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The elephant in the courtroom

Posted on April 12, 2018 by

In one way or another, a lot of politics is being played out in courts at the moment. Whether it’s Spain trying to crush the Catalonian independence movement, America frantically trying to impeach its President before he does something REALLY crazy or the UK trying to redefine the most basic of human freedoms out of existence without ever putting an act before Parliament, judges are having as much say as ministers in deciding the future shape of Western civilisation.

Of the most direct interest to Scotland, of course, are the UK government’s attempts to trample all over the 20-year-old devolution settlement.

The urgency of the situation, with Brexit now less than a year away, has driven the Yes movement into one of its occasional paroxysms of dispute about when a second independence referendum should be attempted, with SNP MP Pete Wishart attracting some overheated opprobrium by warning against acting in haste, and in the process serving up a juicy gift-wrapped opportunity for Unionists and a news-starved media.

But the furore masks a key issue that the Yes movement – and more crucially, the Scottish Government – has failed to address for the last three years, and which it’s really going to have to deal with at some point.

Scottish voters consistently say in opinion polls that they think the holding of any more referendums should be a matter for the Scottish Government, not the UK government, to decide – even though most of them still oppose independence and also say they don’t want another indyref in the near future. The current Scottish Parliament has both an electoral mandate and a democratic mandate to call another vote.

There’s only one problem – it doesn’t, at least not in any indisputable sense, have the actual power. And that raises one huge, crucial question:

What if the UK government just says “Now is not the time” forever?

Because there’s very little discernible downside for Westminster in doing so. What’s Scotland going to do about it, elect the SNP again? Elect Labour? LOL, as the young people say. The worst-case scenario for any UK Prime Minister is that they end up with what they’ve already got now – the SNP dominant in Scotland but unable to achieve anything in the House Of Commons against the vast suffocating mass of English MPs.

(And if Labour did somehow win in Scotland, better yet for a UK PM, of either stripe. That way Scotland’s MPs won’t even bother trying to stand up for Scotland, because they’ll be the obedient servants of UK Labour. The Feeble Fifty will ride again.)

The matter of whether a referendum is within the devolved powers of Holyrood has in fact never been settled. There is extensive learned legal opinion on both sides, and the Edinburgh Agreement of 2012 merely avoided answering the question by kicking it down the road and hoping that events would make it go away.

Any referendum attempted without the consent of the UK government would therefore almost certainly find itself in the courts for a long spell of lawyer-enriching wrangling, because any citizen could challenge it even if the UK government itself did not.

So if the UK government simply elects to continue to ignore the democratic wishes of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish people, the Scottish Government – and more pertinently the SNP – will find itself in a tricky pickle.

Nicola Sturgeon’s current position is unenviably awkward, caught between conflicting strands of public opinion (“no more referendums” vs “Holyrood should have the power to decide”) and the impatience of her own supporters to go back to the polls before the referendum mandate expires in 2021, with few people currently believing that another pro-independence majority will come out of the Scottish election that year.

Barring a UK government change of heart – which seems a long shot to put it mildly – there’s only one Alexandrian sword she can possibly wield to cut through this knot: the courts will have to decide.

So here’s the only way we can see through the problem: the Scottish Government has to bite the bullet and legislate for a second independence referendum now.

It doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t, put a date on it. It just has to pass some sort of bill announcing its intention, any form of preparation that unarguably sets out on the path. The opponents of independence cannot allow that to go unchallenged or they lose the argument by default, so it’ll go to court. And then, after some time passes, we’ll know where we stand one way or the other, once and for all.

Politically it’s unlikely to be a very popular move, but with over three years until any scheduled general elections there’ll never be a better time to swallow that unpleasant medicine. Other than that it costs nothing – if the Scottish Government loses the case, it’ll be no worse off than it is in practice now.

And the longer they wait to start, the more academic the point becomes. It’s a fat lot of good winning the theoretical power for Holyrood to call a referendum if you haven’t got the votes to pass the bill any more. We cannot afford to lose sight of how hard a pro-indy majority at Holyrood is to actually achieve and how lucky we are to have one now.

Because make no mistake, time is running out in all sorts of ways. The clock is ticking on the mandate. The clock is ticking on Brexit. Independence won’t be easy to win in 2019 or 2020, but it’ll be a hundred times harder in 2022 or 2025 – even if by some miracle there’s still a Holyrood majority.

If we let this chance slip past, it’s very difficult to see how another could arrive in less than 20 years. What event could possibly be more seismic than Brexit to justify it, if Brexit doesn’t? (Barring WW3, which would make it a moot point.) And if we’re talking about 2040 then what happens now makes no difference.

As we watch events in Catalonia with horror, we cannot afford to simply sit passively and put our trust in the UK government to play fair if we ask nicely enough. A peaceful, democratic, legal route is open to us. We have to get on that bus and get on our way before the service is cancelled forever.

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RogueCoder

Excellent. I’ve been musing this thorny problem (and having many online debates about this) for some time. My most recent interactions with the learned Mr Tickell led me to a similar conclusion, but its good to see it articulated in such a skilled manner as above.

Share the heck out of this article, folks!

Macart

@RogueCoder

Consider it already shared. 🙂

mogabee

Taking that route would at least focus minds one way or another.

If we just sit waiting as now, more infighting will do irreparable damage. So let’s push for this at minimum or for some direction from the FM.

heedtracker

Come on Scots gov. We’ve nothing to lose but our tory masters, in another country.

Breastplate

Well said Rev, also a referendum should be considered an obligation to democracy rather than some sort of privilege.

HandandShrimp

His call that this is “no big deal” is a brave one*.

*Sir Humphrey Appleby.

Bob Mack

I totally agree Stu. Last night we were discussing the attempt to create the new Act of Union by Westminster, which would be based solely on a UK majority referendum. This Act is not that far away from being presented to Parliament

In other words ,even if the vote in Scotland was against this ,the rest of the UK if voting to agree would lock us in permanently to the UK . No matter what we decided in Scotland.
Same old same old.

We must not have a vote on those terms. We must choose by ourselves for ourselves, before that proposal comes to fruition.

Marc Rich

I fear this is indeed the best way to go.

Whitehall are so unlikely to say ok, off you go, try again. It is not in their interest to do so.

The SNP are reluctant to pick a fight with the UK Gov on the fact that the letter the First minister wrote was never replied to.

But at the moment the UK Gov are calling our bluff.

Asking isnt going to do it.

Legal challenge, conflict, is the only language Whitehall, Westminster and the Tory party understand.

David McCann

Way to go!

Flower of Scotland

This is a good piece from Stuart. The YES movement is anxiously waiting on some word of a new referendum from senior SNP folk. Differences in opinion as to an actual date is keeping things going but we need something more substantial from the Scottish Government.

Theresa May saying “now is not the time” is not acceptable. We are waiting for the Scottish Government to give us a new timetable.

schrodingers cat

i think we would be better to wait for jan 19 to start this process, ie launch indyref2 then, but hold back on announcing a date,

either way, this is a better discussion to have, focusing on the actual date of indyref2, misses the important issue of the process required, legal, political etc, just to get to the point where we can hold one.

could we summarise the options as, announce the launch of indyref2

1. today
2. sept 18
3. after A50 bill is voted on, about jan19

If we are talking about launching indyref2 and not about fixing a date, I cant see any reason to wait any longer than jan19?

DeepFriedPenguin

I have been voting for the SNP since the early 80’s. My view then and I think it was everyone’s view (including Thatcher), was that a vote for the SNP was a vote for Independence.

I can’t remember any talk of referendums, a simple majority of votes at a G.E. would be enough for the Independence negotiations to begin.

I see no reason why we can’t return to this “fundamentalist” viewpoint. It may require the current leadership to stand down in the event of another failed referendum or failure to call one, but the idea we can’t campaign and fight for Independence without a “material change of circumstances” is wrong in my opinion.

Peter A Bell

Incredible! Another commentator looks at the issue of the timing of a new independence referendum, observes the fact that the clock is ticking on the mandate and that the clock is ticking on Brexit, but fails to even mention anything that the British government is likely to do besides drag Scotland out of the EU against the will of the Scottish people. As I wrote elsewhere,

“It’s as if, in the scenarios they consider, the British government ceases to exist. The British political elite is simply disregarded. The British state’s pressing imperative to lock Scotland into a ‘reformed’ Union is just ignored. The ongoing ‘One Nation’ British Nationalist project isn’t a factor. It doesn’t figure in the Postponers’ calculations when they’re considering timing of the new referendum. (Note to Biblical scholars: Give me a break, eh! It’s a nice image.)”

link to peterabell.blog

heedtracker

May not be an issue for much longer. Always fretted UKOK red and blue tories would destroy us all sooner or later. Vote NO Thanks vile sep Scots, UKOK Trident keeps you safe.

link to dailystar.co.uk

Theresa May prepared to use nuclear weapons against Russia
PRIME Minister Theresa May is prepared to use nuclear weapons if Britain went to war with Russia.

Bill McDermott

This doesn’t in any way negate the need for Yes DIY to get up to speed. A mass movement of grassroots activism will drive the Scottish Government and Parliament to do the necessary to secure the legislation to enact a referendum.

manandboy

What’s the hold up? It’s beginning to look like we’re afraid.

Nigel

Perfect analysis – totally agree.

I always thought that NS was painting the SNP and ScotGov into a corner on this issue and time is running through our fingers like sand – time we cannot pick up ever again.

By holding back, we are handing cards back to the UkGov when we could have had it over a barrel.

I must admit, the court route is not ideal, but something, somehow has to be done soon or I won’t see Indy in my lifetime.

Bugger (the Panda)

12 April, 2018 at 12:38 pm

Marc Rich says

Legal challenge or conflict is how most UK colonies have gained their independence, most by the latter

[…] Wings Over Scotland The elephant in the courtroom One way or another, a lot of politics is being played out in courts at the moment. […]

Bugger (the Panda)

Turning now to Syria.

Could that not be the tinderbox?

Capella

Apparently, Westminster is referring the Scottish Government’s Continuity Bill to the Supreme Court. They would obviously refer any Referendum Bill to the Supreme Court.

Looks to me that they have already broken the Treaty of Union in so many ways that it’s pointless to carry on participating in the farce that is Westminster. They are not called “Perfidious Albion” for nothing.

So yes, let’s legislate and start campaigning to bring about Independence.

Ian Brotherhood

I’m lobbin in ma tuppenceworth now then fekkin off to clean the oven because this place will be covered in hair and snotterrs before tea-time…

If we don’t have a referendum date carved in stone before Brexit then we’ll never ever get another one. Cameron had the luxury of ‘believing’ that ‘No’ would win in 2014, so signing the Edinburgh Agreement wasn’t a big deal for him. May, however, daren’t even ponder another close-run thing so ‘Now Is Not The Time’ will be her default position for whatever time she has left.

I’m with Peter Bell on this, and echo his call for Sep this year. Yes, it seems too ‘soon’, too ‘near’, and I understand the caution of Wishart et al but this is no longer a constitutional matter – it’s existential.

Bob Mack

@Rev Stu,

I know you mention Mundell, but he and his challenge is not the main issue. The real problem is the proposed new Act of Union. That is happening as we write.

That would destroy all hope of peaceful means to independence.

The British establishment have been concocting this behind the scenes and it is a real threat should it be rolled out before a new indy referendum date.

Breastplate

Rev, as you say the clock is ticking on our mandate to have a referendum and it has to be used but we definitely do not need to have excuses to have any future referendums.

Like Deep Fried Penguin says we don’t need caveats to have our independence referendums only a mandate to do so, that is enough none of this double lock or triple lock nonsense that it seems to have morphed into.

Ottomanboi

Another wellknown blogger has written that the SNP needs to realise that Scottish independence is a revolutionary act. It will not be granted free of charge by the British state it will be resisted by every means at that state’s disposal. Effectively by employing every conceived resource in the arsenal.
I am truly stunned by how naïve some Scottish nationalists are. They appear to have an idolatrous faith in the rule of law but whose law are they genufecting before?
In the end there will be a showdown. We must have the leaders in charge who are wised-up and prepared for that.

schrodingers cat

Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
12 April, 2018 at 12:51 pm
“i think we would be better to wait for jan 19 to start this process, ie launch indyref2 then, but hold back on announcing a date,”

I think a pretty conservative estimate for the legal wrangling would be two years. So delaying for another nine months makes the calendar very challenging.
———————

i dont know enough about the legal process to comment, it would be good if the peat worrier could do an article.

if 2 years is a fair estimate then the 9 months would be critical.

btw, i used jan 19 as an estimate as to when WM will finally vote on the A50 bill. point being is if nicola puts indyref2 back on the table and WM stops brexit, she will need to take it back off the table, less indyref2, more hokey cokey.

then again, maybe we should risk it?, recent comments from labour it looks like corbyn will vote for the bill, cant really see what choice he has.

Joemcg

There has already been a test case with the Supreme Court in London over ruling the SG over article 50. We are fucked.

Robert Louis

Excellent article. Well said.

This is the point, at some time Scotland WILL HAVE to assert its democratic rights. Westminster only ever takes, it does not give – and certainly not to Scotland. They will do whatsoever they please, until such time the ScotGov take affirmative action.

Once the issue is nailed, then either a referendum will be held, or, in the unlikely event the pretend ‘supreme’ court in London, England, tells Scotland ‘it can’t’, then the SNP should stand at the next election on a clear cut mandate either for independence (and stop piddling around with referenda), or the assertion of FULL executive powers.

The union is NOT and never has been unbreakable – indeed Westminster has done so many time. It is an international treaty, and may be ended unilaterally by either of the two signatory parties.

At the end of the day, however, the reality in all of this, is that Westminster only has the powers it has because it says it does. Its power does not come handed from some deity. In essence, it does whatsoever it likes. Within that same context then, it is hard to argue that only the Scottish parliament has to abide by the ‘rules’. If the rules do not apply to Westminster then they cannot be held as enforceable in Holyrood either. In such circumstances, the Scottish Government may also choose to do whatsoever it pleases, because in the end, what would London do? Send in the army? arrest the Scottish Government? Westminster is a cesspit, but it is not Fascist Madrid.

Either way, it is clearly time for action. Appeasement and compromise are spent, and have proved pointless. That window of opportunity is gone – and we need to hear no more of it from NS. Finished.

As a first step we need every member of the SNP Government to start making the case for independence – and start attending the indy marches (with a few honourable exceptions like Joanna Cherry and a few others). Time for all those MP’s, MSP’ and councillors who get our votes to start doing rather than just saying. Time to do it NOW, or their endless procrastination may never be forgiven.

We, the indy supporters, are ready and waiting, so get on with it.

Dennis Nicholson

Yep. Absolutely. Totally. Wings nails it again…

Monica Worley

Why not put a date on it? Or something saying ‘on or about March 1, 2019’? I think the Yes people, including me, would like some idea of a goal to aim for.

Robert Louis

Ian brotherhood at 1258pm,

Yip. Agree with every word, bar the oven cleaning bit.

schrodingers cat

If we don’t have a referendum date carved in stone before Brexit then we’ll never ever get another one

—————–

ian, if we have a legal pronouncement to hold indyref2, before 29/03/19

then surely we we can hold it on a date after the 29th?

Muscleguy

@Mr Panda buggerer
NZ, Australia and Canada achieved increasing independence by simply passing parliamentary bills breaking links. NZ and Oz created an Australasian Supreme Court then broke finally with appeals to the Privy Council in London for eg.

Some of them were with London’t agreement (lower admin costs for London) or were seen as natural as the Dominions created legal etc capacity, expertise and infrastructure.

Somewhat ironically if Scotland had Dominion status we could have legislated our independence into existence. Hell if we had Crown Possession status like Man or Jersey we could have done it too. Please Sis Theresa please throw us in the constitutional briar patch.

Blair Paterson

I also believe that if the SNP got a majority of,votes that was the mandate for independence no referendum required I mean every one new the reason the SNP were founded was to bring back independence to Scotland so anyone who votes for them is voting for that .,why they did not implement this when they had the 56 MPs is a mystery to me I fear we have to many faint hearts in the SNP just now they have the mandate but refuse to act they seem to believe all the phoney polls And just keep on playing by the rules that are there to keep us enslaved please SNP live up to your founding principles and act on them now

David Smith@@@

Agreed@ Ottomanboy

Anybody who thinks we’re going to achieve our right to self determination by being nice about it is in for a very ducking rude awakening very soon.
And you think Rajoy’s reaction to Catalonian Normalism is brutal..?

Frank Lynch

I don’t know how true this is, but I heard this morning that Rees-Mogg, Scottish and English Tory MPs and assorted Labour and Lib-DumDums, will be raising amendments to the constitution to make Scotland reflect the set up in Spain postBrexit. Power will be devolved directly to their satrap Mundell; Scotland’s parliament will be a mere regional debating society, and any referendums will be deemed illegal unless expressly created by Westmonster. Maybe we should have Indyref2 asap, because if we hold one without England’s say-so, expect Scottish heads to be broken on the way to the polling booth by agents of the English state just like Catalonia.

HandandShrimp

I’m still of the view that we need to see what Oct 18 brings in order for the manifesto pledge to call a referendum if faced with a significant change in circumstances to be activated. The inability for Davies to nail anything down has muddied those waters delaying the inevitable but they have to empty the pail soon.

I think we have to move quickly after Oct 18. I would lean to a May 19 vote (earlier is feasible but winter votes are hostages to fortune weather wise) but between now and Oct the Scottish Government needs to get its ducks in a row. Consideration needs to be given to our own currency and quite probably a period of EFTA membership pending. The latter would I think be acceptable to both Remainers and Leavers as breathing space.

Yes, the British State may move in devious ways but if we go off at half cock against a threat that is difficult to articulate in the 2 minute soundbites that TV allows then we will lose the vote and quite possibly get stitched up like kippers as a result.

I appreciate that not everyone agrees on strategy but that is the case with every campaign from politics to choosing the right football squad. I am happy to consider other positions.

Jack collatin

Or we could follow the DUP lead and threaten violence if we don’t get what we want. GCHQ,I’m hypothesising here, get off my case.
There’s a lot going to happen, specifically in October 2018, when according to the Article 50 timetable, the Brexit negotiations will have been finalised, ready to be presented at WM and set before the parliaments of EU27 for sign off and approval, for implementation in April 2019.

There is no solution to the Open Border issue between Norn Irn and the Republic. The ‘backstop’ is an open border between the North and South, with a hard border somewhere in the Irish Sea.
Arlene has already spat out as many teeth as she can afford rejecting the notion that ‘British’ Norn irn citizens would be subject to immigration and customs checks at Cairnryan, Holyhead or ‘Mainland’ UK airports.
It is the classic immovable object/irresistible force conundrum.
Let’s not forget Gibraltar.
Let’s not forget the EU’s red lines. Nothing agreed until everything’s agreed.
No cherry picking. It’s either a Customs Union, Single Market, Freedom of Movement, ECJ jurisdiction, or No Deal.
Scotland is small beer in their Bigger Picture.
Mundell is a pointless waste of a Carbon Footprint.
London will barnstorm through legislation that forbids any sort of Independence Referendum. They’ll make sure that the Law Lords are hand picked for the job.
Stu knows that, so is, in his own convoluted way, arguing that we couldn’t win a Referendum this year or the next anyway, so we sit back, let the Judicial Review run its inevitable Pro WM course, and hope that Scot’s public opinion will sway towards Independence when Brexit bites and Eurmageddon unfolds between April 2019, and December 2020.
Fuck that for a game of soldiers.
They already have a ‘Reform Group’ rewriting the UK Constitution, which is designed to crush devolution, remove Scotland’s sovereignty, and introduce an Upper House at Holyrood of WM MPs from all over the UK.

Why don’t they just cut off my cajones right now and be done with it?
I’d argue that there will be plenty of Brexit disasters over the next 12 months which will dramatically shift Scottish opinion; we are only a few percentage points short of victory as it stands.
If we wait until after Brexit is implemented in April 2019, then the 184,000 EU workers will be barred from voting in Indyref 2. Indeed the English Homeland Security may be deporting Scots based Furriners by the tens of thousands as a quick win/least harm to England’s economy option in a Spring’19 cull.
The Constitution Reform Group has already explicitly excluded 16- 17 year olds from voting in their Brave New UK, so it can be taken as read that Brexitland will not ‘allow’ Scots youngsters to vote in any future plebiscite, never mind an Independence Referendum.
I understand the ‘wait and see’ caution, but do not agree with it.
In 2040 I’ll be 97.
Are we really saying that in my seventh decade, I no longer have a dog in this fight?
We go now. Start a 12 month campaign, with ‘A’ Day sometime in March 2019.
Post April 2019, Scotland will be crushed.
I for one am not prepared to let that happen. Sorry, Stu.

Doug Daniel

This sudden flurry of arguments about the date bores me to tears, not least because the reality is Nicola Sturgeon has already stated when she’ll make her mind up about this – Autumn 2018 – but one thing I would point out is that the manifesto mandate that many people online are screaming about states “such as Scotland being taken out of the EU against our will.”

If that’s the basis of the mandate, then we don’t actually have it yet, because Scotland is still in the EU. Therefore, the earliest we can have a referendum based on that mandate is 29th March 2019.

(Unless, of course, a referendum is held this year and the question is “If the UK does leave the EU on the 29th March 2019, do you believe Scotland should become an independent country?”)

Robert J. Sutherland

schrodingers cat @ 12:39:

i think we would be better to wait for jan 19 to start this process […]

Err, no. There’s nothing, not even the uncertainties of Brexit, that justifies any delay on this fundamental issue. Finally getting onto the front foot again, like this time last year.

Such an attempt at clarification will no doubt itself provoke the necessary crisis that we all know has to come.

As someone recently said, what better time to challenge the UKGov than when it’s in the midst of the biggest guddle of the last half-century?

Normski

Pete: “We need to make sure the conditions are right”.
Chris: “Right, about 18 months time then”.
Keith: “Let’s man up and get this show on the road”.

I have no doubt there will still be those arguing over the date once it is patently clear to anybody with half a brain things are underway.

Don’t forget about the March for Independence on 5th May in Glasgow.

And if you are in the Central Scotland area there are two upcoming campaign workshops – one on the 27th May in Stirling and one in Dundee on June 3rd.

You will need to access these via your local Yes group.

[What do you mean you don’t know who your local Yes group is? Oh yeah, that’s right, you were too busy arguing over the date of the next #IndyRef on Twitter].

Ottomanboi

@BlairPaterson
The SNP government was not elected to administer,however competently, North Britain on behalf of the Raj.
This is a government that needs to grow fighting fangs and sharp claws.

X_Sticks

Can’t but agree with every word. I think we’ve got one last chance. Failing this Scotland won’t be cast aside until her natural reserves are gone.

Robert Louis

Doug Daniel,

the line about ‘taken out of the EU’, is cited as an example of a material change in circumstances. I think the fact Scotland is going to be forcibly removed from the EU, is a pretty huge material change in circumstances, whether we have actually been taken out of the EU yet or not.

S.Perspective

A good article. The counter argument is that the SG could just hold a consultative referendum if WM does not budge. On an island where politics are made on the basis of opinion polls, a yes would be hard to ignore. To prevent it, WM would have to decide whether it wants to sink to the moral lows of Rajoy.

There again, they probably wouldn’t care, as on so many fronts they already have.

Ruglonian

Thank you Stu for a succinct summary of what is an increasingly urgent matter.

If there’s not decisive action sharpish then the question of another SNP led Government in 2021 becomes an irrelevance, as they will have all the credibility of Labour if they allow the mandate to expire.
Folk don’t want to vote for parties they can’t trust.

Luigi

Ah the courts.

“We are the law!”. By all means, an excellent idea Rev, and one that must be tested – pronto. But remember our imperial masters are the ones who decide the law – talk about conflict of interest.

Well one solution if you really want to up the stakes is go the Catalonia way and ignore the imperial courts.

Of course, it means NS and others will end up in jail but for sure it would mean the end of the UK in due course. The precious union would never recover. How badly do people want independence? Most peoples have had to fight hard, break “laws”, loose jobs and suffer to win freedom.

Remember the once great Labour party was set up to defend their own, working class folk but sadly Labour politicians were not up to the job and decided to feather their own nests at the expense of the people. I would hate the SNP politicians to end up this way. Some seem to be getting comfy. However, they have a short shelf life if they think they, like Labour can sit on their remit for years (or decades).

When all else fails – go nuclear. A wee bit time to try different options, but in the cold light of day, it may come to this.

HandandShrimp

Talking about the Glasgow march in May, the Facebook going and interested is up at about 11,000 so it is likely to be a pretty big affair. Is Wings doing anything specific? I plan to head up on the train with our local SNP members but wondered if there was anything else planned?

heraldnomore

I’m with you there Doug, but remember “such as Scotland being taken out of the EU against our will” was given only as an example of what a major change in circumstances might be.

Might I suggest that the proposals coming forward from the CRG give another prime example of a major change in circumstances, and thus change the ball game, and the timing – if it ever gets close to formal discussions and proposed legislation.

The campaign will formally open when it formally opens. Meantime lets get the Yes Hubs open, the literature on the streets, the facts out there – and be ready for that starting gun to be fired. Needless to say Yes Hubs will not be under the auspices of any one party or group, but all groups working together.

Robert J. Sutherland

Doug Daniel @ 13:17,

You’re missing the crucial element here, Doug, which is that there will have to be a deal ready and waiting in the autumn of this year if Brexit is to proceed in March of next year. Unless there’s some kind of agreed postponement before that point it’s in effect a done deal then, it’s only a matter of time.

The fuse will be lit at the end of this year, and the delayed-action detonation will happen some months later. Once the first has happened, why on earth would we be stupid enough to hang around to get caught by the big bang?

mike cassidy

This was Nicola Sturgeon a year ago.

“Prime Minister Theresa May has rejected Sturgeon’s request for a legally binding vote on independence within two years. Sturgeon could ignore her and call a consultative vote, but she told The Associated Press in an interview that a new referendum “should be on the same basis as the last referendum in Scotland, which was by agreement and consensus.” “

link to archive.is

So both sides got to avoid the issue of sovereignty last time.

But as Stu says.

If ‘now is not the time’ is an ongoing stance, then agreement and consensus is as relevant as a Cliff Richard b-side to a teenager.

Sovereignty does become the issue.

So Judge Judy it is.

Luigi

Big question – which is the case:

A) A consultative ref can be held but the result can be challenged.

A) Even a consultative ref can be prevented by court action.

If it’s A, then we are on a winner – hold a ref and worry about implementing the result later. If it’s B then we have a bit of a problem. Still it looks bad for WM if a ref is prevented by legal challenge(s).

schrodingers cat

wm will strip holyroods powers, they have already started

as to the legal process, referendums cannot be illegal if they are not legally binding. this is the case at the moment. I cant see a mechanism to actually stop a referendum

i believe the legal process refers to getting a section 30 from WM,

Ian Brotherhood

@schrodingers cat (1.11) –

‘…if we have a legal pronouncement to hold indyref2, before 29/03/19

then surely we we can hold it on a date after the 29th?’

A legal pronouncement from whom? We currently have a Presiding Officer who is quite happy to assume legal incompetence of the SP without even consulting the Lord Advocate.

Don’t want to sound too fatalistic, so let me put it this way: we’re hog-tied but haven’t been hamstrung. Yet.

Eilidhsma

Brilliant article! I am with SNP because they said they would take us to Independence, but the reality is for many that we will go with whoever WILL get us Independence. Many think there will be a massive drop in membership of SNP if we don’t get our arses into gear. It’s also a fact that the British state have been working on making sure Scotland is a permanent fixture within UK since Sept 14. I don’t think May can handle a battle on two fronts, so Now is the best chance we will ever get.

“Now’s the day, and now’s the hour”

We’ll done Stu.

Macart

When do you call a referendum?

I get the cautious and some would say pragmatic, approach. You build your campaign, prepare your ground and engage your opponent when you can win. Sound strategy. No question. I’m a big believer in winning people over through gradual steps myself. Walking with, rather than dragging along.

Events however, can and do make a nonsense of the best laid plans and intentions. Not to mention your opponents may have made some plans of their own (see ATL). This, I’d say, is pretty much one of those times. Impending Brexit and the march of time on the length of this parliament are the deciding factors for me.

Brexit WILL be bad and when I say bad, I really mean financially and constitutionally, catastrophic for our population. If people think austerity ideology and Conservative government has made things rough for whole swathes of the population to date? If they’re a bit grumpy at the loss of services, loss of jobs, rising prices across the board right now? They’ll maybe need to rethink their definition of austerity if we’re still party to this nonsense when it is finalised.

Scotland’s population shouldn’t have to go through that. They didn’t vote for it. Too many will suffer.

So when do you go for it? When there’s a need and when you have the mandate to do so and I’d definitely say there is a need.

Craig P

DeepFriedPenguin says:

I have been voting for the SNP since the early 80’s. My view then and I think it was everyone’s view (including Thatcher), was that a vote for the SNP was a vote for Independence.

I can’t remember any talk of referendums, a simple majority of votes at a G.E. would be enough for the Independence negotiations to begin.

I see no reason why we can’t return to this “fundamentalist” viewpoint.

I expect we will end up here eventually once the referendum route is blocked. But to get there an attempt has at least to be made to hold a referendum.

Artyhetty

Great article, thanks.

I avoided discussions, and arguments on twitter about timing, no point feeding the Britnats. They have enough amunition at their disposal as it is.

So the Britnats at the top want to rewrite the act of union eh. Not bullies are they. The union is on a shoogly peg, so they are terrified, but does ‘union’ not need the consent of both parties involved. No, the colonial, bullying, arrogance of the English government and their hangers on at the HoLs, and elsewhere, will ride roughshod over any kind of democratic process to keep Scotland shackled. Siphoning away more of Scotland’s resources and wealth.

I am of the view that the Scottish government have the measure of things, they are not daft! Revealing your cards too soon is not a good idea. So, let’s see what happens in the next few months, keep countering the media lies and bias and sharing the positive policies and practices of the SNP at the moment. The Britnats absolutely hate the SNP government successes and are trying to silence the information of this going out to those less informed.

Avoid feeding the Britnats.
Peace to all.

Alan

Tracks with my assessment of the situation.

>
Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
12 April, 2018 at 1:27 pm

“If we don’t have a referendum date carved in stone before Brexit then we’ll never ever get another one.”

I basically agree with that, certainly in my likely lifetime. But we have a BIT more wiggle room than you imply – thanks to the Brexit transition period – and September this year is an absolute non-starter. Even if Theresa May gave us a Section 30 this afternoon that’d be a tight squeeze, and (SPOILER!) she’s not gonna.
>

The transition period is a very recent development. Barnier and Davis only agreed its terms a little less than a month ago. Up until that happened, a lot of speculation was taking place about what those terms would be.

Instead of a referendum 18 months after March 2017, I think we’ll see one 18 months after March 2019 – in September 2020.

Derick fae Yell

Perhaps I am unusually dim (possible!) but I still can’t see what relevance March 2019 has? The EU offers no protection whatsoever to the Scottish Parliament, so leaving it makes no difference at all. The Scottish Parliament is still devolved and Westminster can do what it wants, within the confines of Scottish public opinion.

Brexit is largely an irrelevance to the matter of Scottish independence, with the exception that if it happens then the old Project Fear (unusually for them, actually true)scare story that we’d be out of the EU on independence will become irrelevant, because we are out now anyway.

The current mandate is ‘such as’, not ‘is exactly like’. It’s a trigger, not a route map.

Assuming that the First Minister does, as she has said for the last year that she will, decide on whether to try for a referendum ‘when the terms of Brexit are known’, she’ll decide sometime between October 2018 and January 2019.

If the decision is to proceed, presumably she’ll renew the calls for a S30. I agree with the argument above that Westminster will not provide one. I’m not so sure that an unconsented referendum that would tie it up in the courts for years is the best next step. We’d risk being in court until well past the next Holyrood election.

The other alternative if a S30 is refused, is to put an unconditional statement in the 2021 Manifestos of the SNP, and ideally the Greens also. No ‘believes’, no ‘if’ this happens or that happens. ‘We will hold a referendum on Scottish Independence within the term of this Parliament’

If we can’t win a majority in a broadly proportional parliament on that, we won’t win a referendum. A point that Tommy Shepherd made recently, and which Pete Wishart has also made. I think we could win on that.

So we win a majority in 2021 and Westminster still refuses, what then?

Refusal on the grounds that only Westminster is Sovereign leads to the immediate and inevitable conclusion that only a majority of Scottish MPs elected in a Westminster election is a mandate for either a referendum, or a direct move to independence. 2022

There are multiple paths, all options are risky and there is no magic bullet, but we can and will win this, if we keep the heid. And are clever, and lucky. Easy.

Doug Daniel

“Might I suggest that the proposals coming forward from the CRG give another prime example of a major change in circumstances”

A “proposal” is not a change, so unfortunately not.

“You’re missing the crucial element here, Doug, which is that there will have to be a deal ready and waiting in the autumn of this year if Brexit is to proceed in March of next year”

Which could still be cancelled at the last minute, meaning no material change had taken place. Again, my point is those screaming “USE THE MANDATE!!!!” haven’t read the mandate properly.

“I think the fact Scotland is going to be forcibly removed from the EU, is a pretty huge material change in circumstances, whether we have actually been taken out of the EU yet or not.”

“going to be” is not “has been”. The mandate people are screaming about says nothing about a PROPOSED material change in circumstances.

Jack collatin

Perhaps we’ll all be charged with acts of terrorism if we go ahead without England’s permission?

Socrates MacSporran

I have always understood the situation as being: the Scottish Government has a democratic and parliamentary mandate to call an Independence referendum at a time of their choosing.

The intended time for making this call will be once the final agreement between the UK Government and the EU has been reached, and when that agreement goes to the other 27 national governments for ratification.

At that point, we SHOULD know the terms of Brexit and the SG could say to the people of Scotland is: “This is shite, because…… We need to be independent to avoid this shambles.”

Unfortunately, the UK Government has created such a shambles on top of the existing shambles, the SG’s mandate might run-out before the final deal is known and they can act.

The SG is now finding how difficult it is to negotiate and act when you are dealing with idiots such as the current UK Government.

Flower of Scotland

I’m with Peter Bell and Ian Brotherhood on this. We need a new referendum in September/October this year.

The Constitutional Reform Group is busy in the HOL creating a New Act Of Union.

The English MPs at Westminster outnumber all the devolved countries in the U.K. Scotland is the other half of the Union but we will not be given a say in our future.

The SNP have proved that they can run Scotland better than any other Unionist party, so just get on with a new referendum before we are locked into this godawful Union without a say.

Derick fae Yell

Alan – agreed.

If we have a referendum before the next Scottish Parliament election then September 2020 is a good shout, just on process. Maybe May 2020, but then we wouldn’t get the fine weather for the campaign. September 2019 probably wouldn’t leave time to get the Bill through the Scottish Parliament and leave time for the Campaign?

Ian Brotherhood

@Rev (1.27) –

‘…we have a BIT more wiggle room than you imply – thanks to the Brexit transition period – and September this year is an absolute non-starter. Even if Theresa May gave us a Section 30 this afternoon that’d be a tight squeeze, and (SPOILER!) she’s not gonna.’

Let’s accept no Section 30 from May (or her successor) as a given. That’s yer ‘Now Is Not The Time’ on permanent loop, and who could blame them? Why on earth should the so-called ‘transition period’ make any difference? Does anyone really believe that ‘transition period’ is anything other than a euphemism for ‘stay of execution’?

I know, I know, everything has to be viewed through a legal prism, no matter how complicated and frustrating it may be. My point is that Brexit-sparked chaos (whether next March or March ’21) will be used as the pretext for a new ‘UK’ constitution, and if there’s one thing we can bet on it’s that the input of the Scottish parliament will not be required.

No binding referendum on indy this year, aye, because WM/May won’t agree. Okay, I get that. But what we could do is have a referendum which affirms our committment to staying in Europe and gives WM fair warning – if hard Brexit goes ahead then we can and will organise indyref2 with or without WM’s ‘blessing’. Doesn’t that sound fair enough?

Flower of Scotland

@Doug Daniel

Material changes are not just Brexit. The UK Government have not honoured their promises to Scotland given during the last Referendum.

It’s not just about Brexit.

heedtracker

Flower of Scotland says:
12 April, 2018 at 1:58 pm
I’m with Peter Bell and Ian Brotherhood on this. We need a new referendum in September/October this year.

Then it has to be announced by end of May.

What about currency though?

Almost all of Project Fear 1.0 has turned out to be both flat out lies or what they threatened nation state Scotland with, has all happened in the last 3.5 years of UKOK austerity rule.

galamcennalath

Winning a YES vote may not necessarily mean independence. Certainly not if WM has its way. Timing is of the essence.

One obvious scenario is that we have ScotRef in 2020, WM won’t play ball, HolyRood2021 proceeds, then BritNats win a majority. Does anyone believe Indy will then happen?

I think we need to be well on our way to Independence long before May 2021!

18-24 months before May 2021 would seem the latest for a vote.

Our next Holyrood election must be to choose our first independent administration, and definitely not our last devolved one!

Brexit is the other time variable, but to a minimal extent. We will know little of the post transition arrangement prior to late 2020. (Barring EU negotiations collapse and crash out). WM will probably accept the currently available exit terms to get that transition period. We will know nothing of the final trading arrangements. The details we are likely to find out about Brexit before ScotRef are therefore already known.

Basically, by the time we know the future EU relationship, it will be too late.

t42

Whats the chance of a scottish gina miller trying to block it? Im trying to think of a docile loudmouth establishment puppet married into the banking aristocracy and calling themselves an “entepreneur” who might fit the bill.

Breastplate

I’ve always seen the SNP as an independence Party as I’m sure have many others. The only reason I’ve voted for them was for independence, not potholes not hospital waiting times not taxation.
To me, if the SNP don’t have independence front and centre, there is no point to them whatsoever, slowing down damage coming from Westminster instead of stopping it is a complete kick in the arse to the Scottish People.
I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this way of thinking.

Fred

With Peter Bell as well, this is no time to be treading water when there could be a tsunami coming. Another snap election could change everything. Pete Wishart take note!

Self-cleaning oven!

Nation Libre

It has to be stated at every opportunity the fact that Northern Ireland has the right to a border poll by obtaining a simple majority in the NI Assembly. Why not Scotland?

Secondly, if Westminster refuses a referendum voted for by the democratic process of a majority vote in the Scottish Parliament, we should then be stating that if that route is being denied us, the only option is the previous mandate of a majority of pro independence MPs at a Westminster GE

heedtracker

Indref2 must be called by May for Sept/Oct this year, assuming we’re still here. Word is, USA msm wise, its Orange Hitler that’s cooling our tory master’s jets of war. Its that mad in toryboy teamGB, 1818.

link to metro.co.uk

Sinky

We all need to step up the pressure on UK government regading their Power Grab and attempts to use Supreme Court to thrawr the democratic wish of the Scottish Parliament.

A good read here from Iain Macwhirter

link to iainmacwhirter.wordpress.com

and a timely response to the nonsence spounted in Herald this morning by John McKee

link to heraldscotland.com

heedtracker

t42 says:
12 April, 2018 at 2:09 pm
Whats the chance of a scottish gina miller trying to block it? Im trying to think of a docile loudmouth establishment puppet married into the banking aristocracy and calling themselves an “entrepreneur” who might fit the bill.

link to twitter.com

Flower of Scotland

Westminster has already taken power away from the Scottish Parliament when the outrageous Supreme Court was established.

Both Kingdoms have their own legal systems and this Supreme Court has just been accepted by Scottish Governments because they were Unionist at the time.

NOW IS THE TIME before any more powers are taken away. We have to stand up for ourselves.

Ian Brotherhood

@Heedtracker –

‘What about currency though?’

🙂

Heedy, ye’re such a card, can never be sure when you’re just having a laugh.

Currency?

What about it?

Right now, in Scotland, people are paying for everyday necessities with fivers bearing a portrait of Winston fuckin Churchill.

Breastplate

Heedtracker,
The currency is going to be Sterling for a transitional period.
Transitional period would depend on circumstances unknown yet but the currency immediately after a Yes vote will be Sterling.
If someone has a better idea, I’d like to hear it.

heedtracker

Right now, in Scotland, people are paying for everyday necessities with fivers bearing a portrait of Winston fuckin Churchill.

I am a card Ian.

Its just that, I spent a lot of 18th Sept 2014 watching BBC 24 ref1 coverage and they had on a Herald SLab apparatchik colomonist, ex Lord Darling “adviser,” can’t mind her name, and this nice and tearfully frightened Scottish lady sat in front of beeb gimps all day, hamming like a Rada queen, “Alex Salmond can’t even tell us what money will be in our puir wee Scoattish purses tomorrow, so of course I am BetterTogether.”

That’s the level beeb gimp zone were prepared to stoop to 2014. And beeb gimpery knows no depths.

What was that SLab ham’s name again? Her son got a nepotism boost up the Treasury greasy pole not long after too, surely not because of her oscar winning acting on the grand ole beeb gimp network?

Spikethedee

Publish (not sure if that’s the correct term) and pass a Holyrood Bill setting a date for Referendum before end of the next SG Election. Petition EU to allow Scotland to remain in EU if the result is Independence and we are still in transition period at the time.

Robert J. Sutherland

I can’t help but think that there seems to be two entirely different schools of thought here on how to proceed, though some disguise their basic motives rather well.

Some follow the SG line that with the “material change of circumstances” of Brexit we have a legitimate reason and mandate for a timely second referendum in order to allow the people of Scotland to decide something as fundamental as that for ourselves, not be dragged into it by a remote government we didn’t elect against our clearly-expressed majority will. For them a referendum must take place before spring of next year, before it’s too late to make any difference.

The other view is that Brexit is nothing more than a bothersome inconvenience because some yes-voters (for whatever reason) voted “leave”, and those in this school of thought are anxious that not all of these folk would therefore vote “yes” a second time around. (Even though nothing material in the indy case has actually changed since.) So they prefer to allow the UK to have its – and our – Brexit in the hope that, having had their minority way, all the yes-leavers will somehow happily return to the fold and be willing to vote “yes” again. (And never mind all those disillusioned Remainers who already were, or could have been, won over to Yes, plus all the hundred-thousand-odd EU citizens who will be automatically disenfranchised by April next year.)

For this school, Brexit isn’t an immediate opportunity at all but a mere nuisance that just has to be seen through first, with the hope that the likely ensuing economic difficulties will eventually change more minds. Hence their typical constant urge to delay, delay.

heedtracker

Breastplate says:
12 April, 2018 at 2:29 pm
Heedtracker,
The currency is going to be Sterling for a transitional period.
Transitional period would depend on circumstances unknown yet but the currency immediately after a Yes vote will be Sterling.
If someone has a better idea, I’d like to hear it.

So what happens when tory Chancellor Hammond does exact same as what Chancellor Gideon Osborne did, flies up to Edinburgh, press conference, “Scotland will not be allowed to use our sterling,” good lunch, fast jet back to No.11 for tiffin?

Ian Brotherhood

@Heedtracker –

Okay, the pound it is, the pound it is, and we should just pound that intae abody’s heid – pound, pound, pound – each and every time it’s raised.

££££££££££££££££££££

And then we say, okay, dry yer eyes missus, please stop sniffing so we can get on with the discussion we were having.

RogueCoder

Apologies for OT and gratuitous link to a fundraiser (I already posted a comment on the article), but we’re at 68% for oor wee postcard campaign debunking the Tory “highest taxed part of the UK” BS, with Colin Dunn’s excellent wee chart on the reverse showing how often Tories lie.

I’m fair desperate to get these out to Yes groups ASAP, so any help you can give us in doing that would be fabulous! Just £505 to go to get it fully funded!

link to indiegogo.com

Cheers

ScottishPsyche

The feeling after we lost last was a physical pain for some of us. I understand people who feel they cannot cope with the disappointment of losing but we have to try again and soon.

The SNP seem to be talking themselves out of it for fear of losing votes but what use is a party whose stated main aim is Independence if they don’t go for it with every opportunity? They become like Labour, a ‘socialist’ party in name only – that is the way to lose votes.

If you achieve a mandate from the Scottish Parliament then do it or be damned because people won’t give you another chance.

The gradualist model of building up Independence will not be allowed under this current government or a Corbyn govt anytime soon.They are set on diminishing the Scottish Parliament so we either go for it or sit passively as it is taken away from us.

I see SiU and the other one, These Islands, as the ones who will mount the legal challenges as they have money and establishment backers.

Robert J. Sutherland

heedtracker @ 14:33:

they had on a Herald SLab apparatchik columnist, ex Lord Darling “adviser,” can’t mind her name

Catherine MacLeod. I’ll never forget her name. Or that appearance. The very personification of smug and dismissive.

Marcia

Why not have a private Referendum? Sanctioned by an Act of the Scottish Parliament now that some elections have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament. Must have X amount of signatures in each Scottish Constituency for it to be enacted. Move it out to the grass routes. I’m sure many No people would sign too.

Ian Brotherhood

A referendum in September, this year, with these questions:

1. Do you want Scotland to remain in the EU?

2. If the UK leaves the EU would you vote for Scotland to become independent?

Double-Yes campaign – twice as fast, twice as fun!

😉 😉

Breastplate

Heedtracker,
The problem with 2014 was we allowed the ball to be in their court by telling everyone there was going to be a Currency Union.
Wouldn’t you like to tell people that we will use Sterling for a period of time until we set up our own alternative?

ScottishPsyche

Forgot to address the actual point of the article – what do we do if they keep saying no?

If we mount a legal challenge with the bare bones of what having a parliament and sovereignty is all about laid bare and lose, then we know that we live in a country who will never be allowed to govern itself.

What then?

Richard Hunter

I agree with this. You have to act when you have the power to act.

Incidentally, I was one of those calling for the SNP to make UDI the central plank of their manifesto for the last election. I still think I was right about that, but that’s academic now.

Dr Jim

I am the Law:

If the Tories decide to go all Judge Dredd on Scotland and just deny Scotland is a country they’re placing Scotland in the same position as Northern Ireland which in all but name now is under direct rule from London

If Scotland is placed in that position then the rule of previous law will have been overuled by the invention of new English law to do it and like Northern Ireland there are very many in Scotland who won’t put up with that, let’s just call them *the other guys* and those *other guys* will do just exactly as their Irish cousins did and we’ll have *the Scottish troubles* but unlike our Irish cousins time and technology have moved on so the kind of disruption available to them to be caused by them is massive, does the Westminster government dare to take this on or like the Northern Ireland border situation right now do they dare not to care about the result of not caring

The Westminster cabal love to just keep kicking problems as far down the road as often and as far away as possible so’s not to have to deal with them, and of course in the hope the problem goes away by tired and worn down apathy

It may suit the Unionists in the short term for a quick celebratory victory of their demonstration of superior power and Ruth Davidson and the Orange Lodge will be delighted over her success as the future new hope for the *First Order* but if I know about *the other guys* and what they’re capable of then so does the UK, you would think!

I am not one of *the other guys* coz I’m ancient, but if I was I’d be sharpening my Laptop and plugging in all my computery gadgets because it’s not about bashing somebody in the kneecaps anymore to make a point when you can bring an airport to a standstill or disrupt entire networks of communication at will with the click of a mouse

Does the UK of England care to risk that, we have a few clever *other guys* in Scotland I would guess

Col

I never thought that we would have to declare independence through a UDI but it may be necessary if Westminster are going to try to take away any peaceful and democratic route. We also must never refer to the UK as a union. Especially if Westminster tries to lock us in forever. Dangerous times indeed. Things could start moving very fast very soon.

Scottish Steve

If it’s up to the courts then we really are f*cked then. The UK Supreme Court would never allow it, just like how they’ll never allow Scotland and Wales’ Brexit bills to pass. The courts will side with the UK government always because it’s in their self-interest to preserve the British state.

What a depressing read that was!

harry mcaye

Should it go to the courts and we’re still waiting come the Holyrood elections in 2021, and the Brexit disaster has played out as we think, then I could certainly see an SNP majority of 2011 proportions. The news and papers will be full of the Brexit aftermath, even the most ill-informed people would surely be in no doubt as to the cause (sad to say this, but I think Nissan pulling out of Sunderland would wake a lot of people up). I would hope there would then be a clamour for independence from at least 60% of Scots. No one expected the 2011 result. Why so pessimistic about 2021 just because current polls aren’t great for an Indy majority?

What then happens with another Indy majority is a good question but I’d like to hear a PM come out with May’s rhetoric when there is a distinct majority in favour of breaking away.

Breastplate

ScottishPsyche,indeed.
The gradualist route will be put into reverse with the power grab at the moment and have already downgraded the Sewell Convention to an unwanted turd.

heedtracker

Catherine MacLeod. I’ll never forget her name. Or that appearance. The very personification of smug and dismissive.

Oh god that’s her. All day throughout the indy ref1 day, there she was hamming it up as hard as any oscar winner could do it, looking really frightened, clutching her poor wee Scottish purse, what Alex Salmond was going to empty.

Is it even worth mentioning that not once did any beeb gimp that whole day, actually tell us that this poor wee timorous Scottish housewife guest in the studio, from 1950’s Scoatland, was actually special advisor to boss of BetterTogether 2014, ex Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer and future Lord Darling MP?

Niet.

manandboy

Can we all agree on one thing:as presently constituted, England will not agree to let her Scottish Colony gain its Independence.

No one with a goose that lays golden eggs lets it fly away.

We may need additional material circumstances to emerge before enough of Scotland’s British Nationalists shake off their brainwashed condition, and vote Yes to Independence.

heedtracker

Wouldn’t you like to tell people that we will use Sterling for a period of time until we set up our own alternative?”

I certainly would but I refer my honourable friend the answer I gave Breastplate at 2:29 pm.

independent woman

WHY OH WHY has the SNP opted to hold the hustings for the deputy leader on 5th May in Glasgow. Do they not like the YES movement? I am a long-time SNP member and activist but this really annoys me. I will be going to the March and probably not to the hustings. The date of the March has been known for months; why choose to clash?
The leadership of the SNP needs to get out more and smell the grassroots.

Dr Jim

Currency:

The UK after Independence would still owe Scottish pensioners their pensions for a transitional period of time to be agreed on transference of funds owed to Scotland for those purposes
so when the UK says *yer no gettin oor £* they’re talking mince and everybody knows it, what are they going to pay them with *Goldfish*?

Doug Daniel

“I’m not talking about the date, though.”

No, you’re not, but everyone else who’s pontificating about this is. And those demanding it happen this year are just setting themselves up for a fall, because it’s simply not happening. The idea that a referendum can be legislated for, fought and won all in the space of five months (with summer holidays in the middle) is for the birds.

Ruglonian

Stu – do you have a proposal to solve this *potential* impasse you describe?

I predict that this article will be extremely widely read with an unintended consequence being that the UDI advocates gain prominence again.

Breastplate

Heedtracker, the reality is that the Toons do have ammunition, fear of the unknown.
We have to accept that. It will weaken our argument if we pretend to have all the answers. We’re allowed to not know everything. We answer what we can and our best guesses for things we don’t know but the Yoon guesses are going to be portrayed as fact and most negative. Accept it.

Dan Huil

Thoughtful post by the Rev.

I completely agree that the ScotGov has to “…legislate for a second independence referendum now.” thereby making “…preparation that unarguably sets out on the path.”

But?

“The opponents of independence cannot allow that to go unchallenged or they lose the argument by default, so it’ll go to court.”

I presume the so-called Supreme Court? If so I can tell you the verdict now: get lost Scotland. It still is worth doing, however, because it will shove the constitutional problem right into the smug face of Westminster along with all the other problems about to occur over brexit.

Then?

“…we cannot afford to simply sit passively and put our trust in the UK government to play fair if we ask nicely enough.”

Westminster will never play fair over this.

But?

“A peaceful, democratic, legal route is open to us.”

For a short period only. Yet, again, it doesn’t really mean anything if Westminster ignores it and/or decides to play nastily.

Thus?

Pro-iny politicians must be prepared to follow Catalonia’s peaceful example of UDI, and these same pro-indy politicians must be prepared to make personal sacrifices, including facing the threat of imprisonment, or worse. Similar sacrifces must be seriously considered by pro-indy individuals.

People of Scotland: how much to we really want independence?!

Now’s the time and now’s the hour.

Breastplate

Yoons supposed to be

Duncan

I have a very simplistic (and probably naive) view. I agree with the need to legislate now. They can send whatever they like to the Supreme Court, it has no jurisdiction in Scotland which is why they are trying to rewrite the treaty of the union.
The people of Scotland are sovereign which we tend to use to point at the monarchy and uk govt. The Scottish govt answer to us too. All these marches and hand holding exercises are just vilified and belittled by the media we know the SNP feel stuck between a rock and a hard place.
We need to apply pressure, petition parliament to seek legislation and use the mandate instead of bickering between ourselves over dates etc. There are some amazingly clever, eloquent people in the grassroots movement (even you Rev Stu) who could help kick the backside out of the union if only we could all push together at once

Bill Hume

I honestly believe that the starting pistol has been loaded and we are just waiting (some more patiently than others) on the command “On your marks”

Hope to see lots of you on May 5th.

Jimbo

This Union was supposed to be two countries of equal standing entering into a union for their mutual benefit.

It wasn’t a case of one of them agreeing to be subservient to the other and having to ask the other’s permission to return to its former independent state.

If the boot was on the other foot, does anyone think for a minute England would be asking Scotland’s permission to have a referendum to leave the Union?

yesindyref2

Yes to this article, and there is an additional point. If the actual right for Holyrood to call a referendum is tied up in court, the constitutional status of the UK is therefore uncertain. The EU as they tell us about Catalonia, respect the Rule of Law. Here’s the relevant part of Article 50 which the UK invoked to leave the EU:

1. Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.

But what if its constitutional requirement is tied up in Court? Seems to me the UK could not leave the UK as an entity until the court case, and any subsequent appeaal, were resolved.

yesindyref2

It is barely possible by the way that that’s why Wishart and now Keith Brown are putting delays delays in, because of the possible forthcoming challenge by the UK Government of the Continuity Bill.

It’s barely possible the whole thing is happening even sooner than any of us think, but shhhh, I didn’t say that.

ronnie anderson

heedtracker You should see the contortions oan Churchills face when ah wee bitty heat fae ah lighter is applied or even at the corners , cash machines says naw lol

Ian Brotherhood

@Rev & Doug Daniel –

None of us, apart from Adam Tomkins, are constitutional experts.

If a Sept referendum was explicitly ‘consultative’, what power would Stirling or any other council have to block it?

The point of it would be to satisfy ourselves that the majority of Scots still oppose Brexit – the indy question would be an obvious corollary, even if it didn’t appear as a question. We all know that the % wishing to remain has, if anything, probably increased.

Many Remainers in E&W are crying out for such a poll, but they keep being palmed-off (even after the Cambridge Analytica revelations) with ‘the vote has been cast, we’re leaving, and that’s that.’ – exactly the same argument Davidson deploys against Indyref2.

‘The whole country voted for this.’

No, it didn’t. And we have to find a way of underscoring our objections – how else do we do it, apart from huge demos and marches which will be ignored even by our ‘own’ broadcasters?

The Scottish govt has the mandate for such a national consultation anytime it likes – it doesn’t require Section 30, WM goodwill, blessings from Barnier/Verhofstadt or anyone else.

Our business and our decision.

Andy-B

Well said Rev, the SNP government should set the wheels in motion, I’m sure most folk would rather have a indyref and lose (though we could just as easily win) than wait pensively in the wings for a right time, which may never come.

Ken500

Even with the Thatcher and feeble fifty Scotland achieved Devolution. Later rather than sooner. What’s the panic. Every Westminster leader who opposes Scottish Independence lasts on average two years. They will soon get the message. If they want to save themselves. Scotland just needs to continue to vote for it. Vote SNP/SNP. Vote for Independence. Do not falter or the opposition will gain. Get someone else to vote. It is won.

Catalonia is entirely different. The constant comparison without qualification could harm Scottish Independence.

heedtracker

ronnie anderson says:
12 April, 2018 at 3:36 pm
heedtracker You should see the contortions oan Churchills face when ah wee bitty heat fae ah lighter is applied or even at the corners , cash machines says naw lol

Ha! Keep buggering on Ronnie.

That’s what my ex tory now SNP voting Nana says Churchill said to them in the war. Nana’s also a very YES vile sep, who sits in front of all the full on, no holds barred, Beeb Scotland gimp network SNP Out fury and nary bats an eyelid, night after beeb gimp zone night.

James Munro

Tommy Sheppard MP was the speaker at a recent meeting, his view was that the next Holyrood election – with an Indyref manifesto promise – is more important than Indyref2 and that the mandate for Indyref2 would be achieved by winning the next Holyrood election. He anticipated a successful Indyref2 would be held around 2022-23.

yesindyref2

I said “the UK could not leave the UK ”

should be “the UK could not leave the EU”

I keep doing that 🙁

Andy-B

Here’s a thought, what if the Scottish government becomes really obstinate, and decides to call a indyref when it wants to, and even if we were to lose declare UDI anyway.

Now Westminster would need to override Holyrood, relieving it of its powers as Westminster is supposedly sovereign. I’d be hoping that the collective outcry from Scots would be so great that the support for independence would be overwhelming.

Failing that the Scottish government must become more disobedient more rebel in nature, pussy footing around Westminsters laws will never see Scotland independent.

I should add I don’t give a hoot about English law, when it comes to the need for independence. You can’t do this or that because Westminster says so. The union was a farce to begin with.

Foonurt

Awe thae hings, thit huv tae bae sid.

Iz Reverend Stuart siz. Stert yoan referendum cairt rollin. Iz Teazy shit urr pants, thoan last tum Nichola Sturgeon wis gonnae gee ah date, fur thurr aff. Cawt yoan GE, in jist aboot loast, baur thoan fundamentalist ten.

Couldnae gee ah fuck, aboot thoan Lunin MPs. Git yoan Scoattish baun, Win’s big baw advert, oot ah yoan cloazit.

Currency – fuckit, hoo abbot thae yowpindails.

Johnny

James Munro @ 3:49pm

Did he explain at any point why *another* mandate was required?

Ken500

Tomkins is not a constitutional expert. He is likely not even trained in Scottish Law, history or economics. He just havers on. Usually googligook nonsense. He is a 3rd rate reject being funded with Scottish taxpayers money. An embarrassment.

No word from the polling expert about the pollsters illegally manipulating the polls or the result. Despite being head of the professional body? Honours and cash for silence.

Big Jock

I think this route would be just as risky as holding back like Pete Wishart suggested. If a conservative estimate of the legal wrangle is 2 years. That takes us into May 2020 and we still wouldn’t have held the actual vote.

I am sorry but Like Peter Bell, I feel that once we are out of the EU it will be the end of Scottish Self determination. A UK out of the EU will punish Scotland. We have seen some of the stuff floating around the twittesphere from the reform group etc.

We need to have the vote on independence first win it and then act accordingly. We are not Catalonia and our legal status is completely different to theirs. If the UK declares our referendum illegal then let them. But for heavens sake lets make sure we have a vote before they shut us down completely.

I am pretty confident that the Supreme court would rule in the UK’s favour in both circumstances. Waiting 2 years for them to tell us we can’t hold a legal referendum achieves nothing. Having the referendum and winning gives us the will of the people.

James Munro

“Did he explain at any point why *another* mandate was required”

Yes, Tommy stated that the SNP dropping from 50% to 37% at the 2 most recent general elections was effectively a rejection of the mandate.

PS I disagree.

heedtracker

I should add I don’t give a hoot about English law, when it comes to the need for independence. You can’t do this or that because Westminster says so. The union was a farce to begin with”

A lot of psephologists, yes teamGB only has the one, Prof Poultice of the great beeb gimp zone, but a lot of political experts argue that we do not vote on facts and stats, that you can throw a million of them at us and we still vote how you tell us to statistic wise.

They argue that we in fact only actually vote on our feelings, how we feel about stuff deep deep down. And so, Strong and Stable Teresa may well make majority England feel they’re in Strong and Stable hands or that wee jimmy krankie is ruining greater England’s Scotland region, that Corbyn is a probably a mad trot hellbent on 21st century communism for teamGB and their UK is the greatest country in the world with British Empire 2 on the way…

and that teamGB will never be in a nuclear war, because it’s just not British?

link to youtube.com

Aldo

Now is the time or never. How much do we need to take. Wake up Scotland.

Dr Jim

So today the commemorations are about the 58.000 or so RAF killed in British Empire wars

So you see what they make you give and then if you come back have the cheek tell you you’re not entitled to a vote on something

There were Scottish Airmen in wars as well, mibbees they’d like a vote on Independence seeing as how the other choice was no choice and die

Alan Rooney

I donate to the site and don’t normally post. I said I think we want to go for indy2 rapid with the present situation. Why was my post blocked. Can’t understand.

Ruglonian

Aye Stu I read that, and agree with you that it is a way forward.

Apologies for not being clearer but I was looking beyond that. So the ScotGov legislate, it’s taken to court and ruled illegal – what then?

Big Jock

Heedtracker- Exactly.

The problem at the moment is that the SNP are pontificating when they should be acting. Allowing the English legal system to challenge the authority of our independent legal system and government smacks of capitulation.

I can’t believe anyone thinks kicking a bill around the Supreme court for 2 years will actually achieve anything. Once we go down that road the UK can do whatever it wants to Scotland for 2 years. This is exactly the wrong thing to do. Had it be done on day one after the Brexit result I might have felt differently, but it’s too late now.

We are now in the last 11 months of independence movement. It’s make or break time. Give us the date and we will give you the people. It’s not impatience, its a question of survival.

Johnny

James Munro @ 16:02

I agree with you then.

If 37% is not enough to do the things they pledge to do via mandate then none of the governments or assemblies of the UK should have any ability to put forward any legislation whatsoever and a good many councils shouldn’t be able to do anything much either.

No-one thinks that Alex Salmond didn’t have a referendum for indyref 1 after the 2011 election and that was won with less than 50% of the vote (and on a decent, but not stellar, turnout).

We could play around with numbers all day and that seems to be what some are doing in order to move the goal posts, having already asked for permission to pursue a second indyref.

The ScotGov and Greens have voted in favour and so a mandate exists now if they want to use it (or attempt to, as per the theme of Stu’s article ATL).

Derick fae Yell

James Munro 3:49 and Johnny 3:54

The current SNP mandate is heavily qualified and the Green mandate even more so(from memory the Green manifesto just says that they will campaign for independence in any future referendum, not that there should actually be one). It’s easy for May to find justifications to refuse a S30.

The 2011 SNP manifesto was unqualified. It said “We will give Scots the opportunity to decide our nation’s future in an independence referendum”. No ifs and buts ‘will’. A majority on that manifesto was the mandate.

Assuming that no S30 will be forthcoming then, if the SG doesn’t take the route of precipitating a legal challenge as Stuart suggests, we would need to repeat what we did in 2011 in 2021. Refusal of an unqualified mandate would suggest a direct electoral route in 2022 on the basis that the referendum route was being unreasonably blocked.

The case for Scottish independence is based on the fact of Scottish nationhood, not on irrelevant external factors. Scotland is a country, and should always get the government it votes for, end of. I believe I read that in a certain Wee Blue Book

Scot Finlayson

March 22nd 2019,

Thursday, a week before Article 50 is signed off,

in or out of EU could give us the 6% we need for Independence.

Dr Jim

BBCs Douglas Fraser comparing Nicola Sturgeon to some buildings in China says she has *shrunk to the size of a hashtag*

Some people may find that amusing but I know exactly what he meant after having BBC expense travelled (our money) to China along with the FM to report for the BBC but so far no such report has been forthcoming

I don’t care for paying the BBCs expenses to belittle the FM of my country
Away and belittle the PM of your own country BBC

Archbishop of Dork

The early 20th century German sociologist Robert Michels studied the evolution of left wing political parties and trade unions. The insights he gained are contained in his book ‘Political Parties’. A classic of sociology.

Michels observed how such parties and movements start out as radical attempts to change the world. As such parties acquire more and more elected parliamentarians, these elected officials become less inclined than the rank and file to radical action and become at peace with the world.
As the parties become more and more organized it sets up a dichotomy between the full time organizers or legislators who acquire specialist knowledge and the ordinary members.

This status acquired by the legislators not only makes them conservative with a small c, but gives them a new ‘reference group’ which influences their actions. In other words they start to identify more with the legislators of rival parties than they do with their own party’s rank and file. Has this happened to Westminster SNP MPs? They would vehemently protest not. But isn’t it merely human nature?

As the ‘professional’ elite of a party or movement acquire more legislative knowhow and become satisfied with their place in the organization they can lose touch with members and with the historic goals. You only have to look at the history of the British Labour Party to see that Michels was essentially correct.

Pete Wishart not only shied away from action on independence but appears to think that he isn’t required to debate about it with unelected people. Validation of Michel’s thesis? Regrettably I reckon so.

However the rank and file in the Yes movement must resist the temptation to be holier (or indyier) than thou. We must accept the sociological reasons for the ultra-caution of some SNP senior figures and seek to rally us all round the indyref2 flag. Pete Wishart is a decent hardworking man who wants the best for his constituents and still wants independence for Scotland. Likewise the others who are shy of indyref2.

The time for gradualism has passed. It served the independence movement at one time in order to make progress. Now we are up against an authoritarian Britnat assault on Scottish democracy. Their goal is to abolish Scotland, to all intents and purposes.

We must proceed with another independence campaign and be proactive, not cautious.

Ottomanboi

Scotland is a nation. The British state is not. No matter how they dress Britannia tartan will never suit her colouring.

Derick fae Yell

One further point.

If we hold a referendum, or independence election (which is the same thing effectively) after Brexit, as e.g. Tommy Shepherd is suggesting, ‘remaining’ in the EU will no longer be a divisive issue for Yes voters, no?

I don’t subscribe to the view that the sky will fall in on 29 March 2019. The relationship between Westminster and Holyrood will be as it is now. WM can do pretty much what it likes, constitutionally. The safeguard of our Parliament is not an external body like the EU. It is the opinions and actions of the people of Scotland. Observe that the Continuity Bill was supported by all Holyrood Parties, and the Tories were completely isolated. Any attempt to neuter Holyrood would meet that response in multiples

Big Jock

The mandate has hee haw with the WM vote. We had the referendum in 2014 with a handful of MPS at WM. The mandate was won at Holyrood. Same as now it’s the Holyrood mandate that gives us the power to hold the referendum.

heedtracker

We are now in the last 11 months of independence movement. It’s make or break time. Give us the date and we will give you the people. It’s not impatience, its a question of survival.”

Next Scottish GE Thursday 6 May, 2021, is maybe the end of it all for a generation. No other gov has survived this BBC level of relentless SNP Out attack propaganda for so long.

It may be that SNP deciders consider a 2020 indyref2 campaign loss, would still then give up the same Scottish SNP vote levels from 2015.

Project Fear 1 saved unionism in Scotland but look at the damage it did to SLabour. And SLab don’t seem capable of undoing the damage they did to themselves fighting BetterTogether with the Scottish haha tory creepshow. And all that despite massive BBC Scotland led tory media support too.

So pragma and survival, may also have an influence. Remember, in politics, losing is always an option.

Robert Louis

The point is, no matter when the date for the referendum is, we and the Scotgov need to start the fight now. Courts, bills/legality and all that. By continually pushing via the courts, it will eventually raise the subject once again in the minds of the London based media and politicians. Just push, push, push, and make London realise this matter is NOT settled. PLUS, and this is really really important SNP leadership, STARTING TO MAKE THE CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE LOUDLY AND CLEARLY.

Also agree with comments above, let’s make the indy March on May 5TH in Glasgow, the mother of all indy marches. Make your plans now, no excuses, no ifs, no buts – and that means YOU SNP MP’s, MSP’s and coucillors. As regards the depute hustings on the same day, all I can say is that if true, WTF SNP????

Let’s get everybody, their granny and their cat to the indy march on May 5TH. Last years was big (even despite the terrible weather and thunderstorm), so let’s make this huuuuuge, so nobody is in any doubt that Scotland will not tolerate England’s moronic brexit nonsense being imposed against our clear wishes. Not for one second.

link to thenational.scot

harry mcaye

Rev advocates a Spring 2019 vote, fair enough, I can see the sense in it. However, if it’s called, say, in October, we can forget about getting our points across to the public from the end of October until the New Year, as Halloween, Guy Fawkes and especially Christmas is what the average, non-politically obsessed person will be bothered about. And if we have a harsh winter, that impacts on campaigning after the festivities. The mass gatherings we had in 2014 won’t happen in the cold, this is why it really has to be another summer campaign and if it’s not this summer then it’s next and we may be losing the EU nationals vote by then. It’s all rather depressing, 2014 was really our chance. Not giving up though.

Derick fae Yell

Big Jock

Read what I wrote again.

A Westminster MP mandate only comes into play if an unqualified referendum mandate won at Holyrood is ignored by WM.

Dan huil

For SNP members there is an opportunity coming to send a message to the SNP leadership via the vote for SNP deputy.

Chris McEleny wants indyref2 in the next 18 months.

Andy-B

Meanwhile.

The BBC will air a complete recitation of Enoch Powell’s infamous “rivers of blood” speech to mark its 50th anniversary.

link to archive.is

Says a lot really.

Big Jock

Derrick – Sorry…yep agreed. Not sure what I read these days as there are so many strange opinions floating around.LOL

Flower of Scotland

@Doug Daniel
“The idea that a referendum can be legislated for, fought and won all in the space of five months (with summer holidays in the middle) is for the birds”

Well, they got the Continuity Bill up and going in the Parliament very quickly. It was called an emergency bill

I reckon that a new Independence Referendum is an emergency! Where there,s a will there,s a way!

Leafleting and canvassing in the winter months is not good. September 2019 is not an option for me. That gives the British Government plenty of time to close things down. A transition period after Brexit is a completely different scenario.

heedtracker

Andy-B says:
12 April, 2018 at 4:51 pm
Meanwhile.

link to archive.is

Says a lot really.

Holy fcuk. If that doesn’t scream fascist beeb gimp network on the warpath, nothing will. Stinky olde The Graun slip in he’s a Scottish actor too. So, as we all goose step Better Together with our imperial masters and their ghastly beeb gimps…

“Since only a short section of Powell’s 1968 speech was recorded, the Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid will read the full text for the broadcast. He played Powell in a theatre show that included the speech in Edinburgh last year.”

James Munro

Surely the optimum timing of Indyref2 is March 2020. The mandate is still in place, Brexit will have unravelled, Tories and Labour in disarray.

Indyref2, before and close too to the end of the all important transition period.

James Munro

And.. enough time to mount the campaign.

Colin Dunn

One way or another we’ll lose any London court case. Either Westminster will win the legal arguments, or they’ll make the process drag, and drag, and drag to maximise media opportunities for ProjectFear, and so people are fed up of the entire thing.

Final throw of the dice is for 2021 election to be on SNP platform of ‘Do you think Scotland should be an independent country again?’. SNP will need to make it clear that if they win, the first thing that will happen after Indy is a general election, otherwise the Yes supporters in Labour, LibDems and Toriess will stay at home on vote day.

June Maxwell

Seems to me if Scotland is ever to be governed autonomously, we will either have to fight in the courts or on the streets. Can’t see other options.

Dr Jim

Have the ref a 3am I’ll bet the true believers in the Union wouldn’t believe in it enough to get up for that

But we wid

galamcennalath

Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
at 2:48 pm

The cold hard final terms of Brexit will need time to sink in.

We are unlikely to know the post Brexit arrangements until late 2020. WM will ensure that. Then if we allow ‘sink in’ time, we will be getting close to Holyrood2021.

I expect the Tories to accept the current EU position on divorce/exiting so they get their transition. That will be towards the end of 2018. However, I don’t expect we will know anything about the final terms at that point. I think it will still be talk of red lines and cherry picking.

Conversely, if negotiations collapse in the next year and a crash out in March is on the cards, then we know do where we stand.

Otherwise, I don’t think we will know anything more about final Brexit than we do right now for two and a half years.

I firmly believe timing of ScotRef is now unrelated to release of Brexit details (barring crash out) because it may be too late by the time we know anything of consequence. This is the Tory plan to deal with the ‘Scotland threat’.

Habib Steele

Robert Louis asks, “what would London do? Send in the army? arrest the Scottish Government?” The question is rhetorical and presumes an answer of, “no”. Westminster’s tradition IS to send in the troops. Remember 1820 and 1919.

If Westminster calls an election, I think that the SNP should stand on the platform that if it gains a majority of Scottish seats, that will be a mandate for independence.

6th April, 1320, Declaration of Arbroath. 6th April, 2020, Independence Day!

Breeks


Flower of Scotland says:
12 April, 2018 at 1:58 pm
I’m with Peter Bell and Ian Brotherhood on this. We need a new referendum in September/October this year.

The Constitutional Reform Group is busy in the HOL creating a New Act Of Union.

I agree with this as much as I agree with anything, but I still don’t think we are grasping the right thistle here.

We can debate about the timing of a referendum indefinitely, but we cannot debate about a the timing of a referendum to save us from Brexit indefinitely, because in less than a year, that mandate, that sovereign edict, that democratically robust instruction to keep Scotland in Europe becomes void and irrelevant and we will have squandered a heaven sent, Constitutional watershed upon which to break the back of the Union.

Never again are any of us likely to see the perfect planetary alignment of our two sovereign nations diametrically opposed to each other in a straight battle over constitutional sovereignty, where the will of Scotland has been unequivocally expressed as a decisive democratic mandate which the Westminster government must either unconstitutionally subjugate, or Constitutionally recognise, (pause for breath), and all against a backdrop of vital imperative for our economic future where the stakes could not be higher, but where Westminster is making a complete pigs ear of its own Brexit. There are no other options. If we leave this issue too late, and “too late” means the deal cannot be resolved before Brexit occurs, then that mighty, once in a lifetime Constitutional crow bar we have given ourselves in resisting Brexit, is squandered for good and forever, and for absolutely no gain. That’s not just shooting ourselves in foot, that’s giving our foot the gun to blow the rest ourselves to oblivion.

I think Peter Bell is both right, and wrong. Yes of course Westminster is determined to outmanoeuvre us and steal a march on Constitutional reform, but the essence of Scotland’s constitutional sovereignty is not just what we Scots are empowered to do, but what Westminster if it doesn’t have sovereignty cannot do. Let them fiddle and faff about rewording a Constitution they don’t have the power to change.

If a Constitutional Court, and that I think has to be the European Court of Justice, can be persuaded of the existential legitimacy of Scottish Sovereignty, then the reciprocal proof established simultaneously is that Westminster is not sovereign over Scotland and has no constitutional authority whatsoever to legislate or alter any facet of Scotland’s Constitution.

Brexit too is vital, because Brexit represents such a massive potential disaster and definitive Constitutional benchmark for Scotland’s economy, societal cohesion, and European citizenship that a submission which petitions the EUCJ to recognise Scotland as a sovereign interlocutor can and must be power driven through the court process on an accelerated timescale specifically because it MUST be determined before the glass shatters upon Brexit whereupon there is no going back. We need the jeopardy of Brexit to make the matter an emergency because the matter needs resolved to avoid Brexit happening. Too late, and Brexit is inert and academic, and all the steam is squandered.

I stress, this sovereign recognition is vital to secure Scotland’s timely recognition as sovereign interlocutor in time to avert Brexit catastrophe and constitutional subjugation, but it does not by itself constitute an end to the UK Union. It is not Independence by the back door of the type to outrage the BritNats, but it IS material recognition by a diligent formal disinterested arbiter, – a bone fide Constitutional Court of International status, that the UK Union IS what it purports to be, and that is a Bipartite Treaty between two EQUAL sovereign Kingdoms, where the sovereignty of one CANNOT overrule the other. That’s it. Job done. UK still exists, but only just.

That distinction is the ONLY watershed which matters, and we need the looming injustice and impropriety of our involuntary Brexit to ratchet up the Constitutional jeopardy and strive to save ourselves from Brexit before it happens.

Nevermind about Westminster or the UK Supreme Court. The fight for our Constitutional Sovereignty only begins once we make it our confirmed position that Westminster has no legitimate claim over Scotland’s Sovereignty. We do not do any favours for our claim to be sovereign by immediately setting our test case before their asserted sovereignty in a UK Supreme Court. That’s the very mistake the 13th Century Scottish nobles made in asking Edward 1 to oversee Scotland’s constitutional crisis, and we all know how that turned out.

Do not let ourselves be distracted by electoral mandates and majorities, nor whether we “forfeited” sovereignty in 2014, (we did not), nor even a tipper truck full of UKOK propaganda tipped on the lawn.

If WE are Sovereign, THEY are not.
Scotland decides if we leave Europe. Westminster does not.
Scotland decides if we hold an Independence referendum. Westminster does not.
Scotland decides if Scotland’s goes to war. Westminster does not.
If Scotland decides to terminate the Union, Westminster cannot stop us.
If the Sovereign people of Scotland want a referendum on every day of the week, then the sovereign people shall have one.

WE HAVE THE SOVEREIGNTY. BELIEVE IT! We merely require the EUCJ to recognise it and the whole world changes.

Ian Brotherhood

@Breeks (5.47) –

‘That distinction is the ONLY watershed which matters, and we need the looming injustice and impropriety of our involuntary Brexit to ratchet up the Constitutional jeopardy and strive to save ourselves from Brexit before it happens.’

This makes sense, but presents a dismal medium-term prospect – that we must suffer, and be *seen* to suffer for longer than WM is prepared to dish out the punishment? To ‘prove’ how much we want this? What else has to happen? If, as many of us fear, WM moves swiftly, post-Brexit, to shut down the Scottish parliament, what legal democratic process is open to us then?

Better to have non-violent civil disobedience between now and Brexit than violent uprising when the front doors of the Scottish Parliament are padlocked for good.

Habib Steele

We must remember that the principle reason that the English Parliament wanted the Union was for England’s safety.

“At Westminster on 29 November 1704, Lord Godolphin, the Lord High Treasurer, explained to the House of Lords why Queen Anne had approved the Scottish Act of Security – which preserved the Kirk, trade and the gains of the 1688 Revolution in Scotland.

He said the Act contained some undesirable elements, but it was essential that any Scottish threat to England’s safety should be neutralised.” link to parliament.uk

Breeks

And all this guff about knowing the final Brexit and letting the shock subside… BEHAVE!

Farage, Gove and Johnson have brought the whole the UK charging towards the sheer cliff edge of Brexit when they hadn’t a Scooby-do what Brexit was actually going to mean, what the consequences would be, and there were certainly no impact studies involved beside the impact of a big red double decker bus crashing to the bottom of some chalky white cliffs.

It’s a MYTH that we need to know the final forensic detail of Brexit. It’s an act of procrastination! Do you expect some minor clause that might transform Brexit into a good idea?? We know enough and we’ve known it since 2016 when 62% of us said Nope. Not happenin’.

Dave McEwan Hill

Rev. Stuart Campbell at 2.41

We need them to say “fuck off” to clarify matters. So we need the challenge and as soon as possible.

Abulhaq

A projected independent Scottish state on England’s northern border might well be considered a security risk. That was how Westminster perceived the Irish until fairly recently.
After Brexit such paranoia might intensify.

Ian Brotherhood

Just went on to Twitter and found this, pretty much at random.

The sheer frustration expressed here is common. How can it be factored into this discussion? Ignoring it is not wise.

‘I’m not willing to compromise, I’m not interested in any alternative, I’m not up for waiting around, I’m not willing to believe the rest of the UK will change in any way, shape, or form. Unless you’re asking me if I want to leave this shithole ‘union’, get the fuck out my face.’
@KatieKhaleesi

Smallaxe

Ian Brotherhood says:

“Better to have non-violent civil disobedience between now and Brexit than violent uprising when the front doors of the Scottish Parliament are padlocked for good.”

Well said, Ian.
Non-violent civil disobedience would also be very difficult for the MSM and the BBC to ignore. Any violence would play right into the hands of Westminster and give them every excuse they need to ‘put us back in our box’.

Sinky

Good old BBC Reporting Scotland failed to mention that it was SNP MSPS who raised the issue of delivery charges to Highlands and Islands

Jock McDonnell

Sovereignty is asserted, pure and simple. A court can decide as it pleases, ultimately it’s just deciding who has the most convincing argument from among the informed opinions put forward, according to rules set by accountable politicians. The law is what the politicians make it & the politicians are made by the people in a democracy.
Nothing is written in stone, nothing.
Westminster assertions of sovereignty are pure bluster & a court decision only lasts as long as the people in a democracy are prepared to tolerate it.
This is where I disagree with Breeks, a court can’t approve our sovereignty- we need to do it ourselves. Sooner the better in my view.
Ultimately it’s about who has the biggest balls- real power cannot be given – it must be taken.

ROBBO

Never forget that when we started the Yes campaign in 2014 the POLLS were suggesting we would never get close to a result. Once the campaign got underway we managed to get the message across on the doorstep to whittle that gap away to within a whisker of success. As many have already mentioned we are but a few % points short now and given the lies, threats and failed promises that have gone before and particularly the Brexit fiasco we will have no better chance of getting the Independence we all crave for. How fitting it would be to fix the leave date for 6 April 2020 (700 years since the Declaration of Arbroath). As the fundraiser for WOS discovered there are many who would gladly put there money where their mouth is to mount a serious sustained campaign.

Thepnr

There will be another referendum at some point, as to when that may be i have no idea. I very much doubt it will be this year for two reasons.

Just supposes the Tories do have their proposal ready by October this year, I assume it will first be laid before Westmister for a vote before being submitted for ratification by the EU 27.

Let’s assume it get’s through a vote in Westminster then how long before the EU27 agree? I’ve no idea, but if it goes the other way around and Westminster waits on the EU 27 ratifying any proposal who’s to say Westminster will agree to the deal?

Again I have no idea what the outcome of these two votes might be.

So broadly I agree with this article, my view is we cannot be sure what Brexit means anytime soon but that should not stop the Scottish Parliament going ahead and producing a referendum bill to be used at a time of their chossing. Definately before the next Scottish elections though I feel.

There really is no simple solution but we might as well get the ball rolling in challanging the “now is not the time” mantra from Theresa May.

So let’s just do it, doesn’t require a date for that.

yesindyref2

For some reason the title of this article makes me think of the lyrics for “Tusk”.

@Alan Rooney
You might have some word in your posting that hits the block filter, it can even be inside a word. r*pe is one example, so if you wanted to say the gr*pes of wrath it gets blocked.

yesindyref2

@Ian B
I think I recognise that style as a poster (KK) in the Grun. Forthright!

galamcennalath

Breeks says:

WE HAVE THE SOVEREIGNTY. BELIEVE IT! We merely require the EUCJ to recognise it and the whole world changes.

Possibly, not sure how responsibilities of courts all works.

HOWEVER, who do you trust most, guys? Supreme Court in London, or ECJ? Rhetorical?

ALSO, we will probably be cut off from the ECJ sometime soon!

PictAtRandom

Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
12 April, 2018 at 2:48 pm

“I’m with Peter Bell and Ian Brotherhood on this. We need a new referendum in September/October this year.”

Really, seriously, let go of this one. Not happening in a million years, and a bad idea anyway. The cold hard final terms of Brexit will need time to sink in.

The whole point of the article is that as things stand, THE DECISION IS NOT IN OUR HANDS. If the SG tries to call a vote, councils will refuse to participate. By one route or another it has to be legal, and if a Section 30 isn’t happening – which it isn’t – we need to force the issue.

So would you argue that a 2021 Independence Mandate Election would be illegal and that local authorities would not cooperate in holding such?
The decision/timing on whether the 2021 Election should be fought on this basis is very much in independence supporters’ hands.

William Purves

The Scottish Government should pass a LAW that the Scottish High Court is Scotlands Supreme Court, not the English Supreme Court.

Athanasius

I dunno. I really can’t see any happy resolution to this. Give it a few years, and it’ll be a Northern Ireland situation all over again. The English consider Scotland their curtilage, not exactly their house, but enclosed ground attached to it which they own, like the garden, and the natives are the gnomes. Labour Party people have no loyalty to their country, absolutely none whatsoever, and they don’t give one infinitessimal damn for its inhabitants. All they care about is getting out and getting down the road to London, so absolutely no representation will be forthcoming from them. Ditto the LibDems. Do we even need to mention the Tories here? The SNP and other nationalist parties DO care about Scotland, but, as Stu points out, there’s little or nothing they can do in the face of an intransigent English establishment. But now that Scottish nationalism is no longer a joke on a shortbread tin, the sh1t is out of the horse and it ain’t going back in any time soon. Put all that together and really, unless something changes very substantially in the English mindset, what happens next will be inevitable.

Hoss Mackintosh

Great article Rev Stu,

I have been thinking the same for a while – The Scottish Government has the democratic mandate so has to use it – or lose it.

There will never be a time that is suitable for WM to grant a referendum – they will always find a reason to delay so the issue has to be forced before 2021.

If the SNP and Greens don’t use the mandate that they have now then they will never be able to use it again.

Even if they win the mandate in 2021 again – which will be a hard task with the current electoral system – WM will just ignore it saying you had a mandate before and you never used it then so you can’t use it now.

Time to move on this – no pointing in waiting. We have to force the issue and see what the Scottish and Supreme Courts and perhaps even the EU Courts judgements are.

From an EU point of view the next couple of years will also have to resolve how they treat Catalonia and how they react to a second Scottish referendum. This will determine if we can join and be welcomed into the EU.

So all to play for – no point in waiting for our economy to be destroyed by Brexit.

Liz g

Can Holyrood (while probably too messy) take direct control of the Councils.
Anybody know?

Shinty

“ALSO, we will probably be cut off from the ECJ sometime soon”

Well said.

It’ll be off to mother england and her ‘supreme’ court for you jocks (caps deliberately excluded) – Good Luck with that.

Liz g

Can Holyrood take direct control of the Councils ?
Anyone know?
Not sayin its a good idea,just wondering if it’s an option?

Jock McDonnell

And one more thing – we don’t need a S30 order, thats just to make post scotref deals easier – but we don’t need one.

One thing that does frustrate me is nobody of note is prepared to call out Westminster’s assertion of sovereignty – maybe powder is being kept dry but as in many things, the very act of questioning it, is enough to undermine it.

Much as this article really floats my boat, the very crux of our issue, it also raises my blood pressure. Time for a deep breath & to trust in some very capable people who have a lifetime’s commitment to this cause.

Bruce MacDougall

In view of the urgency of the situation is a referendum really necessary. As I understand it, the old Scottish parliament signed the Treaty of Union as a sovereign nation and shortly afterwards went into abeyance, not dissolved. The current Scottish MPS at Westminster are the elected
representatives of Scotland. If they withdrew to Scotland and voted as a group to rescind the Union. Create an act to that effect and assert their independence it would be legal under Scottish and international law.

Ghillie

Excellent Rev.

I fully expect the SNP are on it =)

The YES movement is waking.

Most of us never slept 🙂

Big Jock

If Brexit is a disaster. I expect Scots will run away from independence not embrace it. Throughout our history we have lived in relative poverty but have always been scared of going it alone. I am afraid many no voting Scots don’t see the link between poverty and the union. They see Scotland as poor and England as wealthy because we are not as good as them.

I think if Scotland was doing relatively well there would be more chance of independence. Waiting for an economic disaster to befall will not help us. We go for independence as a democratic right given Scotland voted remain. Any Brexit at all is against the democratic wishes of Scots.

Mark Russell

Fuck another referendum; given the unfolding disaster in Westminster and the Middle East the Scottish Government should declare an immediate Declaration of Independence. Aside from sending a message to the rest of the world, it might just divert May’s attention away from starting the ultimate disaster.

Particularly if Mundell and his Tory colleagues were detained under an emergency anti-terrorism legislation in an independent Scotland.

Stand up and be counted.

Famous15

1..Councils must obey the law.

2.An advisory referendum can be arranged intra vires the Scottish Parliament.

3. The result of an advisory referendum does not precipitate action but “real politique” does.

Famous15

Real Politik works just as well also.

Dave McEwan Hill

The UK Government does not have the right to refuse independence to Scotland and the UK Supreme Court (which is possibly a contradiction of one of the essential conditions of the 1706/1707 Treaty of Union) has no legitimate right in international law (the United Nations Charter)to refuse Scotland self determination.

Neither does the UK Parliament.

Should the Scottish Parliament, for instance, declare for independence following an election fought on that prospect in which an independence majority was legitimately returned to the Scottish Parliament international law supports that independence. Problem of course is the weakness of the United Nations which has destroyed its credibility on a number of issues,particularly the behaviour of Israel against the Palestinians.

The right of people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a jus cogens rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter’s norms. It states that a people, based on respect for the principle of equal rights and fair equality of opportunity, have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no interference.
Article 1 in both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)[20] and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(ICESCR)[21] reads:
“All peoples have the right of self-determination.
By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

Reluctant Nationalist

@ Liz G: “Can Holyrood take direct control of the councils?”

Holyrood can just ignore the councils and claim it is because the issue is of ‘national importance’, just like what is happening with the chinese power plant deal in East Lothian.

Hope all’s going well in China, Nicola. Say herro flom me.

Moonlight

Time for the SG to complete and launch a Blockchain voting system.
Time to get all those qualified to register for the Blockchain voting system.
Time to stop worrying whether or not councils, Westminster, the BBC or anyone else, will cooperate or block a referendum not held with a section 30.
Time for the SG to know that anytime it wishes to consult with their electorate they can, with or without anyone’s permission.
Time for action to ensure that when the time comes, one click of a mouse will set everything in motion with a response on whatever timescale is considered desireable.

Shinty

” have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no interference.”

Q. Am I correct in thinking – if no S30 – then WM cannot interfere in any way with our referendum?

Rock

“So here’s the only way we can see through the problem: the Scottish Government has to bite the bullet and legislate for a second independence referendum now.”

Rock (27th August 2017 – “Underneath the Goodyear blimp”):

“Scotland was on the verge of independence immediately after the Brexit vote.

The unionist parties were without leaders and completely lost, the SNP had 56 out of 59 MPs and 50% of the vote, the EU’s eyes were (favourably) on Scotland.

But Nicola squandered a once in a 1000 years golden opportunity by wasting more than a year flogging a dead horse – a separate deal for Scotland which was never going to happen.

The result: Nicola outsmarted by the collusion between Saints Theresa and Ruth on one hand, and Corbyn on the other, fall in SNP support from 50% to 37%.

It is my prediction that there will be a “snap” Brexit and the SNP will be caught napping and unable to hold a second independence referendum.

Or another “snap” Westminster election with the SNP again losing support.

Despite the pretendy “sovereignty” and boasting of the clueless pompous armchair pundits posting here, Scotland is again as far away from independence as ever.

If they succeed in neutralising the Rev. Stuart Campbell and WOS, independence will be “stone dead” for at least 620 years.”

Big Jock

The SNP have always had the option of resigning and calling an early Scottish election. They could run on a clear ticket of vote SNP declare independence. That way they coukd get the cross party independence minded Scots to back them. One caveat is that they would have to 51% of the vote share and there would have to be 80 plus turnout.

So young could sabotage by not turning up to vote. Remember what happened in Catalonia!

Big Jock

That was Yoons not young….

Big Jock

This article and point would have been relevant and correct 2 years ago. I am afraid it’s too late for the legal ball kicking. 2 years from now WM will have made sure Scotlands economy flatlines.

Middle class Scots will run away from independence.

Rock

“Because make no mistake, time is running out in all sorts of ways. The clock is ticking on the mandate. The clock is ticking on Brexit. Independence won’t be easy to win in 2019 or 2020, but it’ll be a hundred times harder in 2022 or 2025 – even if by some miracle there’s still a Holyrood majority.”

Rock (24th June 2017 – “Come On Arlene”):

“Admit it or not, Nicola has now been left dithering about a second independence referendum before Brexit has been completed.

Who in the SNP will now advice her to call a second independence referendum with SNP support having gone down 13 points to 37%?

A second independence referendum before Brexit is completed now looks doomed.

After Brexit, Scotland will be at the mercy of Westminster.”

Rock

“Any referendum attempted without the consent of the UK government would therefore almost certainly find itself in the courts for a long spell of lawyer-enriching wrangling, because any citizen could challenge it even if the UK government itself did not.”

Rock (28th February – “Here come the monsters again”):

“There is ZERO chance that Saint Theresa will allow us to hold an independence referendum before Brexit has been completed.

There is a 1% chance that establishment lawyer Nicola will dare defy her and hold an illegal referendum.

Why would she and the rest of the SNP leadership want to go into exile in Belgium when they are doing fine here and at Westminster?

Before there is a flood of posters claiming that Scotland can hold an independence referendum whenever it wants to, the fact is that it has never yet done so without Westminster’s approval.

You can only prove me wrong if and when it does.”

PictAtRandom

If there were a concerted Unionist boycott of the 2021 elections — and that’s a big If because first of all you have to get the likes of Kez and ‘Tricky’ Dickie Leonard singing from the same hymn-sheet before The Colonel and followers join in — then it would make pretty clear how the Unionists viewed Holyrood’s future.
So it would be Independence v. Centralist Unionism. I would go for that.

Dave McEwan Hill

“Who in the SNP will now advice her to call a second independence referendum with SNP support having gone down 13 points to 37%?”

Not accurate. Polls suggest that around half of Labour voters will vote for independence and some Tories and LibDems will also. That 37% was achieved in General Election at which independence was not an issue. The 43 – 46% polled support for independence is a more reliable guide

Robert Peffers

@Robert Louis says: 12 April, 2018 at 1:08 pm:

“The union is NOT and never has been unbreakable – indeed Westminster has done so many time. It is an international treaty, and may be ended unilaterally by either of the two signatory parties.”

The above bit is correct, Robert Louis.

“At the end of the day, however, the reality in all of this, is that Westminster only has the powers it has because it says it does. Its power does not come handed from some deity.”

Indeed Westminster only has sovereignty because Westminster says it has, but it does so under the Rule of Law of England.

Westminster operates under English Law and under English Law and under English law Her Majesty the Queen of England is Sovereign, not Her Majesty’s Parliament at Westminster. However, all, “Their Majesty’s”, of England since 1688 have legally delegated their sovereignty to Her Majesty’s Government at Westminster which is legally NOT the parliament of, “Their Majesty’s Kingdom of England”.

It is legally The Parliament of the bipartite United Kingdom, and the treaty that begat that United Kingdom clearly states that The Rule Of Law of both individual Kingdoms in that United Kingdom shall remain independent in perpetuity and under the Rule of Law of the Kingdom of Scotland the monarch is NOT sovereign as under Scots law the People are sovereign.

To sum that up Under English law the Sovereign does indeed have sovereignty, ” handed down from some deity and when the Monarch of the Kingdom of England is crowned it is in the name of that deity , “But not under Scots law”, and that is why Westminster is only sovereign over Scotland, “because Westminster says so”

That is why this legal point has to be settled by the international Court of Human Rights and not under the Westminster Establishment established Supreme Court.

All the evidence required to prove that Scotland has the legal right to end the United Kingdom, “Government”, is contained in The Treaty of Union of 1706/7.

It is all there black upon white. In the Kingdom of Scotland the people are legally sovereign while in the Kingdom of England the Queen of England is legally sovereign but must legally, (under English Law), delegate Her English Kingdom Sovereignty to Her Majesty’s Parliament of England, and there has been no such Parliament of England since the last day of April 1707 – That Parliament at Westminster is the bipartite parliament of the United Kingdom but has long operated as the de facto Parliament of England while calling itself the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The simple question is this, If there is still an actual United Kingdom then why has only England not got a parliament but gets run by Westminster?

What that all boils down to is that The Scottish Government already has a mandate to hold a referendum but requires that referendum return a majority of the legally sovereign people of Scotland saying the United Kingdom is over.

There is probably not a chance in hell that the Westminster instigated Supreme Court would rule in favour of A Scottish Government with a majority of the electorate voting to leave the United Kingdom and, what is more no chance that court would allow the matter to be referred to the international courts – for the very good reason that they know Westminster would lose the case there.

aw In essence, it does whatsoever it likes. Within that same context then, it is hard to argue that only the Scottish parliament has to abide by the ‘rules’. If the rules do not apply to Westminster then they cannot be held as enforceable in Holyrood either. In such circumstances, the Scottish Government may also choose to do whatsoever it pleases, because in the end, what would London do? Send in the army? arrest the Scottish Government? Westminster is a cesspit, but it is not Fascist Madrid.
Either way, it is clearly time for action. Appeasement and compromise are spent, and have proved pointless. That window of opportunity is gone – and we need to hear no more of it from NS. Finished.
As a first step we need every member of the SNP Government to start making the case for independence – and start attending the indy marches (with a few honourable exceptions like Joanna Cherry and a few others). Time for all those MP’s, MSP’ and councillors who get our votes to start doing rather than just saying. Time to do it NOW, or their endless procrastination may never be forgiven.
We, the indy supporters, are ready and waiting, so get on with it.

Rock

If my understanding of this article is right, the Rev. Stuart Campbell is calling for a “constitutional crisis” sooner rather than later.

Rock (14th March – “Spinning down”):

“The SNP should have pulled out of Westminster immediately after they had 56 MPs elected.”

heedtracker (14th March – “Spinning down”):

“What difference would that have made Rock?”

Rock (14th March – “Spinning down”):

“It would have led to a constitutional crisis and the end of the union, Guardian reader with a Slovene (ex-)girlfriend.

Now the SNP has embedded itself into Westminster.”

Crackerjack

The EU have given Treeza until October of this year to sign off on some kind of Brexit deal, including the Irish Border Conundrum.

So, we will have a clearer picture of what kind of deal is on the table for Scotland. It will be a bag of nails.

Nicola can then announce that the Brexit Deal is not in Scotland’s best interest and because of this Scotland will hold a second Referendum on Independence.

Probably for the following springtime.

Rock

Dave McEwan Hill says:
12 April, 2018 at 8:49 pm

“That 37% was achieved in General Election at which independence was not an issue.”

The unionists made absolutely sure that independence was THE issue in Scotland at the last election.

The unionists talked about nothing else while the SNP went completely silent on it.

As a result, the SNP lost half a million voters and 23 seats while the Tories gained 12 seats because of nothing else apart from the independence issue.

Breeks

Oh dear.

I mean, it’s mostly good news… Trump seems to backtracking a bit on WW3 in Spring, (hip, hip, hooray!) but with the Skripal Whodunnit turning into the Skripal Whocareswhodunnit, and the “new” Syrian war all being over a thoroughly unpatriotic 8 months before Christmas, Theresa is going to be pacing up and down the corridors of power looking for some other unlucky Russian she can rashly threaten to bomb as a populist diversion to the grim reality of Brexit negotiations.

The question of everybody’s lips is will it be Eastasia? Eursasia? Or the other team in England’s group, Russoasia?

scowley

The SNP supporters NEED to form a list vote party for the Scottish Parliament elections called “Freedom” or similar.
Vote 1st past post SNP list vote “Freedom”. This will neuter the proportional system working against the SNP.
The 2 parties will then form a coalition government.

Daisy Walker

Well said Mr Peffers, and very informative at the same time.

I want the above article, which is news to me, I want it addressed, as a matter of urgency by my local SNP Branch. And they had better have clear well reasoned arguments and a plan for dealing. Cliches won’t cut it.

In the mean time, the SNP need to educate their electorate.

There’s enough knowledge about Brexit now, the final deal doesn’t matter, its Brexshit and Bad folks, only the depth is in doubt.

Keep keeping on folks.

heedtracker

“The SNP should have pulled out of Westminster immediately after they had 56 MPs elected.”

Rock what are you on, or in for that matter? a tardis.

Sure there’s all kinds of “if only” or “why didn’t they” stuff available for your usual Sturgeon bad, SNP Out ranting of an evening but what would you do now oh wise one?

Or is that not your usual swipe on 8pm til last bus passes Scottish haha Office remit Rock?

Its OK Rock, you never have anything even remotely interesting to say, about the past or the future. As long you save your union.

Yoons eh.

Robert Louis

Shinty at 0830pm

That is correct. The terms of the last indyref were ‘agreed’ BECAUSE David Cameron went down the section 30 route – I guess he felt that gave London a modicum of say in how things were run. Remember that at that time, London was obsessively concerned (quite incorrectly) that Alex Salmond wanted to add a ‘devomax’ option to the referendum. London was determined to stop that happening (even though in reality the FM had no intention of offering such an option), so perhaps that may have been part of David Cameron’s motivation for offering section 30.

Had it not happened, then the Scottish Government would have proceeded with the referendum anyway.

handclapping

In Fluffy’s Case the Supreme Court will rule that the matters are devolved as not being reserved and that Westminster can reserve whatever powers they want if they put them explicitly in an Act but that the matter is political and the parties should seek a political solution.

The referendum is another question. Power to alter the constitution is reserved to Westminster but nowhere is the power to prevent a question on the constitution being raised, so, not being reserved the power to hold a non binding advisory referendum on a change to the constitution must have been devolved/ This would be a winning argument if the Supreme Court made the decision in Fluffy’s Case outlined above.

Interesting times

Paul Wilson

If Westminster can “Just say No” Then what is the point of voting at all?

ronnie anderson

Am no wan fur biblical punishments but Stoned Dead sounds ok fur wan poster oan here , an ah wid cast the first stane , hiv that ya bass.

heedtracker

If Westminster can “Just say No” Then what is the point of voting at all?

Westminster’s not actually going to allow indyref2, until they decide the time is right, ie never.

So you wont even get to vote, let alone there actually being a point in voting.

Ian Brotherhood

@Ronnie Anderson –

As we all know, you are indeed without sin, so fire away Big Yin, and may yer aim be true…

😉

Robert Peffers

@Eilidhsma says: 12 April, 2018 at 1:40 pm:

“I don’t think May can handle a battle on two fronts, so Now is the best chance we will ever get.
“Now’s the day, and now’s the hour”!

There’s just one teeny-weeny wee fault with that argument, Eilidhsma.

It doesn’t matter when the referendum is called if we do not get a majority of the people of Scotland voting for independence we may as well forget it.

ronnie anderson

Ian Brotherhood Ah’ll no be short o ammunition ma driveways ful o granite rocks lol.

schrodingers cat

good article stu, genuinely thought provoking

switching the discussion from the scotref date to the date of the campaign launch has focused minds.

I’m still wary about launching the campaign before oct18, we could suffer a backlash from the voters if the unionsts blame us for the brexit fiasco. i’d rather the tories at least conclude the negotiations (oct18) before we launch the campaign. that way, they alone will be blamed for brexit.

I realise that a S30 isnt an absolute requirement but it is preferable and the process of getting one could be lengthy and there is time pressure to announce this before oct18.

Shinty

Robert Louis – thanks for the confirmation.

I’m thinking our Sovereignty is the key to iScotland. Too many Scots think the Declaration of Arbroath is some historic novel and do not understand it’s relevance today.

Sovereignty of the people of Scotland was written into the Treaty of the Union 1707. (in perpetuity) so it cannot be given away, sold, stolen or bartered. It is ours for all time.

Dave McEwan Hill

Basically what a section 30 does is make the result legally binding. There is nothing to stop us holding consultative referendums.

I was thinking of the past today.I remember many years ago at a fringe meeting at SNP Conference saying that “It’s Scotland’s Oil” campaign came with problems.
Oil I said was a compelling reason for us to have independence – but also the biggest reason why we wouldn’t get it. I was right.

Dave McEwan Hill

I note BBC Scotland appears to have missed the SNP’s Westminster demand for a recall of Parliament.

boris

Prof. Adam Tomkins (MSP). Arch Republican Can he really a staunch Tory Party member and supporter of the Union of the Crowns lead by a constitutional monarch? OR does he work for M.I. 5/6?

Let his previous political past history decide!!!

Declaration of Scottish Independence Calton Hill – 9th October 2004

Adam Tompkins, Law Professor, of Glasgow University reminded the crowd of the Queen’s previous reluctance to pay tax despite her massive income.

He said that the queen had special powers or “prerogatives”, which included being able to appoint anyone she liked as Prime Minister.

He said Tony Blair used these special powers to attack Iraq and there would have no Iraq war without the crown.

In a democracy it is the people who are sovereign and not the crown!

He then urged the abolition of the monarchy stating: “If you want democracy down with the crown!”

Crackerjack