Nicola Sturgeon is to be commended and admired for sticking with her effort to mitigate the appalling folly of Brexit. But surely she must now accept that this effort has been in vain. Nothing now can prevent Scotland being dragged out of the EU against the will of the people of Scotland and on terms that the First Minister has clearly indicated are totally unacceptable even given her willingness to abide by the UK-wide Leave vote.
That sufferance of Scotland’s voice being ignored was, in itself, a massive compromise. Some would argue that it was already a compromise too far. It has to be the last such compromise.
Let us, for the moment, set aside partisan politics and policy agendas. Let us, instead, consider the matter of fundamental democratic principle. Let us focus on the fact that all legitimate political authority derives from the people.Government requires the consent of the people. Policies imposed absent popular consent lack democratic legitimacy. Government that disregards the will of the people is not democratic. Government which acts contrary to the expressed will of the people is, by definition, anti-democratic.
The Union is a constitutional device which allows the British government to treat the will of Scotland’s people with coldly calculated contempt. Brexit represents merely one particularly egregious example of this callous disdain for democracy. The Union is anti-democratic. The Union facilitates an ongoing breach of that most essential democratic principle – the people of Scotland are sovereign!
And let us be bold enough to talk, not just of principle, but of pride. Our pride must count for something. The pride of the people of Scotland must have some worth. We must cling to our self-respect all the more determinedly in the face of the corrosive contempt exhibited by the British political elite which would otherwise strip us of any regard we have for ourselves. If we do not respect ourselves; our capacities and capabilities and qualities as a nation, then how can we protest the disrespect shown to us by others? If we do not take pride our democracy, how might we expect others to do so. If we do not defend our sovereignty, who will?
More than any other individual, we look to our First Minister to represent Scotland’s attitude to itself. More than anyone else, it is Nicola Sturgeon who bears responsibility for asserting our sovereignty and defending our democracy.
It is time, Nicola! It is time to take a stand for principle! It is time to take a stand for pride! It is time to take the bold and decisive action which will end the Union and restore the sovereignty of Scotland’s people!
It is time!
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Peter A Bell 
30th November would be a good day to announce IndyRef2!
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Spot on once again Peter, I am becoming more and more frustrated. Not to mention worried. The time is now. We must have a date, we must go.
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One concern is that the Scottish Government as allowed the ‘now is not the time’ narrative to take root, especially post GE17. There has been a failure to challenge this by asserting the mandated authority of the Scottish Parliament and the fundamentally undemocratic behaviour of serving MSPs who have failed to accept the proper authority of the body they have been elected to serve. These rogue voices should have been robustly refuted at every opportunity, but it sadly they weren’t. And so the idea that we somehow ‘need permission’ or that ‘opinion polls don’t favour it’ have been allowed to sit as imposters on ground which belongs only to the mandated will of the Scottish parliament.
Shame on those undemocratic unionists who fail to respect the will of the parliament they have been elected to serve and shame on the Scottish Government for allowing these voices to undermine our democracy without challenge.
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Alas I have finally lost faith Peter. The mood music suggests more waiting and trying to change England’s minds.
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Provide evidence of this suggestive mood music Big Jock…I’ve no doubt you can do it, but I am getting just as tired of self-proclaimed world-weary folk leaving one single line of comment after a well-argued blogpost where they simply declare a vague point with some reference to a single emotion or feeling.
To all independence-loving Scots…write something substantive and show you are well-informed or try to say nothing. The yoon trolls will swarm through social media even more when any new vote is announced and the old media will amplify them dutifully. So think about cutting out completely the comments informing people of your subjective states and let’s hear arguments, insights, and plain old thoughts about politics and economics etc. If the call for indyref2 comes soon, then what use were the comments about disappointment, fear and so on…emotions are fleeting, independence is supposed to be forever. Courage my friends COURAGE !!!!!
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Instead of leaving it up to the SNP, maybe the wider independence movement should be pro-active. Leaflets delivered to every household. Canvassers doing follow up visits. The Unionists are relentless in pushing their agenda through the msm, but the SNP are running scared of the unionist ‘get on with the day job’ jibe and focus on being respectable and capable. It’s time to start emphasizing that Scotland is being screwed in this union and the great potential in regaining independence.
Brexit is not the issue on its own, but the fact that it is being forced on Scotland is a prime example of why we must be independent.
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