With the utmost respect to Mary MacCallum Sullivan, she has responded to the mere mention of UDI in the formulation #ScottishUDI exactly as the colonising power hopes and intends. I mean no insult when I say her reaction is the result of conditioning. Which makes her no different from any of us. Just as the people of Scotland have been brought to a state of “colonised inferiorism” by more than three centuries of English/British propaganda, so we have been conditioned to regard UDI as something unthinkable. Only a few years ago I would have responded in much the same way. I only gradually and by a circuitous route came to the realisation that I had been wrong.
I’m not sure there was any moment of epiphany. It was more like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle coming together. Pieces provided by others – such as Professor Alf Baird – as well as pieces that were formed in my own mind by a process of questioning. Should I wish to embellish my tale by concocting a moment of epiphany I would spin a yarn in which I was suddenly inspired to ask myself who benefits from the concept of UDI being unthinkable. Who has something to gain from discouraging consideration of UDI? And if we are being conditioned to instantly reject all thoughts of UDI, what might be the motive?
In this fictionalised account, these questions arose from an attempt to find or compose a precise definition of UDI. (Which is true. I did make such an attempt. I just can’t testify that these things happened in quite the manner or order that would make for a good screenplay.) What I found was that every explanation of UDI I encountered referenced Rhodesia as a prime or typical example of UDI. In fact, it seemed that the term had been coined specifically for that incident. By whom? Well! The British state, of course! The colonial power!
It’s a basic propaganda technique. Give something a name. Hang all manner of negative connotations on that name. Henceforth, apply the name to anything you want people to think of in terms of those negative associations. The word ‘nationalism’ is a good example. Although the term has been somewhat rehabilitated thanks to the Scottish (nationalist) independence movement, you will still find a lot of people who unthinkingly associate nationalism with Hitler and the Nazis. Who benefits from this? Who has something to fear from nationalist movements? Who else but the imperialist and colonialist powers! It is very convenient for them that the very name by which a campaign to break their power is properly known is a term from which people tend to recoil.
In thinking about my own of definition of UDI, I assumed we would all be pretty much on the same page as regards the ‘independence’ part. As for ‘declaration’, well, there would have to be a declaration in every case, wouldn’t there? Otherwise, how would anybody know it had happened? Duh!
What about ‘unilateral’? Think about it! Who, other than the nation in question, has the right or authority to declare said nation’s independence? Nobody! All declarations of independence are unilateral! They can’t be anything else!
You have to admit that this was quite brilliant. The British took a form of words that is benign to the point of being vacuous and made of it something akin to a vile profanity. They made UDI unthinkable. Now we must ask why. Why would the ruling elites of England-as-Britain for whom the Union is ‘precious’, want to make UDI something we must not think about and dare not discuss? What do they have to fear from us openly considering some form of UDI? Could it be that the concept of UDI held some value for Scotland’s cause?
From there, it is but a short step to the idea of #ScottishUDI. Which is to say, a form of UDI specifically tailored to Scotland’s constitutional circumstances and therefore, as duncanio points out in another comment, bearing absolutely no resemblance to Rhodesian UDI. As he correctly states, #ScottishUDI may be regarded as the “antithesis” of the thing we have been conditioned to think of as soon as we hear or read the term UDI. In fact, it is because it aligns so well with the concepts of ‘Scotland as colony’ and ‘Liberation’ that #ScottishUDI deserves to be considered as part of the new thinking on the constitutional issue.
I thank Mary MacCallum Sullivan for her interest. It would be gratifying to suppose that her article might encourage more people to at least look at #ScottishUDI. It would be more gratifying still if what I have written on the subject were to prompt further discussion of the constitutional issue from a perspective informed by this new thinking. Surely everyone can agree that the old thinking has failed us.
Peter A Bell 
Superb ! Peter.
I have always said UDI for Scotland.
As falling into the English state trap of , what is it?
They require to be included in the debate.
Always a big mistake to allow the English state dialogue , as they are experts at obfuscation.
In addition to division and sculduggery
On their many platforms, including the media.
As if we ever need a response from a foreign power, a colonising power.
The response being , permission from a colonising power.
No thanks .
Scottish UDI has to be absolute.
And what of the excuse , we would never be recognised by the international community.
Well! Look at the international community
In the face of mass slaughter , a genocide, a holocaust.
Before our very eyes .
Allowing an illegal colonising force , to wreak their vengeance on innocent men, women , children babies, hospitals, schools, cutting off electricity, food medicines water.
For me Scottish UDI is the only way .
It’s quick ,precise and final .
I don’t see nationalism , especially Scottish nationalism, being akin to
Nazi’s.
It certainly is not fascism.
But we see fascism on the rise across Europe, Scandinavia the US , and engerland, more totalitarianism.
Yet the English state Europe and the US
Support the far right and left Zionist ideologies in addition to religious extremes .
My new year will have me out with my UDI banner regardless.
This farce has to end.
I notice English parliamentarians are now making legislation without parliamentary scrutiny.
The English state is in disarray, one of the best times to attack.
You put the case for UDI so logically.
Well done
🐼🐼🏴🏴Onwards and upwards
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I absolutely agree with you, Peter and have said the same, many times. Not so eloquently as you, but it meant the same thing.. UDI is NOT the boogy man that unionists try desperately to suggest it is. But then… they have their own agenda. We WILL have to declare our Independence, however we do it. And it will be done unilaterally, so… however, we do Independence, it’s going to involve a form of UDI. As you say… it has negative connotations. I guess it’s up to Scots to make it clear that, au contraire, it’s a very POSITIVE thing. Thank you – an excellent article.
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Great response Peter.
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Ireland got its independence through a UDI – the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. The patriots didn’t ask for England’s permission to declare a Republic!
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The easiest insult to deliver is to misspell their name….
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Not just the easiest but the worst. Which is why my normal practice is to check the spelling of names and even copy/paste so as to avoid mistakes. Not sure what happened this time.
PS – Now I know how it happened. I did copy and paste the name. Unfortunately, I copied a misspelt version from a comment rather than an instance from the article.
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I obviously missed that one….my sister doesn’t need looking after, so there!
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there needs a lot to be done on the how of udi.
who is going to do it
how do we persuade companies to pay their scottish tax revenue to a scottish treasury when HMRC would fine them if they don’t pay it to them
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That’s what we have civil servants and lawyers for. If you sweat every detail, you’ll never change anything. Sometimes, you just have to go for it, confident in your ability to deal with whatever arises. Because no matter how long or how hard you fret over it, you’ll never think of everything.
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who is going to organise all this
not the SNP who are comfortable where they are
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Nobody. Unless we force them. The SNP is the party of government and will be for the whole of the critical period. It should be easy to work out the priorities from there. All the more astounding, therefore, that so many people appear quite incapable of doing so. They will realise their mistake only when it is too late. They will realise then what I mean when I say that if you’ve given up on the SNP, you’ve given up on independence.
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