“Tories are reeling”: Are they?

In fact, just saying no to Scottish independence is going to be counter-productive in the longer term.

Wee Ginger Dug: Tories are reeling … here’s what indy side must do now

For Scotland’s cause, there is no “longer term”. The notion that we can just keep debating the constitutional issue for the next five or ten years and our time will surely come is naive nonsense. But not quite as naive or nonsensical as the fanciful idea that the British government – any British government – is going to buckle beneath the weight of public opinion and crack under a barrage of democratic dissent. Those who propound such whimsy totally fail to take account of how vital Scotland is to the British state and, perhaps even more importantly, to the conceit of a ‘Great Britain’ which is the cancerous core of British Nationalism.

We are not just fighting for independence. We are not merely fighting to end the grotesque constitutional anomaly and anti-democratic abomination that is the Union. This is an existential conflict. That is how the British ruling elite sees it. We too must regard it as such if Scotland is to be saved.

Time is not on our side. The British state’s resolve to preserve the Union does not erode as support for the restoration of Scotland’s independence increases. It hardens. It becomes calloused. Their determination is not diminished by ours. It is intensified. It is not the case that swelling public support for independence makes it more likely that the British government will agree to a referendum. Quite the contrary. The more probable it is that the people of Scotland would vote to end the Union the more vehemently the British establishment must fight to preserve it.

Even as support for independence rises in the polls so the British state is working to thwart any attempt to prise Scotland from Britannia’s jealous grasp. While the Scottish Government inexplicably and obdurately remains committed to working within the legal and constitutional framework constructed by the British to protect and preserve the Union, the British state is labouring to reinforce that framework. As the Scottish Government ineffectually protests, the apparatus of the British state busies itself with undermining Scotland’s democratic institutions.

Power is relative. As the British state strengthens the Union’s defences it also strives to weaken Scotland – reducing our ability to give effect to our democratic dissent. That process is only going one way. And regardless of all the speechifying and scribbling devoted to trying to convince us otherwise, it is not ours!

The British state is not going to make any concessions to Scotland’s aspirations. When the British political elite appears to be making concessions – or be about to make concessions – that is when we should be most wary of them. Some would have us bide our time in the hope of those concessions. Such hope is utterly, idiotically forlorn.

A Scotland which sees the results of Scottish elections being ignored and traduced by a Conservative Government in Westminster which doesn’t have majority support in Scotland is a Scotland that is going to conclude that it’s right to pursue independence.

Wee Ginger Dug: Tories are reeling … here’s what indy side must do now

I’ve been watching the results of Scottish elections being “ignored and traduced” by British governments in Westminster for all of the sixty years since I became politically aware. I concluded that Scotland’s independence must be restored at the very moment I became politically aware. And what is this about it being right to “pursue” independence? As has been amply demonstrated in my lifetime we can pursue independence indefinitely and never realise the ambition. It will always be just out of reach so long as the British state is afforded the authority to keep it out of reach.

Power is not given! Power is only ever taken. The authority claimed by the government and parliament we do not elect must be rejected by the government and parliament we do elect.

Bold, determined, assertive action is required if the process of depleting Scotland’s democratic power and diminishing Scotland’s identity as a nation is to be halted and reversed. Immediate, urgent action is required before the process of shifting power away from Scotland to the British state becomes irreversible.