There is always a price to pay. Forget that, and the price can get very steep indeed. The SNP leadership and senior management came to consider themselves immune from scrutiny because for several years they were not subject to any meaningful scrutiny. Anyone who suggested more rigorous scrutiny was shouted down as a traitor not … Continue reading A failure of scrutiny

Requesting or accepting or conceding the validity of the Section 30 process is a denial of the sovereignty of Scotland’s people. It acknowledges an authority above the people – the British parliament. It is an acceptance of the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. The principles of parliamentary and popular sovereignty are mutually exclusive. They are entirely … Continue reading To...

At the moment, we’re obviously in a political stalemate where Westminster are denying the voice of Scotland being expressed, so a Section 30 order would be an obvious way to go there. Ash Regan Ash Regan just blew it! She has now stated that she is prepared to compromise the sovereignty of Scotland’s people by … Continue reading None of the above!

The SNP has been following a gradualist approach to the constitutional issue since before the Scottish Parliament was reconvened. Never more gradualist than the last eight years under Sturgeon’s ‘leadership’. What is not generally understood even by its most ardent proponents – and certainly not by Ben Macpherson – is that the end-point of the … Continue reading...

Let me make it clear from the outset that I support Ash Regan’s bid to become leader of the Scottish National Party and thence First Minister of Scotland. I have to clarify this because some of what I am about to say may be taken by some as an attempt to undermine her campaign. That … Continue reading Shoogly pillars

Tommy Sheridan makes a powerful point, which The National and most commenting on the report seem to have missed. This isn’t about him personally joining the SNP if Ash Regan becomes leader. It is about the fact that Ash being leader will make the SNP once again the party of independence and so make it … Continue reading The healing properties of Ash

I have a question for all the candidates in the SNP leadership contest. How Kate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf respond to this question will give a clear indication of the strength of their commitment to the restoration of Scotland’s independence. I do not, of course, expect any of them to respond directly to … Continue reading A question for the candidates

It is no secret that I deplore the Section 30 process. That is to say, the process by which the First Minister of Scotland, acting on behalf of the sovereign people of Scotland, petitions the British Prime Minister to grant conditional consent that the sovereign people of Scotland exercise their inalienable right to determine the … Continue reading We can be heroes!

The Sunday National’s summary of the policies and positions set out by the three candidates in the SNP leadership contest is useful even if for no other reason than to illustrate how little is on offer to Scotland’s independence movement. The total absence of any new ideas is incredible given that there has been an … Continue reading A glimmer of hope?

Two things strike me as perplexing about the question splashed across the front page of The National today. The first is that “how do we win the No voters over to Yes?” is still being asked in March 2023. The second is that in March 2023 the SNP still has no clear or persuasive answer … Continue reading A want of daring

To be honest ─ even at some risk to my ‘feminist’ credentials ─ I have some sympathy with the views on womanhood expressed by Kate Forbes back in 2014. Views which she has confirmed she continues to hold. I agree that women are different from men. I agree that nature (evolution) has ‘designed’ men and … Continue reading The word of God

There seems to be some kind of ‘rule’ in Scotland’s independence movement that everything has to be done at least two years after it should have been done. In terms of a national campaigning organisation, that would be at least five years late. I wish the Scottish Independence Convention (SIC) success. But as very much … Continue reading No body! No voice! No power!

Trekking the highways and byways of social media this past few days I have gained the sense that I am the only one not swooning over Kate Forbes on account of her ‘honesty’. Everybody seems mighty impressed with the fact that she came right out and told us something we already knew. Something she could … Continue reading Inconsistencies and contradictions

Scottish National Party leadership contender Ash Regan is among the latest people to deplore the divisions besetting the independence movement and issue a plea for unity. Nothing very surprising there. Everybody says the same thing. They all say we need solidarity. Which poses a bit of a conundrum. If everybody deplores the division and wants … Continue reading All the pieces

It is gratifying to hear Robbie Mochrie acknowledge that making an economic case for independence is pointless. Restoring Scotland’s independence is indeed a purely political project. More precisely, a constitutional project. There can be no economic case against independence. Inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying...

When was the last time we heard anything so unequivocal from the SNP? On the basis of these words alone, everyone who has a vote should be giving Ash Regan their most serious consideration. And everyone who is committed to the restoration of Scotland’s independence should be offering their support. Below is Ash Regan’s statement … Continue reading Independence! Nothing less!

I have strong reservations about religionists in politics and Kate Forbes is, by her own account, unable to separate doctrinal commands of her religious faith from the secular nature of our legislature. Nonetheless, I am very concerned by the way she is being targeted by what has all the characteristics of an orchestrated campaign to … Continue reading Discrimination and religion

In the previous article we looked at the current state of play in the fight to restore Scotland’s independence (A mountain to climb). Stephen Duncan’s analysis of polling on support for Yes presented a daunting picture for whoever replaces Nicola Sturgeon as de facto leader of the independence movement. Especially when, as well as the … Continue reading The summit to reach

Unsurprisingly, Scotland’s media ─ mainstream, alternative and social ─ is awash with speculation about who will be Nicola Sturgeon’s successor as SNP leader, First Minister and de facto head on the independence movement now that she has chosen to step down. Much of this speculation is poorly informed, based on no more than a potential … Continue reading A mountain...

One of the things that happens when a political leader steps down is that everybody (and it certainly seems like it is literally everybody) turns to poring over their resignation speech dissecting and examining it looking for clues as to the real reason they politician in question is quitting. The one thing most seem to … Continue reading The reset button beckons