Yesterday the Independence movement had a rare victory of sorts. Drew Hendry wrote himself into the hearts of the YES support by fighting back against the obfuscation and arrogance of the imperial English Parliament. The headlines in the unionist media shout about an SNP MP trying to remove their sacred mace and disrupting their procedures. How dare that Jock upset those in Mother England’s Parliament. Jocks are meant to know their place and never question the authority or supremacy of the Crown. Scots though know the truth. Springs are in steps today.

Unionists prefer compliant souls like the present leader of the SNP grouping at Westminster. A really nice man, however he uses a lot of bluster but actually does not do much to progress independence. Nor does he threaten the English overlords comfort zones. The English establishment tolerates Ian because he knows his place, he abides by their rules! The Tory masters love to bray and shout down Ian as he repeats ad nauseam that ‘Scotland will not be dragged out of the EU against its will.’ The Tories and everyone else know the words he uses are empty threats. They have watched as many of these supposed Scottish patriots have shed their principals and bought into the entire Westminster corrupt fandango. The words of the great Winnie Ewing are but a distant memory. She was down there to settle up, not to settle down. Margo MacDonald, Margaret Bain, Donald Stewart, Alex Salmond, Jim Sillars, all bought into the same ethos as Winnie.

Sadly too many of the present crop have been bedazzled by the bright lights of London, the huge salaries and the obscene expenses. The subsidised bars and restaurants are a joy and barely dent the monthly pay check, besides it can be written off as an expense anyway. Some spend more time blocking SNP voters on twitter than actually advancing Scotland’s cause.

Happily though a few like Drew Henry, Angus McNeil still stalk the corridors in England’s imperial parliament. When that Scottish lion roars, we know the English leopard retreats. Bullies only understand one thing. They thrive on fear. They recoil when anyone stands up to them. In June 2018 when Ian Blackford led the SNP MPs out of the chamber in protest in the following week over 5,000 Scots joined the SNP. They thought that at last the party was about to fulfill its mission and the Independence final showdown would ensue. Regrettably it was but a one off act of defiance. Within days the SNP contingent were back to ‘Mr Speaker please….. The Hon Member… Can we have some more please sir?

We can never win our independence playing the game by Westminster’s rules. We need a better plan, disrupting, disrespecting and disputing the English Victorian imperialistic nonsense of Westminster.

What we are not privy to is if they took the decision as a group at Westminster or if Edinburgh told them to fall back into line and not rock the boat. Our present gradualist leadership prefers not to challenge the status quo, not to take the fight to London. That might upset the subsidised Scottish MSM, and the unionist die hards and that it seems frightens the bejesus out of our present leadership. The policy of appeasement and gradualism is bound to fail. The amassing of mandates and appealing for a Section 30 from the nice English Nationalist Prime Minister is never going to succeed. We have no leverage to make that ever happen.

The truth has to be told. Since the Holyrood Election of 2016 the SNP Party Leader has been hiding from the independence question. She received a mandate at that election from the sovereign people of Scotland. It stated that if there was any material change, like being taken out of the EU against our will then Scotland would hold a referendum of secession. On 23rd June that threshold was met when England and Wales voted to leave the EU. The FM instead of immediately preparing the ground for an independence referendum spent the next three years trying to force Scotland’s will upon the English voters. The very thing that we are up in arms about when English politicians try and succeed in overturning our votes.

For three years she was marching in England to stop Brexit. In that same time she never had the time or the inclination to march with the YES Movement in Scotland for independence. She also managed to find time to march in Gay Pride events but never independence events. She always made herself unavailable when it was for independence.

When the December 2019 election campaign began suddenly our leader became very interested in independence. We were told the only way to avoid Scotland being dragged out of the EU against its will and having an Independence referendum in 2020 was to Vote SNP at the December election. Once again the Scottish voters gave Nicola another mandate. Four weeks after the vote on 31st January 2020 (pre Covid!) she announced that we actually would be getting dragged out of the EU against our will. We were also informed that there would not be a 2020 independence referendum, despite Scotland voting the way it did in December. However, if we gave her just one more mandate in May 2021 she would definitely deliver us an Independence referendum before May 2026.

The question that must be asked, what happened between December 2019 and January 2020 that had Nicola Sturgeon breaking her pledge to the Scottish electorate so quickly? It wasn’t Covid that was still 6 weeks away. What then? Was the entire SNP 2019 General Election a lie, a con job on the voters? The Independence referendum was it the bait and a lie just to win an election?

Then came the Alex Salmond trial. It would take several blogs to do that justice, pun intended. Suffice to say it was a disgrace and we are still facing fall out from that conspiracy to this day. However, when it came time for our party leader to give evidence at this farcical trial, she made herself unavailable citing First Minister’s duties and Covid business.

In Jean Freeman we arguably have one of our most able Cabinet Secretaries. She knows her brief inside out, she is intelligent, articulate and comes over as confident and able when speaking. In Jason Leitch we have another very able person, a health professional that has shown, when permitted that he is more than capable of handling the daily briefings. Prof. Devi Sridhar one of the advisory panel on Covid response is yet another talent that has been sidelined. The First Minister with all this talent at her disposal has ignored them to take centre stage instead. It has in my opinion been a huge mistake and a missed opportunity. It has also been a perfect cover to hide from pressing ahead with an  independence campaign.

The moment, the Unionists and the propaganda machine that is the BBC politicised the daily briefings is when Nicola Sturgeon should have walked away and left it all to her very able and talented team. This would also have cut the legs from Ross and the BBC collaborators.

Why she didn’t we do not know, perhaps one day we will find out. Personally I have my own theory. While she is fully committed to Covid, she doesn’t have to face the elephants in the room, independence and Alex Salmond. What better cover to use as an excuse for avoiding the pressing matters of the day than to play the Covid card?

There is a pattern of hiding and running away from reality. We saw for ourselves that the GRA faction had taken over the party’s ruling body. We were alerted that the NEC had not once discussed independence in 18 months! We also discovered that the party leader, rarely, if ever attended the NEC in this time. No wonder a single issue faction managed to take control of the NEC. Was it negligence that allowed this to happen or was it with the blessing of the party leader?

Many of us asked how this could have been allowed to happen. It took a monumental effort by the grassroots of the party to prevent a disaster. They came together to democratically reject these zealots as Holyrood candidates.They were also democratically replaced on the NEC by independence minded ordinary members. When this was happening where was the party leader? Not a peep was heard, no public congratulations to the incoming NEC. Too busy with Covid perhaps?

The single issue faction had one more opportunity to impose their narrow view on Scottish society. Last week, a crucial bill, The Forensic Medical Services Bill at Holyrood was being debated. Johann Lamont tabled an amendment replacing the word gender with sex. It may seem quite a trivial change however it has huge implications. Once again the grassroots were called into action and they harried and cajoled their SNP MSPs to support the amendment. Happily the amendment passed and Lamont’s excellent and sensible intervention thankfully won the day.

When the votes were made public one thing was glaringly obvious. When this very contentious subject was debated and decided our First Minister was once again missing in action. Perhaps Covid duties? Perhaps the fear of offending the GRA zealots? Best solution hide from accountability and use plausible deniability. Something we have seen time and again.

When Fundamentalist Yes Supporters press the SNP leadership to progress Scotland’s escape from the union straight jacket they are told to Wheesht For Indy! Nicola is too busy with Covid just now.She has a secret plan, and it will happen. Look at the polls and leave Nicola alone she is busy with Covid.

In just 13 days, Brexit starts to bite when the transition period ends. A No deal looms. What is the SNP Government going to do to mitigate this disaster for Scots?

Nobody knows! Wheesht, Nicola is too busy with Covid. What about in 14 days time when the IMB can be enacted and the Tories can start stripping powers from our devolution? Wheesht Nicola is too busy with Covid!

Let me though be crystal clear, the Covid pandemic needs constant attention. As I have shown there are many people far more able and trained medical professionals in the team that could be dealing with this matter. We also have an extremely talented Cabinet Health Secretary in Jean Freeman. The reality is Nicola should only be there on the occasions of vital policy changes or protocols.

That is why Drew Hendry is today the name on every independinistas lips, someone at last is fighting for Scotland. Someone has had the courage to stand up to the Tory bullies and say Enough! We need more like Drew Henry to take the fight to the ruling imperialists. The Brexit Armageddon is looming, and instead of delegating to her more than able Health experts our First Minister keeps herself busy with Covid daily briefings. She needs to spend every waking hour on attaining Scotland’s Independence nothing should be more important to her at this time.

It is either time to grab the Independence reins or step aside and we the grassroots will find ourselves a warrior. We do not need an administrator or PR person. We need a fighter. We need more of the Drew Henry spirit and less of the Neville Chamberlain nonsense!

 

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