Tuesday, June 20, 2017

The Scot Goes Pop Ham-and-Cheese Toastie Fundraiser

Click here to go straight to the fundraiser page.

As you may remember, I was doing my best in the early months of this year to promote this blog's last fundraiser from 2015, which remained open for new donations.  Progress was fairly slow, but nevertheless I'm hugely grateful for all the extra donations received, because they've been just about enough to keep everything afloat over the last few extraordinary weeks.  During the month up to June 8th, the blog received more visitors than in all but one previous month in its history.  That kind of performance simply wouldn't have been possible without your help - blogging during an election period is incredibly time-consuming, and the fundraiser money gave me the freedom and flexibility to drop everything and write when required.

I abruptly stopped promoting the donation link altogether in March, because I didn't want to distract from the fundraising efforts for ScotRef, or later for the SNP general election campaign.  However, as a result of that, I have now reached the point where in the immortal words of Liam Byrne "there is no money left".  That means I can't even risk returning to the previous fundraiser, because back in the winter Indiegogo missed their 4-weekly payment schedule, and I didn't receive some of the funds for two months.  I've no idea how common that sort of glitch is, but if it happened again I might be waiting until mid-August, which would come pretty close to defeating the whole point of the exercise.  So instead I've started afresh with a new fundraiser on a different platform.  I'm going to give GoFundMe a try and see how it works out.

I never plan things out too much in advance, other than the fact that I intend to continue writing regularly in some form - probably on this blog, perhaps on other websites, or perhaps I'll follow the example of other pro-indy bloggers by taking time out to write a book for self-publication.  Rather than pitching the last fundraiser as a chance to finance "465 blogposts over the next eight months" or whatever, I suggested that it should instead be seen as a chance to "buy me a hot chocolate" if you'd enjoyed my writing or found it useful.  But blogging is hungry as well as thirsty work, and I do like nothing more than a ham-and-cheese toastie (alternative fillings simply don't compare) with my hot chocolate.  So feel free to see the 2017 fundraiser as a way of addressing the equally important toastie side of the equation.

After I suggested the other day that someone on the pro-indy side should urgently commission an opinion poll to counterbalance the dodgy poll in the Record, a number of you urged that I should use fundraiser money to do it myself.  That's probably not a realistic idea, because past fundraisers have generally only barely met their targets, so the chances are pretty slim that enough would be raised to cover the basic amount needed plus an opinion poll on top of that.  However, in the unlikely event that the new fundraiser significantly exceeds its target, I'll certainly consider the possibility.

As always, please don’t feel under any pressure to make a donation. Scot Goes Pop isn’t a newspaper or a magazine – it’s a blog, and there’s absolutely no charge to read it. The option to donate is there if you want to, but it’s only an option. And, of course, if you have a spare minute or two you can always pass on the word to others – every tweet or Facebook share helps enormously!

Click here if you'd like to donate.

31 comments:

  1. Blech. No Paypal option but I'll donate anyway.

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  2. Come on people! Step up for Jimmy!! Donate some serious europoundfrancdollarbuckeroos to help Jimmy . AND let's F him up by giving enough to fund a poll. Seriously, can you add PayPal?

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  3. Done. Would love a book which shines a bit more light on how pilling works. Why polling is undertaken, how wording of questions can affect results. Maybe some greatest hits and misses of pollsters.

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  4. As one of the few people to be helping to make any sense of the Boschian Nightmare-scape we currently inhabit, I am more than happy to help to keep you in essential toasties and such. Possibly even a bacon roll as a treat!

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  5. How much is a ham and cheese toastie these days anyway?

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  6. Just donated anything to help the cause- Big Jock.

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  7. So do you always make a point of ordering the same thing over and over and over again? Or is that the other James Kelly?

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  8. James I always enjoy your blogs and look forward to them,or the next one.Sometimes a very long one has me struggling,for various personal reasons,but I carry on to the end,thank you for them.Now value wise would sending it direct to a PayPal account be any good to you? Saves the fees of the companies that offer the service or is it better just to go along and donate to your fundraiser site just now? I'm not so flush as I once was,O.A.P.now Disabled as well,so I don't go and spend elsewhere except E-Bay,Banggood and another similar type of company and buy usual rubbish although when buying it looked like a good idea ! LOL.Anyhow a £10. via PayPal OK for now?

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  9. James normally I would donate to a worthy cause. I like your blog because you I believe are not a fascist. However the Nat si cause is fascist. We live on this small piece of glaciated land formed billions of years ago and we are of no importance passing through time. With all the knowledge known it beggars believe that we have narrowback planks of wud religious nutters and nat sis still around. Up yer kilt.

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    Replies
    1. You should just put it on your expenses most tory politicians do

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    2. Sad that you impersonators do not have any bottle. But you are scum fascists!

      Delete
    3. The troll "GWC2" calls scottish people "jocks", made death threats on this blog while posing as a Yes supporter, advocates arming Leave campaigners, arbitrary deportations and public mutilations, claimed Jo Cox's husband was a fascist, uses racial, homophobic and ethnic slurs, pretends to be Labour (badly) while espousing far-right racist hate-speech, praises Theresa May and the tories and displays a perverted poisonous obsession with Scotland's First Minister.

      James has been putting up with your nonsense for years. Cough up, cheapskate - it's the least you owe him.

      Delete
  10. James, another call for PayPal here if you can. I'd go as far as buying you a cheese toasty & hot chocolate every month as I do for Wings. I enjoy reading several independence blogs but yours is one of the more useful by far (as well as a damn good read). The only thing I don't like about this blog are doing of the commentators like the lovely one above... Hey ho...

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    Replies
    1. Unfortunately neither GoFundMe nor Indiegogo allow Paypal at the moment. If anyone is really keen on a direct Paypal donation, send me an email and I'll give you the details privately.

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  11. Would like to donate but have given up on your blogs because the ever present troll proceeds to disrupt and antagonise to such an extent that I no longer bother to follow the discussions.

    So, I am letting him win, but life's too short to wade through repetitive rubbish.

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    Replies
    1. James, why not sell off deletes of gwc2? $ 100.00 donations in a day and away go his posts for a day? That's 36 grand a year!!

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    2. How awful that non SNP sychophants have the temerity to hold a mirror up to the economic illiteracy of the independence movement. It must be so awful to have to read opinions that don't match yours, have you tried lying down in a darkened room?

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    3. We read and view opinions that don't match ours about 90% of the time in the print and tv media. GWC is not a cohesive argumentative combateur but a horrendous bigoted racist misogynist. If you want to claim him as holding up a mirror for your side then go ahead....but that say more about you than us. I wish James would swap platforms to enable getting rid of the troll but he has made his argument about that many a time so I ususally just read the articles and ignore all the comments....pro or against my viewpoint.

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    4. You can hide GWC’s comments with this bookmarklet: http://bit.ly/sgp-trolls-readme

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  12. Dear James, I'm a frequent visitor, but first time commenter. Your site has become one of my first call Indy sites because of the quality of your analysis.

    I'm sure this is the reason you are over 60% of the way to your target after less than 24 hours, and look forward to reading many more of your informative articles here.

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  13. Looks like it's going well. I threw in a few pence in spite of (for personal reasons) not liking to use my CC. I'll continue tweeting it because I think this is an essential blog.

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  14. Just seen a cartoon from the Evening Standard 24 March 1975 entitled get Britain out. And all the mob are there. Labour, Tories, Scottish Nats, Welsh Nats, National Front, Communist Party, Maoist Party, Anarchists, Orange Lodge, Trots, Sinn Fein IRA.
    How things changed when they got on the EU gravy train.





    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I came out years ago but still no one likes me

      Delete
    2. The troll "GWC2" calls scottish people "jocks", made death threats on this blog while posing as a Yes supporter, advocates arming Leave campaigners, arbitrary deportations and public mutilations, claimed Jo Cox's husband was a fascist, uses racial, homophobic and ethnic slurs, pretends to be Labour (badly) while espousing far-right racist hate-speech, praises Theresa May and the tories and displays a perverted poisonous obsession with Scotland's First Minister.

      James has been putting up with your nonsense for years. Cough up, cheapskate - it's the least you owe him.

      Delete
    3. I have been begging on the streets due to Nat si policy. Scots are dying around me every week... I am tapping into lampost electricity tae charge ma battery!

      Delete
    4. The troll "GWC2" calls scottish people "jocks", made death threats on this blog while posing as a Yes supporter, advocates arming Leave campaigners, arbitrary deportations and public mutilations, claimed Jo Cox's husband was a fascist, uses racial, homophobic and ethnic slurs, pretends to be Labour (badly) while espousing far-right racist hate-speech, praises Theresa May and the tories and displays a perverted poisonous obsession with Scotland's First Minister.

      James has been putting up with your nonsense for years. Cough up, cheapskate - it's the least you owe him.

      Delete
    5. Poor wee James has been putting up with your repetitive drivel for dunkies.

      Delete
    6. The troll "GWC2" calls scottish people "jocks", made death threats on this blog while posing as a Yes supporter, advocates arming Leave campaigners, arbitrary deportations and public mutilations, claimed Jo Cox's husband was a fascist, uses racial, homophobic and ethnic slurs, pretends to be Labour (badly) while espousing far-right racist hate-speech, praises Theresa May and the tories and displays a perverted poisonous obsession with Scotland's First Minister.

      James has been putting up with your nonsense for years. Cough up, cheapskate - it's the least you owe him.

      Delete
  15. You seem tae get yer rocks aff continually mentioning Cox and May. Are you holding on tae yer cock whilst typing ya perv.

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    Replies
    1. Charming as ever, dearie.

      The troll "GWC2" calls scottish people "jocks", made death threats on this blog while posing as a Yes supporter, advocates arming Leave campaigners, arbitrary deportations and public mutilations, claimed Jo Cox's husband was a fascist, uses racial, homophobic and ethnic slurs, pretends to be Labour (badly) while espousing far-right racist hate-speech, praises Theresa May and the tories and displays a perverted poisonous obsession with Scotland's First Minister.

      Delete