This was the week when the SNP finally admitted what many of us had been saying since 2014, never again will Westminster agree to a Section 30 Scottish Independence Referendum. Personally I am pleased they have finally accepted this reality. TASP has long advocated against a 2014 style referendum as our route to independence.
The only other electoral method of securing our secession from the union is through the ballot box at a Scottish General Election for Holyrood. For that to be successful, we need unity of the movement and common cause. The way of achieving that is simple, a Constitutional Convention.Something again TASP has been advocating for years! This is extremely easy to initiate. A few phone calls from John Swinney and it is a reality. Sadly, it seems that is not going to happen.
However, the SNP wants to dangle this latest carrot as a hook to get us to vote for them in 2026 or sooner if the budget fails in December this year. Their condition for a Convention is that we need to give them just one more mandate and post election they will arrange it sometime in the following five years! Of course, they will only invite those that align with their views on gender and devo max. Those of us of Independence nothing less attitude will be excluded! They will kill it before it ever meets rather than unite with the entire independence movement!
After the admission by Keith Brown that the Section 30 idiocy was to be binned, an opportunity arose to begin the process of healing and uniting the YES movement. Ash Regan of the Alba Party laid before Holyrood the opportunity to declare the next election to be a defacto independence plebiscite. It is both practical and logical as now the only other meaningful way, a Section 30 referendum has been dropped by the SNP.
Sadly, the SNP and their pals The Greens both alleged independence parties, rejected this opportunity out of hand. Only Ash in the entire Holyrood Parliament voted in favour. The Swinney led SNP when given the chance to reaffirm their commitment to independence once more put Party before nation. In doing so they sided with the Unionists to protect the union! They told the world that independence was no longer their policy. No wonder the Unionists are crowing that the cause is over!
Now even the most hard bitten SNP supporter has to admit that the so-called party of independence has abandoned the cause of Scottish self-determination. If not at Westminster and now not at Holyrood how do the SNP propose to advance our cause? The answer is simple and heartbreaking, they have no intention or plan how to advance the case for independence,that is the shameful truth!
Faced with the prospect of a Unionist takeover at Holyrood we read that Stewart Mcdonald one of their rejected MPs and ex holiday rep is advocating as a ‘breath of fresh air’ a SNP/Labour coalition at Holyrood! The ultimate betrayal!
The SNP it seems would prefer to ally itself to the most British Unionist of parties, rather than with the other independence parties and the movement. This betrayal by them is just so they personally can keep in power. The trappings of power are more important to them than the freeing of their country from the parasitical union.The cause of independence is to be shelved as the price of such a bargain with the English Labour Party!
There is no way a Labour Party would agree to anything that might end the union and England’s hegemony over Scotland and its resources. Never forget every elected Unionist toady’s first loyalty is always to England and the English nation, not to their nation of birth. Once you realise that, everything then is easier to understand. It also lets you realise the extent of the SNP betrayal.
It is on the back of these treasonous acts that the panel of Eva Comrie, Lloyd Quinan and Phil Boswell meet to discuss the events of the week. Nobody holds back with their opinions. Some may feel uncomfortable with our conclusions and discussion. However, we have to face reality.The SNP has left the independence field, we need change. We need a new strategy and electoral route to our ultimate goal.
The SNP can no longer be relied upon to promote our cause. We need a new party to carry our cause. One that is member led, not messiah led. One that is broad in its outlook and listens to the grassroots. One that leads, not one led by cliques or talking shops. One that has a single sentence manifesto, “Independence,Nothing Else!”
The alternative is the continuation of Union!
It only took them since 2014 to admit what has been blatantly obvious to those of us paying attention. The wake up call should have been when Scotland voted 56/59 MPs and a majority in Holyrood only for SNP to turn around and say it didn’t count. It wasn’t a mandate. They couldn’t have got a more overwhelming mandate if they tried. The only way Scotland is gonna reinstate it’s statehood in full is sadly through violence. Every peaceful way is deemed irrelevant. The fact that Scots simply accept both their own government and that of England saying no tells both governments and their respective administrations that the Scots are not serious. That they can put off indefinitely the notion of reinstating Scotland’s statehood in full. That they can dangle carrot after carrot as the Scots will fall for it every single time. Married with the way in which many Scots prefer to see themselves, as victims, they truly have nothing to worry about. The once proud nation has been on its knees for so long it no longer knows how to stand up and assert it’s actual rights and to fight for what it believes. Too often the Scots look to other nations for inspiration but never implement the ideas that inspire them. Until the Scots stop seeking permission nothing will change. If you truly want your statehood reinstated in full you don’t ask nicely and play fair. You prepare to get your hands dirty and fight for what you want.
I am a no violent person but playing by the rules gets you know here. You need to stand up for what you believe not make excuse after excuse for failing to do so.
What about Peter A Bell’s new party, (NEW SCOTLAND PARTY) after all if it wins Scotland will be a NEW country in everyway.., his is NOT a political party it is for the very reason you have raised, a member led party, with just INDEPENDENCE FIRST & LAST, all other manifesto pledges are second to Indy..His sounds like the most reasonable party as it is only to get us Independence..
What a shower of shysters
The very act of voting down Ash Reagan’s amendment is treasonous.
I noticed , no mention of this amendment in the
Media and or the vote.
Says it all really.
End this s n p, lower caps.
Revolution.
#scottish UDI, # end this Union
🐼🐼🏴🏴
Recent post – link to the video mentioned is at the foot of this post – see in particular how Ex-MSP Prof Adam Tomkins replied to a question I asked:
Post reads:
Will just “20 Seconds” of your time free Scotland forever?
Question: Without a referendum – how do you ascertain the “Settled Will” of the Scottish People over independence? Because it is being developed in Stages – it won’t be obvious as yet – but the Declaration of a Sovereign Scot initiative is how to answer that question. Over the past 3 years, the Declaration initiative has asked this question: Do you want to end the union, and along with your fellow Scots be part of seeing your country independent again? In other words – without a referendum, can we establish – in the eyes of the world – that there is a majority of Sovereign Scots who wish to end the union?
I asked that very question – “Without a referendum – how do you ascertain the “Settled Will” of the Scottish People over independence?” – at a recent event. In the video you will hear that the ONLY way to answer that question is by asking the decision makers. As you will hear the decision makers are – the Sovereign people of Scotland.
Without a referendum – can we provide to the rest of the world hard documentary evidence that the “Settled Will” of the majority of Sovereign Scots is to end the union, and regain Scotland’s independence?
That is precisely why the Declaration initiative was started! It is why from all across Scotland it is gaining support from the ONLY decision makers that truly matter – the Sovereign people of Scotland!
I will shortly post the next place where blank Declarations will be available to sign as part of the “20 Second Tour” of Scotland. It takes no more than 20 Seconds to sign your Declaration – but if your signature helps Scotland to regain its independence – it will (imho) free our country forever! Is that what you want?
Video link:
https://www.facebook.com/IndyLiveStream/videos/390982287385577/
To continue playing a straight, parliamentary game, we need an avowedly anti-colonialist Party to point out how we are being robbed of our natural resources and to bring-home to people the fact that having your natural wealth plundered by a grasping foreign power is what being colonised is all about. If people accept their colonisation, which I very much doubt, then we might as well shut-up and disappear. One thing seems sadly certain: none of our, business-as-usual, “Westminster is the only place to be”, politicians, are remotely close to gaining our self-determination, something which is likely to remain the case. Scotland is an English colony: let’s talk about that and nothing else.
Agreed, Carmen, but we should not bleat. Just keep pointing out the shame of it. Scotland reminds me of Biafra, Nigeria, except that we did not have a ‘civil war’, but the way we are being fleeced is so similar: fleeced by our own; fleeced by everyone else.
Unless a new radical leadership is suddenly established in the SNP hierarchy it will be a repeat of July 2024 when the next Holyrood election takes place. At the moment there is no real incentive for voting SNP other than to keep the other devolutionist parties out of power. As far as independence is concerned the SNP is just as unionist as Labour. But we will yet again be subject to SNP blackmail – if you don’t vote for us independence will be damaged for decades, etc. But all experience in the last decade shows that voting SNP will not further the cause of independence in any shape or form. FWIW I’ll be voting ISP if there are ISP candidates on my ballot paper. If Alba adopts abstentionism I might consider voting for them. Otherwise I won’t be voting. I won’t cave in to the devolutionist SNP’s blackmail.
Humza is constitutionally illiterate proposing a third country negotiate with UK on our behalf. The UN process on decolonization confirms that self-determination is a matter only for the colonized people and should not be subject to what it terms ‘external interference’, as Lloyd indicates. As Phil suggests, Humza’s idea might be Pakistan, and the best we might expect there would probably be partition as the standard English colonial exit model to stoke up further problems in future.
Meantime Sturgeon and her team are Cesaire’s ‘confidential agents pensioned off at high reward’, rupturing the movement and taking the people up a blind alley, as Phil implies.
Roddy is right, the UK remains in a deep crisis of its own making, hence an ideal time to end it. And Phil highlights the asset stripping, which more folk are now starting to figure out. Phil is looking like the leader we need? Lloyd is probably closer to the truth than most imagine, that the security services run the UK show – Starmer and Swinney/Sturgeon et al included.
As Eva suggests, we are being held back by the current SNP hierarchy co-opted by the Brit State. And continued colonialism is costing increasing numbers of Scottish lives. But we still need to explain to the people how Scots are subject to colonialism, what this means and that the only remedy is decolonization, which is independence, and liberation from oppression. A simple leaflet through most Scottish doors explaining our wretchedness might be helpful:
https://salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/THEORETICAL+CASE+FOR+SCOTTISH+INDEPENDENCE.pdf
Excellent critique as always Alf. As to a leaflet through every door research shows that less than 1% ever get read before they hit the bin.
Meetings are the answer. Much more engagement and people are there because they want to be.
Leaflets, as Roddy suggests, have to be read before the information they contain can be imparted. One of the surprises of 2014 was the runaway success of “YES” public meetings, the ones that I attended all attracted surprising numbers of people. Leafleting doors, but only as a means of advertising upcoming Salvo public meetings, could, therefore, have mileage. A short, sharp message might be: “Why Scotland is an English colony!” Guest speakers: Professor Alf Baird and Sara Salyers.
Excellent Prism again, Roddy except that I was left in a very despondent mood verging and segueing into desk-thumping rage. They are going to leave us a desert.