AFFG Reveals Number at Edinburgh March: 12,789
The "All Under One Banner" (AUOB) organisers have been putting out crazy figures for their Scottish Nationalist marches all year, assisted by a complacent media and in some cases by (what appears to be) careless Police estimates.
AUOB claimed – at various times – anything between 60-90K in Glasgow on 5 May, which took an hour to pass.
They claimed 10K at Dumfries on 2 June, in a 25 minute march!
They claimed 14K at Inverness on 28 July. Real figure 3,386 (we filmed and counted them).
They claimed 16K at Dundee on 18 August. Real figure 3,538 (we filmed and counted them).
And yesterday they are claiming in excess of 100K at their march in Edinburgh on 6 October (with some even bigger figures being put around).
All exaggerated nonsense.
Well, A Force For Good was not only standing strong along the Royal Mile as the march passed us, but we filmed and counted them, once again.
We asked two different people to analyse our video evidence and to count each and every marcher, according to our following Protocol:
Our Count Protocol
- Every adult on the road, counted.
- The presumption is to be generous. We do not want to under-estimate. For example, if we can't tell if it is 1 or 2 people behind a flag, we go with 2. If we can't tell if it is 3 or 4, we go with 4, and so on.
- People on pavement counted only if they are clearly part of the march, such as dressed for the occasion or carrying a flag.
- No children who looked 14 or under counted, since they are only there because their parents have brought them along.
- The Marshals standing next to AFFG, added in.
We did not include the Bikers since we have no footage of their numbers.
We then took the average of the two counts, which were both close to each other.
The march took 1 hour and 50 minutes to pass our counting point.
Guess what, it's not 100,000. It's not 90,000, it's not 60,000. It's not 35,000. It's not 30,000. It is not even 20,000 as estimated by Edinburgh City Council (although 20,000 is definitely at the right end of the scale).
It is not even in the teens...
It's 12,789.
Surprised?
After the hype of the extraordinary "100,000" figure promoted in the media, and on the front page of the Sunday National, some people may be astonished to hear the truth.
Some people may struggle to believe what we are saying!
However, we'll upload the video to this page in the next 24 hours and people are free to count the marchers for themselves.
[Here it is now...]
If you don't want to sit and count for 1 hour 50 minutes – like we do – then count for 10 minutes and multiply your number by 11. You'll find yourself at the lower end of our figure.
How to Imagine Numbers
It's understandable that people are likely to believe big figures because crowds are difficult to estimate by looking at them. After all, very few people know what "100,000" looks like, or 50,000, or 30,000, or 12,789.
AUOB is playing a clever game because they know most people don't know the difference.
However, anyone who has ever been in a big sports stadium and really looked at the crowd will have a better idea. For example:
Wembley has a capacity of 90,000.
Murrayfield has a capacity of 67,144.
Celtic Park has a capacity of 60,832.
Hampden has a capacity of 52,063.
Ibrox has a capacity of 50,817.
Here's a pic of Wembley at full 90,000 capacity. We are meant to believe there were 10,000 more than this ambling slowly down the Royal Mile in 1 hour 50 minutes!
Imagine trying to get these people above to slowly amble out the stadium via one exit...with lots of gaps between them. It would take hours and hours and hours.
AUOB did Well!
AUOB were always going to claim "100,000" at Edinburgh regardless of the reality.
Even if a small number had turned up, they weren't going to claim less than the 90,000 they claimed in Glasgow, back on 5th May.
But think about this...If they say they got 90,000 in a 1 hour march in Glasgow on 5th May, how come they only got 100,000 in a march in Edinburgh which took 1 hour and 50 minutes to pass – that is, lasting almost twice as long!
Clearly their absurd numbers are all over the place.
Having said that, AUOB did well to get 12,789, and they certainly did very well to pull the wool over everyone's eyes and make them believe it was 100,000!
It is clever propaganda! And we can expect more of the same from them.
12,789 is a lot of people!
It's an impressive number. We do not deny that. The AUOB "organisers" did well to get those numbers.
It suggests to us that the "grassroots" hardcore of the Scottish Nationalist movement is (to a large extent) self-mobilising. It can be given a time and place and it can work out the logistics for itself.
They are far better organised than unionists – who are not organised in the Grassroot-Group fashion that the Nats are!
They have more passion than most on our side, and at the end of the day, that is not surprising.
After all, people who are content with "the status quo" are just going about their normal life.
Normal people, who are happy with the UK, are not gripped by a revolutionary fervour to overthrow it. They don't live their lives obsessed with a cause which is somehow going "to set their world to rights".
Most people who like the UK, are just hoping that someone, somewhere, is looking out for them.
Wake up call! It's us at A Force For Good!
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The Dumfries Figure Disproved
One thing the march did was prove that the Dumfries and Galloway Police estimate of AUOB marchers back on 2 June 2018 was a load of old cobblers.
The Police said 10,000 attended, in a march which took 25 minutes to pass! A physical impossibility!
Clearly they were talking through their hat, as we said at the time.
Several Lessons Arise:
1- Realise that the AUOB figures are nothing but propaganda intended to bolster their own side and cause anxiety and demoralisation in our side.
2. Realise that the mainstream media is not trying to find the truth of the matter, and in some cases is outright lying (Sunday National).
3- Anyone who wants an official, video-evidence corroborated count – including the Police – should always come to A Force For Good for the real gen – or at least study the videos which we helpfully provide.
Not only does our organisation meet the ScotNat marchers on the street, but we reveal the truth of their events. This costs money - not a lot of money - we don't have salaries or rental costs, but we do need help.
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