More of that soaring. Could we not have a surge once in a while just for a bit of variety? Maybe we could club together and buy The National a thesaurus. Do you know where you get if you keep on soaring? Nowhere! The vacuum of space. Lots of nothing. Which is quite apt. Because that’s precisely what this poll means. NOTHING!
Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp claims these polls have “changed the dynamic of the constitutional conversation and led to claims of panic in the Westminster cabinet”. There have certainly been plenty claims of panic afflicting the British political elite. But there has been precious little evidence of it. Those “high profile Tory visits to Scotland” as well as the defenestration of Jackson Carlaw are part of the scheme to shift power from the Scottish Parliament to the British state’s new colonial headquarters. No matter how some like to pretend it is evidence of panic among the Brits all I see is their customary inept manoeuvring.
What has changed about the “dynamic of the constitutional conversation”? Alyn Smith and others were claiming we’d “never been closer to independence” on the basis of polling support considerably lower than that indicated by recent research. By that reckoning we should have soared – or surged – past independence by now. I’m not sure where that would take us.
I do know where we are now. And we are in precisely the same place we were when the polls were at 54%. And 53%. And lower. Rising polls DO NOT signify progress towards the restoration of Scotland’s independence. Polls are neither sufficient to bring that about nor are they strictly necessary. Polls indicating an increase in support for independence tell us that there may have been an increase in support for independence. That is all they tell us. They tell us NOTHING about the status of the process by which independence will be restored.
There is no process! There is NOTHING in place or in prospect which might translate the 55% in the polls into 55% in an actual democratic vote. Right now, the polls could be at 60% or 70% and it would signify NOTHING for the actual realisation of our goal. Because right now there is NOTHING that connects that public support to that goal.
Only the SNP can create that connection. Only the SNP as a party and as an administration has the necessary effective political power. And the SNP declines to do it.
The clock is ticking. The deadline is only weeks away. And still all we get from the SNP is mixed messages about what will be in the party’s manifesto for the 2021 Holyrood election. Will there be a mention of a new referendum? Or will the constitutional issue be shelved until the pandemic and its aftermath are dealt with? In other words, indefinitely! We have heard the First Minister say both these things in recent weeks. Which is it to be?
And supposing there is mention of a new referendum, of what possible worth can that be if it turns out to be no more than a promise to send another begging letter for Boris Johnson to wipe his arse with? The Section 30 process to which Nicola Sturgeon remains inexplicably wedded DOES NOT connect that public support shown by the polls to the restoration of Scotland’s independence by way of a free and fair democratic plebiscite. IT DOES NOT!
The possibilities at the moment include only a process that won’t work or no process at all. Which adds up to NOTHING! And so it shall remain until the SNP embraces a Manifesto for Independence which sets out an actual process by which that 55% in the polls that don’t matter can be turned into 55% in the only poll that does. A referendum entirely made and managed in Scotland; authorised by the only Parliament with democratic legitimacy in Scotland; the only legitimate Government of Scotland having asserted the competence of that Parliament in all constitutional matters relating to Scotland and having proposed the dissolution of the Union subject to that referendum entirely made and managed in Scotland in which the sovereign people of Scotland make their choice between Scotland and the British state..
A Manifesto for Independence which opens with the formal renunciation of Section 30 process!
When we have that undertaking from the SNP and only when we have that undertaking will ‘soaring’ polls be worth getting excited about.
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Peter A Bell 
I’m not holding my breath. There will be no manifesto for independence for as long as this SNP government is in power.
It is clear to me now that Scottish independence will now be brought about only by extra parliamentary means. I do not know what these may be, but nothing the current administration does leads me to believe that it is playing anything but a very long game under the auspices of existing UK security structures, and perforce power and patronage.
I often used to say that the minute Scotland becomes independent, I will position myself against the new state – however well-intentioned and enlightened its principles of governance, however right-on and woke its government. The state is after all the state. New Zealand and Oz, amongst other former imperial possessions, have butchers’ aprons on their flags. Canadia has Madge on its money. India has an advanced civil service, class hierarchy and good English. What will we get I wonder …. apart from well educated departments of dirty tricks and disruption?
I once thought that I would live to see an independent Scotland. I no longer believe this.
Keep on banging the drum Peter!!
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apologies in advance for Slightly Off topic post.
I thought that this time I would just leave a copy of this comment here, where it may remain visible after PeterTheDeleter refuses to acknowledge it.
https://petewishart.wordpress.com/2020/08/19/the-peoples-action-on-section-30/comment-page-1/#comment-21391
“Firstly we would still require the UK to participate in a referendum to supply a ‘No’ case ”
Have you considered Peter that ‘requiring’ the British State to participate in the self determination of the Scottish Nation is in itself obviously a questionable proposition to anyone who actually believes in Self Determination?
“and we would further require them to recognise any result to secure a legal basis to the referendum and to have it internationally recognised. ”
Have you considered Peter that when the right of Self Determination is excercided by a Nation, it is explicitly NOT the case that that a legal basis is required to be recognised by the colonial state, and that in fact it is the norm for the Right of Self Determination to be recognised by the international community WITHOUT the recognition of the colonial state?
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I’m not too impressed with Peter Wishart these days!
In fact, I am not too much impressed with many senior figures within SNP right now.
Dunno what they are aiming for, or what they hope to achieve, but their do nothing approach is not doing anything for Scotland.
That comment above from MP Wishart is a#rather insulting, I’d say.
There will be no Independence with that mentality.
We begin to wonder if that is their real aim?
For that is how it can look, to many of us now.
SNP had better change course real fast, or the pro Independence voters will turn against them.
Not that they wish to, but we can’t keep giving them these votes, these majorities, these mandates, and keep getting nothing for it. Nothing but more Westminster imposed controls over Scotland.
It cannot continue like this.
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Just read the full Peter Wishart post…
this is the final paragraph……….
“I know that independence supporters are desperate to see their nation secure its rightful place in the community of nations and are looking for anything that might secure some sort of shortcut to achieving that. However, those of us elected to secure independence for our nation have a responsibility to detail reservations we may have on particular plans and proposals and highlight some of the difficulties that might emerge from pursuing certain actions. I’m afraid that your action does not provide a helpful way forward and presents just far too many risks. For those reasons I will not be contributing to your fund-raising appeal. ”
MP Wishart apparently fails to recognize, or understand, his reliance on Section 30 is exactly what he is accusing others of doing. And when other point out that folly, he goes in a huff!
And he himself is doing nothing to help us get Independence.
Any wonder some of us are a bit disappointed with SNP leadership at the moment.
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The assumption that only SNP politicians are able to judge what is advisable turns my stomach.
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Can you possibly explain why these remarks are a relevant response to mine?
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Indeed. My mistake. Sorry.
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