Project Arbroath

How the Scottish People can take back their independence

https://projectarbroath.scot/

There’s a new resource in booklet form - it’s called Project Arbroath. In just 40 pages, it covers how Scotland entered into a union with England, the Claim of Right and why it’s important, how we’ve fared in the UK (not well), and finally, how we can take back our sovereignty. It explains Popular Sovereignty, which is the basis of Scotland’s constitution, and describes the only form of governance, Direct Democracy, that is compatible with Popular Sovereignty, because it puts the People firmly back in charge of their nation.

I asked the primary author to contribute this short piece on Project Arbroath. Copies of the booklet can be ordered here.

In 2022, not long after I joined Salvo, I surveyed some of my immediate family to see what they thought about the origins of the UK. I was full of Salvo’s amazing revelations about the Claim of Right and wanted to spread the news, but first I thought it would be interesting to gauge their level of knowledge about how the UK began. How was it that we get into this union in the first place?

None of them knew. At least there was no mention of the Treaty or of the Acts of Union in their answers. They countered by asking why would they know? It was never covered in school and unless you’re a history nerd like me, no one would know. Only a friend, an arch-unionist, knew of the ‘Act of Union’.

But what does it matter if people are ignorant of the origins of the UK? Does it really make any difference to campaigning for independence if they don’t? Well, yes, I believe it does matter. It matters because most people’s understanding of the route to independence, the only way, is through a second independence referendum that must be sanctioned by Westminster. That is the ‘gold standard’, the democratic route to self-government. It’s what the SNP says so why shouldn’t it be the case?

The launch of a new booklet on independence should help change this misguided thinking. The publication of Project Arbroath’s How we take back our independence sets out the origins of the union and how these origins are a way for Scotland to take back our independence. Westminster’s ‘permission’, it turns out, never was required.

Scotland’s history isn’t only about the union however, and the booklet covers the centuries before union and why sovereignty really does mean, that in Scotland, the People are in charge. The Claim of Right, the years after the union right up to the present day as England turns its greedy eyes from our oil to our green electricity, how Scotland is governed today and how we might be governed after independence are all covered.

Its key message is that we should stop asking for independence. It will never be given. The only way we will get back our independence is to take it. It’s not only our democratic right, it’s our human right.

Copies of How we take back our independence are available from:

https://projectarbroath.scot

or from a Yes street stall near you.