I remember an SNP Conference back in the 1970s where my great independence hero Winnie Ewing was making her annual address to the faithful. It was during the campaign for a Scottish Assembly. Tam Dalyell the Labour MP of many decades was a huge opponent of any devolution for Scotland. He was the man that coined two phrases, that still resonate today. The West Lothian Question was one and no great shock it was a Tory, David Cameron that finally answered it with his EVEL affrontery on 19th, September, 2014. Tam’s other piece of British Imperialism rhetoric was ‘the slippery slope.’
Tam like all the Unionist MPs before and after him was a craven House-Jock. He not only accepted the colonisation of Scotland by England he enabled it too. Just as every present-day unionist is an enabler of our colonisers.
Tam opined that should Westminster ‘grant’ Scotland any kind of devolution it would be ‘the slippery slope to independence.’ It is not often that Unionists ever get anything right, on this occasion Tam was spot on.
This was the centre piece of Winnie’s annual address to the SNP faithful. Back in those, days and up until fairly recent times the SNP was solely focused on Independence. Everything we did and every election we stood in was about advancing the cause of our deliverance.
Winnie’s speeches in those days overshadowed the leader’s speeches. She stood like a collossus over the party. She was worshipped by the members and feared by the Unionists. This was the conference speech nobody wanted to miss. She knew how to hold the audience and she knew what buttons to hit to enthuse the faithful. The thrust of her speeches were always on the topic of independence. That year she chose the pending Scottish Assembly Campaign.
Even then the fundies of which I was one, were sceptical of anything on offer from Westminster. Winnie wanted to soothe our fears and point to the advantages of us taking this course of action. Unlike today, the party membership were viewed with respect. Their opinion mattered, their buy in essential. Winnie and the leadership knew that before they could carry the nation they needed to unite the membership. She knew who delivered the leaflets and knocked the doors won the elections, not the candidates.
Her message was simple, she gave credence to Tam’s ‘slippery slope’ synopsis. Devolution was a route to independence. I cannot remember the exact words however it conveyed the simple message. Winnie would unite with Tam or any Labour MP for Scotland’s cause. Indeed, she would take Tam’s hand and any Tory MPs hand and they would all slide down the slippery slope together. Pragmatism before tribalism!
Winnie knew that it would take not just SNP faithful to gain our independence we needed to bring others along with us. Alex Salmond was and is a disciple to that theory. He was the one in 1996-97 that managed to convince the fundy sceptics like me that we should indeed give Westmister one more chance with their proposals for a Scottish Parliament.
People might not remember, but Donald Dewar and Labour were having a tough time getting this legislation through until Alex convinced the SNP membership of the need for us to support the Bill. We had to convince the Scottish people we could be more than just a pressure group. We had to demonstrate to the people we could govern and govern well even under the straight jacket of devolution.
What swung it was, Donald Dewar made a commitment that there would be no glass ceiling in the bill. So, whatever the Scotland bill had, it would have nothing that actually stopped the progress to independence.
It wouldn’t enable it. However, there would be no mechanism to make it happen – but it wouldn’t stop it. That was the commitment that made the difference. Dewar knew with that commitment made, the SNP would be able to take part and there would be a united campaign.
Like any promise made from Westminster or a, House Jock we now know that promise was a lie. The glass ceiling that is there is the Section 30 Westminster permission nonsense.The irony on that is this is a self-imposed glass ceiling by Nicola Sturgeon. As the SSRG have shown there is an alternative route to independence and it requires no permission or interference from London. The present day SNP choose to ignore that option.
Today, unlike back in Winnie’s time this SNP leadership neither listen, care or even attempt to engage with the people. Until 2014 the SNP leadership only had the SNP membership to convince.
The Referendum Campaign of 2013-14 saw the rise of the YES Movement those people that were not aligned to any party. These people massively outnumbered (and still do) the SNP members. The day to day running of government or winning elections does not enthuse them. Independence is the only thing that gets them motivated to campaign or even vote.
That was amply displayed in 2017 when the SNP ran the worst election campaign in its then 83 year history. The Independence word was not to be used on campaign literature, on the doorstep or at the street stalls. The SNP went out of their way to tell the Scottish people that a vote for the SNP at the 2017 General Election was not a vote for independence.
The Scottish people listened and over 500,000 independence supporting voters stayed at home. Although the SNP ‘won’ the election with 35 seats it was a phyric victory, having lost 21 seats it allowed the Unionists and the anti-Scottish media to claim victory for the union.
After this debacle you would have expected heads to roll within the SNP. Those responsible for the 2017 fiasco should have been fired on the Friday morning. Sadly, the exact opposite happened and instead Sturgeon and her cabal fired the membership and the people that lent the SNP their votes at every election.
Dissent grew throughout the country at the lack of urgency shown by the SNP in moving the independence struggle along. The ‘material change’ manifesto commitment of 2016 had not been used. Worse was to come. The attempt to falsely imprison the former First Minister. The ignoring of Conference decisions. The growth of the Gender fanatics inside the inner circle of the SNP. The sneaky changes in 2018 to the Constitution pulling power away from the branches and the members. The rigging of the NEC, the gerrymandering of the Regional Lists.
When Sturgeon was given the leadership of the SNP in November 2014 she had been handed the keys to our freedom. The Party had 115,000 campaign hardened members, money in the bank and a United Party. The YES Movement probably had 200,000+ ready and willing helpers. Everything was set fair.
Roll on to 2021 and instead of there being just one Independence Party we had FIVE Independence Parties, SNP, Alba, ISP, AFI, Scotia-Future. The YES Movement was divided into factions and the SNP as a party was split into two factions, woke and normal members. There is no money in the bank, indeed, there is £600,000 unaccounted for and under police investigation.
In May 2021 the SNP had a chance to heal the divisions. The Alba Party offered the chance of a Holyrood Super-Majority. This would mean that Westminster would be taken out of any influence whatsoever in the road to independence. No need for a Section 30 or a Referendum. Holyrood with a two-thirds pro independence majority could dissolve Parliament at any time and call a Plebiscite Election. With a simple majority this cannot be done.
It cannot be expressed strongly enough the leverage this would have given Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP. Sadly she rejected this golden opportunity and went even further by enabling a Unionist landslide victory on the Regional List with her Both Votes SNP Strategy. Do not ever let any apologist for that tactic tell you that nobody could foretell pre election what would happen. That is just one of the many lies from the present cabal running the SNP these days. Many of us warned of exactly what would transpire with a both votes strategy.
Many of us in the YES cause realise that without unity Scotland will not attain independence. Alex Salmond offered the hand of comradeship only to have it cruelly slapped aside. Even today you will find it impossible to hear him utter a bad word against the party and those in it that falsely tried to ruin him. He more than anyone knows we need unity.
In my own way I too try for unity. My podcasts Through A Scottish Prism continue the ethos of people from all independence parties and none. I have a resident SNP member on my panel as well as another Alba member. I have guests from Alba, SNP and non-aligned. I try to bring topics that will unite people of all parties on the topic of independence.
That does not stop people like the member for Perth and North Perthshire attacking me daily with false accusations. He refers to me and any new media blogger/vlogger that dares to hold the SNP to account as evil, filled with hate, anti independence. He does this from behind the safety of social media. Every day he spews division and hatred. He has not said a single unifying thing in his entire political life.
This week I offered him the opportunity to debate with me his concerns and offer us his view of a route to independence.Here was a chance to heal wounds and unite the movement. He declined, even then he couldn’t resist being vindictive and nasty.
Wishart is no Winnie Ewing. He has no vision, no eye on the big prize He doesn’t want to hold the hands of fellow independence supporters and slide down that slippery slope to freedom. He prefers living in London, sitting in that cesspit called Westminster playing the tame Jock. He prefers fighting and hating independence supporters rather than building consensus among the YES support. His blocking of independence supporters on social media is his claim to fame. Mainly because after 20 years in England’s Parliament he has achieved the square root of nothing. No Bill with his name on it, no amendment moved by him. Twenty years of taking a huge salary and doing nothing to move our cause an inch forward. For the record I have never called him a traitor or a sellout. Nor did I give him his nickname Comfy Slippers.
He says I am anti-independence because I dare to hold the Scottish Government and SNP to account. He calls me evil because I want Independence and I dare to disagree with SNP on GRA or their lack of movement on Independence.
If you truly care about independence try being like Winnie and be a unifier for the cause Pete. You are doing the unions work by spreading your divisive hatred. I will continue to speak with and interact with SNP, ISP and people of no party that believe in independence. You Pete can remain stuck in your hate filled pathetic world of Self! Self! Self!
Decades from now the Scottish patriots will still be talking about Madame Ecosse, remembering “stop the world, Scotland wants to get on.”
They will also be saying Pete who?
You’re a good man, Roddy.
Doing excellent work.
Respect.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
I had the misfortune last night in of all places the Greenock Advertiser to join in a discussion on GRA and it’s effect on local schools.l ventured an opinion that the state should remove both itself and it’s very odd questionaire out of schools -this was immediately met with cries of transphobe and sneering condescending statements re my percieved enlightened attitudes.Stunning stuff indeed and all enabled by that wee woman in Bute house who has released a very nasty genie into our society and given succour to some extremely problematic individuals.As it stands under Sturgeon devolution and Indy are at a dead stop —time for another hero l think !
You’ve played a blinder with this one Roddy. Well said.
Thank you
Well said Roddy. The new SNP is not the independence movement . They tell us the campaign is underway while they focus on divisive policies and witch hunts while good people sit on their hands. My fear is that when sense begins to prevail the MSM will release some tasty morsels to “deploy” a la SNP when the time is right. The byre needs mucked oot.
That was an excellent article today Roddy. You’re doing an outstanding service for all of us who believe in the Cause.
As for that despicable character Wishart, he’s not even good enough to lick your shoes; not that you would even want him to.
I’m ashamed to say he’s the MP from my neck of the woods. It’s well past the time to get him ejected from his comfy seat.
A slippery slope argument typically must end in a bad outcome – it’s always sliding down the abstract slope to disaster. Also, according to standard elementary Informal Logic, slippery slope arguments are typically fallacious, simply because nothing *necessitates* the slide *down*. So these argument forms are contingent upon *assuming* both the inevitability of sliding and that that the destination will be bad. In other words, Winnie was spot on & so are you: we need unity of *purpose* concerning the Indy destination, & such a *good* unity *involves* mutual respect, understanding, & acceptance of our rich diversity. In being complicit with divisions that fuel hatred & deep distrust, we allow ourselves to step onto a slippery slope that may well end in a disaster, such as an Indy Scotland of perpetual strife that replicates an already defunct & deeply harmful neoliberal system of rapacious exploitation. Instead the Indy movement should be aiming to create a new, meaningfully participatory politics of global significance through solidarity with our opponents at home! & (inter-culturally) with other peoples both at home and abroad (e.g. Barbados & generally the Global South). Such an approach requires great courage (not bravura), exemplary conduct of a near saint-like nature, & an understanding that our cause *is* globally significant, reaching far beyond the unequal, destructive, squalid, petty, trashy, & distractive character of the UK’s present slippery spiral slope into its core of an unjust colonialism, capitalism, & patriarchy.
Excellent analysis of where we is, Roddy.
Just as there is ‘an infinite distance between colonization and civilization’ (Memmi), so there is an infinite distance between the honourable ideals of Madam Ecosse and the dubious ideologies of the wee madam wha hunkers in the Bute Hoose bunker, an maist o’ thaim daeless SNP MPs an MSPs an aw.
I agree with every word of the article so no need to expand on that.
I will make one comment on Pete Wishart. What supporter of Scottish Independence would ever seek, never mind consider, the Speaker role at Westminster? What message does that aspiration tell you about Wishart. He is not called “comfy slippers Pete” without some justification
Brilliant article Roddy, so many true points touched on in it, one wonders what Winnie thought of Fergus and Annabelle’s position within the current SNP. As for Pete Wishart, the wannabe speaker of the house, its no secret that he’ll need to be dragged kicking and screaming from the HoC, such is his love for it, he’s embedded in it now as are many of the his SNP comrades. This is why he attacks anyone who rails at the lack of movement on the indyfront.
The SSRG’s said that only a majority of indy minded MP’s were required to remove Scotland from this rancid union, we’ve had that for years now, however the current batch, albeit, one or two who do want independence, are quite content with the status quo, even though the status quo has been damaging Scots and Scotland for centuries.
Pete, who? indeed, Roddy. The time serving troughers’ time serving trougher. Insignificance on acid!
Wishart is a happy, very comfortable member of the British establishment.
Shemekia Copeland https://open.spotify.com/track/1JvJA6efPZjMOdak2vrkkh.
Pete Wishart, as a former musician could you listen carefully to the words of this song.
Is it wrong to have different views considering we are all after the same goal!
Let me do it for you Roddie. Pete Wormtongue Wishart of Comfy Slippers is a unionist enabling traitor to Scotland and her people, to those whose voted he has gained by deception along with the toughest he serves with And you can quote me
Dave it testifies to comfy slippers intelligence OR deliberate baiting that he BRAGS about being the longest serving snp mp of 20+ years in wm , in doing so he illustrates just what he thinks of independence supporters who sent him there to SETTLE UP not SETTLE IN , there is no doubt that he worships sturgeon because anyone else with any integrity would bin the ineffective quisling , that is why all the snp poseurs are still there because they are craven cowards who REFUSE to protect their fellow Scots from the psychotic fraud destroying our chances of independence , preferring to keep their heads down and relish their well paid jobs while Scots suffer from the lunatics four nation betrayal
If she’s still alive Roddy, I would get her on prism. Ian Hamilton QC would be an interesting guest also, especially regarding the state of the Scottish legal establishments present clusterfuck of the last couple of years.
The slippery slope got hellish steeper when donart supposed “Scottish Socialists” got conned to start Voting for Tartan Tory Multi Millionaires
https://toysmatrix.com/ian-blackford-net-worth-exposed-snp-chief-is-a-multi-millionaire/
Independence for Scotland is not about left or right money or wealth. It is, about democracy and dignity. Unionists just don’t get it that is why the arguments, always, fail.