2018, Part Two: AUOB's massive march and SNP Westminster walkout

ON a sunny day in the nation’s largest city, a huge game-changer took place in the quest for independence for Scotland.

As many as 60,000 people took part in the biggest-ever – up to that point – march and rally for independence that coursed through Glasgow on Saturday, May 5. Organised by All Under One Banner (AUOB), the march saw activists from all over Scotland show by their presence that the cause of independence was very much alive.

The National was the only daily newspaper to have a reporter at the scene, and we found leading SNP figures supporting the march, some of them for the first time. AUOB were exhilarated by the success and pledged a whole series of marches over the summer.

At Holyrood, every party except the Tories took a stand against the power grab by the Tory Government in Westminster. On Tuesday May 15, MSPs voted by 93 to 30 that Holyrood “does not consent to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill”.

It was the first time since devolution that the Scottish Parliament had withheld its consent. Theresa May and her government carried on regardless, having already indicated they would oppose Scotland’s Continuity Bill in the UK Supreme Court.

The EU Withdrawal Bill was going through Parliament, but still no one knew the terms of the deal that Theresa May was trying to arrange with the other 27 countries.

At the start of the month, the Scottish Government’s Minimum Unit Pricing law came into effect, setting that price at 50p per unit of alcohol. It is the first such national law in the world and is aimed at tackling Scotland’s acknowledged problems with the over-consumption of alcohol.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got married on May 19. We paid for their security. And Dumbarton got a new earl and countess.

Actor Morgan Freeman became the latest celebrity to be accused of sexual harassment as the #MeToo campaign continued, helped by a crowdfunding exercise led by famous women.

The Growth Commission, chaired by Andrew Wilson, also published a groundbreaking report designed to address some of the fears raised by the prospect of an independent Scotland. It did so by drawing upon dozens of examples of other small countries discussing arguments used against independence in 2014. Most importantly, it provoked a debate about the nation's future.

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In Israel, the symbolism of the USA moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was not lost on the Palestinian people. Riots erupted and dozens of Palestinians were shot as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised President Donald Trump for his decision.

It was all part of a busy month for Trump. He pulled the USA out of the Iran nuclear deal to the consternation of many of America’s chief allies, and then upgraded his personal legal team in the face of ever-more investigations into his links with Russia. At the end of the month he started a crisis that even he could not ignore when the Department of Homeland Security enforced a “zero tolerance” immigration policy.

JUNE

IN a few minutes of stunning defiance on Wednesday, June 13, the entire SNP group of MPs in the House of Commons showed just how scunnered they and most of Scotland are at the Tory Government’s refusal to deal with Scotland’s fair and reasoned case over Brexit.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford was appalled at the UK Government’s failure to allow debate, never mind a vote, on Scotland’s position on the Withdrawal Bill and after an exchange with the Speaker John Bercow, Blackford was ordered out of the chamber prompting a walkout by all his colleagues during Prime Minister’s Question Time. The Unionists jeered, but most of Scotland cheered.

In Dumfries on June 2, 10,000 people took part in the second AUOB march of the year, followed by 14,000 marching from Stirling to Bannockburn three weeks later. At the end of the month a shock poll found that English voters preferred Brexit to keeping their ‘precious Union’.

In Edinburgh, Nicola Sturgeon reshuffled her Cabinet with Humza Yousaf as Justice Secretary and Jeane Freeman as Health Secretary the two major promotions.

It was so very nearly rebuilt when Glasgow School of Art was again gutted by fire, just four years after the first fire that devastated the famous building designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Visiting the scene on June 16, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called it “heartbreaking” and “much, much worse” than the original fire. It was later found that a sprinkler system had yet to be installed.

EastEnders actor Leslie Grantham died on June 15. He was 71 and had been battling cancer. Former Lord Provost of Glasgow Pat Lally died at the age of 92. So, too, did George Grubb former Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Norman Godman, former Labour MP for Greenock and Port Glasgow, also passed away.

You might think of it as Clara Ponsati’s revenge, but after months of hounding her and her Catalan Government colleagues, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy himself faced a vote of confidence on June 1 which saw him ousted after years of corruption scandals involving his party officials. He later quit as leader of the People’s Party (Partido Popular) and left the Cortes, the Spanish Parliament, altogether.

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Also on June 1 a new Italian government started work after two months of negotiating following the inconclusive general election in March. An approximate coalition between the League party and the Five Star Movement saw Guiseppe Conte become Prime Minister.

Not even Donald Trump could ignore the massive protests against the previous month’s “zero tolerance” policy on immigration. As television news programmes showed migrant families being split asunder by the policy, Trump faced his biggest backlash yet and after his aggressive defence of the policy fell apart, he signed an executive order to end family separation for migrants. It was in this month that Trump carried out the historic meeting with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, the first time that the leaders of their two countries had ever met. Of course it only took a few days before Trump was tweeting against his new chums.

JULY

A quiet summer month? Well yes if you were free to enjoy the heatwave that had started in June and kept on beating us with sunshine through July and August. The sunshine was about the only welcoming thing for President Donald Trump on his official visit to the UK that included an unofficial visit to ‘his’ golf course at Turnberry, a snip at £5m in security costs.

This month saw the biggest ever political rally in the Highlands when 14,000 people took part in the AUOB march through Inverness. It also saw the Dark Money scandal growing as details began to emerge of the ‘secret’ funders of the Conservatives and DUP.

At the start of the month one house name dominated the headlines – Chequers. The Prime Minister’s country retreat became the backdrop for the biggest crisis in the whole Brexit furore to that date.

The deal she revealed to her Cabinet was accepted by them all at first, but then when they took it away to read it on their own, some realised they had been sold a pup. Brexit minister David Davis was first to resign, followed by the biggest fish to have fried himself up to that point, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. He said May was leading the UK into a “semi-Brexit” with the “status of a colony”. It looked for a while as if the whole kit and caboodle would collapse.

The whole world rejoiced when a squad of teenage footballers began to be rescued from the cave in Thailand in which they had been trapped by rising water.

The World Cup in Russia did not feature Scotland but England won a penalty shoot-out on the road to the semi-finals and their manager Gareth Southgate impressed even a lot of Scots with his common sense approach to the game.

Former presiding officer at Holyrood Sir Alex Fergusson died. He was 69. Bay City Rollers guitarist Alan Longmuir died on July 2 at the age of 70. The legendary Dundee, Spurs and Scotland footballer Alan Gilzean died at the age of 79.

In Helsinki there was the frankly gobsmacking sight of Donald Trump standing alongside Vladimir Putin and slagging off the US intelligence agencies. Shameful, but even that didn’t bring him down.

AUGUST

There was genuine shock across Scotland when it was revealed that Former First Minister Alex Salmond had been the subject of allegations of sexual misconduct with the alleged events dating back almost five years. Salmond has denied any criminal activity and has challenged the Scottish Government’s procedures.

No doubt about the greatest outpouring of emotion in Scotland in this month. Runrig’s final concert, The Last Dance at Stirling Castle, saw the rock band play to almost 50,000 people over two nights in City Park. They will be much missed.

Meanwhile the AUOB marches reached Dundee where 16,000 people marched through the city to a rally at Magdalen Green.

The Scottish Police Authority appointed Acting Chief Constable Iain Livingstone to be permanent head of Police Scotland.

The death of a leading Senator and former Republican candidate like John McCain would normally have had a President attending the funeral, but the family didn’t invite Trump after his scathing remarks about McCain. His daughter Meghan told the funeral crowd “America was always great”. Ouch.

Other notable deaths this month included former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who died aged 80. Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, died at the age of 76 on August 16.

On August 29, Sir James Mirlees, winner of the Nobel Prize for economics in 1996, passed away. He was 82. Former Lord Advocate Lord Mackay of Drumadoon died at the age of 72.

In a further setback for his presidency, Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted on fraud charges, while his lawyer Michael Cohen said under oath that Trump had indeed made him pay off porn actress Stormy Daniels for ‘not’ having an affair with the then-future President. Oh, and then he nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. Oops.