Yes supporters need to avoid the rhetoric of nihilism and despair
READ MORE: Legal arguments grounded in international covenants remain symbolic
So calling Scotland a colony of the UK or England is intellectually absurd. (Martinique sends deputies to the French Parliament so it is a 'departement of France', not a colony.) Scotland has participated in the colonial 'British' historical process managing and 'book-keeping' the Empire. However, the British parliament under devolution exercises sovereignty over Scotland with the authority of parliamentary power within British law (see the Supreme Court decision).
This Westminster power leaves Scotland dormant with a wholly subaltern status within the UK, even with Holyrood and its neo-colonial devolutionary settlement. This neo-colonial occupation of Scotland by the British imperial Westminster Parliament is a damaging reality. So the focus of political action is not Scotland's colonial status but rather its subaltern position vis a vis the UK.
There are three subaltern characteristics that help shape Scotland's current dilemma. One is the cultural resistance movement led by numerous public intellectuals, writers, artists and progressive academics. But this is a resistance that participates in a challenging oppressive cultural ambience, characterised by London-centric power and lack of serious liberating funding. This bleak outlook can only be resolved when cultural resistance takes on a political role rather than obscuring the political challenges with idealism.
READ MORE: Would a Scottish sovereign wealth fund be possible after independence?
The second task within the current climate is the urgent need to avoid the rhetoric of nihilism and despair. Avoidance of surrender is critical. Too many independence 'supporters' have succumbed to the nihilism of helplessness or sought solace in the weedy pastures of tiny protest organisations. This leads on to the third role for the broad independence movement under the current oppressive British state represented by the failed British Labour Party.
How, and in what political manner, can pro-indy people understand and cope with the psychological stresses provided by the failure to gain sovereignty? Subjection is the dominant mode within nation semi-states like Scotland and can only be resolved by winning sovereignty. Hope, redemption, resolution, 'positive futurism' are all urgent priorities in this subordinate time. Yet we cannot frame the current struggle within a wholly negative paradigm of oppression. Arguing that Scottish history is all misery and degradation simply ads to the negative paradigm that needs overthrowing. WE CAN WIN even if we accept the condition of subjection; it can be defeated. Scotland needs to overcome negative tropes and become something new and positive with much greater focus on the future rather than the past. That is a task of a devolved Scottish Government led by the SNP.
READ MORE: Explosive new poll puts Corbyn-Sultana party level with Labour
Time is not on our side. Global capitalism will not sit back and admire Scotland's vulnerability of size; rather it consumes fragile states. Asserting sovereignty is the urgent requirement that will need young people to move on from their virtual-game-based world and work to build their real future. Our current 'phoney-sovereignty' will only make our country poorer and our future darker . London only funds Scotland sufficiently to let it fail. Only by harnessing the social and political energy of our young people (and others) will we be able to overcome the present political malaise.
Unfortunately the flawed engine of renewal, hope and redemption is the SNP. It is the only political engine that can drive the independence movement to sovereignty. There are some who might need the 'peg on the nose', but 2026 is the last-chance saloon. Objectively, only the SNP and the Scottish voters can deliver independence with the support of progressive patriots.
Thom Cross
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The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
We shouldn't have to ask for Trump police costs help. Sadly we must
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Despite the façade, the 2012 Olympics were by any stretch of casual observation a London-based Games. The tokenistic events in the other home nations – principally to avoid shelling out approximately half a billion pounds of Barnett consequentials to Holyrood, Stormont, and the Senedd – were shown to be just that the moment sudden and unforeseen costs were encountered. Read more by Calum Steele The failure of private security contractor G4S to provide the promised security for the football in Glasgow was catastrophic. A flagship event at the biggest sporting event in the world was in jeopardy. The reputation of the Games, and the nation as a whole, required some decisive leadership – which came in the shape of the then Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police, Sir Stephen House, who didn't hesitate to take over the security at enormous and unbudgeted cost to his force. That invariably led to a political tug of war over who should meet those costs. Treasury was resolute that it would not be doing so, as in its view it had already provided additional funding for the Games to Scotland. The Scottish Government argued that as these were meant to be UK Games (despite the less-than-subtle Games logo and marketing), the additional costs should come from the Treasury, leaving only one loser – Strathclyde Police. Ultimately, only dogged perseverance by the force itself saw the costs of fixing G4S's failures being eventually reimbursed by G4S and the Home Office, delivering a moral and financial victory for Sir Stephen and the Scottish Government. Whilst these kinds of technical spats are bread and butter for political geeks and policy wonks, they should be of much wider interest to us all. The nature of devolved politics will always throw up disputes of this kind, and when they do, they actually tell us so much about the way in which the critical infrastructure in the country is formed and functions; and crucially, just how fragile the trust upon which it is built can be. Policing in the UK spans three distinct legal systems. Baked into the structure is a 'mutual aid' system – where any police force in the UK can call upon others for help. The UK's mutual aid system allows police forces to share the load in times of sudden demand or extreme emergency. It's a model found nowhere else in the world. Arguments can be made both ways over which makes most sense, but self-sufficiency signals a national confidence and competence in a way that the perceived pragmatism of sharing capacity doesn't. The truth of it is £5m ought to be chicken-feed when looking at the costs of guaranteeing the safety and security of the President of the United States. Arguments over who pays, or the fact there is a question of anyone other than the Scottish Government picking up the costs, miss the wider point altogether – and that is that despite a police service of some 16,000 officers, our national police service has to call on mutual aid at all. Stephen House agreed to take over the security of the 2012 Olympic football in Glasgow at enormous and unbudgeted cost to his force (Image: Danny Lawson) There is no doubt the Police Scotland of 2025 is a much weaker beast than that of 2018 and is more reliant on mutual aid now than then. Some will argue that's what the system allows for and we should be proud to call on assistance from elsewhere. I don't buy that. Calling for help in times of extreme emergencies is one thing, but calling for help for what should be a fundamental capability of the police service of our nation is not something we should boast about. The simple fact is Donald Trump is the first American President since Ronald Reagan to legitimately claim direct Scottish lineage. Whether he's the first or last of a Trump dynasty in the White House remains to be seen – but his ties to Scotland are indisputable. Any US President with clear links to Scotland should be acknowledged – strategically, if not personally – for the potential soft-power benefits of claiming the world's most powerful leader as a son of the nation are inescapable. Whether we like it or not, Trump will almost certainly continue to visit his mother's homeland long after leaving office – and wherever he goes, the scale of security required to accommodate him will far exceed that of any predecessor. It ought not to be a controversial matter for any nation's police service to be able to say unequivocally that they could keep him safe, nor, for that matter, for any government to easily be able to pay for it. One thing is for sure – the 'working visit' label will cease to apply once he leaves office, leaving only one budget to pay for it – the Scottish one. If we can't manage now – how on earth will we manage then? Calum Steele is a former General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, and former general secretary of the International Council of Police Representative Associations. He remains an advisor to both.
