Independence is not the issue!

The Section 30 process must be repudiated

The mistake – and such it surely was – was to mount a campaign to get something we didn’t have (a referendum) rather than a campaign to protect something that was already ours (the right of self-determination).

Pillows against cannon

I wrote the above in January 2021. I mention it again now because it makes a point that must be borne in mind as we look to reset and restart Scotland's liberation struggle. The point is that the restoration of our independence may be the ultimate goal, but it is not the proximate issue. The immediate issue is our right of self-determination. More specifically, our ability to exercise that right. Before we can possibly progress towards the restoration of our nation's rightful constitutional status, we must affirm and defend the right of self-determination guaranteed under the UN Charter. An inalienable human right to choose the form of government which we calculate best serves our needs, priorities, and aspirations. A right which must include the right to exercise the right. Otherwise, it is meaningless as a right.

It being a human right, the British state cannot explicitly deny Scotland's right of self-determination. The first line of defence as it strives to preserve its 'precious' Union is, therefore, to prevent us exercising our right of self-determination - customarily thought of as by way of a referendum. Its second line of defence is to control our exercise of our right of self-determination to such an extent and in such a way as to ensure the process does not pose a threat to the Union. The British state's main weapon in both is what we now refer to simply as the Section 30 process.

The first line of defence is the British state's assumed veto over the exercise of our right of self-determination, contrived by asserting that its consent is required for any independence referendum to take place. The second line of defence is the conditions the British state can lay down should a referendum take place despite efforts to prevent it. Whatever these conditions may be, their purpose is to ensure that no so-called independence referendum can have any legal or constitutional effect.

Obviously, the acquiescence of the Scottish Government is if not essential, then extremely helpful. So long as the Scottish Government and the nominally pro-independence parties concede that the Section 30 process is the 'gold standard' way forward for Scotland's cause, that cause can be expected to make no progress. Either there will be no referendum, or the referendum will be no more than a non-binding consultation exercise that leave decisive power in the hands of the British state.

The bottom line is that the Section 30 process cannot lead to independence being restored. For this reason, the first step in resetting and restarting the independence campaign must be a comprehensive and unambiguous repudiation of the Section 30 process. From there, we can move on to deciding and defining the process we must pursue.

The Scottish Government, the nominally pro-independence parties and the Yes movement must be unwavering in their insistence that we, the people of Scotland, and we alone will choose the time and manner in which we exercise our right of self-determination. We must unequivocally reject the notion that the UK government and/or Westminster has any role in the process by which the people of Scotland decide our nation's future constitutional status.