Badges, leaflets and T-shirts: the material culture of the 2014 referendum

Visitors who arrive here looking for a shop will not find one: The Union Question sells nothing. This page looks instead at the objects that made the 2014 referendum so visible in Scottish streets, and at the rules that applied to them.

A campaign you could wear

Observers of the 2014 campaign often remarked on how visible it was. Yes badges, "No Thanks" stickers, window posters and car stickers turned private opinions into public statements, and some commentators tried to read the mood of a town by counting the badges on its high street. Both campaigns, and many independent groups, sold or gave away T-shirts, mugs, tote bags and badges. For small groups, merchandise did two jobs at once: it raised money and it made supporters visible to each other.

The habit had limits as a guide to opinion. Polls showed that No voters were less likely to display their preference than Yes voters, so the street could give a misleading picture: one reason why the result surprised some Yes activists who had judged the campaign by what they saw around them.

Leaflets and doorsteps

The main campaign tool remained the printed leaflet. Both designated campaigns were entitled to a free mailing to every household, and local and background-based groups produced their own material aimed at particular audiences, such as pensioners, women, business owners or people who had moved to Scotland from elsewhere. Such targeted material was distributed at street stalls, at meetings and through letterboxes in the final months.

What the law required

• Imprints: under the Scottish Independence Referendum Act 2013, printed material relating to the referendum had to show the name and address of the printer and of the promoter, and of any person on whose behalf it was published.
• Spending: money spent on producing material during the regulated period counted towards a campaigner's spending; anyone spending more than £10,000 had to register with the Electoral Commission.
• Sales: income from merchandise was treated like other campaign income, and donations to registered campaigners had to come from permissible sources.

These rules are explained in more detail in our article on how campaign groups organise.

Objects as history

Badges, posters and leaflets from 2014 are now collected by museums and libraries as part of the record of the referendum. The National Library of Scotland, for example, collected campaign leaflets and ephemera from both sides. They show how each campaign chose to present itself: the Yes side with words such as "hope" and "fairer", the No side with "No thanks" and an emphasis on security and family ties across the border.