ON Tuesday, the Scottish Parliament held its first debate of 2023. The debate was not about the merits of independence for Scotland. It is not for the current Scottish Parliament to vote for independence, and it is not for the Westminster.

Parliament to vote against it – that is a decision for the people of Scotland to take, no one else. Tuesday's debate was about the assertion of the right of the people of Scotland to make that choice.

Both Labour and the Conservatives have for years asserted that the United Kingdom is a voluntary union, a claim that they continue to make even following last October's Supreme Court ruling which found that the Scotland Act does not give the Scottish Parliament the legal authority to hold another independence referendum without the permission of whichever mandate-free Tory happens to occupy Downing Street this month.

Back in 1988, the Labour Party and the LibDems were both instrumental in drafting the Scottish Claim of Right which affirmed that the people of Scotland have the absolute sovereign right to choose the form of government best suited to their needs. The claim was the subject of an Opposition Day debate in the House of Commons in July 2018 when it was passed by the House.

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So you might think that the opposition parties in Holyrood – and certainly the Labour Party and the handful of remaining LibDems – would have no problem with a motion which called on the UK Government to respect the right of the Scottish people to choose their own future following the Supreme Court ruling. You know, that right that they have always said that the people of Scotland have.

You would of course be wrong, and you would not be remotely surprised that you were wrong because the parties opposing independence have been repeatedly revealed to be deceitful and duplicitous about the nature of this supposedly voluntary union that they are so desperate for Scotland to remain a part of.

All of them even expressed outrage that the debate was even taking place. However, the only reason it was taking place was because the parties we now know stand for English nationalist supremacy have refused to accept the verdict of the people of Scotland as expressed at the May 2021 Holyrood elections. The people voted for a Parliament with a clear pro-independence majority in the full knowledge that they were voting for a Parliament committed to delivering another referendum. However, ever since that election, the anti-independence parties have sought one spurious and anti-democratic reason after another to discount the result of that election and to retroactively rewrite the rules upon which elections are fought and won. That is the real outrage here, not the fact that this debate was taking place.

It is abundantly clear by now that the Westminster parties will only respect the verdict of the people of Scotland as expressed through the ballot box when the people give a verdict that is to Westminster's liking. That's not democracy, that's paternalism at best and colonialism at worst. Of course, democracy deniers will be outraged at being called out for their lies and the way in which they traduce democracy, but it doesn't alter the fundamental reality. By their own actions and behaviour, Labour and the Conservatives have proven that Scotland cannot enjoy the functioning democracy that its people deserve as long as it remains a part of this dysfunctional non-union.

When the debate finally got under way after seeing off some attempted wrecking motions from Labour and the Tories, many opposition MSPs continued to behave as though this debate was really about what they wanted it to be about and insisted on talking about the NHS rather than the topic at hand as though they had the votes to alter the eventual outcome. The Conservatives behaved as they do in the Commons – boorishly, arrogantly, and trying to howl down those who spoke in favour of the motion.

Eventually, the motion was passed, and Holyrood called on the UK Government to respect the result of the Holyrood election which created the current Scottish Government.

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It's now for Labour and the Tories to explain why they think that the British Government should not respect the outcome of Scottish elections. From their actions in Tuesday's debate, they do not believe the same electoral rules should apply to Scotland as they do to Westminster. But what else is new?

The real purpose of the debate – which was abundantly clear – was to highlight the democratic deficit that Scotland suffers as a part of the UK. The other purpose of the debate was to ensure that the question of independence remains prominent in the public eye, despite the obvious determination of the British media to make the entire uncomfortable subject go away.

The British media is not at all interested in how democracy in Scotland is being traduced. After all, it is scarcely interested in how democracy in the UK is being traduced, being quite happy to accept the outrage of two unelected prime ministers one after the other. So it was not surprising that the Holyrood debate was not mentioned at all on the BBC’s UK-wide news – the fate of this so-called Union does not register outwith Scotland, and that too is another reason for independence.

Neither is it surprising that BBC Scotland buried the story in a short segment and gave more time to its favourite comfort zone, the fitba.

This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.

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