It was a sunny day, unusual for Scotland in March, 2018. An organising team of 4 admins and a couple of others had been watching the long-term weather forecast for the past fortnight and the Gods of the Yes Movement had smiled upon us.
For the past 6 weeks, this group with no previous organisational experience in the YES movement had pulled together 5,000 people to a demonstration in support of our Scottish parliament against the Tory power grab as it was called at the time.
There was no funding, no money to print leaflets, just people who believed in the cause they were fighting for.
The event became a watershed in independence events in that it was held outside parliament on a day when there were no politicians inside and on a work day to boot.
The idea was to form a human chain around parliament in a defensive position against the threat from Westminster to grab powers already devolved to the Scottish parliament.
The event was called Hands Off Our Parliament now affectionately known to 5,000 attendees as HOOP.
Leaflets were designed by Fiona Mackinnon and shared over social media to every corner of the country. Speakers from across the indy movement turned up to speak, some for the first time ever.
Cliff Serbie and his Dad hand cut and painted almost 200 shields to form a schiltron, as well as organising with the security people in the Parliamentary Control Board.They delivered them all in his van which broke new records for torq in suspension springs.
The whole event would be scheduled to last for 7 hours and include The ring round parliament, the schiltron, speeches and a DJ to fill in and keep the crowds spirits up.
Holyrood has a natural amphitheatre which did away with the necessity to have a stage. The PA was supplied by the DJ free of charge. All we had to pay for the complete event was £69 to hire a generator. Everything else was done and supplied by volunteers.
It was a day of defiance against Westminster and people came from Orkney and Shetland, the Western Isles, the Highlands and they stood with one voice HANDS OFF OUR PARLIAMENT! The ring around the building and its grounds was 7 deep in places.
42 Months Later
On the 8th September, 2021 a statutory instrument was laid in the name of parliament to add it to a list of protected buildings using a Westminster law. Not so much about having power grabbed but begging for it to be taken from you.
On 9th of September it cleared parliament without a vote which is not required for secondary legislation.
Theres no coincidence that this took less than 24 hours to go through the Holyrood process and will now come into law on October 1st, 2021.
A week before there had been the first anti-Scottish Government protest by a group of Gender Critical women who were protesting against the erosion of womans sex based rights which are protected by international law, but which are being encroached upon by the Scottish government, who are redefining language instead of sex.
500 angry women stood in front of the parliamentary building in the hour preceding First Ministers Questions and spoke one after another of the hard- won rights that their sex had fought and died for over the past hundred years.
The event was good natured, if a bit boisterous, but the First Minister was ritually booed every time her name was mentioned.
It was obviously the last straw for rudderless First Minister who has pinned her flag to an agenda run by fanatics and whose husband is under police investigation for perjury as well as fraud. Her husband, Peter Murrell is CEO of the party of which she is leader.
As the leader of the party of government Nicola Sturgeon could have stopped this if she had wanted. In fact it could never have happened unless she had instigated it.
The SNP are under attack from all over and are now drowning in a swamp of their own overindulgence.This arrogance born of time without opposition is under threat. Now the SNP are desperately trying to keep hold of a narrative they thought they had bought with £3 million pounds in COVID money.
They have resorted to jailing Journalists who speak out against them.
Shaming publicly women standing up for their legally protected sex based rights.
No platforming other independence parties and expulsions from the party for frivolous complain ts whilst actively encouraging their home grown trolls such as Marcus Carslaw and Johnny Kielmann.
At HOOP we defied Westminster believing that they were the threat to Scotland’s Parliament and her Independence.
We made a ring around the building to keep Westminster out.
Little did we realise that the real enemy was already inside our Parliament.
Great article Dave.
The ‘bunker mentality’ – there for all to see.
Horribly depressing as every word is horribly true. But thank you, Dave, as your strictly honest piece will open many more eyes to the extraordinary truth.
Little did we realise the authoritarianism that we were voting for. I now wish I’d not listened to Alex and done what I’d originally intended to do, namely spoil my ballot paper. This new legislation must be defied.
I couldn’t bring myself to vote for them. I spoiled my ballot and voted for Alba on the list. Still trying to decide whether to bother voting at all in the future.
I also couldn’t bring myself to vote SNP , I also voted ALBA on the list and I am perplexed how they only recd 1% of the vote
However what IMO is needed now is for ALBA to get the gloves off and hold Sturgeon and her tartan taliban trans troops to account , I think they should go on the attack and vociferously publicly expose and vilify the attacks on women for opposing the GRA , I think they should concentrate on educating and informing the women in Scotland what this reviled and dangerous act means for our future female children and how these perverts and deviants are introducing rules in primary schools that DELIBERATELY EXCLUDE parents and their responsibilities when people know the TRUTH Sturgeon and her disciples will be toast .
Make no mistake this is only the start of their perversions , their co conspirators are hiding under the acronym MAP which stands for (Minor Attracted Person) which is commonly known as PAEDOPHILE or PAEDOPHILIA which ANY responsible or respectable adult views with repugnance and revulsion , is this the future for our children in a perverted and deviant Scotland ruled by these creatures
Thanks Dave and Roddy for this article
That sly, sneaky little manoeuvre has destroyed the link between Scots and their Parliament.
The People of Scotland are Sovereign and that destructive clique that has removed democracy from the SNP Party are now attempting to do the same to our Nation.
The enemy is within.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Very little point in independence if we can’t more easily kick their arses than we can of those in WM. Is that the goal? Make Indy seem pointless and get people to lose faith in Holyrood as a parliament?
I was at the HOOP demo, it’s funny but at that time I believed and defended Nicola at every turn. Now, I find it extremely difficult to watch or listen to her. Betrayal always from somebody you thought you knew.
So true Ronald.
Maybe the next human chain around Holyrood should face inwards – to protect the people of Scotland from the monsters within. 🙂
Are they going to lock up 5,000 protesters?
The last AUOB in Edinburgh started at Holyrood. Over 100,000 walked past Holyrood that day. Well over. Peacefully.
Sturgeon’s Police Scotland can’t stop the will of the People.
This rushed law makes Sturgeon look scared. By God she’ll need to be dragged out of power, kicking & screaming. She has harmed so many getting to the top, she knows there will be no mercy shown to her, on her way back down again.
Thanks Dave for a great article. What strength of conviction those people had, makes me so proud to be a Scot. What has happened to us? We have been lied to sold out to the Tories by a woman who knows no shame, an egotistical Tyrant with no conscience or ethics. Over the years she has managed to wear us down for a time believing her every word, she has knocked the soul out of true independence seekers. Is there any hope for us now can we all rise up again? YES Saor Alba.
The only book she has probably read is by Bishop Berkley:
(subjective idealism)This theory denies the existence of material substance and instead contends that familiar objects like tables and chairs are ideas perceived by the minds and, as a result, cannot exist without being perceived. Berkeley is also known for his critique of abstraction, an important premise in his argument for immaterialism.
If she keeps on not listening, we will disappear.
Not much of a strategy, but then our first minister is no strategist above the level of office politics.
The SNP are dead, long live the ISP and ALBA.
Well said 🏴
Been saying for years that Scots need to hold their own to account and not to blame everything on the English government and its establishment. Perhaps now some will take heed.
I’m beginning to wonder if this is more than just about Scotland. Could it be that the home nations are going to be so badly hit by Brexit and the post Covid financial situation that there could be serious food and drug shortages and that the govts fear riots? We know that the greatest fear of the Maybe they are using the GRA as a smokescreen to hide what they are really all up to. The more I see the more I can’t help but feel that all politicians are the same. All in it together either with no care about the population or with the attitude that they know best and that we are just simple sheep who don’t need to know what’s going on.
Fantastic article, every word of which is true.
“We should focus on the real threats to women, not the threats that, while I appreciate that some of these views are very sincerely held, in my view, are not valid.”
Nicola Sturgeon 9th September 2021
If the threats were not ‘valid’ it would take a few paragraphs at most to explain why.
I see it as a smokescreen for what they are not up to.
Westminster decides and they are free to decorate things according to circumstances.
Such as tidying holyrood’s front garden of visible dissent
This is nothing to do with Westminster. It has Sturgeon’s fingerprints all over it. The silence of the SNP should be enough for even the cult to realise.
I was talking in more general terms, but this indeed an indulgence from westminster that our fatally flawed FM chose all by herself.
Sometimes women need safe spaces after all.
So what does she think the “real threats” to women are? As a WASPI woman the biggest threat to me is the poverty under which I have to live until I get my pension. She is doing sod all about that.
Does she seriously believe that self ID will not, cannot be exploited by predators? That is either extremely naive or a complete denial of the reality of human nature.
I really can’t make up my mind about her motivations but I no longer believe she has the interests of Scots or Scotland at heart.
Any spin from the WG sheepdug or his sheep on this so far?
Wee Chid
WASPI is another example of where the SNP are all talk no action.
WGD – Kavanagh and his sheep just avert their eyes from anything that does not fit their image of Sturgeon/SNP. Kavanagh called the persecution of Salmond a conspiracy theory but he knows what Sturgeon did.
Our maritime boundary with England was moved by Statutory Instrument of Westminster before the Scottish Parliament was set up. Wonderful tool if you don’t want voting, and public notice to be alerted until it is all over.
While it is fact that both Westminster and the Senned in Wales both have this in place, it smacks of collaboration with Westminster in this instance. How are you going to fight the maritime boundary change after independence when you are prepared to introduce legislation by the back door yourself, using Westminster protocol to do it?
That this stuff was pushed through after the recent demonstration by hundreds of women opposed to the GRA Reform is sheer coincidence, eh, Nicola, Lorna and Patrick? It might well be and you were planning this all along. trouble is: we don’t believe you. We believe nothing you say anymore.
Well done, Dave and Roddy.
There is also ‘Enabling legislation’ ( a bin you can throw anything into), orders in council.They are executive reach arounds when needs must, ie when they have no popular,or even parliamentary support.
The mother of parliaments is well into senility.
Excellent article Dave.
There seems to be no end to the vindictiveness of Sturgeon.
Can’t even look at her.
Some very good and well constructed comments here .. I’m not as eloquent as some , so thought I would join in bu saying I hope this has opened a few peoples eyes to tje underhand way the FM conducts business … this is using law for laws sake
No smoke without fire. And, yet again Independence is pushed back for 2 years.
Mike Russell said yesterday they will only legislate for a referendum if they are certain to win it.
Well said Dave !
How insidious and disgusting is this ?!
Bring on HOOP 2.0.
Count me in !!
😡✊🏴
An excellent article! I wish I didn’t have to – and could think of alternative arguments for what has taken place by our own people, in our own Parliament, in our own country. But I have to agree with every single word, Dave.
I can’t believe I pledged allegiance to these people and this party for so many years! The loyalty & trust I gave them so willingly & – this deceitful, dishonest woman has treated it as, at best her ‘right’ to it & at worst, scathingly as though it meant nothing to her & her party. Well… now I am beyond angry she cares so little for those that offered her/her party their loyalty & votes… and I’ll be fighting to make sure she loses everything she gained by stepping over Scottish people in her bid to get what SHE wants.
Thanks Dave. From feeling like ‘leaving the field’, I’m back to screaming at Sturgeon/SNP/Scotgov ‘Over my dead body!’.
Thank you.
That you everyone for your kind comments . I am more of a doer than a writer. I did a video on this last night and then tried to put the rant on paper as many if you were there and many of you can see the difference I have been watching Holyrood for a while and I am not exaggerating when I say I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if a mysterious fire was to break out in parliament , elections to be cancelled and trains to be running to send us to re education camps . I fear for an independent country run by Sturgeon and her Wehrmacht
Whatever you do, you’re doing it right, just keep on.
I’ll try to get along to the next CM demo, it really boils my piss that I haven’t been since the first, dark day.
If enough of us oppose this it will not stand. Do people care enough in sufficient numbers to show these comfy bureacrats the error of their ways ? The silence of SNP rank and file is sickening.
As Lorna Campbell and Paul imply above, whenever it wishes to, Westminster may fast-track new rules designed to protect the devolved regime and keep it in place, or the opposite as the case may be; ultimately the colonial power has full control over its subordinate (non-sovereign) entities. We should remember here that the UK civil servants administering the Holyrood parliament and also running Scottish Government departments are Whitehall’s finest, and therefore one may assume anti-independence – fowk cannae ser twa maisters!
Postcolonial theory tells us that a dominant National Party elite will make its own ‘accommodation with colonialism’, which is what we see with the SNP, the latter merely the political ‘face’ of a compliant colonial administration. Here we are reminded by Frantz Fanon of the reality of the situation in that “the colonial regime owes its legitimacy to force (and) the affirmation of the principle: ‘its them or us’ does not constitute a paradox, since colonialism… is in fact the organization of a Manichaean world, a world divided up into compartments.”
So no, this is not about the SNP elite acting alone, as to do what has been done requires the full collaboration if not also guidance of the colonial power and its institutions, much as we see in numerous other instances of what passes for ‘governance’ in Scotland.
Even up to 1831 a mere 4,500 men, out of a population of more than 2.6 million people, were entitled to vote in parliamentary elections.
Those “Aye” voters in the Scottish Government of 1706/1707 were put in place by a few thousand people. The population of Scotland never had a say in the Union.
I think people don’t realise how easy it was, even without bribes, to direct/influence the wealthy elite to betray us. The population will now once again be betrayed by a tiny group in our Parliament. ( The term OUR Parliament appears debatable)
Great blog. Not said it for a while and thought it was overdue.😀😀
Good article Dave, Sturgeon has no right to remove our right to demonstrate outside Holyrood, how else are we going to make our feelings known, that we are not happy with her policies, or lack of movement on the independence front inbetween elections.
I’m particularly disgusted at them for seeking advice from Westminster in how to shutdown our God given right to demonstrate if we don’t like the direction our government or parliament is taking. What kind of government have we elected, that cannot take criticism via demos outside a parliament that we paid for. I, and I’m sure other are not happy with this creeping authoritarianism that’s happening in Scotland under Sturgeon’s tenure.
I should’ve added that I read an article on this in the Herald, and it said that if you demonstrate inside the designated perimeter, that you can be fined £5000 pounds, and imprisoned for one year. Utterly disgraceful.
I guess we should’ve seen the writing on the wall, when years ago campers outside Holyrood who said they were camping there until Scotland became an independent country, were thrown off the land by the courts and the police, on the instructions of the government of the day.
I was involved in Scotland United. We knew the limitations of devolution, but we wanted to set up a Parliament that would be different to Westminster, one that would belong to the people, be accessible to them. As a tour guide, I was always proud to be able to tell visitors that our Parliament was designed to allow protest. I was also at the HOOP demo in 2018, when we thought Theresa May was the problem!
All of that has been binned by a party we thought would defend our rights, but is now led by an cadre of smug authoritarians who think they know better than the common people.
All it took was two demonstrations last week that the Scottish Government didn’t like.
I’m heartsick.
Does anyone know if there is a demonstration planned prior to the 1st of October?
The SNP have broken my heart. I’m a Scottish nationalist, always have been, always will be. These characters who’ve taken over the SNP are the exact opposite of nationalists. So far in the last few months they’ve passed the hate crime bill where you can’t have free speech in your own home, these GRA reforms, said 4 year olds can change gender without parents consent, are pushing ahead with a vaccine passports in nightclubs despite the youngsters being least at risk of covid. They’re making teachers do “white privilege” tests and pushing to bring more and more migrants here while we have 150,000 people on the housing waiting list.
These people are completely out of control. We need to stop them before we all end up in the gulags.
It was the 150,000 more migrants and white Privilege tests that gave you away For I’m a Scottish Nationalist, read, You are a British Nationalist (racist.com)