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From the Craig Murray Justice Campaign blog:
The Alba Party conference, Greenock, Scotland – 11 Sept 2021
Nadira Murray: Thank you. It’s an honour to be here.
I had intended to speak in person, but have been unavoidably detained. It is really not very pleasant to be locked in a small cell for over 22 hours a day. However, I have this consolation: however many months they keep me in here, I am most unlikely to miss any progress on the SNP’s eleven-point plan for independence.
I am proud to be a founder member of Alba. Alba is now the only mass membership party in Scotland which is an independence party and not a devolutionist party. The Scots are a people with the inalienable right of self-determination under the UN Charter. There is no Westminster law and no London-based court which can constrain that right. It is for us, and us alone, to decide how to assert our independence. The time for that is upon us.
I believe Alba will be a truly radical party. I hope it will return the land of Scotland to its common people. The current so-called “land reform” is a disgrace. It has paid millions of pounds to the Duke of Buccleuch for marginal land for which he had little use.
Real land reform will give land to the people without rewarding those whose ancestors stole it in the first place.
Now, we do not all agree on everything. I have a very different view to most Alba members on how to reconcile the social trend away from binary and rigid gender distinctions, with protection of women’s rights.
But if any two people agree on absolutely everything, one of them is not thinking. Good and well-motivated people may sincerely hold different policy views. The very notions of respect for dissident opinion and freedom of speech are under sustained attack.
No member of any political party should face insult, abuse and threats for holding a position different to the leader. That the SNP has forgotten this is what brings most of you here.
To move forward together to independence does not mean we have to march in goose step. The ability of the Scottish Government to employ the police and Crown Office to pursue political vendettas is a major constitutional flaw. Their willingness to do so is a black page in Scottish history.
How scared of ideas do you have to be before you start imprisoning writers? My being here is not a demonstration of the strength of the Scottish Establishment. It is a sign of its weakness.
Alba needs to be not just a breath of fresh air, but a strong blast. The attempt to hijack popular support for independence to quite other ends will be blown away.
It is for us to take up the banner of national freedom for Scotland’s people. We shall not fail.
[ 30-second standing ovation ]
Cameron Murray: Thank you all for coming.
