The National (Scotland) - Seven Days
We’re disillusioned by indy because the press gives us no other option
IALWAYS enjoyed reading Mike Small’s piece on the back page of the Seven Days of the Sunday National, so when it was announced he would no longer contribute weekly I was disappointed. I therefore do appreciate when he contributes from time to time and really enjoyed his piece on the front page last week entitled “Being and nothingness”.
Mike started his piece with a quote from Cairns Craig, the Scottish literary scholar who specialises in Scottish and modernist literature (according to Wiki anyway!). The quote is: “That ‘black hole’, that ‘nothing at all’, is the image of a society aware of itself only as an absence, a society living in the aermath of it’s failure to be reborn.”
Clearly – and I totally agree – this just cleverly sums up Scottish society since the 2014 referendum. Mike then writes extensively about this and the failure of devolution, etc. He goes on to state, “While devolved governments can assert policy in devolved areas, they do so with only a limited budget that they do not control and with a public and media that is incessantly hostile. It’s a lose-lose situation. That’s not an excuse but it is a condition. In this sense, devolution is over. We are, as Craig said, ‘a society living in the aermath of it’s failure to be reborn.”
I totally get the dri of Mike’s piece and would strongly advise anyone that normally gets the Sunday National, that for whatever reason didn’t get round to reading it, to dig oot the Seven Days supplement fae yer recycling bin and gie it a guid perusal. I personally have been feeling that sense of “nothingness” for a considerable period of time now. I must stress, however, I don’t blame the Government for that feeling. I don’t particularly blame the Tories or Labour in Scotland either. They will always do what they do just as bears will always do what they do in the woods!
Naw, my entire ire is focused, laserlike, at the grotesque stranglehold the press and media in Scotland and throughout the UK have on unashamedly, blatant, anti-indy propaganda. Mike refers to it as “incessant”. As it’s vital to get the polls up to much higher than 50% for proindependence we need to get many more Joe and Jeannie Publics, to change their mind. Problem is, they don’t go on independence marches or, unfortunately, read this esteemed publication. They read the Sun or Daily Express, etc and watch telly news. So in that case, what are they meant to think?
So, aye, I dae feel disillusioned and an empty feeling o’ nothingness. To be honest totally powerless, given that even a democratic mandate in our Parliament, for an independence referendum to be held, was treated with such contempt by the media and downplayed to mere nothingness! Ye can bet yer bottom dollar, though, if – heaven forbid – Labour in Scotland do beat the SNP in the forthcoming election, even by a smidgeon, that will be treated by the media as a democratic mandate for independence tae be a the table for ever and a day, no just a mere generation!
Mike, dae ye want tae gaun for a pint, and oo can well and truly greet intae oor pint o’ nothingness?
Ivor Telfer
Fife
AS the SNP member who likened the SNP leadership’s independence strategy to “flatulence in a trance” at our national conference in 2023, events in the last week may aord First Minister Humza Yousaf the opportunity to release a blast which will deliver independence very shortly.
It will require from him smeddum, courage and a singular vision and absolute belief that he can and will lead us to independence.
We know that support for independence is consistently around 50% of the electorate. To harness that vote, Humza needs to oer the Scottish people independence and mean it.
The SNP must become the party of the nation. Every policy must be seen through the prism of Independence to garner the widest possible support. The political sting of emotive social issues can be mitigated if such issues are passed to well-resourced citizens assemblies to consider and even reconsider in depth.
The SNP are the only ones in the position to delivery indy, so my plea to Humza is to commit to delivering independence by proposing an amendment to the Labour motion of no confidence in our government simply to end this parliamentary session and force a Scottish election.
Fight the election on the basis that a majority popular vote in favour of the SNP will give Humza the mandate to instruct his Westminster MPs to dissolve the Union. This intention alone will hole the Westminster machine and puts an end to the UK Supreme Court. In international law, once a state has been dissolved, the former partners of that state cannot unilaterally use the assets of the former state to undermine the interests of the other former partner. In the absence of agreement, the
Vienna Convention provides a sensible apportionment of assets and liabilities. Some may sco that upstart Scots can literally suspend the operation of the organs of the former British state. But they can because if UK civil servants act unilaterally without the agreement of Scotland, they will be exposed to personal criminal and civil charges.
Even if a majority of the popular vote at the Holyrood election is not secured – a vote in excess of 40% will return the SNP with as many seats as it holds at present in Holyrood so the risk in minimal and the contest will have fatally wounded the Westminster establishment.
With the advent of devolution, the
SNP had a gradualist strategy to govern well in the expectation that this would build up confidence in the Scottish people to continue to vote SNP , and in the fullness of time, that confidence would propel us to independence. It didn’t quite happen in 2014 , but Scotland changed forever.
Through the eorts of the SNP in government life in Scotland is so much better than life in any other part of the UK. In every field of public services, wellbeing and climate for which Holyrood is responsible our life is superior. It’s about time that SNP politicians challenge English audiences as to why they suer significantly poorer services, rights and benefits from UK governments. Equally, Unionist politicians in Scotland should be incessantly confronted with the question of what’s better – the benefits under SNP Scotland or Tory, Labour and Lib Dem England?
Since 2014, we have endured Brexit and a nasty robust Unionism from the Tories and Labour which is not going away. They have made devolution increasingly unworkable to the extent that the longer the SNP are in o§ce, the less powerful our Parliament becomes. In short that means that managing devolution is now incompatible with prosecuting independence. Humza and the SNP leadership have to recognise this fast, and forget working with Unionist parties whose raison d’être is to destroy the SNP. They will manipulate any policy to undermine their cause. Don’t give them that chance.
Independence is an urgent necessity. By going to the people with a cast-iron commitment not just to advance, but to deliver independence, Humza will garner the independence vote in a way no other party can. Humza is master of the situation by unilaterally putting the power in the hands of the Scottish people. We don’t ask him to believe in Scotland; instead we ask him to believe in the Scottish people!