This is an article written by a fellow blogger Peter Bell. I am republishing it on my site and Peter explains how he has changed his mind and now accepts that Scotland is treated as a colony by Westminster. What is great about this is Peter explains what changed his mind and the processes that he went through on his journey. His honesty is refreshing and deserves the widest audience.
The new thinking
“THE NEW THINKING”
by Peter A Bell
There is, I venture to state, a widespread if not general acceptance within the Yes movement that one of the positives of the 2014 referendum campaign was the normalisation of the word ‘independence’ – even if the actual concept was little examined. A term that had previously been consigned to the ideological fringe found currency in mainstream political discourse – there to remain. It might also be suggested that there was some normalisation, too, of the word ‘referendum’; and thereby of the idea of direct democracy. Again, there was little discussion of what a proper constitutional referendum should look like. And the idea of a referendum was not much linked to the wider concept of direct democracy. But it can hardly be denied that the referendum campaign had a normalising effect. I confidently contend that we are seeing a similar normalisation process in relation to other words and the ideas associated with them.
I offer three examples of terms and concepts which have only lately entered the lexicon of the debate around the constitutional issue. I also contend that the process of normalisation in these instances has been both remarkably rapid in some quarters and inexplicably slow in others. The three terms are, in no particular order, ‘unilateral declaration of independence (UDI)’; ‘colony’; and ‘liberation’.
#ScottishUDI
I have previously written, and frequently spoken, of my (pleasant) surprise when I presented my thoughts on UDI to the Scottish Sovereignty Research Group (SSRG) Conference almost exactly a year ago (29 August 2022). I had expected considerable resistance to the idea, even if the audience was too sophisticated for the all-too-common knee-jerk reaction to the term ‘UDI’ that is the product of years of conditioning. I was taken aback by the response which actually greeted my remarks. Respectful if scowling silence while I spoke might have been the best I thought might be expected. In fact, what I saw was people nodding in agreement. There was even the odd smattering of applause, if I recall aright.
In the year since then, I have seen further confirmation of the normalisation of the idea of #ScottishUDI. There is even some agreement with my stated view that #ScottishUDI is the only way Scotland’s independence will be restored. We may be getting to the stage where it is those who react with the ‘traditional’ negativity who look outdated in their thinking. Or, to put it another way, they have yet to catch up with the new thinking on the constitutional question.
Scotland the colony
While I might justifiably claim some small credit for contributing to the normalisation of ‘UDI’, there can be no disputing where credit goes for normalisation of the idea of Scotland as a colony of England-as-Britain. Professor Alf Baird’s work demonstrating the applicability of the term ‘colony’ to Scotland has been hugely influential. I can testify to this as I am of those who have been hugely influenced.
I was long resistant to suggestions that Scotland has been colonised. But as I read Alf Baird’s arguments, I found myself quite unable to refute them. Everything that he says about what constitutes a colony I recognised as applying to Scotland.
Colonialism is not that difficult to understand. Colonialism is first and foremost economic plunder. Everything is taken from the country cheaply – oil & gas, energy, aggregates, food, whisky – with goods sold back to the natives at higher cost. The role of a colony is primarily to serve the needs of the mother country, in this case England.
I was, and remain, uncomfortable with some aspects of Alf Baird’s argument. Particularly his observation that “settler occupation” is a defining characteristic of colonisation and that this holds true for Scotland as elsewhere. While I may find this unsettling, it is impossible when confronted with the facts to dispute that demographics represent a significant factor affecting measured support for restoration of independence versus retention of the Union. Nor can it sensibly be denied that this significance is increasing. Whether it is a purposeful colonising ploy really doesn’t matter. Deliberate or coincidental, the impact on Scotland’s cause remains the same.
This is an issue that has to be approached with a great deal of sensitivity. But we owe a debt of gratitude to Alf Baird for bringing it into the light. For too long, there have been aspects of Scotland’s predicament which were held to be taboo topics by supporters as well as opponents of Scotland’s cause. Such matters must not be left to fester. They must be confronted and debated – hopefully with less than the customary vitriol. That is why it is so important that these terms and the ideas to which they refer are normalised. That this seems to be happening is one of the more promising portents for Scotland’s cause.
Liberation
Just as I flinched from the idea of Scotland as a colony, so I was reluctant to accept the suggestion that the people of Scotland are unfree implied by use of the term ‘liberation’. I recognise that oppression can take many forms and need not involve violent coercion to be defined as such. Even if there is a sense in which people in Scotland are placed in a sort of captivity by the Union, nobody in Scotland feels confined or constrained in a way that would commonly be associated with oppression. They sure as hell don’t feel enslaved!
My attitude to the term ‘liberation’. changed dramatically as I came to recognise that it was not the people per se who were the captives of colonisation but Scotland’s political and cultural institutions. It is our government and our parliament and our civil service and our language and our media and our history which have been captured in a process of surreptitious colonisation over a period of three centuries and more. It is these institutions which demand to be liberated if Scotland is to be a normal independent nation.
When we talk of colonised minds, we refer to the long-term effect of the capture of all the fundamental apparatus of one nation by another. This effect is inevitable, insidious and intellectually incapacitating in that the colonised mind can only think like a colonised mind while vigorously rejecting the suggestion that it has been colonised. The grip of the coloniser is broken, but not completely removed, when the capacity to think outside the wee British box is triggered; often by some sudden realisation in the course of debate; either as a participant or as an observer. The process of decolonisation of the mind begins here. It can be a protracted process with many setbacks. A process which is different for every individual.
I would hypothesise that for those affected, decolonisation of the mind is a process which is never completed. Generations may have to pass before the effect of colonisation of the mind is eradicated from Scotland’s population. People will have to be born and live their lives in an environment of liberated political and cultural institutions in order to have the possibility of being free of the effects of three centuries of creeping colonisation. Even then, they are likely to be ‘infected’ by the still partially colonized minds of parents and other older people in their environment.
It stands to reason that normalisation of the term and idea of liberation is essential if enough minds are to be sufficiently decolonised to recognise that the basic apparatus of Scotland the nation has been captured by a foreign power and fight to restore all our political and cultural institutions to the service of Scotland and its people rather than the ruling elites of England-as-Britain. That this normalisation appears to be happening is, therefore, a promising sign. For this, we have once again to thank Alf Baird. But also, Sara Salyers and everyone else involved with Salvo and Liberation Scotland and, of course, the Stirling Directive, even if the latter involves some very muted blowing of my own trumpet as a member of the groups which drafted the Stirling Directive.
The new thinking
What is discussed and described above is what I call the new thinking in relation to Scotland’s constitutional issue. The terms and concepts referred to are all essential components of this new thinking. Unfortunately, the capacity to reconceptualise Scotland’s cause in any meaningful way totally eludes Scotland’s own political establishment. With vanishingly rare exceptions, all the Scottish (not British) politicians and parties defer to the alien concept of parliamentary sovereignty even while mouthing the sovereignty of Scotland’s people as if that concept were nothing more than an electoral campaign slogan. All this implies is that the process of retaking the institutions which define our distinctive political culture and national identity must be driven by the people.
This, too, is part of the new thinking. Thanks to the research undertaken by Sara Salyers and others, we now know that the “legal and constitutional” route to independence exists. That it does not exist in the legal and constitutional framework imposed on Scotland by the colonising power should not be at all surprising. I shall eschew further comment on those who maintained that this non-existent route was the democratic “gold standard”. I shall even restrain myself from passing judgement on those who yet adhere to this ‘old thinking’ despite all the real-world developments which point up the idiocy of doing so. That the “legal and constitutional” route does exist in Scotland’s own legal and constitutional environment will be news to most people, I suspect. It certainly was a revelation to me.
My hope is that this new thinking will spread and gain traction such that not even the politicians who are well-practised in turning a deaf ear and blind eye to the people are unable to brush it off in their customary high-handed fashion. How else might Scotland be rescued from colonisation?
PETER BELL
MY COMMENTS
I would suggest the true success in politics is changing minds, not easy, but possible and very welcome. Salvo/ Liberation have changed a lot of minds in the last year and even more importantly opened a lot of minds to welcome the flood of information and argument that demonstrates the colonial status of our country under a thieves of Westminster who plunder our assets relentlessly each day. Join with us as we expand our organisation. There is still much to do.
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YOURS FOR SCOTLAND 
Thank you Peter. Like you I have taken on board the new thinking. I recently read Alf Bairds book Daun-Hauden published in 2020. That and Salvo plus comments from you Peter have opened my eyes. I spread the message when ever I can.
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This is an important piece.
The huge blind spot in thinking in our independence movement has always been the naive belief that there was a solely, parliamentary ‘democratic’ way to independence – there is not and never has been.
We will need another democratic majority to go forward of course but then we must be prepared to TAKE our independence.
That is where the “changing of minds” task lies and it is huge. Through naivety, stupid laziness or self serving careerism, the SNP has never taken up this debate with it’s voter base. Voters are going to have to be helped, by the activists for whom this ‘penny’ is presently ‘dropping’, to see that we are in a revolutionary struggle for power not a cricket match with rules set by our opponents.
Thank you Peter and Iain. This is our way forward !
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You are exactly right altclut; as Sergei Yerchek said, revolutions happen in 2 phases, the first, when everybody realizes that something is wrong, and it’s not working anymore. The second is when everybody realizes that everybody else realizes that they are not the minority but the majority. We are well past the first phase and it’s people like Peter, Alf, Iain,Sara and Salvo that are getting the message out there which will be impossible to ignore.
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It is amazing how much the language around independence has changed in just over one year following the formation of Salvo and the revelations by Sara Salyers of what our Constitution means, how it has been deliberately suppressed for foreign gain and most importantly how it can be used to restore Scotland’s Right of Self-Determination and Independence.
One year ago, there were very few that would even mention our colonial status – with a few notable exceptions such as Prof. Alf Baird. Colonial language is now in widespread use within the Yes Movement, even if politicians have been far too slow to adopt colonial terminology.
However, even some of our politicians are now donning the Salvo cloak of language, but most of them still need to grow a backbone so that cloak hangs correctly.
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Well done Peter, well done and well said. Chapeau 🙂
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It really is great to see the work of Peter A Bell on ScottishUDI/Manifesto for Independence, Alf Baird on Scotland’s Colonial status/Cultural suppression and Sara Salyers/Iain Lawson on the Treaty of Union/Claim of Right/Scottish Constitution coming together.
The combination of a noble cause and rational thought together with unity of purpose will propel us forward in pursuit of the return of Scotland’s independent statehood and full self-government.
When delivered let the Stirling Directive be the initial warning shot across the bows of the current Scottish Government.
Salvo!
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How wonderful to read so clearly set out Peter Bell’s journey to realisation that Alf Baird’s assertion that we do indeed live in an unacceptable and unacknowledged colony. Very clever and emotive – England-as-Britain! Have to remember that one.
Recently I have read many both unionists and nationalists still captured by nuSNP thought, denigrating and ridiculing the idea of Scotland as a Colony. The more this happens the more worried they obviously are. Unionists obviously I understand, one can but hope they eventually see the light. Nationalists hopefully are already on a journey similar to Peter Bell’s even if they are reluctant to acknowledge it. The more Scotland as a Colony is discussed the more mainstream and difficult to refute it becomes.
However, what to do in the short term. We have a majority of the electorate who associate voting SNP with voting for the quickest way to extricate ourselves from this pseudo union. A huge opportunity was lost when Sturgeon resigned. The party could have been easily recaptured by the real independents within the politicians who presumably have been cowed into acquiescence with very little fuss. That opportunity was lost. I truly believe that unfortunately what is needed now is a resounding defeat for the nuSNP in the upcoming by-election.
This is an upcoming disaster of their own making. Surely that happening will trigger the MP’s and MSP’s, let alone the SNP Councillors to finally retake their party.
Failing that, dreams of living in a normal free Scotland are postponed for so long that my generation will never experience it.
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An excellent article from Peter Bell so thanks to Iain Lawson for printing it. What is so useful is his description of the process of his change of thinking, a process that many people will find familiar.
In my opinion what Alf Baird has done is write the first Marxist analysis of the English ruling class oppression of Scotland in all its forms including the incorporation of elements of the Scottish ruling class.Some people may condemn this description of Alf’ s work but as a life long Communist , this is my view.
Sara Salyers is doing a wonderful job in her efforts to decolonise the minds of all of us who have been affected by the cultural imperialism of the dominant mindset of Scottish society.
Peter is right to call this a new kind of thinking because people generally have been educated to think that politics as only ever about a party political framework. Sara has recently taken some punishment from some who should know better.
My own experience of the anti apartheid struggle both inside and outside South Africa has taught me that all streams of anti colonial thinking are vital-all strands of the movement matter and need to be included and united.
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The like by me was an accident!
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I confess….I find it hard to buy.
I am going to be blunt….it’s an age thing.
While many of us were screaming about the unfolding disaster in Scottish Politics Peter was defending the SNP with a great deal of effort. He has changed position so many times and appears to forget what he said the month before, and that concerns me. I am also critical about his “abrupt” response to any challenge to his pronounced wisdom being accepted.
However he has written several interesting pieces over the years. I would also add that I have absolutely no doubt about his sincerity in the pursuit of Independence
I would prefer a more consistent approach that is open to challenge and compromise. Like many Scots I do not like to be telt what the way forward is.
I welcome his piece but other opinions are available. The main lesson from the Sturgeon era is that this has to be a team effort with all options presented to the Public.
At present we have no Indy leadership to focus all these ideas……but we didn’t in 2012/14 either and a great deal was achieved by the grassroot rabble.
The main factor for me is not the varied ideas of the YES Movement on the way forward. It is the SNP imposed control rule that crushes all of these to maintain THEIR dominance over US.
In my view, We will make no progress until the politically dominant and rigid business unit that is blocking Unity of the Movement is removed from power.
Step 1 – Remove the SNP ( to corrupt to recover now)
Step 2 – Independence
Everything else that follows will be decided by US.
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Sara has an article tomorrow on YFS which outlines our task. We are most certainly making progress with a lot more to come.
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We do have to remember that the Yes Movement is a “wide church” and embraces many views on how our Self-determination and Independence can be restored. Many of us have been pressing, arguing, fighting (verbally) for decades and yet only 18 months ago, very few people were discussing our freedom in the manner we do today.
For some, it may take a bit longer than others to accept the new language and the very different approach that Salvo, Liberation.Scot and the Stirling Directive are now pursuing.
Our elected representatives have mostly been left behind and it is now up to the People of Scotland to take that freedom and that does not, at any level, involve Westminster. However, Westminster’s executive in Scotland has to make up its mind which side they are on. Are they going to continue to batter themselves against the Westminster portcullis, which we already know it firmly and permanently closed, or are they going to act on their oft-repeated rhetoric and follow the Sovereign People of Scotland.
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Clootie: SALVO/Liberation, etc. certainly have their part to play in laying the foundations for our withdrawal from the Union by taking the international approach, but, without political clout, albeit without the SNP, I agree, we will fall short, I think. I also believe that both Iain’s blog yesterday and Stuart Campbell’s, highlighting the influx of the ultra ‘woke’ young of the SNP into the wider independence movement, are absolutely correct. The infection is spreading, and the wider independence movement will be overcome, too, as was the SNP. This ‘woke’ nonsense and the people, mainly the young, who appear to hold several contradictory viewpoints at once (another indication of the ‘woke’ mind) is the very crux of the problem; it is what has put the brakes on independence for nigh on ten years now.
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If I can reassure you Lorna Salvo at their AGM put in place a Constitution that can deal effectively with trouble seeking disruption. We are actively seeking new members but we want to stay focussed on our main goal, there will be no room for diversion.
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The point often missed by so many who want their vision of Scotland to dominate the debate is that once you attain Independence we will not control that. Nobody will and it will never remain fixed.
When the Sovereign People have control they will decide the shape. If they choose a TransCult Utopia then that is what we will have. If they want to join NATO then that is what we will do. If they want to keep the Monarchy then that will happen.
The SNP, the TransCult, SSP, the Tories, the Royalists etc etc will all have a voice. I accept that as should every person who states that the People are Sovereign. If the SNP control freaks stretched their thinking they would also realise that over the next 100 years the direction could change several times.
The Problem we have is that the SNP and Greens don’t like that power being surrendered to the People. They want to shape Scotland for US.
They screamed that the majority at Holyrood supported GRR. They missed the entire point of the Independence Movement. I want the People to decide as per the Switzerland model….not a clique who are too frightened to even let their own Party Members have a say on policy.
I want Scotland to be what each generation of Scots wants it to be. Not what the puppets of the London elite want it to be.
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hear hear
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No one can ever accuse Peter of not being 100% behind independence, though. He has backed the SNP because he could not see any other route to independence, but the SNP has sickened even him in the past year or two.
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Like Peter I was a very keen supporter of the SNP although never a member. The rot for me started with the theft of the £600k in 2019, the continual failed pre election promises. In the last couple of years it had been GRR and a new knowledge on how the Murrels have stolen the parties democracy.
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Where might we be today had the founders of the SNP adopted an anti-colonial perspective in the 1930’s? That such a perspective existed back then is well documented and was one heartily supported by the leading-lights of the Independent Labour Party in Scotland, primarily to the case of India, but never to white-skinned Scotland, unfortunately. I’m bound to think that skin tone still plays a large part for many Scots, when, if ever, they consider colonialism. Skin tone, as we know, has never been a preventative factor in the subjugation and exploitation of a colony and its people. Well done, Peter; for your selfless endorsement of Alf Baird’s iconoclastic Doun Hauden, a work that encapsulates, in spades, what the New-Thinking actually entails. I’ll let Ian Lawson thank you personally for your acknowledgement of his role in the promotion of New-Thinking.
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Thank you – a wee glimmer of hope is rekindling in me after gloom, despondency and the blind rage of the last year.
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Reading Doun Hauden awoke in me the realisation of what colonialism is and how it had effected me my life chances ,my goals and ambitions. How I had been brainwashed from birth gaslighted and indoctrinated by the English state, disguised and clothed as Britain. How the deck of cards has been stacked against me all my life and my fellow compatriots. We have been lied to by the people we trusted politicians, lawyers, judges a bantu Education system. Politicans have a reason to deny the Claim of Right and the Sovereignty of the People and for that reason I will never trust a politician no matter who they are. The political class have betrayed us , now the people must drive independance through and inacted justice.
Reading wings this morning about the latest SNP shenanigans and coruption if any one doubts why we have had 8 wasted years and 6 wasted mandates of nothing you will realise why. The whole so called British democracy system is a rigged game controlled by the elites for the elites. Not only must we reclaim our Nation we must reclaim democracy as well.
Dissolve the corupt rotten to the core Union.
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I enjoyed reading this clear, honest description of the reasons for Peter’s change of opinion. It should help others along the same journey.
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Yes, I think so, too, Sarah. Peter is never less than searingly honest about his own journey, albeit he can be somewhat dismissive of others, at times. Curmudgeonly. Not the worst trait, I suppose.
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I may be in Alba but I will be supporting this
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/rutherglen–hamilton-west-by-election/backers#start
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Colette Walker, ISP candidate, needs £1,000 and so far has raised £530.
If you can afford it, make a donation and spread the link around all your contacts.
If you can’t, spread the link around all your contacts.
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Thanks to all the very generous people on here who support Salvo and Scots Lib. The ISP the crowdfunder has now reached £1.440 and the target has been stretched to £2,000.
Anyone in Rutherglen to campaign and see if we can get Colette Walker elected as abstentionist MP, for the 1st time in Scottish history?
Remember if successful, she will not take her seat in Westminster, she will not swear allegiance to KCIII and she will not take any salary
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Well, help ma boab! Some bloke has changed his mind in the face of the glaringly obvious. It has been perfectly clearly the case that Westminster would never allow Scotland to regain independence. Mr Bell may change his mind, but he cannot have been thinking all that much when he supported referenda, gradualism and all the associated claptrap.
From the days of Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham we have run around in circles like the caucus race in Alice in Wonderland. We are not one whit closer to independence. The Scottish Parliament exists as a “by your leave ” creation of Westminster. It has served them very well, absorbing the energies of those supposedly working for independence. If the political government of Scotland was really working for independence, and if it has been doing that for the last twenty years or so, why has nothing happened? Why are we not one single step further along the road?
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We should therefore welcome the recognition of the need for new targets and routes. That is exactly what is now happening…as long last!
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Very grateful to Peter Bell for his kind remarks, but more especially for his expert and insightful identification of three essential elements in the decolonization process:
1. Colonialism – the realisation and understanding of our ‘condition’;
2. Liberation – as the only remedy for the colonial condition; and,
3. UDI – as the means to achieve liberation from the colonial condition.
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Yes, I can see now that the process outlined by Peter gives a clear shape to the way forward. It has been such a fog until now. I have been pressing for Alba to make international links especially Ireland. Once we declare independence we need to have recognition from other countries and Ireland would be the best in my view. But I cannot claim to have worked up much support from others!
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Iceland might also be one to cultivate for recognition, indeed all the Nordic Council countries and of course the EFTA group (some may be members of both!). Recognition should be sought from Ireland but I fear they may not (given Northern Ireland’s constitutional situation) wish to draw the UK’s ire. Or at least not be the first to recognise, if others do, then Ireland would, wouldn’t they?
In addition, any country that gained independence from England as Britain should be courted.
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Indeed, Alf. Numbers two and three are the most difficult for most people to recognize and agree to, because they mean actually doing something. Of course, not all can be doers, not all can be thinkers, but most can understand when the moment arrives to follow a leader. That is what we are missing: that leader to point the way and start the ball rolling; and, more to the point, a leader who does not follow the rules, but is willing to do what needs to be done, and that is never one who adheres to the rules of the oppressor.
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Yes Lorncal, and on that matter of “the rules of the oppressor”, what is happening to and within Scotland’s independence movement is perhaps nothing new, similar events have played out in many colonial situations. In this we see a rupture between the ‘legal’ tendency that plays by the colonizer’s rules (hence ‘legal’), and the ‘illegal’ tendency that seeks liberation as a matter of greater urgency. As Frantz Fanon explained:
“So we can observe the process whereby the rupture occurs between the illegal and legal tendencies in the party. The illegal minority is made to feel that they are undesirables and are shunned by the people that matter (and) already there is a rift between the two tendencies. The illegalists, therefore, will get into touch with the intellectual elements whose attitude they were able to understand a few years back; and an underground party, an off-shoot of the legal party, will be the result of this meeting. But the repression of these wayward elements intensifies as the legal party draws nearer to colonialism and attempts to modify it ‘from the inside’. The illegal minority thus finds itself in a historical blind alley.”
The illegal minority, according to Fanon, must then look to “the mass of the country… who keep their moral values and their devotion to the nation intact” but whose understanding of the situation remains “rudimentary”; this is because the party has never undertaken “a reasoned study of colonial society”.
Which implies that the march this weekend is by the ‘legal tendency’, whose ‘moral values’ and ‘devotion to the nation’ remain questionable, according to postcolonial theory.
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Just for clarity I’ve posted all over the place as “Alt Clut” for years. As we work to move into a new phase with new thinking and, eventually, new strategy it’s time to change that as well. I’m Alasdair Jamison and pleased to be a small part of the new reality for independence.
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I will miss your Alt Clut name Alasdair. Been noting your comments for years. I thought it was a good name remembering a Scottish ‘empire’ of Britons and the Clyde. It is good that some like us here are moving forward educating others.
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Thanks Andy,
I’m very interested in Roman and post Roman Scotland. Visited Dunning several times to admire the cross. What a magnificent piece of our cultural heritage !
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Prisoners in jails rarely if ever have a voting system that allows them to vite for and take their freedom.
Same applies to colonies. How many colonies do we know that have a voting system are able to use that system to gain independence. Democracy UK style is a sham and the electoral system the problem. But the UK establishment know that. They are past masters at holding, or at least trying to hold colonies tight.
Folks need to more widely recognise that freedom from colonisation can be achieved. That is what Salvo, Liberation.Scot, Alba are about. It does not need to be the way that it is. Many many countries have departed the vile vicious, exploitive and oft murderous clutches of Britain and its Empire.
The SNP may have been hollowed out, turned, and shaped into an anti independence party acting for an on behalf of their colonial masters but soon the will be gone, to be replaced by a new movement.
Good article Peter Bell. You are reflecting the new politics and processes of achieving independence.
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I’ve said it many times already and I’ll say it again:
WM will never under any circumstances whatsoever, voluntarily give up its “prized possession” of Scotland. Without it, England itself is a dead duck. (Or until it learns to stand on its own two feet and not plunder other countries to survive, and that can take a while.)
Scotland is the mammoth cash-cow that feeds the English UK. Economy
It’s the glue that keeps the “UK” together.
No UK, no big man on the world stage. Smaller seats on the back rows.
No trade deals of worth.
Nothing left to plunder.
If we want independence then we will have to FIGHT for it. Non-violent of course but we could make life very difficult, expensive and obstructive for WM. We need headlines around the world. We need people to know that Scotland is still alive and ready to fight for our liberty.
We may not be in the official sense a colony, but in reality that is exactly what we are.
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Well after I left the SNP, due to the actions of Sturgeon, I eventually joined Alba as a hopeful route to getting the Independence. I never heard anything about Salvo. Scot and Liberation.scot, until one day I went into a friend’s small shop. On her desk that day she had a number of leaflets, I read it and took one.
It was too me, a breath of fresh air, I had never heard of Sara Salyers, so I tried to find her on Youtube and I did, Sara did not hold back when speaking of how Scotland had been and still does, get treated by
England, and how they continue to steal everything Scotland has.
I also started to understand and I now am convinced How Sturgeon and now Yousef are actually in tow with Westminster. ie a letter to the English King – signing off with ” I am your most humble servant. ”
Yousef, bending the knee to the King. He is not and never will be the King of Scotland.
Nicola Sturgeon. Phew, so glad I had seen the writing on the wall much earlier.
I am now committed to To Salvo.scot and Liberation.scot. It is great to be now close to really like minded people and all the others who are waking up. I am in it now and will never leave, as a Sovereign Scot, and now know and understand what has been going of for centuries.
If we as Sovererign people, and we really are, stand together I have no doubt we will again be a nation again, with all the benefits of being being a nation again, and Salvo and Liberation will lead the way.
Thanks iain, for all you do, and to all the good people who assist you and enlighten us with their thoughts via the blog.
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Hear!Hear!
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wonder how many customers have been influenced by the leaflets in your friend’s shop. Hope many other supporters are doing their bit to pass on info
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I am grateful to Iain lawson, Sara Saylers, Alf Baird, et al, who have moved the dial on independence, but please no more patting on the back about how far we have come in our thinking and how advanced our strategies are.
We need now to employ Occam’s razor: Keep it simple.
Salvo to declare, based in the Claim of Right, that the 1707 Scottish Parliament that was shut down illegally without the consent of the Scottish people to be reopened on the first day of 2024. Invite all genuine Scottish independence supporters to recognise that. Current political Parties will oppose this of course. They would not be invited to take part in the new Parliament as they are all part of the colonial administration.
The new reopened Parliament could be a virtual one initially. As Scottish people are sovereign, it is entirely legal and justifiable that a proper Scottish Parliament, one that is not ‘devolved’, is set up given the repeated mandates for independence the SNP have enjoyed for years now.
Such a day will need to come if Scotland is to be free. We will never see it under the SNP. I fear more and more delays will not build more support but have the opposite effect. I know for one that I am loosing the will to live hearing how we are to achieve independence – sometime…
Just my view of course which no doubt will will be shot down. ‘…wait for our big plans ahead’. ‘…stick to the process’. “…work to move to a new phase in our thinking.’
I would like to see Scotland free before I shuffle it.
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I think UDI is a bridge too far for
most Scots and the connotations with Rhodesia fit those of a certain age. you can just imagine the BBC Archive in overdrive if we did that.
However it is a legitimate route to consider and discuss and i’ve asked a member of the SNP Conference Committee if it was contained in any draft resolution. Response awaited.
My branch submitted a resolution on Dissolution which i submit is more attractive from many standpoints. This far it is not on the draft agenda though there is one which of amended follows that route.
We can be independent in 15 months .
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Love your optimism wonder if it will survive for the 15 months.
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Graeme – We all agree that to be free of the Union Scotland needs to make a Declaration of Independence. It may be unilateral (Scotland declares it is independent) or bilateral(Scotland declares it is Independent and England agrees).
Obviously nobody here knows what your Branch Resolution on Dissolution contains. But resolving that “The Treaty is Dissolved because of a) b) and c) reasons or breaches seems to be not very different to making a unilateral declaration of independence.
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the effect of dissolution is very different from UDI. In the absence of agreement between Scotland and Enwani then there is no continuing state. In terms of the Vienna Convention the former state assets and liabilities are divided equitably.
Also. in the absence of agreement post dissolution then the institutions of the former state can’t operate unless each action is approved by both former partners. That is a huge problem for civil and public servants who will wish to avoid unilateral actions which could make them personally liable in civil and criminal law. By signalling dissolution will follow immediately if there is a majority vote for Independence then Enwani will be under enormous pressure to come to an agreement.
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Thanks for your courteous reply Graeme.
I seem to recollect we have discussed on other occasions that the Vienna Convention does not apply to “ancient” treaties.
Please excuse my ignorance. What is “Enwani”?
I agree that in the case of Treaty dissolution the institutions of the former state would have great difficulties in operating. I cannot envisage the current SNP taking such a step but am happy to be proved wrong. We shall see
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The Convention doesn’t apply to ancient treaties but it largely mirrors or codifies what the legal position was under international law developed through custom and use down the centuries. By showing a readiness to submit to the Convention principles would do Scotland no harm in the international community.
Enwani is short for the other new state: England Wales and Northern Ireland. It fairly runs off the tongue.
As the U.K. has demonstrated it ignores international law when it suits it anyway so whether the dissolution is strictly under the Convention or not is immaterial.
What is material is that any action Enwani takes will have to be implemented by its Civil Servants. If these civil servants are put on notice by Scotland that any act they take on reserved matters of the former state prejudice Scotland without the specific consent of both Enwani and Scotland will render them personally liable in the Scottish courts. Many CSs are Scottish and/or own property in Scotland with close family here. They will not wish to expose themselves to that threat which will not be time limited.
Enwani cannot function without its Civil servants.
As regards Scotland’s civil service the Independence Delivery Unit will have in place before Dissolution Day the key staff and processes to hit the ground running the day after the GE. Very few key staff are required.
I’ve also worked out initial funding without using Devolved money.
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UDI for Scotland would be nothing like UDI for Rhodesia, and I am surprised that people still quote this. Rhodesia, at the time, was a country with apartheid, it was a colony of the UK in the strict ‘overseas’ sense. Black people in Rhodesia kew perfectly well that it went for UDI because it wanted to retain and maintain white supremacy.
Dissolution would involve rUK in the process, and, for this reason, we would not get a fair deal: while they might let us go, they would fleece us on the way out of the Union.
I also believe that SALVO/Liberation should forge ahead with plans to lay their case before the UN, but it will require to be backed by political results, too. Any country that has gone to the UN for recognition of its independence was independent first – i.e. it had already declared UDI. Think the Balkan states, the Baltic states, the former Soviet republics, et al. The Czech Republic and the Slovakian Republic had agreed a mutual split – also UDI.
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Dissolution can happen without agreement as the UN has recognised. It would have serious and immediate consequences for Enwani who will be desperate to be the continuing state. If we don’t agree then it cannot unilaterally assume that it is. That’s not fleecing to me!
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arthor49: the wider YES/independence movement is a broad church, just as the SNP was once. It will not be that for long once the ‘wokerati’ move in to infest it. These are very ambitious, young ‘woke’ people who have spotted an opportunity. But, hey, what do I know? Too many thought that, with Sturgeon gone, this aspect of the party would go with her. It won’t because it operates independently (no pun intended) of the SNP’s former leadership. It always did, although she was its queen bee in Scotland, because it is being operated from out with these shores. I suppose it will take the demise of the wider movement before the majority will see it. Let SALVO/Liberation and ALBA remain aloof, please.
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“… When the Sovereign People have control they will decide the shape. If they choose a TransCult Utopia then that is what we will have. If they want to join NATO then that is what we will do. If they want to keep the Monarchy then that will happen… ”
To an extent, yes, you are quite right. However, you leave out the fact that the ‘transcult’ is not democratic, but, essentially, totalitarian. You may choose to live in a totalitarian, independent Scotland, but I’d prefer to head off this movement at the pass – and not just because it is profoundly anti female and anti child, anti homosexual and anti lesbian (it is all those) but because it is in its very marrow a fascist, totalitarian concept that cannot be realized without widespread incarceration, violence and suppression, probably death, eventually, for many citizens who cannot abide by the rules of unreality.
It is Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin all rolled into one, fundamentally a youth movement as they all were, initially, albeit led by adult Svengalis, as those regimes were, and, because its origins are in the hard left, it will, very naturally, cause a right-wing response, equally as terrifying. The very last thing this movement actually wants is independence and free-minded citizens. It should be far more terrifying than NATO, which is terrifying, too, and hardly comparable to the monarchy, even though many citizens would prefer a republic. I despair at how blase people are about the modern ‘woke’ movement, believing it to be harmless.
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The Youth wing were always the vocal element of a movement and a political party, whatever the ideology.
The decline of a political party can be measured by the numbers in thier youth wing.
For example, if memory serves, when the C.P.G.B. ceased to exist the membership of the YCL was about 8,000.
At that time, 1984 (Irony), the Party had an aging membership and an ideological chism to contend with.
The SNP Sturgenyugen may be vocal, but i doubt they are numerous.
What was refreshing post 2014 was the upsurge of spontaneous groups of all ages and conditions under one flag and many banners, outwith and beyond the controlling dead hand of the Party.
Even the polis had smiles on thier faces back then. Now they are apologists for mysoginistic bullying in public parks.
The new innitiatives have to capture the imagination of the coming generation. In my youth it was Ban the Bomb and Anti Aparhied. Later the war in Vietnam focussed our attention.
The popular music of the day also connected with a general political awareness.
What innitiatives can be employed to regenerate that degree of awarenes in our doon hauden youth.
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Welcome aboard
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Well done Peter Bell, and the many excellent posts to read in response. Five stars to Sara Salyers and Alf Baird for their contributions…but…Scotland voted by 62% to remain in the EU…and not a peep of mass protest from Scotland that England/Britain ignored our decision.
Is life adequately comfortable for most Scots that independence is not of interest?
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“Is life adequately comfortable for most Scots that independence is not of interest?”
Maybe for the bourgeoisie as they always compromise.
Not so the workers – they are just beaten down.
We need to set an example and inspire all.
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Usually, when electorial results come in showing a low turn out at the polls, the media often refer to the cause as Political Apathy when in fact it would better be defined as Antipathy. This has been the case ever since i got the vote at 18 courtesy of that nice Mr Wilson. It may be indifference with the middling class, but their comfort zone is being erroded at a rate of knotts. They’ve been telt, bit they’ll no listen.
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I think the problem Velofello is that most people are ignorant. Had our people and politicians been aware and supportive in 2015 when we had 50.5% of the vote and 56 of 59 MP’s we could have raised loudly the Claim of Right, caused a constitutional crisis and got our freedom. Sadly a retrospective dream on my part. This thought is part of the way forward. Education and ‘growing a pair’ albeit legal ones.
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Yes, Andy, 2015 was the time to do it: before the Brexit referendum and before the ‘trans’ lobby takeover of the SNP. Even 2016 would have carried us over, but, after that, it became more and more difficult.
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To get Liberation.Scot up to 100,000 signatures can we not get out bloggers to ask their followers to sign up. I’d like to think that could quickly escalate our numbers up. Also can we try and persuade Steven Flynn to do what Ian Blackford didn’t do and that is to stop engaging with the UK in Westminster. We should not give any credence whatsoever to that toxic place sbd just being there does exactly that so to fast track ourselves away from a devolved mindset it’s time we quit Westminster. Now!!
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Sorry Iain, but when many of us called for the UDI method from 2015 onwards, Peter called us idiots and claimed we didn’t know what we were talking about and quite often used one of the Balkan nations as his evidence, so for him to claim it’s his view on UDI that has changed peoples views is frankly pish e were already of that mind 7 years before him, but Peter also has put out some interesting points over the years so I won’t slate him too much
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He openly admits his views have changed, that happens in politics and often a stronger person emerges.
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We can all change our mind Ayeinskye. I up until the mid 90’s used to vote Conservative and then I supported the SNP. No longer either. In a vote I will vote Alba or ISP. We all change, hopefully.
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It’s not the fact that he has changed his mind, it’s the fact he is claiming to have been instrumental in the call for UDI, most of us who supported UDI and said so either on his blog or on twitter was slated by him as it was unworkable.
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