FM's concerns about doing the right thing legally are ringing hollow

The National

2 days ago

OK, so I can't see the results of my straw poll but I reckon The National could make a serious contribution to the discussion with such an exercise. Particularly so since the National Conversation these days is showing a distinct tendency to a desperation for action, to which the alleged party of Scotland's independence continually turn a deaf ear.
Our 'honest' John seems to be perennially worried about doing the right/legal thing and like so many others, I've written previously about the futility of Swinney's road to oblivion. Ciaran Martin, Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford but in a previous incarnation as Constitution Director (2011-2014) within the Cabinet Office and at the centre of the Edinburgh Agreement negotiations, wrote: 'Ultimately there are no constraints on what Westminster can do to block a lawful path to Scottish independence if it's so minded. There are, in effect, only two things that matter. One: The law is in Westminster, Two: The votes are in Scotland. So if these two forces clash, one has to give way to the other'.
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So no hiding place, Mr Swinney. 'Honest' John's protestations about doing the right/legal thing ring hollow to me. They are nothing more than an excuse given he's an experienced political operator of more than 25 years standing.
When, in 2018, SNP headquarters did the hatchet job on the National Council, I resigned as the convener of my local branch in the face of what I considered a democratic outrage. Now I read that the fortress that is the SNP leadership needs more than 1400 members to storm the barricades if they wish to be rid of the incumbent. A pale imitation of the party of the redoubtable Madame Ecosse – 'stop the world, Scotland wants to get on'.
Chambers dictionary defines hope as 'to desire with belief in the possibility of fulfilment'. Alas, like so many of us independenistas (as distinguished from SNP activists who can't tell the difference between the indissoluble Spanish constitution and Scotland's 1707 Treaty of Union), my hopes for the future have disintegrated into the hope that the SNP, as presently constituted, meet their demise in the next 12 months. And for the simple reason that if this lot ever manage to get us to independence negotiations, the outcome will be as the ScotWind outcomes but on steroids.
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Yet if only 'honest' John was really serious about doing the right and legal thing, and showed humility by putting country before party, it could be quite different.
Clearly the route to an independent state lies either in dissolving the Treaty of Union or deploying the mechanism of direct democracy by means of Article 25 (b) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights so as to anchor the chimera that is the sovereignty of Scotland's people and expose the gaslighting of the Westminster-funded civil servants.
On current form, 'honest' John will go down in history as the Toom Tabard of our times, abandoning our country once again to the rapacious behaviour of our English overlords.
If, dear reader, you are serious about the indy cause, please sign PE 2135 on the Holyrood petitions site if you've not yet done so, so that we can tell the Sir Humphrey brigade to sling their collective hooks and let Scotland's people exercise their right to self-determination through a legal and internationally recognised process.
Iain Bruce
Nairn