ON considering the case for Scottish independence, it always seemed to me that Scotland’s exit from the United Kingdom would be, ironically, the only thing that could save the United Kingdom from itself.

Contemporary Britain is a monument to class; a family of disunited nations passed back and forth between political parties whose policies are often so aligned that switching from one to the other is as simple as changing the colour of your tie – all under the thumb of a nonce-ridden dynasty of Windsors.

And having gorged itself on the wealth of the world, these islands now sit satisfied with their stolen prizes, wallowing in their own self-importance; utterly beyond reform.

With the right-wing press breathlessly working to maintain this order, real change in the UK feels utterly impossible. Even mild democratic or social reforms are met with wild-eyed resistance – along with the billy clubs and boots of Britain’s finest.

Cops beat striking miners in the 80s, as they did poll tax protesters in the 90s. Now you can be arrested in England if police even suspect that you might join a protest.

With new policing powers in effect, peaceful, legal protest as we knew it has ceased to exist; a fact that protesters at the coronation came to know first hand over the weekend, when they were arrested and their property seized before a word had even been spoken.

This is Britain, and the actions of the police, and the establishment who wield them, are not new. They are part of a long history of police violence in service to powers that do not want to be challenged.

Even the Trade Unions Congress, allegedly a voice for the workers of Britain, congratulated the parasite in chief on his big day, while giving special thanks to those bundling peaceful protestors into the backs of police vans.

If this is the state of trade unionism in the UK, what hope is there for change within the system?

The real horror of it all, however, came when I was considering the words of Scottish trade unionist Keir Hardie and his position on the monarchy; that we must hold “contempt for thrones and for all who bolster them up”, representing as they do the “power of caste” and class rule.

Hardie wrote those words over 125 years ago – and yet here we are, still flushing gold away on billionaire grifters while the country faces back-to-back crises.

Still, the royal family persists, as does the House of Lords; that undemocratic, unelected chamber of rich party donors and benefactors who have a long history of opposing and blocking progressive legislation, and who Hardie also believed should be replaced.

As that golden carriage clattered through the streets of London, and various figures waved their swords and cried their fealty, it filled me with a deep sense of despair for the future of the UK.

How could it be that we have endured over a century of calls to reform, reform, reform and still we are no further forward?

At least in Scotland, the UK Government’s authoritarian anti-protest laws do not apply – but for how long?

The Conservative government has already begun blocking legislation in devolved areas that it does not like. It has already begun circumventing the Scottish Government where it deigns to.

Why would a government with such an autocratic streak as this one stop pushing Holyrood further and further into the background? A traditionalist approach, after all, would be one that maintains power in London.

Leaving the United Kingdom is an opportunity for something better than stolen crowns and fearmongering over small boats.

That is why the message of independence must not be one of unquestioning continuity, as it unfortunately was in 2014, but one for real change.

This was one of my biggest issues with the SNP’s white paper during the last independence referendum.

While Alex Salmond was loudly declaring that an independent Scotland should keep the Queen, critical voices were sidelined, as they were when it came to criticising dependency on oil and mimicking outdated fiscal policy.

The most compelling argument that the No campaign made in 2014 was from a position of solidarity; the argument that workers in Glasgow had more in common with the workers of Manchester than not.

But solidarity need not end at the border, and in breaking this dysfunctional family of nations, we can improve the lot of all workers by ending the British state that mistreats them so.

The coronation this weekend has only resolved me further to making not only the case for an independent Scotland, but one that challenges all the worst excesses of a stagnant Britain.

Independence should be a hammer to the establishment. It should break Britain’s cultural deadlock, and allow Scotland and England to move forward on better paths.

United, this Kingdom cannot be reformed. And what cannot be reformed, must be broken.