I sympathise with many of the comments criticising Stephen Noon’s remarks regarding independence made during his appearance on the BBC’s Question Time. It is unfortunate, however, that the most important part of what he said is being overshadowed by the stuff about independence taking 10 to 20 years. Which is nonsense, of course. The notion that we can safely put off action on the constitutional issue even as much as 5 years assumes the British state will obligingly suspend its efforts to undermine the Scottish Government and delegitimise the Scottish Parliament; all with a view to locking Scotland into a ‘reformed’ Union that will actually be the realisation of the ‘Greater England’ project.
Things move a lot faster than Stephen Noon allows. Timeframes shrink. Next year’s Westminster election is crucial as it is all but certain to bring about the most rabidly British Nationalist UK government ever to hold the choke-chain around Scotland’s neck that is the Union. That government will consider itself to have a mandate to pull that choke-chain tight. It matters not at all which party form the next UK government, it will be bad news for Scotland. Stephen Noon’s promulgation of the lie that British Labour offers a “good” option for Scotland is irresponsible in the extreme.
He makes an important point, however, when he says “I want us to become independent in the best possible way”. He just doesn’t seem to have much idea what constitutes the best way. Even if it was credible that independence could be the end product of more powers being handed to the Scottish Parliament; and even if it was credible that more powers are likely to be handed to the Scottish Parliament, would this be the best way?
In my view, anything which allows the British state to say it willingly ‘granted’ our independence would be the worst way of achieving that goal. Think about the history that will be presented to future generations of Scottish citizens. Surely the preference would be that our children and grandchildren learn that Scotland’s independence was restored entirely by our own efforts.
Surely we would want them to be told a story that inspired pride. Is it not the case that one of the greatest difficulties facing the independence movement is the ‘colonised inferiorism’ that has been instilled in the people of Scotland over many generations.
Surely we would want this to end with independence. If that inculcated perception of Scotland as inadequate has been the bane of this nation, why would we perpetuate it by making the story of our liberation a tale of British beneficence rather than Scottish determination?
Peter A Bell 
We need to do it OUR way, not THEIR way.
The ex-SNP spin(eless) doctor, is clearly still trying to float the current party leadership’s objective of deferring the pursuit of Scotland’s Cause indefinitely.
He is either a
a) British infiltrator in the YES movement – Noon the Yoon?
or a
b) Seriously misguided YES supporter – Noon the Loon?
Take your pick … but either way his views run contrary to achieving the full restoration of Scotland’s self-government and independent statehood.
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Yes Duncanio, Noon does not understand what independence means or why it is necessary. He advocates more colonialism though remains ignorant of this.
But we have to remember these political ‘advisors’ are not intellectuals. They have ‘never undertaken a reasoned study of colonial society’ (Fanon).They still think Scotland is ‘some sort of aberration to the Imperial norm’ as the more privileged groups in Ireland and other former colonies once believed (Edward Said).
They think there is some kind of ‘union’ but forget that a true partner in a union should always be able to walk away when it is no longer in their interest. Scotland is being prevented from walking away, now also by a compromised national party ‘which seeks an accommodation with colonialism’ (Fanon).
Noon wants us to just sup it up and continue co-existing with a racially abusive dominant ‘partner’ stealing all our resources and destroying our culture, and our children’s future!
You ‘cannot compromise with colonialism, you can only break with it’ (Albert Memmi), otherwise a people perish. Postcolonial theory tells us that a colonised people are always in the process of perishing, as Peter implies in regard to the urgency of the matter.
Click to access The-Socio-Political-Determinants-of-Scottish-Independence.pdf
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It is obvious that the SNP are working overtime, sending out their messengers to tell us to wheechst again. With Noon and Wishart leading the charge to tell us there is no hurry to be Independent and maybe we should just accept more devolved powers.
The SNP fail to accept that despite their best efforts to undermine the Indy cause, support for Independence is holding up despite their own fall in the polls. It is looking more and more like Independence will have to be taken despite the SNP. They have to decide!
Time to put country before party before it’s too late.
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