ALAN Corbet implies in his letter (December 2) that Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, believes “that the PM would have both the intention and the power to cancel the results of an electoral vote for independence”.
Effectively this is true as it stands at present today as Westminster is sovereign, not Holyrood as far as the UK political scene is concerned. Hence the reason that we are being taken out of the EU against our freely expressed will in a referendum where we voted to remain. Then we had the Prime Minister declare to his minions in the north of England, that devolution was a disaster! However, to try and clarify matters, his trusted lackeys then tried to imply that it was the fault of the SNP. Next we had his reject from the Gestapo, Jacob Rees-Mogg, tell us that the Tory Party needs to undo devolution and that it was Tony Blair’s biggest mistake. This is of course how dictatorships begin.
It’s well seen from a Scottish perspective, that if we did say right now that we were making the Holyrood elections on May 6, a plebiscite, then the elections could very well be cancelled by Doris (sic) and his Moggy. However, we are the electorate and we hold the upper hand and have a big say in the matter. I for one would love the forthcoming election to be a plebiscite on independence, but you don’t give your plans away too early.
Right now, there is a case cited in the Court of Session, by Michael Keating on January 21 and 22nd. Should he win, then the best that the self appointed Minister of the Union can hope for is an appeal in the Supreme court, and this takes you into February/March and maybe even later. This doesn’t give him much time to stop a referendum being set, let alone cancelling the Scottish elections. Not only that, but by February/March we will be in the run up to the elections anyway and it would not bode well for the Prime Minister to do that then, although I wouldn’t put it past him! Of course in Scotland, it is we the people who are sovereign and not the Crown. In England the people are subjects of the Crown and take governance from them, and Westminster rules in the name of the Crown. Here, we tell the Crown/Government what we want if we are sovereign.
If we believe that it is us, the people and electorate of Scotland who are sovereign, then look to the past to see what has happened when the people have asserted their rights – and not just in an election – but in other spheres of government: the civil rights marches in the USA, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Poll tax action here. What we need to be doing right now is asserting our rights to have a plebiscite on independence when and if we choose, not when and if Boris Johnson and his cohorts want.
We need to be asserting that the Scottish Parliament was never abolished and that we have the same rights to leave the UK and the Treaty of Union as the UK had of leaving the EU and the Treaties pertaining to that without the consent of the other party – namely the Government in Westminster. Right now Boris is getting rattled and so are a number of other prominent Conservatives. At this stage, I would say that is what you want, then who is going to lead the Remain Side in any future plebiscite? I would certainly love to see the self appointed Minister of the Union lead the Remain side and maybe that should be a question that he could be asked at a forthcoming PM Questions. What we need to be doing is asking questions not of the SNP, but of the opposition parties about what is going to happen if the SNP get the majority that is expected on May 6.
What are the opposition parties going to do if the people of Scotland demand an independence referendum? When your opponent is rattled, you don’t allow them to gain the initiative, you put more pressure on them. We need to get the Conservatives to retreat. It’s six months until the Holyrood election and that is more than enough time for Boris to make a lot of mistakes and the more mistakes he makes, the more votes we get.
Alexander Potts
Kilmarnock
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