What if that other voice we all know so well responds by saying, 'We say no, and we are the state'? Well, we say yes ─ and we are the people. Canon Kenyon Wright (Scottish Constitutional Convention, 1989) There will almost certainly be a referendum in 2023. Failing that, the SNP proposes to declare the … Continue reading The People Say Yes!
If you are considering the matter of how the Yes campaign in a new independence referendum should be managed, I wouldn't bother reading the article in today's Sunday National which purports to address that very question. If, however, you're wondering what a desert of imagination looks like then the responses to the question from "senior … Continue reading Do we need a new Yes Scotland?
Richard Walker isn't angry. And he doesn't want you to be angry, either. At least, not so as anybody would know. It's understandable that you might be angry. Your anger is justified. But if you want to be accepted as a genuine independence activist then you must not let that anger show. Inwardly, you may … Continue reading Are you angry yet?
Now may well be "the time for us here in Scotland to start getting mobilised for an independence referendum", as Mhairi Black says. Some might say this mobilisation is long overdue. Nonetheless, it would be great if we were at last gearing up for an independence referendum. It would be great if there was an … Continue reading We are not robots!
I sense a change of mood in what used to be the Yes movement before it was 'improved' in the way software developers 'improve' their products until they become unusable. I doubt if anyone thought it would be a good idea to turn a mass democratic movement into a ramshackle assortment of squabbling factions. But … Continue reading Reading the room
Why Scotland's next White Paper must do more to involve other parties And there we have the problem. It is simply assumed that because there was a White Paper for the 2014 referendum we must have one for the next referendum. No stopping to consider whether this is appropriate or advisable in the light of … Continue reading Unforgiveable folly!
If, as Ruth Wishart persuasively opines, Scotland's cause depends on "a massive communal effort on behalf of the Yes family" then I fear Scotland's cause is lost. Ruth refers to "real politik" [sic] and her analysis is steeped in that - until it comes to the conclusion. I see a lot of this. An argument … Continue reading Moving people
That Toni Giugliano is an idiot has already been established. But it seems that his earlier remarks fomenting division in the independence movement by defining exclusive and excluded categories was not as I had supposed an utterance born of careless idiocy, but a statement of quite deliberate idiocy. In this report from The Sunday National, … Continue reading By invitation only
Contrary to an assertion made in an exchange on Facebook, it is surpassingly easy to "judge the idea of Alba". Once you rid yourself of the fantasy politics and deal with the reality, that is. It's only clinging to the fantasy that prevents someone seeing that reality. And, perhaps more importantly, recognising and accepting the … Continue reading A mire of fantasy
Gerry Hassan's column in The National today offers an interesting analysis of the relationship between the SNP and the wider independence movement as he tries to answer the question posed in the headline, How do we resolve tensions between SNP and the wider Yes movement? It's an issue I've addressed repeatedly over the last few … Continue reading The meeting point
Peter A Bell 