Posted by Garve Scott-Lodge