“This document is long on words, short on vision and devoid of any strategy for independence”
“The absence of an ability to articulate the vast opportunities that independence will deliver sits against a backdrop of missed opportunities.
“The still workless BiFab yards, the chaos at Fergusson Marine, the lack of a comprehensive maritime strategyincluding the reinstatement of ferry services to Europe, do not inspire “a culture of delivery”.
“Yet all are necessary to supporting meaningful action on tackling poverty, which is being compounded by our continued control by Westminster Tories.
Responding to the Scottish Government’s 10-year economic plans ALBA’s Westminster Group Leader Neale Hanvey MP said,
“This document should be bursting with ideas and ambition for an independent Scotland where sustainable fuel security and a real just transition could be a certainty and not left to the whims of the global markets.
“If the Scottish Government were serious about delivering a referendum on Scottish independence next year, why would they be publishing a 10 year economic strategy on making the most of devolution?”
“The ALBA Party will continue to argue that independence is an urgent and pressing need and provides the real gateway to a fairer and more prosperous Scotland.”
They are just marking time till their MSPs and MPs grow up. There is very little talent left in the party!
👏🏻👏🏻
The SNP are too busy supporting fascists and Nazis in Ukraine. They have no time for the people of Scotland.
“If the Scottish Government were serious about delivering a referendum on Scottish independence next year, why would they be publishing a 10 year economic strategy on making the most of devolution?”
Quite.
So the SNP seem to be indicating that either there will be a referendum and Yes will lose or that there will not be a referendum at all.
I don’t know who they’re supporting! It’s Certainly no the people of Scotland.#ScottishIndependence is a must if they’ve no intentions of acting they should awe be punted asap. ❤️🏴No more destruction..#AlbaForIndependence..
In fairness to the SNP, this kind of waffle thrives because there’s an army of wafflers preaching to an army of wafflees who lap it all up.
As somebody who ran a small business, I would describe the attitudes towards my business shown by my local Authority, the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise wasn’t just ineffective, it was disgraceful and despicable, and quite openly hostile and prejudiced against my business. When challenged, the level of dishonesty and sophistry was quite nauseating, and while I couldn’t prove collusion, there were very few other conclusions to be drawn. It left me very bitter and angry for a long time.
I wasn’t after subsidy or support, but just needed to purchase a commercial site, where most of the available land was landbanked by quangos and earmarked for non-existent fictional developments which everybody and his dog knew were pure fantasy. A decade later, and virtually all of those sites remain vacant.
I considered the whole sector of “business” community which thrived on public funds and works was nothing but a jealously guarded racket, and I’ve seen very little to change that belief.
A massive step forward for Scotland would be to address regulation and anti-corruption measures. I’m not talking about useless Ombudsmen or Regulators, but proper investigators who take complaints seriously, apply the law, perform “sting” operations if necessary, and root out the corruption.
The chances of “this” SNP rooting out corruption is laughable. You needn’t look any further than Sturgeon’s evasiveness throughout the Fabiani Inquiry, the redaction of evidence, and the farce of allowing parties implicated in wrongdoing to dictate what evidence could be withheld. That “culture” of cynicism didn’t just materialise. It’s symptomatic of a mature and well oiled culture of sophistry that’s impenetrable by design.
The minutia of sleaze and corruption needs addressed, of course it does, but it’s the whole attitude and political culture which needs to change in order to break the cycles which make Scotland’s corruption endemic.
Truth be known, I don’t know whether it’s simply a greed that goes unchallenged, or whether there’s a deeper malevolence that maintains a level of corruption and economic gatekeeping so Scottish industry and commerce can be kept in the “right” hands.
Breeks – you have summed up much of the `great and good` and their little and not so little empires in Scotland. The corruption you speak of runs right through the public sector – including areas that have no direct commercial basis. Would that some of our politicians had woken up to this while they had the power to do something about it.
Quids in if you’re a big property developer though.
2 ‘brown envelope’ sites in our locale this year – both rejected by the council but overridden by the Scottish Government reporter.
The SNP is a party of neo liberal economics and neo con military ideas. It appears to be quite incapable of forming any kind of policy requiring independent thought, but follows the herd of conformity. It is a disgrace to call it the party of Scotland. It has thrown in the towel long since, and has no intention of bringing in a referendum, let alone any other route to independence, ever.
Please stop referring to the English government as Westminster and/or UK government. There is NO government of GB in the 1707 treaty despite there being a binary parliament to house both countries governments as equals. Nor is it an English parliament so English parliamentary conventions and sovereignty have absolutely NO place in it. Please stop pandering to the English government and its establishment if you are serious about reasserting Scotland’s statehood. The biggest hurdle for Scots is making them truly aware of what the treaty is and where authority truly lies. If Scots representatives refuse to call the English government the English government (whether they be Conservative or Labour is irrelevant) and to assert Scots sovereignty then they are no better than the English governments. I know I go on all the time about this but the Scots as a nation are largely psychologically wounded. How we talk to and about ourselves has serious consequences. If our self talk is negative our view of ourselves will reflect that as is seen by the numerous Scots who refer to Scotland as a colony instead of an equal partner to the treaty. What is the consequence of seeing Scotland as a colony when in truth it is an equal partner? The Scots falsely believe that a foreign country has the right to dictate what Scotland can and cannot do. It undermines Scotland as a sovereign nation state not only in an international Agreement but as a whole.
With regard to the main body of the article, the SNP have long since given up the pretence of being for independence or rather fully reasserting Scotland’s statehood. The support a “4 nation approach” on all things thus supporting the English Government’s narrative of England being a sole continuator state with Scotland subsumed into a greater England. The actions of the SNP over the past 8 years has proven this. Furthermore, the bill to replace the Barnett Formula throws the SNP 10 year plan out the window as everyone and their dog knows the English establishment will vote it through. It is curious that social media is quiet on that front but then how many know that this is already on its second reading and will be pushed through swiftly?
Good that Alba are holding the Scottish SNP government contingent to account but you need to start asserting Scotland’s sovereignty instead of treating it as abstract..
Gayle, we might still relate ongoing events and oppression of the Scots more widely to the nature of the colonial relationship and condition we exist within, the ending of which is ultimately the very reason for independence itself (i.e. decolonisation). As Albert Memmi described it:
“The ideological aggression which tends to dehumanize and then deceive the colonized finally corresponds to concrete situations which lead to the same result. To be deceived to some extent already, to endorse the myth and then adapt to it. That myth is furthermore supported by a very solid organization; a government and a judicial system fed and renewed by the colonizer’s historic, economic and cultural needs.”
An initiative was started last year (6th April), and a growing number of Scots are becoming aware of it, and more importantly participating in it, short but relevant details:
“The Declaration of an individual Sovereign Scot”: Its purpose – to regain the independence of Scotland.
Opening paragraph reads:
“Exercising my Claim Of Right as a Sovereign Scot, I declare:
I do not consent to the terms of, nor the continuation of, the Treaty of Union established through the Acts of Union in 1707.
Extract from a recent F/book post:
“The Declaration of Arbroath” was recognised by UNESCO as a “Memory of the World” – this initiative is intended to allow all “Sovereign Scots” to send a “Message to the World”, one which turns words into action.
How do we turn the words of the “Declaration” into action?
Action #1 is obvious, and open to all Sovereign Scots – accept this open invitation and sign your personal Declaration!
Action #2, is designed to play its part in regaining the independence of Scotland, however it requires explanation.
It involves lodging all signed Declarations at the United Nations and raising issues and questions all of which are related to the UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960.
More here:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=721078092610953&id=113742180011217
(Personal note: I am not, never have been, a member of any political party – and post on that basis)
My concern is that the SNP quislings have a referendum on a doggy voting franchise that allows 1 million English settlers to vote ,35k English off shore oil workers,13k English troops ,30k English students, whose allegiance is to their mother country and will vote No. Settlers should be offered citizens ship when the indigenous population have obtained a Yes vote in a constitutional referendum as recognised in the UN for the indigenous population only .I also think that Sturgeon would be halfhearted in any independence campaign and deliberately loose. This is how they will Gerrymandering your colonial enslavement permanently into a greater England you think you got democracy in a referendum but all the time they had you stiched up.
Why not a plebiscite and Desolve the Union, cause they know that’s the best way to get independence and they cant influence it.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻.