Ash Regan says "we are limited only by the walls of devolution and the heights of our own ambition". For reason that are not hard to understand, she omits a third and arguably more significant hindrance - Scotland's cosseted, contented, compliant and complacent political elite. Vacuous rhetoric such as the following places Ms Regan firmly among that endlessly disappointing mob.
Our ambitious vision must be anchored in the engaging, compelling case for independence. We must give people something to vote for again by instilling in our people the confidence to vote for transformative systemic change in Scotland. We must vividly paint the picture of our destination, forging a collective vision for Scotland.
Blah! Blah! Blah!
Only someone sorely deficient in self-awareness could write with such glib passion about giving people something to vote for without it occurring to them that they really should say something about providing the people with an opportunity and facility to vote, lest painting a vivid picture of the destination be seen as a risibly pointless exercise absent the means to get there.
For a decade and more all we've heard from the nominally pro-independence politicians and parties is a slick spiel selling independence as if it was a holiday destination, and/or plaintive pleas for a bigger, brighter, glossier brochure to thrust in the faces of people who long since lost interest because they realise how unavailing a vision must be without the means to realise it.
There is irony heavy enough to tilt the planet in Ash Regan's bloviating about transport while omitting any reference to the practicalities of reaching the destination she's flogging for all she's worth. Like her colleagues and counterparts across the nominally pro-independence political profession, she has plenty to say about the wondrous potential of Scotland restored to its rightful status as a nation, but nary a word about the process by which we get there.
These politicians talk about vision because vision is easy. Any one of us could paint our own vivid picture of where we would like to be. Many of us have done so. Hopefully, keeping in mind the fact that a vision without a process by which it might be realised is mere wishful thinking.
Ash Regan's article is all wishful thinking and no substance. Can I possibly be the only person who is heartily sick of politicians draping themselves in the beautiful dream for no purpose other than to disguise their own dullness?
They talk of vision because doing so is easy and safe and superficially very appealing. Anyone with a vocabulary of more than 500 words can wax lyrical about a holiday destination that exists only in their imagination. The pictures in the glossy brochure can be artificially enhanced beyond anything that acknowledges the limitations of reality.
They don't speak about process because to be at all credible such talk must take due account of the reality of Scotland's predicament and the constraints on our ability to escape. It is not easy to make parliamentary procedure seem exciting. If vision is a glossy brochure, process is a dry textbook.
Talk of a process by which Scotland's independence might be restored is fraught with danger for the professional politician. Not only does it take them out of their own comfort zone, it involves asking the voters to vacate their comfort zone. Nobody gets elected by appealing to the electorate's intellect and rationality. They get elected by appealing to fears - real or imagined - and the emotional magnetism of a beautiful dream - achievable or not.
Talk of a process by which to restore Scotland's independence is eschewed by professional nationalists also because they regard it as dangerous. Those who have troubled to afford a moment's thought to the matter will have recognised that to be credible, this process would have to venture outside the constraints of 'British' law. It would be challenging. It would trespass on forbidden territory. It would expose the career politician to the risk of offending some people.
In the British political system, which has captured Scotland's nominally pro-independence political elite, you can't be both bold and successful. You can't be principled and popular with the people who matter. Which may or may not include the voters. When you make your career in the realm of the British political system, you have to talk the local language. A language whose vocabulary consists exclusively of banal slogans, glittering generalities, and brazen falsehood. A language purposefully stripped of the means to express anything of consequence.
Look at Ash Regan's article! What's it about? Mostly, it's about reaching a word-count without saying anything that so much as flirts with the controversial. Just as when you hear politicians speak on TV or radio all you're hearing is the number of fine sounding but essentially meaningless words it takes to fill the allotted time.
These are not the politicians who will restore Scotland's independence. These politicians have neither the wit nor the will for the task. They lack the boldness and the resolve and the readiness to take risks and make sacrifices. These inadequates stand between us and the beautiful dream in a far more real sense than the hobble of devolution or any lack of ambition.
Scotland's independence will be restored only when we've bred the politicians who are prepared to do whatever it takes to make it happen. To date, all the ones we hoped would be the ones, weren't. Sadly, that now seems to include Ash Regan.
I believe we need political agitators with the gumption to challenge all that stands in our way. Bypassing London and making them the ones chasing and begging instead of our politicians doing what’s been done with abject failure to date.
Once again Peter you have hit the nail on the head.
Ash Regan has changed her party, but not her political approach. I'm not sure if we need to wait until we have bred new politicians, it might just be that we need to drive home the message to Ash, and others that they need to up their game and start to address the route to independence if they hope to survive as politicians in Scotland