With only 10 days to the Welsh referendum which will decide on the Assembly’s law making powers, I asked maverick activist Len Gibbs how his “March 3 is Vote NO! Day” campaign was fairing, and this is his update:

Winning is everything. And we are in to win!

Ridiculous really, just a handful of ordinary people taking on 100% of the MPs and AMs and the might of the political establishment of Wales. It has annoyed and upset them, but they agree we are fighting above our weight, are very clever and have put up an effective argument for voting ‘no’ on March 3rd.

The decision not to take the taxpayer funding has been described as a ‘stroke of genius’, but we have been vilified for it. Blamed for stifling democratic debate, I’m currently arguing with the BBC to stop stop inferring we are to blame and direct the responsibility towards the AMs and MPs who to the last man support a yes vote. Without True Wales there would be no democratic debate whatsoever. Accordingly we have chosen to fight the campaign on our terms and not the establishment’s. They do not like it

The fun and drama has come from us as we vie for visibility. The BIG PINK PIG was a risk. The release of the news on this site of the existence of the PIG prompted the yes campaign to buy a red and green balloon. They bought one five foot in diameter. What they didn’t know was that our pig was fourteen feet long and stands nine feet high! We’ve had both UK and Wales TV and media exposure this week of the pig and people are immediately aware of it when it appears on their local high street.

My appearance with the pig outside the Assembly building on the launch day of “March 3 is ‘Vote NO! Day’” resulted in a TV interview that went out on the main local BBC TV teatime programme. If people voted for fun and publicity innovation, we’d win hands down!The introduction of “March 3 is ‘Vote NO! Day’” both as a political campaign slogan and as a second stream has worked well. The “M3IVND” campaign is entirely electronic and able to contact targeted influencers. The message is harder, less respectful and deliberately edgy. The result has been a scurrilous article in the Western Mail on Tuesday. This led one ‘no’ supporter to email in saying, “If, as you say, there is no such thing as bad publicity, then you’ve had a good week.”!

The two main thrusts are firstly to make the 38% of the electorate who want to abolish the Assembly to have the confidence they can win and so to come out to vote and March 3. Its purpose is also to push people to evaluate Plaid Cymru for the danger it is to Wales and vote no, because a no vote will harm Plaid immeasurably.

Will we win? On Thursday on ITV Wales’s programme Sharp End they featured students of a business school debating the issues of the referendum. The accepted wisdom is that the young support a yes vote. The secret ballot result was 54.5% ‘no’ and 44.5% ‘yes’.

We’ve got ten days to convince their parents and I believe, we will win.

We are not in to win the argument.  We are in to win the vote.