It was entirely predictable that British Nationalists would seek to create new impediments to holding a referendum and further obstacles to achieving a Yes vote should their efforts to deny Scotland’s democratic right of self-determination fail. Knowing the British mentality as we do, this anti-democratic manoeuvring was only to be expected. The British political elite always play by the rules. So long as they are allowed to write the rules; and to change them at will and without notice; and to have one set of rules for themselves and another for everybody else. The effort to ‘rig’ the process was readily anticipated and was, in fact, foretold by several commentators.
Nobody is surprised. Except, apparently, the SNP. The people we’d hope would be more politically astute than most appear to have been naive enough to suppose the British establishment would actually respect democratic principles. Nicola Sturgeon continues to be totally and unshakably committed to the Section 30 process despite the inevitability of the British political elite using that process to thwart democracy. Our First Minister remains completely deaf to the growing clamour within the Yes movement warning of the danger of trusting the British government. She remains oblivious to the voices urging her to immediately seize control of the entire referendum process in the name of preserving Scotland’s democracy. Despite the obvious anti-democratic intent of the British political elite, Nicola Sturgeon still seems happy to cede to them all the authority they need to ‘rig’ the process.
There are protests. Keith Brown says “the Tories are holding democracy in contempt”. Well of course they are, Keith! What did you expect? More importantly, what do you intend to do about it? He insists, yet again, that the Scottish Government has a mandate for a new referendum and that to refuse to recognise that mandate constitutes contempt of Scotland’s Parliament. But there is not so much as a hint that he and his colleagues have any intention to respond purposefully to this attack on Scotland’s democratic institutions.
It’s the same with Brexit. We get entirely redundant daily reminders from Ian Blackford and others about how catastrophic Brexit will be and how awful it is that this is being imposed on Scotland against the will of the Scottish people. But, apart from the incessant lament, what has the Scottish Government actually done to prevent Scotland being dragged out of the EU despite our emphatic Remain vote? They say this is unacceptable. But they seem content to accept it.
Already I can hear the pathetic bleating issuing from those with minds so effectively colonised as to render them incapable of thinking outside the British box. What can we do? We have no power! We have to obey the rules! We can’t be seen to do anything naughty! What do you expect?
[Insert appropriately expressive expletive!]
We can do whatever we are sufficiently determined to do! We have whatever power we choose to assert! We are under absolutely no obligation to obey any rules other than those we make for ourselves! We have to be seen to be willing to defend our democracy! I expect our politicians to do the job we elected them to do!
I don’t dismiss the difficulties involved in confronting the British state. Those difficulties have been aggravated by five years of inaction. They will only get greater with every day that passes without the bold, decisive action which is required to stop the British Nationalist juggernaut crushing our democratic institutions.
The Scottish Government must recognise that the British state is absolutely determined to close all democratic routes to independence. They must realise that the only democratic route to independence we can rely on is the one we create for ourselves and over which we retain total control. A process made by the Scottish Government working through the Scottish Parliament with the support of the sovereign people of Scotland.
Nicola Sturgeon must explicitly reject the authority of the British political elite to interfere in any way in the process by which Scotland decides the matter of its constitutional status and chooses the form of government which best suits the needs of Scotland’s people. The First Minister must abandon the Section 30 process. She must insist that the British state, its agencies and its proxies are entirely excluded from Scotland’s constitutional decision-making process, in accordance with international laws and conventions. The SNP’s whole approach to the constitutional issue must be subject to an immediate, urgent and rigorous review.
Circumstances demand a mindset very different from that which is presently in evidence. How can we claim to be ready and determined to restore Scotland’s rightful constitutional status if we aren’t even prepared to take control of the process by which constitutional normality will be restored?
How can we even claim to deserve independence if the government we elect is prepared to let a government entirely lacking in democratic legitimacy make the rules for us?
How can we claim that the people of Scotland are sovereign while our own elected leaders are in thrall to the sovereignty of the British parliament?
One word, more than any other, comes to mind when I look at the Scottish Government’s handling of the constitutional issue – ineffectual! Against all the evidence to the contrary, they still proceed on the basis that the British will respect democratic principles. They continue to suppose that there is a path to independence abiding by the rules made by the British state for the purpose of preserving the Union at any cost. They persist in imagining that there must be a route to independence which avoids direct and almost certainly acrimonious confrontation with the British establishment. This is all delusion. And it is delusion which threatens to be fatal to Scotland’s cause.
If you find these articles interesting please consider a small donation to help support this site and my other activities on behalf of Scotland’s independence movement.
Peter A Bell 
Very well said Peter, will you let us know what Nicola’s reply is?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sarcastic b******!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a 50+ Female and commented:
I find it difficult to disagree with anything written but sincerely hope that the FM has a plan B that she’s keeping under wraps.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a mystery to me how it’s possible that I, as a political numpty can understand and agree all of the above, yet our politically experienced and astute FM and her band of merry politicos can’t. What am I to conclude? They’re even more dumb, naive, feart or is it that what I see as a string of endless lost opportunities and own goals is actually part of an elaborate plan ordinary mortals like me just couldn’t comprehend. Or is the answer more mundane? Once Indy is a done deal, political status (and salaries) could vanish? So who knows? But we seem to have arrived at the steady-as-we-go stage where the rabid Yessers are thrown an occasional bone as our ‘leaders’ treat us to the regular fist-shaking ceremony towards WM, when what we actually ache for is that one champion who will stand up and rock the boat.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a mystery to me why anyone would want Scotland to become Independent at all when I read blogs like this. We know that Labour, Tory and Libdem politicians at Holyrood are a bunch of incompetents and now we’re hearing that Nicola Sturgeon and her party are not politically astute, unaware of what’s going on around them, oblivious to the fact that Westminster’s corrupt and can’t be trusted, etc, etc. To sum it up the blog owner reckons that they are totally ”ineffectual.” Inadequate in other words, which is in line with what the Unionist controlled MSM is also saying. Taking all of this into account do we really want to live in a country run by such a bunch of buffoons?
LikeLike
Independence does not imply living in a country run by the SNP. Ineffectual doesn’t mean the same as inadequate. Other than that, all you’re doing is whining about me pointing out what everybody but the most blinkered party loyalist knows to be true – the SNP has totally dropped the ball of the independence campaign.
You want to pretend this isn’t happening. You want to pretend that everything is hunky-dory. You want to pretend that the whole independence campaign is going great guns. I don’t do fantasy politics. I live in the real world. And in the real world, things don’t improve unless and untial somebody speaks up.
LikeLike
”Independence does not imply living in a country run by the SNP.”
That leaves us with Labour, Tory, Libdem and Green politicians on day one of Independence. As I’ve said already, by your ready reckoning, we’d be better off forgetting about Independence altogether.
”Ineffectual doesn’t mean the same as inadequate.”
Yes it does.
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/ineffectual
”You want to pretend that the whole independence campaign is going great guns.”
It looks as though we’re on target to getting a majority of Scots supporting Independence and we’d do a damn sight better, imo, if individuals like you would stop running Nicola Sturgeon down to the ground. In your quest to constantly discredit the SNP how many people do you reckon that you’ve actually put off of supporting Independence overall, Peter?
”The SNP has totally dropped the ball of the independence campaign.”
So you say, and I don’t agree, but this is not just about Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP campaigning, as I’ve pointed out before every last one of us has to get off of our butts and do something. Easy for some to just sit on their backsides in front of a computer carping away about the SNP.
‘A second referendum on Scottish independence.’
…”The Scottish Government intends to hold a second independence referendum before the end of the parliamentary term in 2021. However, Constitution Minister Michael Russell has said that, should circumstance change, “we would have the option of seeking Parliament’s agreement to proceed on an accelerated timetable.”
The bill would allow a referendum to be held relatively quickly, as the Scottish Parliament would not need to pass another piece of primary legislation. In addition, if a second independence referendum uses the same question as in 2014, time for testing the question would not be required.”..
http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/second-referendum-scottish-independence
LikeLike
That comment implying I do nothing but sit on my arse at a computer carping about the SNP is all the evidence anybody needs of your infantile ignorance. I have been campaigning for independence for more than half a century. I abandoned a successful business to devote myself full-time to Scotland’s cause eight years ago. Since then I have been involved in countless projects and travelled the length and breadth of Scotland talking to hundreds if not thousands of people – mostly at my own expense.
I first joined the SNP at the age of twelve and have worked in some capacity for numerous election campaigns as well as being a branch office-bearer and delegate at conference and National Council.
If I now spend most of my time writing and campaigning on social media it is because I’m getting old and don’t enjoy the best of health. So I put in the effort where I can be most effective.
You know absolutely fuck all about me, fool. You’re just an ill-informed yelp who is best ignored.
LikeLike
Petra, I suspect it’s because they know only too well what is going on around them that they are ineffectual. The utter scale of the deception of Westminster and Whitehall is so overwhelming. That does not mean it should not be met with equal determination to succeed, take what it may.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you make a very valid point, Lorna. It’s the sheer scale of the thing that is daunting – perhaps to the point of paralysis. If that is the case, we have to ask what it will take to overcome that paralysis. If any claim there is no paralysis, ask them to list the actions the Scottish Government has taken in the last five years to take forward the cause of independence.
LikeLike
Oh well my reply to Peter Bell is in moderation now.
………………………………………..
”Petra, I suspect it’s because they know only too well what is going on around them that they are ineffectual.”
And could it be that some people, who have absolutely no idea of what people, such as Nicola Sturgeon actually knows, have just jumped to the conclusion that they are ”ineffectual”, Lorna?
As I’ve said already Lorna if this is the general opinion of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP on here we should all just stop wasting our time and forget it. Who wants to live in a country run by people (SNP, Tories, Libdems, Labour) who are clearly totally inadequate?
LikeLike
Let’s get to the heart of this: a massive con was played against Scotland by the English ruling elite and the establishments of both countries in 1707 despite the existence of an international document specifically contrary to that perspective. Had the UK been treated like this by the EU, I could understand Farage’s and Johnson’s and all the other Brexiteers’ determination to Leave the EU, but the EU has never behaved like this; the EU has abided by its own international treaties.
England, for England it was, at that time, decided that the British ‘back door’ – Scotland – should be slammed shut and bolted against Continental incursion, real or imagined (think refugees travelling through Europe and EU migrants today, rather than military invasion, and how Scotland’s remaining in the EU without rUK might be viewed through the English ruling elite’s eyes). Then, as now, the world order was changing and England wanted to be part of the change and to stay on top through its colonies and imperial expansion. Then, as now, Scotland was seen as a source of human resources for both England’s expanding empire (an expected American alliance today for which Scots will be sacrificed) and as military fodder in alliance wars. Then, as now, Scotland was seen as a source of expanded revenue (no, don’t laugh, Stockholm Syndrome sufferers, it was). Then, as now, Scotland was seen as the final frontier in mainland England – yes, England, not the UK, not Britain, England, just as the Tory (and British Nationalist) One Nation will see us as the northernmost region.
No oil was foreseen, no huge source, for England, of future water and energy needs, so, if anything, today, we are even more vital, and the fact that we are a national weapons silo and defunct weapons dump go a long way to explaining the present obsession with keeping us bound hand and foot. It is time that we stopped using phrases such as ‘British Nationalists’ when what we are patently referring to here are English Nationalists like Mr Leonard, Adam Tomkins and all the other big mouths who shout the odds about Scottish independence as if it were an affront to right-thinking English people. It is f*****g not; it is the normal state of affairs for almost every other country in the world. It is normal.
Since that 2014 vote, when three-quarters of all rUK residents in Scotland voted against independence, making it an ethnic and colonial vote, for that was what it was, we have had EVEL and we have had Brexit, both driven from south of the border. For every one rUK voter in Scotland who either voted YES, three voted NO. Think about that. Think about what it says. If either Richard Leonard or Adam Tomkins stood on their hind legs and stated that they support an independent Scotland because that is the right of all Scots, old and new, Scottish, rUK, EU or foreign born, then I would applaud them. I cannot applaud them for their English Nationalism because this is what this situation is now distilling down into: a NI divide, not on sectarian lines, but on the age-old lines of English imperialism versus Scottish survivalism. We should know that English/British imperialism has rarely left any occupied country without leaving a time-bomb spoiler. This, I think will be the end game, and it will determine whether our future generations are Scottish with input from various different cultures, or residents of the northernmost part of an England, itself an outpost of a fading imperialist America.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Then, as now, Scotland was seen as the final frontier in mainland England – yes, England, not the UK, not Britain, England, just as the Tory (and British Nationalist) One Nation will see us as the northernmost region.”
Boris calls himself a One nation Conservative.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed, and he means that the One Nation will be England, the rest of us subsumed. That is its real meaning, not some happy-clappy, airy-fairy ordure about all being one big, happy family. It will be the final chapter in a thousand year history of trying to ward off English aggression. Because so many refuse to see that or are shocked at the implications which state that England’s ruling elite would do this to us, assisted, it has to be said, by many of the English population, both up here and down there, they are paralyzed by their own lack of reality comprehension and unwilling to take the steps necessary now to end the Union. Think about it: respect and familial sharing must be at least a two-way process. When have we seen any of that – ever, really? All the effort has been on our part to compromise, to find a solution to a problem not created by us, to save England from itself. The time has come to save ourselves because you really have to hold contempt for, and have a sense of superiority over, a people whom you refuse to respect or compromise with. For 312 years, we have been subjected to the most blatant abuse of power and of our rights as partners in a Union, supposedly equal. It has become a joke – and not a very funny one, at that. I do believe they would destroy us as Scots finally, and subsume us into a Greater England, if they can. Every page of British imperialist, colonialist history tells us that; it also tells us that we have a contingent of lickspittles who will help them in that endeavour. When people waken up enough to understand that all their fine sentiments were not nothing, it will be too late.
LikeLike
My reply to Peter Bell’s post at 15:29pm has been removed altogether now. Gagged? Really disappointed in you taking such action, Peter. Not everyone ”out here” agrees with you, you know. As you dole out your critique of others it seems that you can’t take it. Not too happy with certain ”facts” being posted either?
LikeLike
I wouldn’t necessarily attribute to Peter what could be explained by dumb machine intelligence.
My [limited] experience of him is that he prefers to leave something he disagrees with in place, so that he can reply with some abuse. So I think it is just as likely that you have used some word which is banned by whatever web platform he is using..
LikeLike
Spot on. My post went into moderation (which I could still see) and then when I checked later it was gone. It’s “returned” and the reply from Mr Bell is abusive. In fact he sounds like a real angry man.
LikeLike
Petra: I won’t answer for Mr Bell, only for myself. I certainly do not believe for one moment that the SNP are buffoons, although I do believe they are utterly ineffectual on Brexit and independence, more so on independence. My point was that it is the sheer scale of the problem we must surmount that is starting to emerge that has the SNP on the ropes. I also believe that they have been got at by people around them, probably in Bute House or wherever the people who answer to London hang out. I have even wondered if they have been threatened personally, because it would not surprise me in the slightest. Something has happened to change the game. That has been evident for some time now, and I, like Mr Bell, also believe that the SNP hierarchy has no intention of bringing forward independence now or in the next ten years, if ever.
We are castigated for telling the truth. Personally, I have been saying since 2014 that the rUK vote was a dangerous precedent and was strong evidence of an anti Scottish streak emerging in Scotland from rUK quarters across the board, probably being pushed from the south. The SNP hierarchy, instead of challenging that rUK vote (Scots-born Yes-ers outvoted Scots-born NO-ers by a margin of around 5%) chose, instead, to placate it, nay, to encourage it, by pandering to it and telling them that they had every right to vote as they pleased. No one ever disputed that; what I always disputed was the free ride they got afterwards, the fact that they were never challenged as they should have been for such an anti Scottish vote (if almost 50% of a population votes for independence, any vote that is three-quarters of the total rUK opposition must, by any logic and reasoning, be an ethnic one, a colonial one). I would never claim that there are not rUK voters who are as strongly Scottish and in favour of independence as I am, but that does not alter the fact that too many are not. It is why they are not that we must examine and tease out, something that has never been done.
I have no doubt that the SNP did not want to appear to be questioning rUK voters’ right to vote NO, that they were frightened of being accused of being anti English and racist – which is really ironic, when you realize that they have been accused of being so anyway in spite of all their happy-clappy pandering. If we can condemn the Tories for their heartless policies, we can condemn rUK NO voters for their vote, just as we condemn Scotland’s British Nationalists for theirs, and point out that being against independence is tantamount to being against democracy and the UN Charter, not to mention Scottish sensibilities. I think what will happen next is that Scottish party leaders and MSPs, Scottish leaders of all the main organs of Scottish life will be replaced, gradually, by either English migrants or extreme Scottish lickspittles as Holyrood is starved of funds or bribe attempts are made.
If I sound like a Brexiteer, I would remind you that this is what happened in NI way before the Troubles and way before the establishment of the Irish Free State, in fact, but along sectarian lines, and the Catholic population there was kept out of power, out of civic sharing with the best jobs going to the Scottish and English descendants of the Protestant settlers, in the main, as economically, the Catholics and even some poor Protestants were kept down. Contrast that with Eire, where Protestants, many of them Anglo-Irish, held many of the top jobs and many of the Dail’s seats, and filled Dublin University. They suffered no discrimination because they were Irish first and supported the Free State, many also supporting a republic and Irish unification. Therein lies our real, at the heart dilemma: if we do not achieve independence very soon, we will become the northernmost region of England post Brexit; if we wait another ten years, it will be too late to do anything to alter our fate. We are a mere five+ million as opposed to 55 million. The question is: do we have the cojones for it? The British/English Nationalist parties believe not, and they will push until some hothead does something stupid. Civil disobedience, yes, defiance, calling on all Scots, new and old and EU and foreign-born, to come with us, yes, crowd-funding for a case in the international courts to resile the Treaty, yes. Violence and threats, NO. Let’s do this, but let’s do it legally and correctly and let the independent nations of the world know, without hesitation, that the Scots are coming to join them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I totally agree with some of what you say Lorna and do share some of your fears, such as rUK NO voters and had a great deal to say about that at the time, however I don’t agree for one minute that Nicola Sturgeon has been “got at” or “is on the ropes.” On the otherhand I reckon that some KEY so-called Independence supporters have been “got at” either through threats or more so bribes. And before you dive in Mr Bell I’m not referring to you. All I can say is that I’m sure that we’ll be voting in an Independence referendum next year Lorna and we’ll win it.
You say that you’re castigated for telling the truth, Lorna, but it’s the “truth” as you see it. Just your opinion as I have mine. Time will tell who got it right and who got it wrong and thankfully we won’t have to wait too long to get to the bottom of that.
Meanwhile it’s absolutely crucial to prove that a majority of Sovereign of Scots actually want independence before you can say resile the Treaty, so to my mind that’s what we should all be focusing on. Getting the numbers up.
LikeLike
” I, like Mr Bell, also believe that the SNP hierarchy has no intention of bringing forward independence now or in the next ten years, if ever.”
I’ve commented several times on several blogs and in The National, that we cannot depend on the SNP to lead us to independence, that it needs to be taken out of their hands, and that someone else from the independence movement needs to take over. A national convention needs to be called to give the people of Scotland the opportunity to themselves resile the Treaty and the Act, and to appeal to the UN to uphold our right to be a normal state.
LikeLike
Don’t get upset Petra. It is Mr Bell’s blog site. I went off in a huff with Mike Small of Bella Caledonia a while back, because I felt that he had not understood what I was saying, but he was kind enough, at a later date, to let me back on for a few comments to clear the matter up.
LikeLike
Ooops Lorna I meant to say that 75% of rUK voters voted NO in 2014, and they probably account for a large proportion of the 28% to 30% of voters that we’ll never be able to shift, however 48% of Scots born individuals voted NO too as did around 57% of EU nationals (on my iPad so don’t have the exact figures to hand). The EU national vote will no doubt rise in our favour, so it’s Scots born, (plus whoever else we have to convince), in particular the elderly. that we should be targetting starting with highlighting the potential attack on our SNHS. The SNP will be sending out their Independence prospectus to every household in Scotland (around 2.5 million when the Brexit position is clarified) and hopefully a million WBB’s will be distributed along with WGD’s Ginger book. It would be great too, extremely helpful, if a site like this was also used, IMO, to enlighten the masses.
LikeLike
Petra, September 22, 2019 at 23:26: “so it’s Scots born, (plus whoever else we have to convince), in particular the elderly. that we should be targetting”
It’s easier than that, it is Don’t Knows and Nos. Origin or age doesn’t come into it.
LikeLike
No comments or replies have been removed. Stop lying.
LikeLike
You’ve got a real winning way with you Peter. NOT.
LikeLike
“[The Scottish Government] continue to suppose that there is a path to independence abiding by the rules made by the British state… They persist in imagining that there must be a route to independence which avoids … confrontation with the British establishment. This is all delusion. And it is delusion which threatens to be fatal to Scotland’s cause.”
Yup. This I feel was the speech (an abbreviated version) whose time had come for detailed articulation and recitation in Salmond Square on Saturday.
All the happy-clappy in the world and the associated clinical delusions of the Nicola moonies isn’t going to alter the erosion of the SNP leadership’s credibility if it continues with this unsustainable and humiliating policy of ad nauseam entreaties to our masters for “permission’ to hold a vote in our own damn country.
I fear Sturgeon is approaching a tipping point where the goodwill and trust of the People will be begin to be shed like snaw aff a dyke. Three points major stress points:
1. Their avowed policy that they will not act without an S30 (i,e,, without out masters blessing).
2. The rejection implicit in 1., of the inalienable right of the sovereign people of Scotland to determine their destiny.
3. The GRA, apparently NOT shelved, and According to @LBGTiScotland ScotGov’s intent made clear on Saturday by a Scottish Govt Cabinet Minister:
“Let me be absolutely clear that the Scottish Government will legislate for gender recognition to international best practice.”
“Trans women are women.
Trans men are men.
Non-binary people exist.”
S.A. Somerville speaking at Dundee Pride on Saturday
Whether you agree with the assertions articulated by Somerville or not, this imperious approach and ill considered statement worthy of Marie Antoinette, is certain to alienate and scare the bejeezus out of (according to the polls) a majority of women. For many women and a large number of men, this is a deal-breaker in their relationship with and fealty toward the #SNP.
As for the splenetic self-entitled whinging of оптик and Petra… Guy’s, go author your own blogs. Say your piece. Let your arguments compete in the marketplace of ideas. No one owes you one inch on *their* platform to spout what they consider *your* pish.
LikeLike
What I attempted to articulate in that speech used to be very much a minority view. For a long time I was, if not a lone voice, certainly one of very few who were expression grave misgivings about the SNP’s approach to the constitutional issue. I have nothing more than anecdotal evidence for this, but my sense is that these misgivings are now widely enough shared that it is the voices of blinkered, naive complacency which are the minority. If they are not yet in the minority, they inevitably will be. Because the concerns about inaction on the part of the Scottish government will only grow as time passes and the promises of action fail to translate into anything tangible. People like оптик and Petra are two years and more behind the times.
Petra, in particular, seems to be one of those people who are prepared to let personal prejudice fill the yawning gaps in their knowledge. Note, for example how she dismisses me as no more than a keyboard warrior despite being totally, proudly ignorant of the facts. And how, when the facts are presented to her, she rejects them in favour of the conclusion drawn from dumb prejudice. It is not difficult to understand how such a person can remain stupidly complacent in the face of a reality they simply can’t recognise because it doesn’t fit with their preconceived notions.
Part of Petra’s ignorance relates to the fact that I used to be one of those who worked hard at defending the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon. I have been in a place similar to where she is now. But, not being a bigot, I am obliged to adjust my views in accordance, not with personal prejudice, but with observable reality. When circumstances change, myviews change accordingly.
The first two “stress points” that you identify are, to my mind, the essential ones. Because they relate directly to the constitutional question. I have, to date, almost completely avoided the GRA issue. Not that I am silly enough to suppose it to be irrelevant, but because it is a matter of policy – and I have long maintained that it is utter folly to let policy issues impinge on the independence campaign. Policy issues are dealt with in elections. Referendums are, by definition, single issue affairs. One of the lessons that should have been learned from the 2014 referendum is that loading the campaign with policies will drag it down and cost it momentum.
One of the reasons I wanted the new referendum to be held in September last year was that it was readily foreseeable that they Scottish Government was going to hit some serious bumps. You just don’t get to be in government as long as the SNP has without stumbling. Especially when you have the entire apparatus of the British state trying to trip you up. The Named Person measure should have served as a warning. If an issue controversial enough to cause serious divisions didn’t arise during the normal course of business, the British politicians squatting in the Scottish Parliament would, with the aid of the British media, create such an issue out of whatever was to hand.
I absolutely understand why some people are finding it problematic separating the GRA issue from the constitutional issue. The non-SNP part of the Yes movement had learned well the importance of making a clear distinction between the SNP’s dual roles as the party of government and the de facto political arm of the independence cause. The GRA issue threatens to undo much of that progress. But, if it hadn’t been GRA, it would have been something else. The longer the party delayed action to address the constitutional question the greater the risk that the Scottish Government would become embroiled in a policy debate acrimonious enough to have a deleterious impact on the SNP in its role as the party of independence.
The situation is not yet irretrievable. But a combination of factors mean it will soon become very close to being so. It is quite extraordinary how well the Yes movement has held together and maintained its focus over a period of five years in which our political leaders have not taken the independence cause forward in any meaningful way. But the cracks will start to show as frustration with endless delay and prevarication turns to anger at wasted time and missed opportunities. Then there is the not insignificant matter of what the British establishment is doing – and will do – while Nicola Sturgeon waits to see what they will do. Even if we can’t be sure of precisely what the British will do, we can be absolutely certain that it will be such as to make constitutional reform more difficult and to lock Scotland into the kind of Union that serves the ambitions of ‘One Nation’ British Nationalists.
The naively complacent individuals who bleat about any criticism of the SNP will never address questions about the consequences of delay. For the simple reason that they have never considered those consequences. If my own experience is any guide, for the most part they are incapable of considering those consequences. There is a curious phenomenon, which I have noted more and more over recent weeks and months, whereby the advocates of indefinite delay seem to completely abandon any concept of time. They talk as if nothing will change while they put off taking actions. Nothing, at least, that might affect progress towards restoring Scotland’s independence. Their fantasy politics depends, for example, on the British state doing nothing to counter the threat to their procious Union. This goes way beyond mere naivety into the realms of dangerous delusion.
We cannot afford to indulge that kind of fantasy politics. We cannot afford to be guided by delusional notions of how politics works. We cannot afford to delay action to address the constitutional issue. We cannot afford to be distracted by policy issues or to allow the campaign to be burdened with policy issues. We cannot afford delay – especially given that, no matter how long we delay, we end up at the same place. But we arrive at that point of confrontation with the British state weakened by a hesitancy which has allowed our opponents to grow stronger. That difference in relative power will determine Scotland’s fate.
LikeLike
It seems that the SNP have adopted a British ( i.e. English) vision in their attempts to stop a No Deal Brexit. I think the case against prorogation of the English parliament of the UK is another manifestation of that. Joanna Cherry in an interview even referred to the sovereignty of parliament, thus giving credence to English constitutional law being applied to Scotland. The English parliament is not sovereign in Scotland. The People of Scotland are sovereign in Scotland!
It seems to me that during prorogation would be an ideal time for the Scottish Parliament to act to resile the Treaty and revoke the Act, but no! The SNP is focused on asserting the sovereignty the English parliament over Scotland.
I’ve given up on the SNP leaders. The may speak and shout about independence and make idle threats in speeches in the House of Commons, but they have adopted a British ( i.e. English) vision.
LikeLike
“…however 48% of Scots born individuals voted NO too as did around 57% of EU nationals…” Yes, Petra, you have the figures. We, the YES voters of Scottish descent, actually won the vote by around 5%. Granted, that is not huge, but around the same as the Leave vote, and does show that indigenous Scots do want independence, and this is precisely what I am trying to show. I wish it had been a lot more, but we should not interfere now with what has been the accepted democratic standard for referendums in this UK. The crux of there matter is that the indigenous Scots voted for independence and others, not born here, denied them that opportunity. That, Petra is naked, outrageous colonialism and imperialism. I’m sorry if I shock people’s fine sensibilities, but that is the fact of the matter, and the UN Charter specifically frowns upon this type of action by non-indigenous people cancelling out self-determination for indigenous people. Look at it from the personal, Petra: someone could come along and move into your house, say a lodger, and he then starts to lay down the law about how you are to conduct your life, forcing you into a situation where you have little or no say and assuming the right to speak on your behalf. Would you be happy about that on a personal level? If not, why should you be happy about it on a political and social level? To challenge the rUK NO vote is not racism; it is the only sensible way to go, just as we challenge parties’ policies which we see as detrimental to our well-being. Basically, what the SNP, the YES movement have done is to give priority to what people who may have been in Scotland only a couple of years want over those who have campaigned their whole lives for independence. It is a shocking and disgraceful slap in the face, and wholly unnecessary.
Fifty-seven per cent of EU nationals did not equate to almost 75% of rUK residents. Also, although we had fairly up-to-date figures for EU migrants, records being kept, the rUK population was based on out-of-date figures from the 2011 Census, and was very probably much higher than the 400,000 deemed to be living in Scotland in 2011, as well as in 2014. Extrapolation shows that it was rUK NO voters who scuppered the referendum, not any group of indigenous Scots (and, remember, that a large proportion of those rUK voters were also be elderly, middle-class, property-owning, Tory-voting retirees in a far greater number than their Scottish indigenous counterparts). I know it is anathema to say so, but that is the reality of the 2014 NO vote, coupled with all the lies, cheating, dark money, media bias, Vows, royal interventions, etc., much of that from the south, and a pattern begins to emerge. The same sort of things happened in Ireland, especially in the North, and we can see clearly now how stupid it is to allow alienation of indigenous people to take place, as the UN Charter emphasizes. The Irish Free State did not make that mistake, being inclusive of its Protestant and Anglo-Irish populations without handing them power free gratis. It is the British who are responsible for the divide in NI, no one else. We must avoid the same thing through ethnic politics, but I can see already that the SNP has made glaring mistakes on this issue, to the detriment of Scotland and of independence. Yes, all that is my opinion, backed by study and facts and extrapolations, Petra. You are entitled to do the same, and believe what you want, but, please, do not accuse me or Mr Bell or the thousands of others who can see what is coming (and even we differ in our outlooks) of being unloyal, just because you can’t or won’t.
LikeLike