What's the rush?

I have long maintained that restoration of Scotland’s independence is a matter of the utmost urgency. Except, I don’t think the phrase “utmost urgency” adequately conveys just how pressing the need is. Scotland’s cause is truly an existential matter. It is an existential crisis for both Scotland and the rest of the UK (rUK). We can save Scotland. Saving rUK is neither our responsibility nor within our power. The question facing Scotland is not whether we can exist as an independent nation, but whether we can continue to exist as a nation without independence. Even if we could continue to exist as a nation, would it be one we'd recognise? Would it be a nation we want as our legacy for future generations?

Scotland's political elite does not share the sense of urgency I consider appropriate. It is imperative that the independence movement does. There needs to be a wider and more profound understanding of the fate that awaits Scotland if we do not act immediately. To give you a bitter taste of what that fate will look like, I refer you to the EuropeanPowel Substack, from which I quote at some length with due apologies to the author.

Blackrock’s ’Infrastructure Imperative’ is targeting green spaces as a new financial asset in their portfolio.

This is where deregulated free zones come in, they carve out patchworks of corporate sovereignties with separate laws and regulations from the host country.

In the +8 years I have been researching free zones, not one MSM or ‘alternative news’ outlet has investigated the post Brexit resurrection of Thatcher’s free zones by both the Tories, and Labour.

Why?

It is down to secondary legislation.

The UK wide rollout of free zones was rubber stamped by the Tories, and secretly backed by Labour MPs, Mayors, councillors, Lords, and Baronesses who sat on the Freeports/SEZs boards in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Zero debate in Parliament, zero consultation with the public, and zero notification of the press.

This why next to no one has heard of free zones.

UK Freeports, SEZs, Industrial Strategy Zones, Food Enterprise Zones, University Enterprise Zones, and the digital layer of AI Growth Zones are leeching billions in State aid for profit motives, which is illegal in the EU.

This is the real reason behind Brexit.

The Sunday National reported yesterday that John Swinney wants to "press on" with an independence referendum in 2028. That is dishonest drivel, of course. If he is able to hold a referendum in 2028, he is able to hold that referendum now. Nothing is going to happen between now and 2028 that will affect his ability to hold a referendum. If he can hold a referendum in 2028, he will be holding it with exactly the same powers as he holds now. Powers the SNP has had for eleven years without doing anything to progress Scotland’s cause.

Let us not forget, also, that Swinney is talking about a referendum sanctioned by the British state. He still imagines the British will bow to his demands. He supposes they will somehow be obliged to respect the will of Scotland’s people. Swinney’s ego blinds him to his diminutive stature in the eyes of the British establishment. His wheedling complaints and ineffectual protests have won him only contempt.

Commenting on the article referred to above, Jim Taylor provided an apt summary of Swinney’s ‘style’.

Every pronouncement is a wish list of what could happen.

Nothing to say how it can be made to happen.

We’re defending a notion rather than attacking an injustice.

The ‘party of independence’ has abandoned Scotland’s cause. But in our drive to restore Scotland’s independence, we gave that party extraordinary power. A clique managed by Angus Robertson has usurped that power. In turn, this leadership cabal now manages the independence movement to minimise the potential threat to the SNP’s dominance. I know this all sounds very conspiratorial. However, this situation is simply the result of a political party’s membership relinquishing control. Someone else takes over the organization and directs it according to their own interests.

Such behaviour is what post-colonial theory predicts. Baird’s research provides a valuable perspective on the script currently unfolding in Scotland. Alf and I have had a longstanding disagreement about the need to replace the SNP. I took the view that because the party is so entrenched, our best hope was to effect change within the SNP to bring it back into the service of Scotland’s cause. I remain persuaded that this course of action was something that had to be attempted, as it offered the quickest way to a constitutional referendum and independence. I was not wrong. But neither was Alf. I was right then. He is right now.

I know this all sounds very conspiratorial. However, this is simply the result of a political party's membership relinquishing control.

When Alba Party was launched, I, like many others, regarded it as potentially the new national party that Scotland’s cause would require. At the very least, I hoped Alba would develop into a sufficiently credible alternative to put pressure on the SNP and help bring about the change of approach that was, and remains, sorely needed.

Unfortunately, the leadership of Alba Party simply did not understand its role. They didn’t see the place where the party was supposed to fit. They made it the wrong shape to fit that space. We all know what happened then.

That space remains unfilled. The SNP’s hijacking by what I shall, with discretion, call careerists, led to the loss of Scotland’s independence movement’s political and parliamentary arm. We must now accept that loss as permanent. A new party is required to replace it. A party formed so as to fill the void left by the SNP.

That party already exists. New Scotland Party was conceived back in 2024 both as a new and genuine party of national liberation and a model for what a political party should be. It was originally launched in November 2024 as a platform for an external campaign in support of an internal effort to change the SNP’s approach to the constitutional issue. An effort which I will always associate with Mike Wallace—an individual who will, if there is any justice, one day be hailed as a hero of the independence movement. He has worked tirelessly and almost totally unsung to retrieve the SNP as the political and parliamentary arm of the independence movement. Mike! I salute you! But your efforts have come to naught.

The development of New Scotland Party was undertaken by me and a small team of volunteers. We paused our work on the New Scotland Party to focus on the Manifesto for Independence Petition, aiming to unify the independence movement around a stated purpose. That initiative failed badly. Had it succeeded, there would be no need to replace the SNP, and we would not be facing another five wasted years as the British state drains our nation to a husk to maintain its conceit of itself.

We cannot afford to waste those five years. Time that the SNP leadership regards and treats as a prelude to the next electoral scramble for the rewards of elected office. The opportunity of the 2026 election has been squandered. Left in the hands of the SNP and the rest of the independence industry, the fight to restore Scotland’s independence will wither and die. A party with a mission to facilitate the birth of a radical liberation movement is now urgently needed.

Left in the hands of the SNP and the rest of the independence industry, the fight to restore Scotland’s independence will wither and die.

The SNP is effectively dead when it comes to the constitutional issue. It is kept ‘alive’ by a life-support machine of party loyalists, voter inertia, and the perception—justified to a considerable extent—that it is the most effective shield against the British parties squatting in the Scottish Parliament and the best option in terms of governance. In fact, it is the sole viable option at this time. Before you respond with the usual reflexive response to that statement, keep in mind that the SNP's current position is a result of the independence movement's efforts.

It is time for the next phase of the effort to restore Scotland’s independence. The phase in which the independence movement becomes explicitly a liberation struggle. A struggle informed by the new thinking that reframes the constitutional issue. A struggle imbued with the appropriate sense of urgency.

If there is to be such a struggle, it must have a party-political arm. It must be geared to operate in the electoral and parliamentary arenas. This party-political arm must be prepared to sponsor direct action and promote civil disobedience. Above all, it must be owned and controlled by its members. New Scotland Party is partway to being the party-political arm the liberation struggle requires. Its development is a project that can be revived. The question is whether I have the heart and the energy to do it.