OH, the dilemma for headline writers. To stick with yet another failed Tory PM brought low by Tory infighting over the EU, or the coming EU results here and the potential rise of Farage, or perhaps focusing on whoever becomes the next Tory leader? Mind you, since they are intertwined who knows what we will be treated to.

But in all of this turmoil, we should not overlook yet another scandal surrounding this week’s EU elections; namely that so many, possibly thousands, of EU nationals were wrongly denied their votes across the UK. Cynics and conspiracy theorists might think alleged postal voting irregularities in 2014 were merely a dry run for something in the future, and this was it.

First you demonise “the other” and when time and opportunity suits, you exclude them. And to exclude “the other”, no matter whom, from their legitimate place in democracy is alarming in the extreme.

History tells us that, so let’s not be fooled by the notion of: it couldn’t happen here. We have to ask why the democratic vote has been denied to those entitled to vote. In future, who knows just who will be deemed eligible to vote. And from then, “eligibility” to “entitlement” to vote is a short, backward step.The rich vs the poor, the educated vs the uneducated, male vs female.

As I see it, democracy is in danger in what passes for a United Kingdom. Not least due to the feudal-like process whereby the next Tory leader, and therefore PM, will be installed via the say-so of their elected peers, followed by their paid-up members. The latter belong to a shrinking party membership that is not representative of the wider UK population in any form. Certainly not via the geographical spread across the UK, or age, or ethnicity, or gender as can be gleaned from the very limited public info regarding this membership.

In total, this membership is said to be less than 130, 000 individuals. I don’t know if they will all vote, but the UK population is around 60 million and around 47 million are allegedly entitled to vote. I’m not very good at mathematics, but 130,000 determining the political fate of a disunited kingdom of 60 million doesn’t seem very democratic to me. And don’t get me started on the male, pale and stale angle.

Whether one of the current two front-runners (Johnson and Raab) runs the full distance, or we see Gove, or Hunt, or whoever, is bad enough. But couple that with the prospect of a General Election, either before or after October, and alarm bells must be ringing across Scotland.

If EU election predictions come to pass, can we imagine Westminster with emboldened Farage and buddies sitting as MPs, aligned to the Tories and DUP, standing for the “Union”? Those are not alarm bells, those are death knells for democracy and Scotland.

EU nationals denied their votes and Scotland’s democratic voices ignored, dismissed. It cannot be for Westminster to allow or deny us our democratic choice.

The next PM needs to know loud and clear that no way is Scotland going to stand and bubble in front of some podium and shuffle off into obscurity having failed to gain independence.

The so-called United Kingdom, long unequal, long disunited, is coming to an end. It is time for Scotland to decide our own future. We gave our parliament that mandate with its pro-indy majority. The same with the return of the majority of MPs representing Scotland. So now, we press, push, needle Westminster. It’s our time now. They’ve had theirs. They failed.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh