The UK government is reeling. It is like a boxer already knocked unconscious before hitting the floor. The wheels of the civil service continue to turn, but there is no longer any connecton to those at the top. Authority has simply disintegrated in Boris Johnson’s hands. Everybody knows he is no longer in charge, and nobody yet knows who will be.
The time to act is when your opponent is at their weakest. This is the moment for Scotland. With a majority for Independence both in the Holyrood Parliament and – massively – among Scottish MPs at Westminster, this is the time for Scotland’s elected representatives to declare that Scotland is now an Independent state. They should set a date for a confirmatory plebiscite, I suggest in September this year. That plebiscite to be held within a Scotland already independent, held on Scotland’s terms and in Scotland’s way, with no interference from outside of Scotland.
The declaration of Independence could be made now by the Holyrood parliament or – perhaps better – by a National Assembly to be convened in the old Parliament Hall of Edinburgh, consisting of all Scotland’s MP’s and MSP’s, in other words all representatives elected at the national level. The Act of Union would thus be repealed in the building where it was passed.
Scotland should declare Independence because it is continually governed by parties for which it does not vote, has indeed been forced out of the EU against its will, and has witnessed the polity of the United Kingdom become a cesspit of lies and corrupt malpractice which Scotland should never have to suffer.
How would the UK be able to react? Who could lead the campaign against Scotland’s new Independence? The utterly discredited Boris Johnson? Rishi Sunak as his tax increases and coming sky high energy bills destroy his artificial popularity? The hopeless Liz Truss? Michelle Mone if not in prison?
The massed supporters of Anas Sarwar and Douglas Ross would hardly fill a bus. A few toothless wonders might be found to wear union jacks and smash up George Square in Glasgow, but their activity would not extend much beyond closing time.
The SNP let the golden opportunity of Brexit slip by through a cowardly acceptance of Theresa May’s claim to a power to veto any referendum. The SNP never used their Westminster parliamentary leverage to forward Independence during months of May’s effective minority government.
The SNP believed that, rather than win an Independent Scotland still in the EU, it was their duty to try to prevent England and Wales from leaving the EU, even though England and Wales had voted to leave.
Now apparently the SNP believe it is their duty to strengthen the United Kingdom by working towards the replacement of Boris Johnson by a more honest and effective leader of the union. Who will enjoy a honeymoon period, may get a post-Covid popularity boost, and will probably be less toxic to the people of Scotland than Boris Johnson. Rather than act now on Independence, the SNP seek to strengthen the union.
In short, the SNP seem far more intent on maintaining their position on the gravy train of governance inside the UK than on actually attaining Independence.
It is simply astonishing that, with the United Kingdom government falling apart before their eyes, it has not occurred to any of the SNP leadership to act now for Independence. Instead they wish to act to shore up the United Kingdom.
Now is the moment for the Scottish MPs to walk out of a Westminster parliament which is already on the verge of collapse. It should be simply unconscionable for any genuine Independence supporter to do otherwise.
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Instead of nationalist division here’s an idea of how to address all and any minority prejudice and set up a new role and membership base for the upper chamber.
Upper chamber to be appointed for life (or say 20 years) from all parts of society.
Any minority to be able to present a petition to the chamber and set out its evidence.
Chamber debates.
Jury of 12 random members of upper house makes recommendations / decisions.
Of course tricky to ensure the selection of members is appropriate and fair and that members are genuinely independent. Would require a real culture of embracing duty above self-interest and an oath along the lines of JFK’s W Virginia speech about not being the Catholic candidate and that on whatever issue he would make decision on the subject and on what his conscience tells him his in the country’s interest or resign.
Also tricky to work out what powers to give to the chamber.
(Of course this all assumes no deep state subversives.)
Just throwing it out there…..
Why have an “upper chamber”? Normal countries get by with a national assembly or a fake second chamber like England.
OK call it another. Brain has two sides. One is for the big picture and the other for the grasping detail.
Time to break away completely from the old systems. These were set up by the powerful, rich families as a way of managing the masses. Scotland could do better, or will they just continue with a corrupt system that marginalised the people to benefit the 1% ?
Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.
Bertrand Russell
Only the darkest of hearts and most irrational of minds has ever objected to rule by English Tories.
Bertrand Russell
I don’t think Russell would have been a Tory supporter. What is the source of this quote?
Yorkshire Puddings are a crime against humanity.
Bertrand Russell…_
Agreed, the beef shouldn’t be missing. Bertrand Russell must have been fed up with such a diet. Even better, put the burger in it like a sandwich:
https://metro.co.uk/2016/09/23/the-yorkshire-pudding-burger-is-here-to-take-comfort-food-to-another-level-6146982/
Well I disagree profoundly with Mr Russell. The times in my life I have felt most happy were times i was utterly at peace with myself, not surrounded by the sorts of psychopaths and narcissists which MI6 and MI5 are so keen to recruit and the levels of my personal performance in the arenas I was then focussing on never reached higher peaks.
Hatred is an expression of a loss of faith that things can get better. It is a sign of having given up. It is a sign of an ongoing refusal to understand both sides of an argument. It is a sign of unquestioning thoughtlessness.
Anger is entirely different in nature. It is transitory, it is a mechanism to express strong disapproval, disagreement, outrage etc etc. It’s aim is to provoke another party to modify their stance and it is the stick half of constructive diplomatic engagement.
I strongly recommend to all that read this blog that hatred is not the way to gain independence. Implacable determination is a far better route…..
Moderator: please delete this as not being of a sufficient standard
Lets remember what independence actually means and why it is necessary for ‘a people’.
What events such as, for example, the ongoing plunder of Scotland’s resources and an enforced EU exit for Scots demonstrate is that: “Colonization is, above all, economic and political exploitation” (Albert Memmi).
Colonialism also involves cultural and linguistic oppression which comes in many forms, not least the BBC and the fact that the Scots language is not taught or given statutory authority in Scotland, as highlighted by successive Council of Europe Minority Language reports.
Memmi also tells us that “independence is a matter only for the colonized”, and nobody else.
And, if anyone is still in any doubt on the matter, the UN Decolonization Committee (C-24) defines independence for non self-governing territories as, quite obviously, ‘decolonization’, the latter a process which should not be subject to any external interference by other peoples or agencies. https://www.un.org/dppa/decolonization/en/c24/about
There is a theoretical framework outlining Scotland’s ongoing predicament, as very briefly outlined here:
https://www.facebook.com/YesHaddington/videos/professor-alf-baird-speaking-at-yes-haddingtonyes-tranent-meeting-151221/1059504741259620
All true, but:
If Scotland were declare independence now, Putin would surely be blamed, anyone actually voting for independence tarred as puppets, the MSM would howling in unison, etc. Like Catalonia x10.
«The UK government is reeling. It is like a boxer already knocked unconscious before hitting the floor. The wheels of the civil service continue to turn, but there is no longer any connecton to those at the top. Authority has simply disintegrated in Boris Johnson’s hands. Everybody knows he is no longer in charge, and nobody yet knows who will be.»
That is a wild, wild exaggeration: it is just a tempest in a teapot, an attack by the “globalist whig” right-wing faction against the front-man of the “nationalist tory” right-wing faction. Note how all the attacks on Johnson are apolitical, they are not attacks on his policies or politics, purely about rather minor misdemeanors like pricey wallpaper or boozy “work” meetings done quite a while ago. Also note that the evidence for those “work” meetings can only come from people who attended them, and it is thus other Conservatives that are sending to Conservatives newspapers etc. documentary proof of their own guilt… Strange? 🙂
On the things that matter the right-wing elites are united and firmly in control of government and politics; factional infighting on the top jobs and the details is just normal.
It’s funny how so many supporters of the UK say it would be a shame to put up a border on the island of Great Britain never seem to say the same about removing the border on the island of Ireland.
The Irish border does divide a country that many accept should be one political, social, economic, legal and cultural country.
I support all moves towards a united Ireland.
Nobody would expect Scotland to be divided by a wall with, or without, independence. I have never heard any argument from UK supporters, opponents or agnostics, in favour of dividing the highlands, lowlands and islands of Scotland from each other.
I will support any decision of the citizens of Scotland re independence.
But yet again we have a dog whistle blog from Mr. Murray that leads nowhere. The Scottish political landscape remains as it has been for a long time, the SNP are the Blairite party still in power having captured New Labour voters in Scotland. Alba are a fart in a storm and the polls support damn near all referendum ever held in Scotland. That harsh reality is not sinking in to the corridors of power in the independence movement.
That reality is that the unionist sentiment is still transcendent and the forces in favour of independence are not…_
” I support all moves to a United ireland” – well, good for you.
” the polls support damn near all referendum ever held in Scotland.” – No idea what this means.
” the Unionist sentiment is still transcendent …” – I agree because it has captured the SNP just like it captured the IRA. In terms of Scots voters it is not.
Vote Alba for Scottish independence, and I’m not farting about.
Ireland’s a foreign country; all we English can legitimately want is out. What the Irish do about it is up to them.
A good thought, Craig. Unfortunately, not a hope in Hell.
The impending attack on Russia comes first.
The Grand Republic of Scotland, how sweet the sound, how difficult the path, beset with the bramble of raging emotionalism, bereft of the hard protections of experience against thorns tears. A hard look at history’s revolutions of the modern age may shed a historical light on needed factors leading to accomplishing revolt against established power and constructing a new power in its place. Niccolò Machiavelli noted in “Discourses on Livy” that those groups having experience in self governance tended reestablishing self governance easily whereas those groups not having self governance experience tended to fail. Much wisdom contained there.
The N. American colonial revolt was politically lead by leading social and economic figures, financing a civilian militia formed into military organisations operating against forces at great distances from the metropolitan power, gaining great advantage of logistics. There was an important separation between political leadership and those fighting, Logistics defeated the greater military organisation, the defending military never became a political power in its own right.
The French Revolution began as a revolt of the population having no organised political leadership. The void in leadership became filled from a nascent educated, professional political classes directing the revolution and its organisation. They also fell to the organisation of Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Empire. The French have been trying to assemble a Republic ever since to greater but mostly lesser successes.
The Russian revolution began as a civilian political replacement for the Tzar’s limitations and political failures of governance. That also fell to politically radical organisations styling themselves Marxist leading to civil war. Having prevailed, the Marxists applying their economic ideology coerced compliance throughout the former Russian empire, Faced with economic development imperatives, modified the empire from economic backwardness to a modern industrial entity at great social (political and ethical) cost, prevailing against German aggression. Soviet Russian revolution failed of internal contradictions becoming today’s Russian Confederation (and daughter states).
All these have lessons needing observation by those trying for a Scottish independence, what can and cannot be accomplished by a frank, clear and honest assessment of current Scottish conditions. The questions of: who is backing the movement; the depth of their support; the breadth of that support; the political, social and economic capacity, capital of that support and the degree of rational competence they demonstrate. Emotional exuberance should have other solid foundation as emotions are like a flag in the wind, pointing to where at the moment the wind is blowing and seldom provides the necessary components for forming a functional governance. It is a tall order to construct a convincing governance that can stand on its own, but that is what will be required for a Grand Republic of Scotland. May Godspeed your path.
In response to Scottish Daily Express article “Disgraced former diplomat Craig Murray urges SNP to declare independence – without a referendum”, Billosky1917 commented:
“Disgraced”? Is it disgraceful to be sentenced to eight months imprisonment on a conveniently concocted “jigsaw identification” charge that was clearly employed politically, and thus unjustly, by the prosecutors in the Salmond trial to punish Murray for his earlier, scrupulously no identities revealing comments on the case, as well as for his constructive aid to Salmond’s defense, where Murray helped establish that several plaintiffs in the case had been goaded into providing false testimony against Salmond by the SNP leadership, a revelation which resulted in an acquittal rather than the leadership’s desired conviction, a conviction which would probably have incarcerated Salmond for decades, ruined the man’s political career, and destroyed his personal reputation?
Clearly, if there is any “disgrace” involved in the cooked-up incarceration of Murray, it must pertain to the prosecution and the malign forces that used them to carry out a political vendetta against Murray, just as earlier against Salmond. It is hardly disgraceful, but indeed very honorable, to have stood up to such patent abuses of the state’s prosecutorial powers, while paying a heavy toll for doing so, as Murray has done.
(https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/scottish-news/disgraced-former-diplomat-craig-murray-26078190#comments-wrapper)
Is this meant to be satire? The SNP are a bunch of globalists firmly entrenched in the establishment which is pan-national. The English faction of the establishment was dragged kicking and screaming out of the EU by a misjudged appeal to plebiscite – too caught up in their own madness to understand what people want. Of course the SNP are not leaving until England is safely back in the EU. You write as if the SNP were actually an ethnically based nationalist party… but then that would involve you addressing an enormous prehistoric elephant in the room about nationalism. SNP nationalism is incoherent and only exists as being not English. If Scotland actually achieved independence without England in the EU the SNP would implode and the SNP leadership are well aware of this. The last thing the SNP leadership wants is actual Scottish independence. The SNP could probably work with fake independence in an EU of which England is region (and actually broken up by the EU into sub-regions) but it’s not going to fly otherwise. I lived in Edinburgh for 40 years (I’m an Englishman but I now live in S.E Asia) and am of the belief that any productive ethnic Scots have either left or those who reside in Scotland have most of their business transacted outside Scotland. When I left, a year or so ago, Edinburgh seemed to be filling up with Poles.