WATCHING our new and returning MSPs get into Holyrood and start work has been great to see, and the contrast between Scotland’s two parliaments last week was thought provoking than most.
The swearing in of our most diverse selection of MSPs in a myriad of languages was inspiring, in the same way as the Home Office dawn raid in Kenmure Street, on Eid, was tone-deaf and cruel, and the spontaneous actions of the local community gave us faith in our society.
We really do have a choice of two unions – one upbeat and aspirational, looking to rejoin the EU and EU freedom of movement and celebrate our multi-ethnic multicultural Scotland; the other with the UK run by a clique of politicians who talk the language of inclusion but are progressing on a daily basis bitter and vindictive immigration policies.
READ MORE: Language record broken at MSP swearing-in ceremony as Scottish Parliament opens
Look at how EU nationals are being treated now coming into the UK and see how proud you are to be British.
This is being noticed far and wide. Scotland’s pro-EU sentiment and actions since the 2016 EU referendum have been noticed across our continent.
As I write this, I’m just back from the Bulgarian Embassy, one of my regular trips out to brief our EU friends and allies on what is happening in Scotland and what it means for them.
It is a project Stewart McDonald and I have set up and have been quietly pushing on with for months – Project No Surprises. In 2014, I think we on the Yes side did not do enough to explain and contextualise events in Scotland for a wider audience. There were good reasons for this in hindsight, but this time around we can do more. It was one of my thoughts in standing for the depute of the SNP and in going for Westminster – having spent as much time outside Scotland as I have explaining independence to a wider audience, I can do that explanation.
Of course, independence is a matter for the people who live in Scotland, but there are ripples that emanate from that potential decision for our neighbours and the wider world. In Project No Surprises, we are looking to help outside observers have readily available accurate information about what is happening and what it means.
In Northern Ireland, northern England, England itself, London, Brussels and EU and EEA member state capitals, there is a keen interest in what we’re doing, but not necessarily a day-to-day awareness, and often a misconception in what is driving us.
As someone put it well to me, “you’re not trying to make people aware of something they’re not aware of, you’re trying to explain a story people think they already understand.”
We have been doing this, even in Covid times, with a range of one-to-one meetings, usually over Zoom, interviews to overseas media and occasional articles ourselves setting out where Scotland is and what is happening. In Brussels, we still have the Friends of Scotland Intergroup of MEPs who are explicitly neutral on Scotland’s constitutional future but want to keep in touch. That will be an important forum going forward.
We are also working with friends in the US to establish networks to explain what is going on in Scotland to a US audience.
It is worth stressing that we’re not looking to have anyone getting into our domestic discussion – that would be crass as well as ineffective – but we are looking to explain what is going on so that people do not misunderstand events when they happen.
We have a great story to tell from Scotland. Out of the ashes of Brexit, we can be a good news story for the EU at a time it could really do with one.
On defence, we want to remain in Nato, but as a non-nuclear state with the nuclear weapons off our soil and out our waters as soon as safe and practicable to do so, so a big step forward for disarmament as well. We have a modern representative democracy established on ancient foundations, and an internationalist and egalitarian ethos which will fit right back into the European mainstream.
READ MORE: Alyn Smith: Independence won the election, but hasn't yet won the argument
It is a great story to tell and we’re relishing telling it. And at Westminster, I’m already acting as if we are independent.
On foreign affairs, it is probably easier than on other briefs but where I agree with UK policy on a particular matter, I am vocal that I do.
The reality is that an independent Scotland will be a close ally and fierce friend of the UK, and I hope that I have been working as if we are now.
We have an energising argument to win at home, but we also have a job to do in the wider world as well. I’m proud to work alongside our new government doing just that.
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