Here’s how we can establish that ‘royal assent’ isn’t needed
selfish calculations, be it around profiteering by arms manufacturers and sellers, or around the interests of nations and power blocks, or those of psychopathic rulers. There is also the critical dearth of honest risk assessment around dangerous escalation, possibly into nuclear war.
Continuation with war also displays another level of human stupidity – it keeps the real and urgent business right at the bottom of the agenda – and we are running out of time. Every other day we get fresh warnings about what we are doing to our climate and biosphere but there is little sign of a move towards the trans-global collaboration that is essential if we are to avoid catastrophe.
We honour these frontline war resisters but to also commit ourselves afresh to do whatever we can to put our own spanners in the works. As Howard Zinn put it about the Vietnam War: “They’ll say we’re disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What
We commit ourselves to putting our own spanners in the works
really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war.”
David Mackenzie
Secure Scotland
AS I have opined lang syne, the recognition and long-overdue establishment of a Palestinian state is of paramount importance.
It is imperative for the people of Scotland request that a vote be taken in their own parliament in Edinburgh to establish that Scotland fully supports Ireland, Norway and Spain in their formal recognition of Palestinian statehood, and to formally advise the UN and EU of the result of such a vote.
In line with my mantra regarding Scotland’s own shackled position within the colonial UK shambles, we shall not achieve independence for decades to come unless urgent and sustained efforts and progress are instigated to rationalise, mobilise and internationalise.
Séamas Ó Dálaigh
Cala nan clach
IHAVE no faith in politicians providing us with a strategy which will lead the Scottish people to an independent Scotland. In 2014 the SNP government, led by Alex Salmond, took the people a long way on the road to independence, but failed to convince the majority that his plan for independence was sound, not least because he failed to address the currency issue.
Alex, quite properly, resigned as first minister in recognition of his failure and that was the right and honourable thing to do. Now Alex is back with a new party, but still without a strategy for implementing independence, and he wants us to split the independence vote in an election for Westminster seats. That seems to me to be an invitation to divide the movement, not to help us.
Why do Alba want seats at Westminster anyway? Are they not committed to Scotland having its own government? Why do Alba not respect the sovereignty of the Scottish people and use this to base an independence strategy on? They will not find that at Westminster.
The Scottish Greens have demonstrated to all of us recently that they are not focused on independence and are prepared to work with the Unionists in order to put pressure on the SNP leadership. The Greens clearly have not got a clue about any strategy for achieving independence, nor do they feel very concerned about this.
The new SNP leader thinks that in order to comply with the “rule of law” he needs to accept that just over 300 MPs in Westminster, even if not one of them lives in Scotland, have control of a puppet King, who on their direction can have sovereign power over the Scottish people and can prevent the Scottish Parliament from enacting legislation, irrespective of what his Scottish “subjects” think.
With politicians thinking like that we won’t get anywhere, unless the people play a more significant role and the politicians start to respect the voices of the people. The SNP have some really first-class members: Dr Tim Rideout on currency, for example, Graeme McCormick on land reform and taxation, Joanna
Cherry on law. If John Swinney does intend to respect the Scottish people and listen to the talented members of his own party and others then we should have a winning team which can enable us to take control of our future, and we can have independence within five years.
However, we need a clear strategy on how we will achieve this. The SNP have all they need to develop such a strategy: it is simple and complies with the democratic principle of “the rule of law” which John is concerned about. So let me explain how this can be applied.
The Scottish Parliament is currently processing the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill, which proposes to make changes in Scottish constitutional matters that have existed before the Treaty of Union. In order to give this legislation the sovereign authority which all legislation needs, the Scottish Government should put this bill to a referendum of the Scottish people once it has gone through parliament.
This would be in compliance with Scottish and international law. It would also demonstrate that the “Royal Assent” signed by Charles III was not required for Scottish constitutional matters, because sovereign authority would be obtained from the Scottish people.
Now, if the SNP government did that and got a bill successfully passed into law in this way, then they would have re-established the sovereignty of the Scottish people and how it can be applied. That would be a major step towards Scottish independence and one which would be welcomed by all independence supporters.
Andy Anderson Ardrossan