The key to unlocking our unionist prison
Demand that Holyrood implement the ICCPR
Published in the December 16th edition of the Edinburgh Evening News.
Oh, joy. Sir Keir is in Edinburgh today for a meeting of the British-Irish Council after yesterday’s pathetic “reboot” of his failing administration.
Four of the six Starmer “milestones” relate to devolved powers - education, the NHS, housebuilding and policing - but Sir Keir omitted this little detail. It could be that he’s unaware of what powers are actually devolved but more likely it’s because he intends bypass Holyrood entirely. And you can be sure that Viceroy Murray is standing ready to follow his London masters’ orders, that is, once he returns from his pointless jet-setting.
English Labour’s press release says it all:
“The message is clear – devolved or not [italics in original] – we will collectively make a difference across the UK sharing best practice and aligning efforts across every level of government, business and with civil society.”
Which brings me to the recently announced Scottish budget. Scottish ministers are again attempting to mitigate Westminster austerity without any more money which, by the way, is Scotland’s money that a rapacious and failing Westminster has siphoned off to keep it above the water line. Try as it might, Holyrood can’t succeed because Scotland is a de facto colony of England.
As long as Scotland lacks the power to create money, control and invest in its economy and conduct foreign and trade policy, it will be stuck in a deepening UK rut. Devolution is a dead end. It was designed to fail. Tony Blair was right - it has worked.
In his National column, Richard Murphy hit the devolution nail squarely on its head:
“This Budget raises one fundamental question. That is about the need for independence. If anyone wants a government in Scotland that works, then they have to favour an independent Scotland. Unless they do, they are part of the conspiracy of failure that has been deliberately created by small-minded, mean-spirited, and uncaring English politicians and their Scottish lackeys, all of whom hold the people of Scotland in contempt.”
If John Swinney wants to demonstrate that he isn’t a Scottish lackey, he and his cohort of SNP ministers should be making this simple point over and over again to the Scottish People, who have been consistently lied to by a unionist media and corrupt politicians who are more interested in feathering their own nests.
To force our elected representatives to act in the interests of the Scottish People, they need a swift and hard kick up their collective backsides. We must demand that MSPs implement without delay the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which will give us direct political rights and, most importantly, the right of self-determination.
Nothing less will do.
The Holyrood administration will not implement anything that would threaten the 'union' They do not administer for the benefit of the Scottish people, they make that very clear and taunt with 'what ya gonna do about it, eh!
They know they are safe in their bubble due to the subservience of a majority of the Scottish people.
We already have the right of self-determination. We don't need the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) for that. Whether we need it for anything else is up for debate.
There is a very common contradiction in the diatribes from critics of the SNP Scottish Government and its abject failure to progress Scotland's cause. In one metaphorical breath they will insist with bitter invective that the SNP will NEVER change. In the next breath, they list the things that the Scottish Government must be forced to do.
Happily, Leah Gunn Barrett doesn't fall into this particular folly. But she does wander into another. It's the 'if-this-then-why-not-that' question. If it is assumed we have the power to force the Scottish Government to enact / implement the ICCPR, why don't we use that power to do something more immediately and significantly beneficial to Scotland's cause.
If we have the ability to force the Scottish Government to do whatever with ICCPR, then surely that same power could be deployed to force the SNP to adopt the Manifesto for Independence.
There is an election looming. (They loom early these days.) This is the time when we have the most leverage. It only becomes useful leverage, however, if we combine around a common purpose.
The Manifesto for Independence is only plan for restoring Scotland's independence in existence. Only New Scotland Party (NSP) has adopted the Manifesto for Independence. What NSP proposes is that every pro-independence voter declares that they will only vote for candidates whose party has adopted the Manifesto for Independence. In this way, we put pressure on not only the SNP. but all the nominally pro-independence parties.
Every democratic event must be treated as if it is our last opportunity to rescue Scotland from the scourge of British imperialism. We should think very carefully about how we use these democratic events.