FIRST, the very excellent news. I will be getting out of Stobhill Hospital and going home today, albeit I will need to be carried upstairs by the ambulance crew and will need to use a wheelchair for a short while.
I knew I was making good progress and I’d been given the middle of next week as a possible discharge date, so when the brilliant staff here said “would you mind if we change the date of your going home?”, my heart sank, only for me to be told: “Yep, not next week but tomorrow.”
I can’t tell you how glad I am to be going home. I am really looking forward to it and I will keep you in touch with my recovery.
Other than extra therapy, what has been occupying mind is the offer by John Major of not one, but two referendums. I began to think about his offer of one referendum to agree on the principle of independence, to be followed by a second referendum on the deal that is struck with the British Government.
All that will do is give Westminster the licence to negotiate in bad faith, because it then becomes in their interest to have a bad deal so that Scotland will reject it. The terms and conditions of this referendum have to be made in Scotland – it must be Scotland’s referendum, not Westminster’s referendum.
READ MORE: John Major tells Boris Johnson not to rule out a second independence referendum
What was interesting about John Major’s intervention was that it proved that there are senior people within the Conservative Party who are realising that just saying “no” to a referendum cannot stand. It might delay things slightly, but it makes independence inevitable because more and more people are seeing that the Union is not a democracy, and if the Union is not a democracy, then what’s the point of Scotland being in it?
It’s a very long way from “lead us, Scotland, don’t leave us, we love you” to being told “no, you’re not being allowed to have a say in your own future”.
Then we have Alister Jack backtracking on his “no referendum for 40 years” comment by saying it was a joke. Well, it might be a joke to you, Alister, but eventually the joke will be on you.
It’s a welcome sign that the resolution of the Conservative Party is cracking on the issue, and as for Boris Johnson saying a referendum won’t happen, well the man is just a liar. Remember his “die in a ditch” promise? Even with a damaged left leg and arm I’d help him dig it, and it would be good therapy too.
The National is supporting Paul Kavanagh through his recovery by commissioning extra articles and offering free advertising for his rehab crowdfunder in the paper. We wish Paul all the best – the independence movement can’t do without him.
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