MARCH 24, 2066

IT was 50 years ago today that Scotland celebrated its first Independence Day and the nation has moved on a great deal since that historic event.

As noted by King George VII in this year’s message to the nation, he is grateful that Scotland’s Parliament has again elected him as constitutional monarch for the second time – with typical grace, he neglected to point out that there were again no other candidates for his unpaid role which entirely consists of being chief opener of things, though the real reason for his popularity, as we all know, is his handsome Scottish partner, the ebullient pop singer Tam McRocker.

With the Scottish National Party forming the administration for the 12th time running, they are fully in charge of the new Parliament building which replaced the Miralles/Dewar creation that collapsed in 2030, fortunately missing the nation’s last Labour MSP who was locked weeping in her office at the time. The new creation was finished on time and under budget, it should be noted.

The devolution of power to local communities across the land, including the local income tax, has been a huge success, helped by the Government’s ability to supply free energy to everyone in the country.

Can it really be 30 years since the invention of the Battery, as we now call it, that work of genius by collaborating universities across the land that has enabled the storage of renewable power for years at a time and which means free energy – and therefore free transport – for Scots?

Not only that but the global royalties earned by the invention have made our universities the best in the world by far, with typical Scottish strength in research and development now the powerhouse of our carbon-free economy.

It took long years to defeat the oil firms who took the Government to international courts under the heinous rules of TTIP – the system which, lest it be forgotten, destroyed the NHS in England and Wales and was the real reason for Westminster being federalised during the 2024 Revolution – but Scotland’s refusal to buckle saw them off, and the compensation they had to pay gave this nation its first sovereign oil fund.

We don’t need them here, but with carbon fuels really now running out across the world, Scotland’s oil and gas from the Firth of Clyde, the Minch and the Atlantic will be at premium prices for several decades yet, while our world-leading Scottish financial industries have ensured that the oil fund’s clever investments will soon be able to pay for all our pensions and NHS costs, reducing the current 5p rate of income tax still further.

The Scottish people now number eight million, the figure that would have been reached by 2016 had population growth equated to that of England, a country with whom we have never had better relations. It is a testament to all Scots that so many people of different origins co-exist peacefully and with utter respect for each other across the land.

There have been numerous highlights in the past five decades, but there’s no doubt about Scotland’s finest hour on the international stage, which came early in the life of the newly independent Scotland.

The removal of Trident just days before the so-called Trump-Putin War of 2022 encouraged small nations across the globe to stand up to the bullies and forced Russia and the USA to end their strife peacefully in the face of worldwide ostracism – and look how these two great nations have prospered in cooperation ever since, using Prestwick Spaceport to send their brave astronauts, and our own such as Jock and Jean Tamson, to Mars and back.

The role of UN General Secretary Alex Salmond in solving the crisis rightly earned him the Nobel Peace Prize, just one of dozens of Nobel awards that Scotland has garnered thanks to our scientific and cultural achievements that followed independence.

As the national film studio has shown with its many Oscars, and with the matchless products of the new Scottish Renaissance in art and literature, it was the liberation of minds brought by independence that more than anything has transformed Scotland.

Many will no doubt say that the election of Nicola Sturgeon as the first World President was Scotland’s greatest day, but she herself would point to the total eradication of poverty from Scotland as the nation’s greatest boon gained by being independent.

On March 24, 2016, a nation proved that dreams can come true as long as you work to make them so. We just need to keep dreaming and working.