I confess I’m struggling to discern what point Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp is trying to make in his latest column for The National. Much of it is standard independence industry boilerplate about the ‘vision’ thing. It’s the old independence industry orthodoxy that independence ensues from creating the perfect glossy brochure selling independence as a holiday destination and getting that glossy brochure shoved in the faces of enough ‘soft nos’ to make a difference. Gordon clings to his belief in the ‘vision’ thing despite the fact that it has been the independence industry’s preferred strategy since the earliest days of the Yes campaign for the 2014 sham independence referendum and, in all that time, it hasn’t lifted support for independence much above 50%, as Gordon himself acknowledges.
"How would you vote in response to the question: Should Scotland be an independent country?"
NOT as GmK believes:
"How would you vote in response to the question ***based on an agreed referendum, with recognised processes, an accepted result and willing post-Yes vote negotiations between the Scottish and UK governments***. : Should Scotland be an independent country?"
nor is it as GmK believes it would be for a de facto election / referendum:
"How would you vote in response to the question [would you] ***support an immediate declaration of independence after a disputed election, amid UK Government opposition, legal challenges and potentially years of bad-faith negotiations***"
Nope. Opinion polls just ask this:
"How would you vote in response to the question: Should Scotland be an independent country?"
Such a basic misrepresentation invalidates his whole article.
GMK is right when he says that holding a de facto referendum (i.e. election) would be the wrong thing to do. GMK is wrong when he says that holding a de facto referendum (i.e. election) would be the right thing to do. Let's leave that there.
He says the work has not been done on producing the Vision of an Independent Scotland. What has GMK been doing these last 12 years with (Make) Believe in Scotland? Where is his Vision thing?
His think tank have produced a few pamphlets, some statistics around Scotland's wealth of natural resources and organised a couple of marches/rallies. A decade plus is surely enough time to create a Super-Vision. But, as far as I am aware, neither he nor his organisation have published a Vision ... not even a de facto one. It's been a case of Vision Off.
Not that I believe that visions are what Scotland needs right now ... or ever whilst the Scottish nation remains a dependency and an annexed territory of England/UK. What we do need is people with the guts to state that they believe in Scottish popular sovereignty and Scotland's right of self-determination ... and then the courage to act on it.
I reckon the reason for GMK's confused article is that he doesn't know what, if anything, John Swinney and the SNP is going to do next on the constitution so he's being non-committal and is no closing off any options, even elections as de facto referendums.
The only thing that he is consistent on is that whatever action is adopted it must take place some time in the future.
In that sense GMK remains the dummy to John Swinney's ventriloquist.
"Both are so concerned not to break any rules; they are effectively paralysed"
Yes indeed, this is precisely the problem we face, Peter, and similarly Fanon referred to the stasis of the dominant national party elite 'co-opted by colonialism' as a form of 'petrifaction' or 'calcification'.
The national party elite's fear of the oppressor and 'lack of courage at the decisive moment' turns them into what Fanon regarded as the 'legal tendency' of the movement; 'legal' because they then make independence entirely dependent on the laws and ultimately the 'kind generosity' of the oppressor power; which never happens of course as under the oppressor's laws independence is made illegal and/or prevented by other means.
The 'illegal tendency' of the now ruptured movement realise the oppressor's trap and that an alternative path is necessary in line with international law and human rights conventions, including the right to self-determination.
Hence we now see the Liberation Scotland UN initiative which seeks to knock not on the door of number 10 and colonial law, but instead on the door of the United Nations and international law: https://liberation.scot/
I shortened your statement Peter to....'SNP is the ROADBLOCK.'......full stop.
I looked up the word 'vision'.......a creation of the imagination or fancy...in a dream or trance.......unreal....given to day daydreaming...... ring a bell?
We have to get rid of the occupying foreign english nation deeply embedded in our country. I can see no other way except rise up in anger....... while we are being betrayed by quislings who earn their living by promoting independence as a career ..and that's as far as they go...mentally colonised....financially rewarded...
... ONLY SCOTS get tae vote for Scotland...it's OUR country...(yer dealing with a Patriot...no quarter given..300 years is a long time.)
Your article is first class but the deluded Scots are no reading it..let alone understanding what is being said...they're great at singing flower o' Scotland...picking up litter after getting kicked oot o' the world cup..everybody loves us...everybody but england....the occupying force.
One of our new politicians laughs.......'Anybody but england.'...So funny ...no it's not ..it's sad... now get aff yer erse MSPs and set in motion the fight to TAKE freedom for your poor country....your land owned and abused by foreigners.(nuclear dumps)....Cairngorms on fire?..nae helicopters..all sent to england and wales...and most important of all the future generations of young Scots tae come whom you are sentencing to live in a country that is occupied by your hostile foreign english neighbours...now ah'm sending YOU home tae think again.
The question in opinion polls is of the format:
"How would you vote in response to the question: Should Scotland be an independent country?"
NOT as GmK believes:
"How would you vote in response to the question ***based on an agreed referendum, with recognised processes, an accepted result and willing post-Yes vote negotiations between the Scottish and UK governments***. : Should Scotland be an independent country?"
nor is it as GmK believes it would be for a de facto election / referendum:
"How would you vote in response to the question [would you] ***support an immediate declaration of independence after a disputed election, amid UK Government opposition, legal challenges and potentially years of bad-faith negotiations***"
Nope. Opinion polls just ask this:
"How would you vote in response to the question: Should Scotland be an independent country?"
Such a basic misrepresentation invalidates his whole article.
Or, as we've said in Scotland for centuries: "Ye cannae make a silk purse out of a pig's bladder".
GMK is right when he says that holding a de facto referendum (i.e. election) would be the wrong thing to do. GMK is wrong when he says that holding a de facto referendum (i.e. election) would be the right thing to do. Let's leave that there.
He says the work has not been done on producing the Vision of an Independent Scotland. What has GMK been doing these last 12 years with (Make) Believe in Scotland? Where is his Vision thing?
His think tank have produced a few pamphlets, some statistics around Scotland's wealth of natural resources and organised a couple of marches/rallies. A decade plus is surely enough time to create a Super-Vision. But, as far as I am aware, neither he nor his organisation have published a Vision ... not even a de facto one. It's been a case of Vision Off.
Not that I believe that visions are what Scotland needs right now ... or ever whilst the Scottish nation remains a dependency and an annexed territory of England/UK. What we do need is people with the guts to state that they believe in Scottish popular sovereignty and Scotland's right of self-determination ... and then the courage to act on it.
I reckon the reason for GMK's confused article is that he doesn't know what, if anything, John Swinney and the SNP is going to do next on the constitution so he's being non-committal and is no closing off any options, even elections as de facto referendums.
The only thing that he is consistent on is that whatever action is adopted it must take place some time in the future.
In that sense GMK remains the dummy to John Swinney's ventriloquist.
"Both are so concerned not to break any rules; they are effectively paralysed"
Yes indeed, this is precisely the problem we face, Peter, and similarly Fanon referred to the stasis of the dominant national party elite 'co-opted by colonialism' as a form of 'petrifaction' or 'calcification'.
The national party elite's fear of the oppressor and 'lack of courage at the decisive moment' turns them into what Fanon regarded as the 'legal tendency' of the movement; 'legal' because they then make independence entirely dependent on the laws and ultimately the 'kind generosity' of the oppressor power; which never happens of course as under the oppressor's laws independence is made illegal and/or prevented by other means.
The 'illegal tendency' of the now ruptured movement realise the oppressor's trap and that an alternative path is necessary in line with international law and human rights conventions, including the right to self-determination.
Hence we now see the Liberation Scotland UN initiative which seeks to knock not on the door of number 10 and colonial law, but instead on the door of the United Nations and international law: https://liberation.scot/
I shortened your statement Peter to....'SNP is the ROADBLOCK.'......full stop.
I looked up the word 'vision'.......a creation of the imagination or fancy...in a dream or trance.......unreal....given to day daydreaming...... ring a bell?
We have to get rid of the occupying foreign english nation deeply embedded in our country. I can see no other way except rise up in anger....... while we are being betrayed by quislings who earn their living by promoting independence as a career ..and that's as far as they go...mentally colonised....financially rewarded...
... ONLY SCOTS get tae vote for Scotland...it's OUR country...(yer dealing with a Patriot...no quarter given..300 years is a long time.)
Your article is first class but the deluded Scots are no reading it..let alone understanding what is being said...they're great at singing flower o' Scotland...picking up litter after getting kicked oot o' the world cup..everybody loves us...everybody but england....the occupying force.
One of our new politicians laughs.......'Anybody but england.'...So funny ...no it's not ..it's sad... now get aff yer erse MSPs and set in motion the fight to TAKE freedom for your poor country....your land owned and abused by foreigners.(nuclear dumps)....Cairngorms on fire?..nae helicopters..all sent to england and wales...and most important of all the future generations of young Scots tae come whom you are sentencing to live in a country that is occupied by your hostile foreign english neighbours...now ah'm sending YOU home tae think again.
For OUR Scotland and her colonised weans