Listening to the news tonight. Mostly re Covid and related media stories, but also re just about everything else. Aye, right enough. Where to begin?
Let’s start here.
Jesus wept. Scotland isn’t a “devolved nation”. God, I hate that phrase. It is, in fact, a nation that currently has a devolved government. Regardless of political colours, that’s a hugely important distinction and one that we should all recognise. Although I hae ma doots if some sitting in Holyrood share my sentiments. Although if they don’t you’d have to question why they are there at all.
Scotland is – in fact – a nation. Period. A nation in existence since 843, a nation that pre-dates its southerly neighbour by a century or two. Not that we’re counting. A nationhood that wasn’t extinguished by either the Union of the Crowns Act of 1603 or the Act of Union of 1707.
And it’s a distinction that ought to be championed by anyone who believes in a historic Scottish democracy that goes back eight centuries and asserts – rightly – that sovereignty lies with the people and not the parliament. Just as our ancestors claimed in 1320.
And that’s the thing. In 2014, the question for me wasn’t a binary one. It was, and is, much more fundamental than that.
It was – and is – “Who shall speak for Scotland?”
And related to that: “what kind of Scotland do we want our weans to live in?”, and: “what constitutional arrangement do we need to deliver this?” And, “must we always outsource our democracy to a political establishment that we haven’t voted for since 1955 and is utterly antithetical to our societal and political ethos?”
Let Scotland be Scotland.
Stay safe everybody.
I’ll meet you further on up the road.
