THERE comes a time for any nation faced with autocratic rule or suppression of democracy when its people feel the overwhelming need to say enough is enough.

By no stretch of the imagination does that necessarily mean that things will change for the better or such desires for greater freedoms be fulfilled. But at the very least it keeps alight that flame of dissent and a refusal to be ignored.

More than once in recent times we have seen dictators or predatory regimes and their out of touch leaders shown the door by the people they have controlled or ignored for far too long. Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi are among just a few that spring to mind.

Which leads me to wondering whether the ongoing protests on the streets of Iran and China demanding greater freedoms are only the start of something much bigger?

READ MORE: 'Easier to export to Hong Kong than EU': Scots business halts EU trade due to Brexit

So much of the inner workings in both regimes remains opaque to the outside world making it difficult to fully assess the extent of the opposition that has taken to the streets or their chances of success.

In China, President Xi Jinping’s formidable political skills may be such that he will be able to find a way out while remaining in power.

Repression too may work well in China, as it has so far in crushing similar protests in Russia and Belarus where regimes no know no bounds in meting out punishment to those that oppose them.

Only yesterday disturbing reports emerged that jailed Belarusian protest leader Maria Kolesnikova was in a stable but serious condition in the intensive care ward of a hospital after undergoing surgery, following a spell in a punishment cell.

But going to back to Iran and China, if there’s one thing clear it’s that these displays of opposition are about much more than the right to – or not to – wear the hijab and zero-Covid policies and lockdowns in both countries respectively.

As the British-Iranian writer and human rights activist, Maryam Namazie, summed it up recently, “this is a fight for universal values”.

It’s worth remembering that for Iranians of the current generation such values, rights and liberties are new, fragile and elusive, whereas for so many of us here in the West we have lazily and complacently taken such rights for granted for too long.

The scenes playing out across Iran right now have already transcended the country’s many social and ethnic divisions, at the same time breaking a decades-old barrier of fear and posing an unprecedented threat to the regime of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

As for China, only a month ago its leadership appeared invincible with President Xi presiding over a Communist Party Congress that appeared to consolidate his rule and reduce the influence of former leaders while silencing critics both inside and outside the ruling party.

But it would be a mistake to view China’s or indeed Iran’s protests as “sudden or “spontaneous,” centring as they do on long standing public frustrations on limits to freedoms.

As an article in The Diplomat online magazine recently reminded, when Iranians headed to the street in mass anti-regime protests in the summer of 2009, the people of China risked their own safety to support Iranians with the hashtag #CN4Iran.

Now, more than a decade later, both nations are in the street again, calling for basic human rights. The parallels between what is happening in both countries are obvious in that the rallying cry of “freedom” is not just about personal liberty but a civic freedom that allows individual choice in shaping governance along shared values.

As in China the rulers in Iran and in other autocratic countries claim the power to enforce what they see as right and good for society even if many or even the majority see it differently.

If the citizens of Iran and China are reminding us of anything right now it’s that people everywhere hunger to be governed by those they can elect and remove democratically rather than by those claiming some kind of special authority as to when is the “appropriate” time for us to vote.

Which brings me to our own political doorstep. Shouldn’t it concern us all right now that in the UK a person can be threatened with arrest for holding up a blank white paper in protest just as they can in Beijing or Moscow? What has it come to in terms of freedom of speech when a blank sheet of white paper has become the only way of saying it all without saying anything for fear of arrest?

Western governments – and the UK’s is no exception – often talk about upholding these universal basic values at home and how leading by example is the only path forward to reviving democracy.

But I see precious little evidence of that currently when democratic values have been put increasingly on the back burner.

I mentioned earlier how important it is to have civic freedom that allows individual choice in shaping governance along shared values. Right now, Scotland is being denied that with Westminster’s refusal of another independence referendum.

“Scottish democracy will not be denied,” insisted Nicola Sturgeon after the Supreme Court ruling last week. But the question on the minds of so many pro-indy Scots like me is what now is Sturgeon and the SNP going to do about it?

I’m far from assured that making the next General Election a de facto vote on independence will serve any effective purpose. It’s a reluctant admission but more and more I’m convinced that the SNP’s claim of having some kind of special authority over calling the shots on independence has run out of steam.

For too long now, to the detriment of moving forward, the SNP has arrogantly ignored the fact that it can’t achieve independence on its own. When, if ever, will it wake up to the fact that any moves must be part of a wider grassroots movement here in Scotland?

The SNP might not like it but that’s the realpolitik it faces if our chances of independence are not to be squandered at a time when they are arguably at an all time high.

Scotland it goes without saying is no China or Iran, but people there have provided a stark reminder that choice matters when it comes to shaping democratic governance.

Now is the time – albeit faced with very different challenges from Iran or China – for Scotland to say enough is enough when it comes to Westminster rule.

And frankly, it’s time we did it without waiting on the SNP’ approval or blessing.