The first battle

What it was like hearing the 'Scottish decolonisation' case at the UN - The National 19 September

With all due respect to George Katrougalos, that the people of Scotland have "a constitutional right to determine their political future" is not a matter of anyone's opinion - it is a matter of incontestable fact. This is not only a "constitutional right" but a human right. Our right of self-determination is recognised even by the British state. They do not deny that we have the right to choose the form of government which best serves our needs, priorities, and aspirations. They know that such a position could not be sustained in the face of international law.

The British state does not deny our right of self-determination. It insists only that it has the rightful authority to control the manner and timing of our exercise of that right. Thus, it asserts what is effectively the power of veto on the exercise of our right of self-determination.

Any political struggle must know precisely what it is fighting for, and against. Scotland's cause is not at this time a fight for independence. It is first and foremost a fight to break that veto. Independence may be our ultimate aim, but our proximate and most pressing need is to take back control of the process by which we exercise our tight of self-determination. Without full control of its exercise, the right of self-determination is meaningless. Any right is meaningless absent the capacity to freely decide when and how it is used.

Scotland's cause is emphatically not a fight to have the British state use its asserted discretionary power in our favour. It is not a struggle to persuade the British state not to use its effective veto. It is not a fight to have the British state permit the exercise of our right of self-determination - while retaining the power to stipulate the manner in which it is exercised.

Unfortunately, our political leaders imagine Scotland’s cause to be all the things that it emphatically is not. Never having undertaken any meaningful analysis of the constitutional issue and having ignored advice from those who have at least given the matter some thought while closing down all internal discussion, our political leaders propose to validate rather than repudiate the British state’s asserted veto over the exercise of our right of self-determination.

John Swinney’s ‘strategy for independence’ is to supplicate for permission to conduct a referendum which is in fact no more than a glorified opinion poll with final disposal left in the hands of the British state. Whether a Section 30 order is refused or granted is irrelevant. The act of requesting is itself an act of treachery. It is a betrayal of Scotland’s cause. It is entirely the wrong ‘solution’ because it addresses entirely the wrong problem.

Whether the Section 30 order is refused or granted, Swinney will have done all he has been mandated to do. He will have done all that he was elected to do. He will have fulfilled his party’s manifesto commitment simply by soliciting consent from the British Prime Minister. He doesn’t care what the response is. Having sent the begging letter, he’ll have done all he promised to do and can safely shelve Scotland’s cause for another five years.

SNP loyalists and apologists will insist that a vote for the SNP is a vote for independence. Swinney and his clique work hard at giving that impression. But a vote for the SNP is actually a vote for teachery. To vote for the SNP is to consent to the abasement of our nation. It is to approve the trade of our sovereignty for consent we don’t require and cooperation that will never materialise.

To vote for Swinney’s proposal is to make oneself an accomplice in the betrayal of our cause and our country. It is to be complicit in denial of the sovereignty of Scotland’s people.

If in the 2026 election you put your mark next to the name of the SNP candidate, be aware that you are signing away this nation.

Be aware also that there is no succour to be found in voting for any of the other nominally pro-independence parties. None of them has a proposal that is any more beneficial to Scotland’s cause than the treachery on offer from the SNP leadership. There is no voting strategy that works for Scotland’s cause because there are no political parties proposing action that addresses the real problem - our lack of control over the exercise of our right of self-determination.

That control rightly resides with the Scottish Parliament. It is being illegitimately withheld by the British state. Until the Scottish Parliament repossesses this control, the fight to restore Scotland’s independence cannot even begin in earnest.

The 2026 Scottish general election is an opportunity to repossess control of the exercise of our right of self-determination. As things stand, it is an opportunity that our political elite is intent on squandering. The independence movement is allowing this to happen. It is doing nothing to prevent this opportunity being wasted as so many others have been wasted.

Next year’s election must be used to generate a mandate for the Scottish Parliament to take back its power to legislate for a proper constitutional referendum. The inevitable alternative is another five lost years.

It is all up to you! Will you meekly accept what the cowardly, self-serving politicians are offering? Or will you demand more? Will you consent to treachery and squandering of opportunity? Or will you insist that the political parties respect the sovereignty of Scotland’s people and accept responsibility for ensuring that we able to fully and freely exercise our right of self-determination?