Public petitions committee shuts down a legal route to Scottish Self-Determination

And shows contempt for the Scottish People's right to self-determination

At its meeting today, the Citizens Participation and Public Petitions Committee (CPPPC) shut down a legal route to Scottish Self-Determination. That route, clearly laid out by Respect Scottish Sovereignty (RSS), is through enacting the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) into Scots law, PE2135. The Committee voted unanimously to close the petition down.

PE2135 has 7,506 signatures, which dwarfs other petitions under consideration.

But the number of signatures clearly doesn’t matter. The committee voted to keep open PE2130, making it illegal to remove all the hair from a horse’s tail (56 signatures), and PE2132, asking for a published timeline for the dualling of the A96 between Inverness and Nairn (508 signatures).

What was especially disappointing, but not surprising, was the Committee’s regurgitation of Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson’s lie that putting ICCPR into Scots law would extend the power of the Scottish Parliament beyond its devolved competence. Angus, as usual, is dead wrong.

Respect Scottish Sovereignty (RSS) has presented overwhelming evidence that:

• The Scottish Parliament is 100% competent to implement both Self-Determination and Direct Political Rights (Direct Democracy) in Scottish legislation via the authority devolved to it in The Scotland Act (Schedule 5).

• Holyrood also has the competence to authorise and conduct a popular referendum to approve or reject the draft Bill via the Referendums (Scotland) Act 2020.

These Acts don’t need to be amended, so Westminster doesn’t need to be involved!

Moreover, neither Angus Roberson, the Directorate for Constitution (staffed British State civil servants), nor parliament’s research group have been able to cite legislation refuting the fact that MSPs have the power to implement international treaty obligations.

Here’s what terrifies Angus and his UK masters: ICCPR would extend the power of the Scottish People. It means we the People could transform the Holyrood devolved parliament that’s accountable to Westminster into a real parliament that’s accountable to us.

Which brings me back to the principle of self-determination. Committee member Fergus Ewing said he hoped that his colleagues all supported ICCPR’s Article 1:

He said that self-determination is a cause that will never die. But then he said that since this petition “won’t get any further in this parliament” and because he’s a “pragmatist”, he supports closing PE2135, adding, “We shall prevail one day.”

How? We’re told that we have the constitutional right to self-determination, but are being denied the means to exercise that right.

When the UK Supreme Court ruled in November 2022 that the Scottish Parliament doesn’t have the authority to hold an independence referendum, at the same time it affirmed the principle of self-determination:

“Nothing in the allocation of powers (i.e. between “reserved” and “devolved”), however widely or narrowly interpreted, infringes any principle of self-determination.” (Supreme Court judgement of 23^rd November 2022, para. 90)

Do you see the problem here? Without the mechanisms (direct political rights, e.g., referendums and initiatives) with which to flex their sovereignty muscles, the Scottish People are trapped in the UK prison. And when a way to break out is presented, our so-called representatives run a mile. They’re too feart to use the powers granted them and are too comfy in their padded cells.

They don’t represent us. They represent the British State. There’s a reason this portrait hangs in the Scottish Parliament’s foyer:

The Committee noted the recent death of Henry Black Ferguson, the author of PE2135 and co-convener of RSS. From his home in Switzerland, Henry worked tirelessly for Scotland’s liberation, showing far more love and respect for Scotland and its people than our elected representatives.

The Scottish People shall prevail one day but it will be not because, but in spite of the quislings in Holyrood.