We have the power

We just need to use it

Published in the July 7th edition of The National.

The UK general election results don’t bode well for Scottish independence. As of writing, the SNP retained just 9 seats and English Labour gained 36. Alba barely registered on the electoral Richter scale.

The SNP did so poorly because it stopped fighting for Scottish independence the moment Alex Salmond anointed Nicola Sturgeon. She blew every open goal she was given - Brexit and a weakened British state with a string of disastrous Tory PMs, and committed the mindless blunder of asking the UK Supreme Court for permission to legislate to hold another independence referendum.

She alienated Scots by pushing the disastrous GRR and Hate Crime bills and continued to publish the fictional GERS that portrays Scotland as Westminster’s dependent. Then she was succeeded by the hapless Humza Yousaf and the grey man John Swinney. In addition, the party was probably infiltrated by UK spooks who found stooges willing to collaborate to keep Scotland in its place.

The British State designed devolution to keep the Scottish administration under its control. It was given no real powers and no independent media. Tony Blair was right that it worked. Should the SNP demonstrate any recalcitrance, Westminster could yank its chain to remind it who was master.

Even if a pro-independence party had won each of the 57 seats in Scotland - reduced by 2 - Scotland’s voice would still be drowned out by 543 - increased by 10 - English MPs.

That’s how this union works. The Westminster Parliament was intended to muzzle and marginalise Scotland. Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, was also an English spy sent to Scotland to push for a parliamentary union with England. When he succeeded he wrote,

“The Scots will be allowed to send to Westminster, a handful of men who will make no weight whatever. They will be allowed to sit there for form’s sake to be laughed at.”

He was right. In 2015, the SNP should have taken a leaf out of Sinn Fein’s book and boycotted Westminster when it had 56 seats.

What can be done? The Scottish People must recognise that the Claim of Right 1689 says they are sovereign over parliament which means they are in charge. This is at odds with England’s Bill of Rights 1689 which asserts parliamentary sovereignty over the people.

Because the two constitutional positions are incompatible, the Act of Union made the Claim of Right a condition of the Treaty in perpetuity. Westminster acknowledged this in 2018. So, the Scottish People must assert their sovereignty and bend the all-too-flexible politicians to their will.

That’s the challenge. When English Labour fails miserably to deliver the ‘change’ it is promising, the Scottish People should flex the power they’ve had all along.