500 Miles in 5 Days – The Flying Postman continues to deliver the Yes message

In the interview below, avid ’Indy Cyclist’ Mark Coburne explains both his motivation for a journey that has already taken him from Rome to Home and what drives him to now undertake an even more challenging test – 500 Miles in 5 Days. To put this in context, 100 miles per day is new territory again for Mark and is comparable to the Tour de France stages.

Forty year old Mark said: ”I am fulfilling two ambitions, ever since I was a boy I’ve always wanted to do a long distance cycle, and, I’ve always been a Yes voter, so the two go hand in hand.

Since May 2011 I had been thinking about doing something unique for the yes cause, and, it was while I was on holiday in Florence in 2012 that I came up with the ’Rome to Home’ project.”

From there Mark was bitten and felt he had another window of opportunity to complete a second journey before the referendum. Sponsored by pro-Yes group Business for Scotland, Mark raised in excess of £14,000 on the first trip and hopes to raise £5350 for local Yes groups again this time.

Further to that, any money raised above that target will be donated to Greater Maryhill Foodbank.

To fully understand Mark’s motivation for this additional aspect please view the video here

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djZHc0jMwG8]

The gruelling schedule is as follows ;
Day 1: Thursday 10/07/2014 : Route: Glasgow – Galashiels – Edinburgh
Day 2: Friday 11/07/2014 : Glasgow – Rosyth – Burntisland – Cardenden – Forfar
Day 3: Saturday 12/07/2014 : Forfar – Aberdeen – Huntly
Day 4: Sunday 13/07/2014 : Huntly – Inverness – Fort William
Day 5: Monday 14/7/2014 : Fort William – Glasgow

”The grassroots campaign is where we’re going to win this” he says, emphasising the organic nature of the pro-independence campaign.

Describing the Yes Scotland campaign as a ”working class left-wing movement”, quite distinct from other independence campaigns on the continent, Mark explains how people who were once reluctant to discuss independence are now beginning to engage and accept the idea and are talking about it.

They are no longer afraid he says, ”It’s in the atmosphere, it’s in the media,”

Explaining the erosion of fear and a new willingness to seek information, Mark adds: ”People are now attaching themselves more to social media and on-line news than to mainstream media … they are starting to pick up information they wouldn’t have done otherwise.”

He adds: ”More and more people are coming out who are not interested in party politics, who are not part of a line.” The Yes campaign, he says, is ”naturally expanding”.

You can contribute to Mark Coburn’s fundraiser here : https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/500-miles-in-5-days.
If you want to welcome him into Edinburgh and congratulate him on his efforts he should be arriving at the Hebrides Bar, Market Street, some time from 8pm on Thursday 10th.

If you’re in the west, you can donate food to Greater Maryhill Foodbank here : http://greatermaryhillfoodbank.yolasite.com/donating-food.php.
They truly need all the help they can get given the Labour-run council charges them full commercial rates for their premises.

The problem doesn’t only exist in the west however. In Edinburgh more than 2000 children received their Christmas dinner from a food bank in the Capital last year. In total the number of people in the region who were forced to turn to this vital service for their Christmas meal exceeded 6000 last year. That is an horrendous Union ’dividend’ that we can finally do something to eradicate on Sept 18th.

No-matter one’s independence persuasion, if you wish to donate to the Edinburgh foodbanks in Edinburgh you can find the nearest to you here : http://www.trusselltrust.org/map.

Submitted by Neil Hay