FORMER Better Together chief Blair McDougall has been mocked over “indifference” towards his anti-independence newsletter after he was forced to reveal the number of paying readers.
McDougall has revealed the paying readership of his Notes on Nationalism newsletter after he published his first list of financial interests on becoming the new Labour MP for East Renfrewshire.
In the register, he wrote the newsletter only has “around 50” paying subscribers.
McDougall, who also recorded consultancy fees totalling £11,400 for events in America and Georgia, did not provide a figure for how much in total his newsletter brought in.
Subscribers can sign up for free to Notes on Nationalism, which has been handed over to writer and political consultant Andrew Liddle.
But those who pay – with prices starting at £5.33 per month – get access to exclusive stories and the full archive of posts as well as the ability to post comments and “join the community”.
In the “about” section of the newsletter’s website, McDougall noted his experience running the anti-independence Better Together campaign in 2014 and how “people often get in touch with me for campaign analysis or for advice on how to overcome the instincts that drive people to support such populist causes”.
He added: “I thought it might be of interest to someone if I started writing some of that down and shared it more widely.”
But SNP MP Pete Wishart (above) said the paying subscriber figures showed “no one cares”. He told The National: “Notes on total and utter indifference. No one's interested and no one cares. Just like the positive case for the Union.”
The East Renfrewshire MP also listed donations from Labour megadonor Francesca Perrin, who gifted him a total for £16,000 before the election. He also received £2900 from London-based public relations firm 89Up, which specialises in communications for “civil society and non-profits”.
McDougall was approached for comment.
