Richard Walker: Lessons for Yes from the One Britain One Nation initiative

Perish the thought. This was a listening government looking to sustain a touchy-feely Union based on mutual respect.

Well that idea seems to have been thrown out the nearest window and we woke up yesterday to Gove’s assurance that we wouldn’t be getting a referendum any time soon. Or at least until 2024 at the earliest.

Gove was still using language designed to avoid the alienating impression of Westminster laying down the law to its Scottish subordinates, although of course that’s exactly what it is doing.

Asked if Boris Johnson was minded to give his blessing to indyref2 Gove tied himself in knots trying to avoid the word “no”.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon delivers scathing verdict on One Britain One Nation project

He “can’t see” Johnson doing so. Was there any circumstance in which he would see it happening? “I don’t think so,” Gove told the Telegraph.

What he meant was: “There is no way in hell the Prime Minister will ever say there should be another referendum. Not now. Not in 2024. Not if 90% of Scotland voted for a pro-independence party. Not until we consign Covid to history. And not even then. Never.”

He doesn’t say that, of course. That would reveal the truth that the portrayal of the Union as a consensual joining together of equals is a cynical myth propagated to benefit the interests of just one of the “partners”.

Just take a brief look at the words used whenever Scotland’s desire to have another say on its future is discussed in the mainstream media.

Johnson would “grant” a referendum. Or “approve” it. Or “agree to hold” it, or – more commonly – “rules it out”. As a result, the mainstream newspapers dutifully report, “there will be no referendum”.

I’m pretty sure readers of this newspaper, like me, find such language infuriating. It is, however, also instructive, because that is exactly how Westminster views its relationship with Scotland, conducted entirely on the terms it lays down and defines.

Westminster is even attempting to set the ground rules for the independence debate, what the main issues will be, when it will be deemed reasonable to hold it (never) and what conditions will be imposed for it to reach a conclusion (none).

Although the Tory party in Westminster rules it “reckless” to even mention independence while Covid has us in its grip it has somehow managed to find the time to launch its version of Better Together for indyref2.

In fact it has had time to put together the hapless Union Unit, appoint and ditch its boss, lose another boss and change the entire idea.

Now the Tories face wasting even more of their time with a weird campaign to undermine the very concept of Scotland as a nation.

After all, we will of course forget all about our nationhood if British diplomats stop talking about the UK’s constituent parts and describe it instead as one country.

We will, of course, be seduced by the creepy One Britain One Nation Day and our children singing its dreadful accompanying song to forget thousands of years of our history.

Someone has obviously been working on these plans for some time. Someone has been allowed to switch their attention from the all-consuming pandemic to address constitutional issues.

That seems to fly in the face of Gove’s sermon delivered in the pages of the Telegraph, where he says: “It seems to me to be at best reckless, at worst folly, to try to move the conversation on to constitutional division when people expect us to be working together in order to deal with these challenges [Covid].”

But of course Gove and Johnson pretend to believe all this One Nation nonsense isn’t anything to do with constitutional issues … it’s about forging unity in the post-Covid building back better project.

So let’s get cute kids singing and forget all about building a fairer, more equal, more ambitious country where poverty is vanquished, where racism and homophobia are consigned to history, where precious resources are used for the benefit of the majority and other such fripperies.

Of course, the question of Scottish independence will be overshadowed by all this Tory rubbish until such time as we tell Westminster that we find it unacceptable that mandate after mandate for a referendum is ignored.

There has been much debate within the pages of The National recently on whether the SNP is dragging its feet on properly pursuing independence.

And while I can see why that impatience is increasingly being articulated I’d suggest that the responsibility for campaigning for independence does not lie with just one – albeit the main – element of the Yes movement.

The recent appointment of Michael Russell as the head of the SNP’s independence unit is certainly a welcome sign that senior figures within the party now feel able to turn their attendance to the independence issue.

But the wider Yes movement also shoulders responsibility to move the campaign forward within the current restrictions and also in different ways when they are significantly eased in August.

Of course, many pro-independence organisations have resisted resting on their laurels during lockdown. It’s not just because I work with them that I’d mention Business for Scotland and Believe in Scotland’s ongoing commitment to spreading the word through initiatives such as the brilliant Scotland the Brief.

And The National itself, has ensured there is a prominent mainstream voice for independence on the country’s newsstands.

But there are perhaps some lessons to be learned from the Conservative focus on community in the otherwise troubling One Britain One Nation initiative.

WHEN I was writing a piece on the much-delayed return of music festivals for last weekend’s Sunday National I realised how much lockdown had taken away from us.

One of those losses is a sense of community, which is one of the big attractions of festivals and also, in a different way, of the Yes movement.

I have fond memories of The National roadshow, which travelled the country when such things were still possible and provided an often inspiring place in which to get together and discuss independence.

The Yes movement has in some very real ways been fractured during lockdown and the thought of those different factions getting together to sing Kumbaya round a campfire is unrealistic to say the least.

There are some divisions which will never be healed.

But it is perhaps time to consider ways in which allies can feel part of something which is bigger than just their own individual organisations.

READ MORE: David Pratt: ‘One Britain One Nation’ is fascism slipping in the back door

I don’t believe in god and have reservations about organised religion but that doesn’t stop me sometimes feeling a tinge of jealousy at the sense of community provided by church services.

It’s a shame there is no similar way - other than political meetings, which have other functions - that those of us bound together by political or social ideals can regularly be nourished by feelings of togetherness.

The pandemic has changed us in ways which we will not understand until the end of lockdown restrictions allows us to tailor new communal activities to provide the human contact we need.

That surely provides an opportunity to give the Yes community new ways to fosters a sense of belonging which encourages the sharing of passionate visions of an independent Scotland.

The Tories may prefer building a community to strengthen the myth of a union of equal partners but how much better off would we be if the Yes community could provide a wider network of more shared spaces for those small conversations which can genuinely change minds and win converts to the cause.

Then, when we hold the second referendum at a time of OUR choosing, we can benefit from an inclusive community with the right arguments to win the day.