"IT’S time.” That’s the campaign slogan of the new Yes campaign body.
The independence campaign is a journey. We know the destination, and more people are joining us.
In 2005 working-class hero Jimmy Reid joined the SNP. Scotland had not long been dragged to an illegal war in Iraq and Jimmy decided it was time to join a party that he believed upheld traditional Scottish values of compassion and community.
I am a son of the Clyde. Here was a man that spoke in a language that related to me. Here was a man that those who attacked the SNP, and our belief in Scottish independence, could not attack. The day Jimmy Reid joined the SNP I felt so proud. I decided it was time for me to join the SNP.
As coincidence has it, “It’s Time” was the SNP’s 2007 election message. That election saw the SNP win a historic victory. In 2011, that team, record, and vision broke the system. Scotland’s referendum was delivered.
In 2014 only 45% agreed that it was time. That seems a long time ago. Despite Scotland voting No to independence, the SNP has won every single election since: a Scottish Parliament election, two UK elections, the council elections, and the European Parliament elections.
Since 2014 so much has changed, yet much has remained the same. The people of Scotland were told to “lead the UK”, not leave it. We were told that in order to stay in the EU we had to vote No. We were told we were a nation of equals.
All of the UK’s promises of the past referendum have vanished, much like the politicians who made them.
More and more people now agree that it is indeed time. The Scottish Government has a cast iron mandate to hold a referendum. Theresa May told us “now is not the time” and Boris Johnson has stated he too will oppose a Section 30 order.
Westminster doesn’t want to give the Scottish people a choice. They are under no doubt that this time there’s a pretty good chance a majority of Scots, fed up of living in a democratic desert, will vote to take Scotland’s future into Scotland’s hands.
Westminster is never going to agree to another Section 30 order, not when they think they may lose. We know this. If The Scottish Government asks for one, it will be denied. If the SNP goes to the polls in 2021 seeking another mandate for a referendum that would be our fourth mandate.
If Westminster won’t respect a triple-lock mandate, what difference will a “quadruple” mandate make, especially when all they have to do is keep on saying “No”?
It’s precisely for that reason Angus MacNeil MP and I proposed a democratic way of countering Westminster’s undemocratic timidity. If they won’t concede a referendum then we should make the next parliamentary test the moment when we seek a mandate to negotiate our independence.
We are now informed it has been deemed that even considering, through debate, a credible plan on how to progress the case for actually delivering independence isn’t worthy of the agenda at SNP conference. Indeed, as things stand, not a single motion on independence will be debated.
READ MORE: SNP will not debate alternative route at conference
Our plan sets out a means of ensuring Scotland’s voice is heard, and it progresses our mandate for a referendum as it should be deployed, with democratic determination.
The plan received much support from across Scotland and it had the Tories at sixes and sevens. In Westminster they foamed at the mouth about us proceeding to independence without asking the people in a referendum they themselves are refusing to allow.
Our movement, our country needs leadership on this matter. When the UK Government refuse a Section 30 order what will be the Scottish Government’s response? What, to steal a phrase, is our Plan B?”
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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