The first SNP Campaigns I was ever involved in occurred in the 1970s.Throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s the road to Independence was clear. The United Kingdom having no written constitution has always been able to make it up on the hoof. This has always assisted the British ruling elite the most. Precedent is the main driver in the British unwritten constitutional ‘democracy.’ They have always been able to rake up some precedent from the past to justify whatever they want to do today. The Henry VIII powers were enacted to push through their Brexit insanity and is a point in case. The fact that Henry was an English king only further adds to the angst of Scots, Irish and Welsh that voted to remain in the EU.
The acknowledged route to seceding back then and accepted by all sides was that all the SNP had to do to achieve independence was to win 50% or more of the Westminster seats at a UK General Election. This as everyone knew back then was a near impossible task for the SNP. The Unionists with total control of the corrupt media, and with no Internet to disseminate their lies were able to keep Scotland well under the Westminster heel. Thatcher herself acknowledged this right of the Scottish people. She stated that no independence referendum was necessary ‘The Nationalists just need to send a majority of MPs at the next election.’ Everybody knew this and that was what we few in the Party worked hard to achieve. The closest we ever got was in 1974 when we had 30% of the vote and elected 11 MPs out of 71. The FPTP system being what it is, a few more % could have seen oil rich Independent Scotland in the 1970s.Though I expect as soon as we had 36 seats that were necessary the English Imperial Parliament would have changed the rules.
This result was magnificent and although it reversed quite quickly and our numbers, dwindled. It was though, enough of a shock to the English establishment that they tasked their House-Jocks in Scotland to find ways of curtailing the SNP menace. This is when the corrupt media began their campaign of demonisation of anyone and anything that tried to promote Scotland or the Scottish people. That campaign as we all know exists to this day.
The British Political Parties devised many cunning Baldrik type plans to halt the SNP juggernaut.Increasing the time allocated to Scotch matters at Westminster. We were even given a Scottish Affairs Committee which to this day is ignored unless its recommendations dovetail with English wishes. Regional Councils, bigger District Councils, extra peerages, modern-day beads and mirrors to appease the Jock hordes. Patronising by Mother England of her beloved Scottish colony. Every so often the memsahib Queen or one of her brood are dispatched to Jockistan in kilt to show that we are an important part of the shrinking English empire.
When all these insulting antics failed to destroy all notions of Scottish self-determination the British Labour Party and the British Liberal Party decided to bring a form of home rule to Scotland. Let us though be very clear. This was not done to in any way improve the governance of Scots nor to promote fairness or equality. These two scurrilous English based Parties saw a Scottish Assembly as a means of crushing the SNP and a launchpad for their Westminster ambitions. The Scottish Parliament was a means to power in the English Parliament only. It was not to be a voice for the Scottish people. It was a vehicle for two English based Unionist Parties. As always Scotland and Scots were expendable for English ambitions.
These two parties, along with the Tories to this day only truly recognise the Parliament in London as the real authority. We know that many in the Tory Party including the present Deputy Branch Manager do not acknowledge the sovereignty of the Scots or the Holyrood Parliament.The Tories fought tooth and nail all the way to prevent the setting up of Holyrood. The Tories, of course, have opposed every progressive step in British history. They even opposed their own Prime Minister Peel when he moved to abolish the Corn Laws. He only managed the repeal it with the help of the Whigs. Those of you not familiar with the Corn Laws suffice to say a few merchants benefitted from this draconian act while the populace in places like Ireland and parts of Scotland literally starved to death.
Even with these ulterior motives the Holyrood Parliament as we know today, is in place. We in the SNP knew the rules of engagement. Now to gain independence we had to gain control of the Holyrood Parliament and then we could hold an independence referendum. At sometime in this unwritten constitutional Union the majority of seats at Westminster as a means of Independence just stopped being a thing!
The House-Jock Parties were relaxed in saying you can have your independence referendum when you control Holyrood. They were relaxed because they had put in place a voting regime that meant it would be virtually impossible for any one Party to gain a majority at Holyrood. (Those still opposed to an indy list party please take note!) When SNP became the largest though minority party at Holyrood in 2007 the panic among the Britnats was there for all to see. They did what they do best, they yet again unilaterally changed the rules. Now, not only did you need to control Holyrood you could only have a referendum if you had a majority of seats. This, of course, meant that from 2007 till the end of that parliamentary session in 2011 the House-Jock Parties united to ensure there would be no independence referendum.
The majority victory of 2011 we know resulted in the 2014 referendum. This was only possible by the freak result that gave the SNP a majority. Be assured if that had not been the case the Britnats would have thwarted that democratic process.
Since that day the Unionists have once again changed the rules. They now say that even with SNP and Greens having a majority of seats the SNP need to have a majority and more than 50% of the entire vote. Let us be very clear these are two very large hurdles.They are also a nonsense. They are not as far as we know legal hurdles.
Alex Salmond took us to the brink of Independence. His legacy meant that Nicola Sturgeon inherited a huge Party that had grown from 25,000 members on 18/09/2014.to a Party of 125,000 and all she had to do was accept the nomination and acclamation of the packed SEC.
Whereas between 1968 when I first joined the Party right up until 2014 we all knew the route to independence nowadays we are completely in the dark. We have given the SNP three unequivocal mandates to seek another independence referendum. To date, there has been no referendum. The SNP with our votes, effort, loyalty, hard work and unquestioning support have won every single Council, European, Westminster and Holyrood election since 2011. Nobody though in the broader support of the Party has any idea what we are working towards. The Unionists can just keep parroting their No to Independence it seems that is enough to keep a referendum off the table.
I really find it difficult to be critical of the SNP or our magnificent First Minister. We do though have to separate the roles. As a leader of a devolved parliament and administration Nicola Sturgeon is immense. She has squeezed every last drop of Progressive politics out of the narrow devolved settlement. Nobody could have done a better job. Throughout this pandemic she has been a giant amongst a shower of dishonest UK political pygmies and liars. People I know personally and some members of my extended family that have no truck for SNP or independence have expressed true admiration and respect for our First Minister during this crisis.One, I am happy to report has switched to YES. I will argue ferociously with anyone that suggests otherwise about our First Minister in this, Covid time. That said, I have to regrettably say that we are nowhere nearer to independence than we were on 14 November 2014 when Nicola became Party leader.
In her tenure she has made the SNP the dominant party in devolved politics. The SNP dwarf all the other parties of the UK. Her pet projects on gender equality have been advanced. Yet this laudable focus on woman’s rights seems to have become the main tenet of our Party leader and Independence seems to have been sidelined.Her main job of independence has not had the attention to detail it deserves.
There is a growing frustration amongst the YES Movement in general and the SNP members in particular. We have in Edinburgh Humza promoting a draconian bill that could seriously damage peoples right to disagree on matters of conscience or even constitutional. The general feeling is this Bill is being promoted to make the passage of the GRA easier as, any dissension against its insanity could result in criminal proceedings against those with genuine concerns. We have several of our MPs at this time promoting GRA and saying nothing on Independence. We have other SNP MPs, MSPs and wannabes urging us to support the anti-independence Unionist MSM. All the while there is complete silence on any plan or road to Independence.
I implore the Party leader and the elected officials of the Party to immediately change focus and get back to the day job of gaining Scotland’s independence. That is the only reason any of you are in the positions you are in today. We do not elect or appoint you to help the Unionist press, promote minority gender issues or bring in draconian legislation against our rights to dissent!
You need to get back to basics, and you need to tell us the plan and road to our self-determination. Everything else is peripherals!
Should you find that impossible to do, then step aside while we find the people to take us to Independence. Never forget we are a party of one member, one vote. We put you all in place, we can just as, easily remove you, even the Party leader. Lead us, do not ignore us for if you do we will remove you. Learn from the mistakes of the Labour Party.
Even uber Loyalists eventually runout of patience!
Pee or get aff the chanty.
Well said,BB.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. She is a star on Covid (with some minor reservations, although all tied into reserved UK politics no doubt) and good on progressive government in general – on that tight leash, but nil point right now on Indy. As for the gender issue and any laws which impose on our freedom of speech, if they go too far – well that will be the end of it for me. Maybe AS will have other ideas on a way forward. I hope he does, or that some other route emerges because I just can’t see it with the current SNP set-up.
I agree. This is the great conundrum. We have a first minister leading a party whose single priority since it’s inception has been the achieving of independence, now performing very well on the Covid sideshow, but being very silent on the party’s whole raison d’etre. And this actually pre-dated the crisis for a very long period. Also we have witnessed a kind of strange imperative of demonstrating a close allegiance with england on this matter, even though a totally different course of action would have been a statement of independent thinking and saved hundreds of lives in the process. All of this is further clouded by the murky business of the Alex Salmond treachery and a refusal to even discuss the matter of ‘list’ seats which would arguably / definitely raise the number of pro-Indy MSPs in Holyrood.
I agree with all you say, I was a few years after you I joined in 1975. I remember my early meetings when if there were 10 folk there and i was probably the youngest by 30 years.
I wonder what some of them would think about the slick party machine that the SNP has become.
My worry is that we have become a party of government rather than being the party whose priority is independence. Going to University introduced me to many people from countries who had to fight to gain independence and all we have to do is put a cross in a box. i hope we live to see the day we become a normal independent country.
Thank You
Unfortunately we are NOT a party of one person, one vote. We are a party of whoever can make it to conference can vote and everyone else is stuffed. This is, IMO, one of the biggest problems. We need to move the party forward to online voting at conventions and back to the one person, one vote scenario if we’re to ever clear out the chaff.
For too many in the the SNP, (Pete Wishart to name one), electoral success has become more important than the furtherance of it’s it’s founding principles to the point where the founding principles are getting in the way, this is what happened to the Labour party, it destroyed them and it will destroy the SNP
Returning 53 out of 57 MPs to Westminster was an immense victory! A signal for all to see that the time had come, but the SNP fluffed it!
Although thatcher had made her declaration, it wasn’t needed, it was clear to one and all, that Scots had reached the turning point. Clear that is, to everyone except the SNP.
We didn’t know it then, but do now, the SNP hierarchy had no intention of making the move necessary to deliver us from evil.
Many of us interpretted the strange quiet that followed that huge and seemingly impossible westminster victory, as ‘plans afoot´ and were excited by the prospect…
But when that strange quiet remained quiet about the huge marches we were making up and down the country, even at conference, that felling in the pittofsmy stomach started to turn from excitement to fear.
Most of us that care, fully understand that we are in a legally binding treaty. But all of us that care, know that is only an impediment, not the end of the road.
The SNP say, and they are right, agreement over this matter will make it so much easier for us to achieve independence.
However, there is not even one tiny little fraction of a millionth of anything at all about Scottish independence that benefits England!
In fact, is it not the case that England will be the worse off, due certainly to its loss of oil and gas revenues, but also its loss of the wealth derived from Scotland in terms of its fishing, its agriculture, its manufacturing industries and of course its electricity generation and its potable water holdings?
Why then would England agree to deprive itself of these assets?
It doesn’t want to, it doesn’t need to and it has no intention of doing so!
To be fair, that point it has made clearly enough, but not clear enough for the leadership of the SNP it seems.
Scotland has to tell England that we are withdrawing from the treaty.
What follows from that is probably twenty years of legal tussles that will end up in Scotlands favour. England knows that, but will benefit in significant financial terms for almost all of those twenty years. It’s a simple game to them.
Even Blair’s last nail that he hoped to hammer into Scotland’s coffin, the ‘great north sea robbery’, will eventually be put right, but until that moment, England will benefit.
Who can blame them?
There have been some very serious deadlines that the SNP have missed, more than a few to do with the EU.
Each one of those rang warning bells but the party faithful and all the tory pretendys, cried ‘Trust the SNP. Be patient. They know what they are doing.”
So now, due to SNP paralysis, talk is of a new party to move us on.
England loves it.
Delay is what it wants,what it craves. I knows Scottish independence is coming, but delay caused by any means adds £billions to their coffers.
Scotland has one pro Scotland newspaper, it has no tv or radio stations dedicated to and soley for Scotland. It has the 1984esce westminster loudspeaker and screen in every home, passing on the westminster story and it comes in the soaps, the american dramas and of course, the news where you are.
They dare not allow Scotland its own tv channel, their storyis the only one allowed into the public space.
Well, we are letting it happen!
As a government, the SNP are very very good.
We did not vote SNP for them to be entrenched as a ‘very very good government!’
They have lost their way.
The body politic that got the SNP this far has been pushed into the background.
I know now with a depressing certainty, that Scotland will not take its rightful place on the world stage in my lifetime.
Time to greet.
I shall be greeting with you, infact I have been greeting for some time now, as I no longer have faith in the SNP heirachy especially in NICOLA. I joined SNP in 1970, I canvassed for them, & worked even harder for our YES vote. When In 2015 in answer to the los REFERENDUM, yet we sent 56 out of the 59 MPs allocated to Scotland & we didn’t even succeed in getting one extra power.
I Knew then we were on A downward slope.. I also believe that was why we lost out in 2017 vote, Still won the Majority, but a drop nevertheless. Mandate after mandate had been asked for & we the SNP MEMBERS along with the other YES people, all Answered the calls for those mandates. But what ended my membership was the time & effort NICOLA put into savIng ENGLAND from It’s own BREXIT stupidity. SNP is (WAS) an INDEPENDENCE Party, Theresa May Came to be leader in 2016 & said “Now is not the time” And Nicola obeyed.
She repeated it again when we dropped the Number of Mps, & the bloody TORIES made a comeback in 2017. Again NICOLA accepted “now is not the time” We had failed or rather NICOLA failed to take the chance & mandates since she became leader. Instead she has worked on making herself the best performing politician in ALL of the U.K. And INDEPENDENCE never gets a mention at all anymore. I appreciate than this virus has taken up more or less all of her time these past few months-. But she had years not months on which she could have Fought for Scotland as hard as she dedicated herself to fighting for ENGLAND. I will always vote for INDEPENDENCE, but sadly I can’t say the same about the SNP now. I KNOW that right now they are STILL THE ONLY vessel we still rely on To get us INDEPENDENCE.
But for me, all of my votes for them, all the paid membership fees, all the canvassing to get them elected, has got me nowhere in 50yrs of dedication to that PARTY. So if another party came along hat said a vote for them would be a vote for INDEPENDENCE. I WILL VOTE for that party…NICOLA is a very good politician. But the SNP under her leadership are no longer the party of INDEPENDENCE. & this rushing through GRA regulations to the detriment of The arm of the law being placed on anyone who does not accept what the party plan is on GRA. Is just bloody abhorrent..
The next election is a vote for independence. If not, dump the SNP like a bad habit. Nicola Sturgeon goes from podium to podium like a consummate professional headmistress in attempting, and achieving to be rational in dealing with the Coronavirus equation. That wouldn’t be difficult with the British government for comparison. No word from Nicola Sturgeons’ or the British governments mouth regarding the financial fear facing the population of these islands. What are they doing about the creeping poverty that lockdown has brought. People are terrified about losing their homes, businesses and jobs. People are getting hungrier. Poverty will afflict the vast majority before any virus will.
All politicians appear to be too comfortable in letting people carry the can in unpaid bills while self isolating. Not a serious word said by anyone in this regard including the SNP. Pete Wishart is a careerist amongst many in the SNP and Huzma is a cardboard cutout who floats from one department to another trying to look and sound important, he isn’t . Let’s not forget politicians are well paid with expense accounts for almost everything. This will not affect the majority of them like it will the rest of the population.
I am red hot for Scotland to be an independent nation state but with each passing day the SNP do not look like a party who is interested, never mind capable of achieving that.
BB your “magnificent” First Minister is a manager, when what we need is a leader it really is as simple as that. The manager nearly put the leader in jail FFS whether deliberately or by accident. I hope this hasn’t or won’t create an end to the party I’ve exclusively supported since I started by distributing wee SNP pin badges in the school playground in 1964. However the freedom of our country is way more important than any Party, Party leader or individual.
Timing is Everything.
There couldn’t be a better time than now, to leave the Union. To just leave. If there was a party, committed to only this act, I would vote for them in a rush. The SNP is not that party. I still hope that my vote can be used for the singular objective, but if not, I will vote against the SNP. As my father always used to tell me. Don’t waste your vote. If the party in power fails on their promise, vote them out…
We must all continue in Constituency to Vote SNP any other vote only helps Unionists. The list is where we can force change