It hardly need be said that I concur with everything Craig Murray says about devolution being a trap. It is a point I have been making for some years. Particularly potent is his depiction of a self-sustaining cycle of corruption that can only worsen over time. Much of that corruption is low-level and might even be considered trivial. This doesn’t lessen the problem, however, but rather allows the corruption to become ever more embedded and ingrained as it fails to attract attention. Until it does!
Perhaps now people will understand the reason for my futile and almost totally unsupported campaign for a referendum in 2018. I cannot claim to have foreseen specifically what would unfold. But it was clear as early as 2015/16 that the SNP would ‘go wrong’. All organisations do if they are not managed well. I had previously calculated that September 2018 was the earliest we could have a new independence referendum. With Brexit looming, this became the deadline.
It was useful to be able to argue that a referendum should be held no later than September 2018 due to the constitutional implications of Brexit as this meant I didn’t have to say much about my conviction that the SNP would eventually ‘go wrong’. That would not have gone down well at all. Besides, the Brexit argument was sufficient. It was clear to some of us that the process of taking the UK out of the EU would create opportunities for the British state to ‘roll back’ devolution and tighten its grip on Scotland. Unfortunately, I was correct in this. As we now see.
I was also right about the fate of the SNP, even if I made no public statement of my concerns ‘back then’. The party has ‘gone wrong’ in ways and to an extent that not even I imagined possible. Which may make it surprising that where I somewhat part company with Craig is when he talks of “writing off the SNP”. It is perfectly understandable that this is what many people would like to do. The idea of a fresh start – the tabula rasa – is always appealing. But caution is required. The SNP is the party of government. It will not be possible to restore independence absent the active participation of the Scottish Government. As things stand, the SNP will be the party of government for at least another three years and very probably another eight. Which gives rise to two questions.
Can we ‘write off’ the SNP without also writing off the Scottish Government?
Can we afford to wait even three years?
In response to the first of these i would say that it is certainly possible to imagine ways in which the SNP/Scottish Government might be brought down. It is less easy to see a way to do this which is credible in the world outside imagination. And less easy still to see a way in which it could be done safely. That is to say, without serious risk of losing the Scottish Parliament to the British parties and/or some form of direct rule from London. The British are hardly short of ideas (or options) on this front.
Responding to the second question I can do no better than refer you to the recent kite-flying exercise by Lord Frost. Was it merely a kite-flying exercise? Or was it a statement of intent? Frost may have been talking a load of “baloney” even according to some of his Tory/BritNat colleagues. But can we afford to dismiss this threat? Can we afford to gamble on that threat not being real and imminent – as I would insist it has been since the UK-wide Leave vote in 2016?
Which brings me to a final question. If the threat to the Scottish Parliament is real and imminent and there is no sure and safe way to replace the SNP as the party of government before we are hit by what is threatened, what options remain to us?
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Peter A Bell 
It grieves me to say it, Peter, but the British State has to do nothing in order to destroy devolution. The SNP/Green coalition is making a good stab at that all by itself. It has made the wrong decision at every fundamental and crucial point since 2014. Nothing has worked to turn it away from self-conflagration or from undermining Scotland’s ability to stand up for itself. It is utterly bone-headed. The clique at the top are gradually distancing themselves from the mess they helped to create, but that will not work.
I understand what you are saying, and I agree that we might have to hang on to the SNP for another wee while yet, but, eventually, it will consume itself with its own lack of political strategy, tactics and nous. It is doubtful if there has ever been a time in Scotland’s long history when so few had the ability to lead. I have been trying to get across that the law is going to become more and more important in political decision-making, and should be considered a parallel track to independence in partnership with the political and constitutional.
The SNP/Green coalition simply does not have the requisite number of people of ability – albeit, there are some – to actually run a country efficiently. They seem to walk straight into every rabbit hole and every mantrap, so often laid by themselves. In their efforts to embrace ‘progressive’ policies, they have introduced more and more regressive ones, and their decisions reflect an immaturity that is scary. They are not behaving like grown-up adults, but more like people whose synapses have not joined up yet.
I am not saying that some good things have come from them, because they have, but, overall, the 2014 to 2023 administration has been a disaster for independence, and has blighted our cause. Grown men and women with political nous and guile do not embrace causes that are lost before they begin. They put aside childish things and understand that the world is even more than fifty shades of grey, not black and white. The SNP/Greens have not learned that lesson, so they will remain in the kindergarten. I really do wish we could save them, but I am not hopeful in the least because, like recalcitrant toddlers, they scream and kick their heels harder each day, seemingly unable to break out of their cycle of ultra left dead ends, the ultra left never having been, at any time, a friend to ordinary people, but always a force for disruption and undermining.
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Well it was clear to everyone with abpolitical/Scottish interest that Bexit and the powers and funding of the EU would be grabbed by Westminster/England.
But as to the trap of Devolution…prior to the 1979 Act the SNP was not supportive of Devolution the thinking was it would divert us from the cause of Independence…how true that strategy was in retrospect. Devo has diverted us into splitting policies. There was also at that time a cohort in the snp who felt the same about standing for Council elections….especially after 1968 when the diverse spectrum of left right could not hold the centre and we were wiped out. Sad to say I was in the opposite cohort believing we should fight every election. In all of this angst in finding a path to independence I dont see any alternative to Revoking the Treaty of Union and asking the UNs recognition. We must embarrass England into serious separation negotiations…being invisible in world politics won’t do it. That’s what the English want…hence Cleverly ban on our use of Embassies. Now if world attention and opprobrium of neo colonialist England doesn’t work….well we have lost nothing …we stagger on as a semi devolved nation without a state. But know only the Irish route to indy will succeed. Will we then see English tanks rumbling along Princes Street? Not a chance….the English are too thirled to their idea they are good guys….international opinion is paramount to the National Ego.
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We really are between a rock and a hard place in terms of political representation.
The SNP leadership are simply not listening to either their own members, voters or the wider public. The continuity candidate at the leadership election is now First Minister … and he is doing exactly as he said he would. That is continuing on the same path as his predecessor with essentially the same cabinet of cronies surrounding him.
As for the Greens, their words and behaviour point simply to a combination of nutters and the grossly incompetent.
With the Holyrood election 3 years away Yousaf and pals politburo clearly do not feel any pressure to respond to the electorate as indicated by their bloody-minded determination to raise the (almost certainly doomed) GRRB/S35 ‘challenge’ and the continuing absence of absolutely any coherent plan for achieving the party’s supposed overarching mission.
The British see this and they become ever more emboldened at the sheer stupidity and the timidity of those that should be leading Scotland (out of the British Union).
There are no obvious solutions that I can see.
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Fair analysis. The ‘solution’ is mass action by the Yes movement. But there seems little hope of that. Bring four Yes activists together and there will be at least one the rest won’t talk to or work with. And all the time these same people who flatly refuse to have anything to do with one another will be pontificating on social media about the need for unity.
I had intended to write an article explaining the reasoning behind my wee jaunt to Embry yesterday (Thursday 20 April). I may still do so. But one of the main reasons was that I was asked to attend and speak by Sean Clerkin. Most readers will, I expect, be familiar with the name and the reputation that goes with it. I was certainly aware. I spoke at length with Sean prior to the event and was convinced he had a genuine intention to change tack on his campaigning – which to date many people had found objectionable to some degree.
I knew full well what the response would be with numerous people telling me they would have nothing to do with Mr Clerkin and ‘advising’ that I likewise shun him. But I had a point to prove. Sean was ‘launching’ a new banner with the words ‘END THE UNION’. Why would any independence campaign NOT want to be associated with that? I definitely did. But I also wanted to prove that I, at least, am not a hypocrite. I don’t plead for unity in one breath and then refuse to work with someone in the next. I attend marches organised by both Neil Mackay and Garry Kelly and Mandeep Singh knowing the antagonistic relationships that exist.
I will march behind ANYBODY who carries a banner saying ‘END THE UNION’. Because I am serious about ending the fucking Union. Too serious to be distracted by squabbles which relative to the goal of ending the Union are ALL petty.
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Clerkin’s ideas seem to involve waving banners, getting photoed and subsequently ridiculed. As far as I am aware his message came across as anti-English bigotry. Meanwhile people stop motorways by glueing themselves to gantries, and stop the Scottish parliament by shouting. That resulted in goverments making laws. Pensioners waving banners at Berwick is facille.
The idea of a general strike for Scottish independence, or even anyone glueing anything to anywhere about Scottish independence is absurd. The ideal has been gazumped by doddery old nit-wits who rrrealy like to own it, fully-fledged loonies, and SNP corporate politics. It’s getting as appealing as hugging a porcupine or donating to an SNP independence campaign.
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Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
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The only solution I can now see working in our lifetimes is the route that almost all other countries have taken to disentangle themselves from Perfidious Albion – international pressure in response to international action instigated by a Liberation Movement.
Most independent countries in the world have become independent in our lifetimes and they seldom achieve this using referendums and never by winning the consent of the colonial power.
Has Alf Baird not made it clear that Scotland is following a well-trodden path? We got devolution and an independence-supporting party became dominant. That dominant party then worked in collusion with the colonial power to maintain the status quo in exchange for limited power and a cushy lifestyle for themselves. The political party route to independence runs out of road and steam and a Liberation Movement emerges to secure independence through international law.
I believe a Liberation Movement containing 150,000 signatures is sufficient to start this action at the United Nations.
It can surely be proven that England (as the UK) sits as a permanent member of the UN Security Council whilst in breach of an International Treaty (The Treaty of Union), whilst acting as a colonial power over a neighbouring state and whilst denying the people of that state the right of self-determination – which is another breach of their UN commitments.
England (as rUK) will surely covet this permanent member staus more than little Scotland!?
Salvo/Liberation Scotland Movement and the Edinburgh Proclamation are the way forward. What are we waiting for?
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Yes Craig’s article is enlightening, especially to the layers and layers of troughers via NGO’s, Universities and other dubious bodies that are making a good living for doing virtually nothing but reinforcing the SNPs mantra, the web is vast and deep, and I was shocked when I imagined the sheer size of it.
Its going to be difficult to cut such a huge network of troughers used to money for nothing from the public purse, in my opinion the corruption is so vast that some of it will never see the light of day.
But it all begins with removing the gatekeepers in the SNP.
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I used to post in the Herald, usually the first post on an article at 4 a.m. having done my research on what was clearly going to be the latest attack on Indy, and during Indy Ref 1, Mon to Fri was countering the Unionist bias of everything, Sat was a curious blend, but even before the Sunday Herald came out for Indy it was favourable. And that’s when I was able to be critical and contemplative.
I remember posting that the SNP had gone from a party of protest, to being the party of opposition, to being the party of Government. And lo and behold, at that autumn conference on TV I heard Alex Salmond in his speech say that the SNP had gone from a party of protest, to being the party of opposition, to being the party of POWER.
That’s when I wondered if we were doomed.
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Peter.
You are adamant about not waiting three-years, and of course none of us wants to wait any longer than necessary, but you don’t list any viable options as a way around waiting the three-years.
Every one and their granny knows we need options, Scots are far too apathetic (we’re not the French) to be radical in approach, and they are brainwashed by the foreign media that broadcasts in Scotland into remaining mostly tacit.
Meanwhile.
The Keystone Cops aka Police Scotland have given Sturgeon and her clique ample time to hide or destroy any incriminating evidence, they even postponed a live investigation to allow their puppet (Yousaf) to be elected with the aid of the enemy of Scottish independence GCHQ.
“THE whistleblower who triggered a police probe into the SNP’s funding and finances says there should be an inquiry into how the force ‘dragged its feet’ in pursuing the case – while he became a hate figure.
He first lodged his complaint with police over two years ago, in late March, 2021 over how funds raised for a second independence referendum campaign had not been ringfenced and had been spent on other things without permission.
He says it was met with initial resistance before he had to lodge another with the police in January this year over what he believed was a lack of progress in the case.
In the meantime he says he was accused of being “a traitor to Scotland” and of trying to destroy the Humza Yousaf-led SNP.”
https://archive.md/2023.04.23-063427/https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23473019.snp-finances-whistleblower-calls-inquiry-police-response/#selection-1679.3-1707.125
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I could hardly have been clearer about the fact that our options are very limited. If the threat to the Scottish Parliament is real and imminent and there is no sure and safe way to replace the SNP as the party of government before we are hit by what is threatened, what options remain to us? The answer, as I have maintained all along, is that we have no option other than to throw everything we have into forcing the SNP/Scottish Government to act. What other option could there possibly be? Follow the logic!
Remember wen we put 100,000 people on the streets of Edinburgh? Imagine if instead of partying in Holyrood park those 100,000 people had surrounded the Scottish Parliament chanting in unison “We’re not asking! We’re demanding! End the Union! End it now!”.
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“Remember wen we put 100,000 people on the streets of Edinburgh? Imagine if instead of partying in Holyrood park those 100,000 people had surrounded the Scottish Parliament chanting in unison “We’re not asking! We’re demanding! End the Union! End it now!”.”
Peter.
We both know nothing would change if the above happened, the SPCB would instruct whoever’s duty it was to call the police, and after a bit of kettling by Police Scotland and several arrests, the majority of Scot would do as they are told and disband, the Britnat MSM which controls what we see and hear in the media would play the demo down.
Scots are not the French, Christ I wish we had half of their courage to stand up for ourselves and our country, but 300+ years of browbeating by a foreign country and their House Jocks, has left us timid and unsure.
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Don’t tell me what I know.
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Another referendum has been refused by Westminster, leaving a too long wait until a General Election will be held. Even if a majority of Scottish voters vote for independence then, Wesminster will both refuse to accept the result as valid, saying it must be a referendum to be legal (which they will continue to block), or they will specify a that a higher percentage of Yes votes is required. Whatever democratic method is used, won’t be good enough for the British State either.
Scotland needs to take a leaf out of other Nations playbooks, and say enough is enough. How many other Nations have required a Section 30? None. How many have held a referendum to leave? I can’t name any.
Most have had a majority parliamentary vote and told Westminster they were leaving, and most of them were not as physically ready as Scotland is to do so.
So what should Scotland do? Recall all the Scottish Westminster MP’s, hold a vote of all Scottish MP’s MSP’s all being the mandated elected representatives of the Scottish people. Hold a vote to end the Union, and ask for international recognition of the Scottish State. Just the same as others have done before
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#ManifestoForIndependence #ScottishUDI #EndTheUnion
It has all been set out for three years. It’s taking one helluva long time for people to catch on.
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