SEEN through the prism of Covid 19, the “lockdown” seems to have brought a certain slowdown mixed with degrees of isolation. For some that was essential and mandated. For others, it has been a retreat of sorts: Zoom meetings, webinars, Microsoft Teams etc are being kept to a minimum, whilst others welcome the chance to read: no, really read books and stories.

Parents and families coping (or not) with home schooling are being so inventive. More than once I’ve heard it said that “life experiences” are translating into school work. Baking, cooking, gardening, DIY, car maintenance can come with all forms of calculations, decision-making and implementation as team-working skills are enhanced.

Furlough? Possibly a safety net, but the abyss looms post-furlough with the potential of no job far too great a possibility.

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We know we couldn’t have reached the hopeful stage we’re now at without the dedicated front- liners and those never previously recognised for their much-required skill sets, now acknowledged and elevated.

And where are the politicians in all of this?

Scotland has been more than well served by our FM, and her daily briefing team, compared and contrasted with Westminster, shows the paucity of leadership, accountability, and transparency in the Tory government. The dragooning of their “advisors” on stage was equally embarrassing to witness, and surely not just across the UK. Admittedly we might not need a compare and contrast. Just how often have we demonstrated our faith as we voted the SNP as our MSP and MP majority?

But who is noticing beyond us? Beyond here?

Fingers crossed that the SNP has shadow teams going about the business of bringing it to the notice of a far wider audience than that dominated by the likes of the BBC and pro-Union media, informing governments and their people that our small, ancient nation is going its own way, within current constraints, articulating those benefits, successes and progress achieved.

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What of similar small nations? Do they see us as an appendage to England? Or a viable indy nation? What of the EU? How much mileage can we get from “We voted to stay, but...”? Shouldn’t we be approaching them now, directly, making the case for Scotland? What will they be thinking next year, when yet again there’s a pro-independence majority? Will they wonder that we exercise our democratic right but don’t act on it? Will they consider us all mouth and no trousers? It is time to let the world know that we are not stompy-footed teenagers, threatening to leave home but too feart to leave our so-called comforts and cosy lifestyle behind.

Now is the time to make it known we will make it happen next year with the final majority, the final mandate, coming with our Holyrood election majority. We have to make our intentions even more clear than previously through the likes of our spending habits, Keep Scotland the Brand campaigns, making public our voting intentions, re-committing to march, hold rallies ASAP post-lockdown. A visible presence, the visibility of determination, the belief in our actions, is such a powerful magnet.

One thing we learnt at EdinWFI in 2013 and the lead-up to September 2014 was that when we “translated” policies, papers, stats (all those stats!) into the here and now, and what it meant to women, their families, communities and Scotland, day to day, and for the future, then the pluses for independence outweighed the status quo.

Just as the Covid crisis reminds us we voted the right way over the years, so we can imagine what our lot would have been had the Tories been in power in Holyrood waiting for their daily briefing, the “Scotland to do list” to arrive from London. Nightmare! As we avoided that, so we can avoid the horrors of continued attachment to #rUk. Now has to be our time, but only if we make it so.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh