The Coral Bleaching of Scottish Democracy
THE CORAL BLEACHING OF SCOTTISH DEMOCRACY: From the Province of the Cat by George Gunn
“All these people do what they are doing unconsciously, because they must, all their life being founded upon deceit, and because they know not how to do anything else… Moreover, being all linked together, they approve and justify one another’s acts – emperors and kings those of the soldiers, functionaries, and clergymen; and soldiers, functionaries and clergymen the acts of emperors and kings, while the populace, and especially the town populace, seeing nothing comprehensible in what is done by all these men, unwittingly ascribe to them a special, almost a supernatural, significance.” Leo Tolstoy, ‘Writings On Civil Disobedience and Non-Violence’, New Society, 1897.
All government is deaf and blind. No government ever formed listens to the people who put them in power once they are in power. No government sees what is coming down the line despite numerous warnings. Every government is paranoid, from the beginning to the end of its life. All governments are too keen to please the wrong agencies. These agencies have no interest in the government, the welfare of the people or what the government purports to achieve: they are only interested in themselves. All governments end up being hated by those who elected them and by those whom they have sought to impress. And for the same reason. They will say anything and do anything to stay in power so eventually what they say and do alienates the electorate and the elite. Being reasonable is impossible because the dynamics of power make it so. Both your power base and your fickle impressariat turn on you if you implement your manifesto, or if you abandon it. That’s how all empires fall. The “supernatural significance” Tolstoy notes eventually is not enough to maintain the deceit.
In Scotland what has been proven is that devolution does not work. Without the full powers of a sovereign nation the people of Scotland suffer the inevitable mismanagement of a political and financial arrangement that is designed to fail. Grant administrators are not a government. Alex Salmond changed the name above the door from “Executive” to “Government” but nothing else. There was no risk involved. Real change is not as seamless as the painting of a new name on the big house. Risk is the blood of change. What have you got to lose? If it is everything, then nothing happens. If you have nothing to lose then change will occur. We need to transform nouns and adjectives into verbs and implement revolution inside the big house. Political action instead of sign-painting. Reality instead of slogans. Democracy has to expose devolution for the sham it is or we are heading for voter disinterest. Why vote when no matter how many desire change everything stays the same? Then what?
Well, if by some miracle, with a energised new leader and a re-vamped sense of purpose, an SNP government actually magicked up a form of governance that delivered a vibrant economy, and a set of radical policies that facilitated Scottish independence, the British state would shut down Holyrood immediately. They have already rendered representative democracy meaningless in Scotland so why not go the whole hog and implement direct rule? Their reasoning would be that in our suppression is our security. Or, suck it up, as the Secretary of State for Scotland has informed us in the past.
The UK media and anti-SNP opinion formers have gleefully pointed out the failures of Nicola Sturgeon’s administration. They reel off a long list of under-achievement, of tin ears and cock-ups. The real failure, which can never be admitted, is that under the current devolution settlement a meaningful, re-distributive, compassionate and embracing governance of Scotland is impossible. When Labour failed continually at Holyrood the UK media said nothing. It was “steady as she goes!”. When the SNP fail each instance is burnt into the newsprint of the sky. It is always the failure of the SNP, never the impossibility of the system. All governments fail. Some more than others. Some with a shrug of the shoulders. Some with blood on the standing orders. The result is the same. Inertia.
As Sir Keir Starmer keeps proving every time he opens his mouth to speak about Scotland, it is clear that none of the UK parties give a damn about the country. Labour may express a desire for more Scottish MP’s but Starmer ensures that it is no more than a dream. His cunning plan is to convince the Scots that voting Labour is the only guaranteed way to end Tory rule at Westminster, and to replace it with his brand of opportune, pro-Brexit, anti-Scottish democracy, rag-bag conservatism. This will, somehow, be good for the Scots. The Tories themselves, the real owners of such reactionary baggage, are straight-forwardly hostile to Scotland, even those of them elected by Scots. The Liberal-Democrats are the hurdy-gurdy players of Scottish politics – a repetitive warble in the background signifying something or other but no-one can remember quite what.
In England the majority of people do not waste a micro-second thinking about the constitution. And why should they? It doesn’t affect them and they don’t have one. Britain (the UK) is England, so what’s the problem? Placing Scotland on a geo-political map is something they never have to do. That is why the people of England are not a problem for the Scottish independence movement: they do not care one way or the other. The problem for independence is devolution. Who-ever the new leader of the SNP is they will have to deal with that or face political decline, eventual electoral defeat and voter apathy. You cannot be in opposition and in government. Many in the SNP government think they can. Many have forgotten what the SNP is for. Putting your faith in a leader is also a mistake. Have we not outgrown leaders? Are we not all leaders?
The purse strings held in London are the source of Edinburgh’s woes. So the question to the new boss is: what are you, as the First Minister of Scotland, as the leader of the SNP and focal point of the independence movement, going to do about that? Are you going to rip up the Sewel convention and the Barnett formula and implement a just taxation system in Scotland that gathers from the wealthy and the exploiters of our natural resources and redistribute wealth to the poor? Are you in power to serve the people of Scotland or the external agencies of the corporate and landed establishment? If it is the first then we might have a future. If it is the second then the Angel of History is heading for Bute House very soon.
Sometimes it feels as though both Westminster and Holyrood are in denial that the UK is home to some of the richest people in the world. That many of them own vast landed estates in the North Highlands and that this reality actually keeps the Highlands de-populated and poor, whilst at the same time, on paper, Scotland is a wealthy country. The problem is not a lack of money, it is the deliberate political choices government’s make. We need to tax the growing wealth of the super-rich – especially those who own assets over £10 million – and use that money to pay the workforce: train drivers, teachers, fire fighters – all public service workers, especially those in the NHS, so that we can save our health service and society from financial austerity and rampant Tory venality.
This venality, and the general passive societal compliance with it, has led us to the present stage of capitalism where the very institutions responsible for destroying life on Planet Earth (banks, oil companies, energy corporations and other Armageddon jockeys such as arms manufacturers) and who are causing a mass extinction, one of only five previous ones in all of our planets deep history, are making record-breaking and immoral windfall cash profits. There is a word for this which is not uttered in boardrooms or even whispered by governments: it is ecocide, which is the destruction of the natural environment that is widespread, long-term and severe. Hardly a good business plan. Not much of an economic policy. The note to all governments is: we either move beyond capitalism or as a species we die.
In Scotland democracy is dying like a coral reef. When corals are under stress, they expel the microscopic algae that live in their tissues. Without these algae, corals’ tissues become transparent, exposing their white skeleton. This is called coral bleaching. Bleached corals are not dead, but are more at risk of starvation and disease. Independence for Scotland, as things stand, isn’t around the corner, because it has been bleached. What has been expelled from our body politic is the democratic process itself. The British State has conspired to construct a scenario in which the case for holding a legal referendum on the issue of Scottish independence has been kettled into a dead-end. The only positive aspect to this ridiculous situation is that we now know for certain what we always suspected before: the British State will never grant independence, the Scots are going to have to take it. Somehow we are going to have to bring our democratic coral reef back to life. We have to re-oxygenate the political water.
If there is hope for humanity it lies in our resourcefulness and durability and in the joy of our collective creativity. Life is joyous despite what the likes of Suella Braverman may instruct us to believe. Our politics should contain our creativity. Life is a rich human experience. Our richness should not be defined by capital, by money, so beloved by our Tory overlords. In reality money causes us pain and will destroy us as it drags us through wars and pandemics towards the little white dot of extinction. Money is stress and stress kills.
Those who love money fear the people. Capital may seem all-pervasive and all conquering but the expansion of debt proves that its hegemony is fragile. The whole edifice can come crashing down at any minute. A government can circulate out the failure of the money market by printing more currency, but the true richness of humanity will eventually emancipate itself form such destructive cycles through its creativity. That is the politics of hope Scotland has to believe in because, after all, it is a belief in ourselves. If we do not believe in ourselves why should anyone else? We have to move beyond fear and doubt.
Once people start seeing that power is negotiable and not the divine right of the ruling class then everything else becomes open for discussion. That prospect terrifies authority but it is the only road to a genuine democratic system, rather than being merely governed by self-selected governments. If we want our country to be more than a set of bleached coral reefs in the sea of history then we have to channel that hope into our daily politics and our daily lives, no matter the colour of the governments boots.
©George Gunn 2023
“In Scotland what has been proven is that devolution does not work. Without the full powers of a sovereign nation the people of Scotland suffer the inevitable mismanagement of a political and financial arrangement that is designed to fail.”
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Summed up beautifully, devolution has and always will be an absolute con, devolution is to governance what Bit Coin is to prudent financial management.
At every FMQs when Ross or Sarwar demand to know why Scotland isn’t doing this or that, the FM, would give a detailed reply with a compare and contrast at the end, highlighting differences between performances in Scotland and England & Wales.
The sole reply should be, “Scotland does not have control over or the means to gain control, to make the difference people wish to see and your parties are preventing that change coming about! Why?
Instead Holyrood has become the lightning conductor for a failed system, a failed system that the Scottish Government and FM defend for some bizarre reason? Possibly in the belief that if they rock the boat too much, direct rule will be imposed?
It’s time to focus on the real enemies of Scotland, labour & tories, two cheeks of the same arse.
I don’t know whom I will vote for, but for me the two key issues are independence and political competence, we should be kicking at an open goal with the state the uk is in with worse to come!
Powerful and insightful writing and a kind of call to arms. I would just raise a couple of points: Firstly despite the convincing nature of this polemic (to me at least) how is this communicated to the wider population in Scotland, especially the 50% or so who are apparently content with the status quo? For despite the impassioned case made here, the uncomfortable reality is that half the population are quiescent. The paper here would have farm more resonance if it was a collective majority roar of complaint. Secondly, while fully agreeing that the ludicrous situation of land ownership and land taxation here needs to be completely upended (the obscenity of A. Jack trousering £100k pa in subsidy: the craziness of one farmer pulling down £1m+ annual ‘support’ etc. etc.) we also need to be sure there is not benefit capture at the other end, i.e. powerful unions in a position to exploit their positions. How can we acheive an all-round level of equity in this society?
A very succinct and accurate (for me) summary of where Scotland has been is now. It’s become unfashionable to talk about capitalism as the enemy, but it is.
Capitalism only ever worked for the country and ruling classes that were doing the conquering, exploitation and enslaving.
Ultimate power leads to ultimate corruption , it always has and it always will.
The British State through hundreds of years of practice has refined corruption to an art form and other despots round the world have learned from the British state. They no longer realize that they are corrupt, born into it they actually believe the way they think about morality-is moral.
The Boris Johnson’s, the Rees Mogg’s, the Michelle Mone’s, the Alister Jack’s the list is long and depressing, are not lying (in their minds) when they say they have done nothing wrong. The rich and powerful create their own morality because they can buy everything and everyone in their experience and get away with it so how can they be wrong? in their world they are actually doing the right things.
It amazes me how working classes can vote for rich and powerful people who’s existence bears no resemblance to their own but think they can represent them and support their needs when they have no idea what their (the working class and even middle class) needs are.
George Gunn says all the above but also says “no pain no gain” For the average Scot (Michelle Mone etc not included) Scotland like all other nations before them will have to ‘take’ independence as liberty is taken not given. The British State will NOT give Scotland a referendum, Independence or freedom to decide our own future. Scotland will have to take it forcefully, hopefully via democracy but perhaps by force (hopefully political force) but perhaps some may feel otherwise.
We have British nationalists in large numbers on Scotland whether Blue, Red (there are pro Independence Labour and Tory voters [yes there are Tories for independence and we need them]) or Orange (unlikely to vote for freedom as subservience is the name of the game for them)
I would have Independence tomorrow, I’m running out of time and I want to see it for my children and grand children before my time is up. But the reality is that it’s likely that the force of numbers of our children who grew up with devolution and a greater confidence as a nation will make independence happen if we are prepared to wait. Or there will be a lot of pain if we are not prepared to wait?
No nations got independence from Westminster without saying we’re taking it whether you like it or not.
Are you proposing a coup d’etat or UDI ? Both are illegal, undemocratic and an insult to the people of Scotland.
Read the text- no propositions of any sort were made.
Put simply if communities are not ‘given’ their freedom and democratic rights then somewhere down the line they will have to find a way to take them- as the vast majority of now independent countries had to do.
I doubt those peoples who had to fight for freedom felt they were insulting themselves by the way.
I however did not propose UDI nor any other course of action for that matter.
A civil war in Scotland resulting from UDI is unthinkable- but it’s not impossible, think N. Ireland.
But what of those in those communities, who may well be in the majority, who do not want what you call ‘freedom’ and feel they have exercised their democratic rights via a referendum in 2014 and subsequently in parliamentary elections? What do they need to ‘take’ exactly? It is easily arguable that those who want to do the taking are the ones who would act anti-democratically.
The electorate that voted No in 2014 is the same electorate that have voted in a Holyrood Parliament with biggest ever majority for an independence referendum.
SNP and wider independence movement accepted result of 2014. If they had not accepted it the SNP government would have challenged or even declared UDI which they patently did not.
SNP’s primary objective is an independent Scotland and to expect them to go away and stop advocating for independence is simply undemocratic.
If Scottish electorate were fed up with independence they would not have returned a Holyrood Parliament with SNP/Green majority.
For Labour & Tories at Westminster to blank Section 30 request is undemocratic especially when they refuse to identify under what circumstances they would agree to S30. I suggest when Ian Murray suggested there were no circumstances whatsoever that he would agree to another independence referendum he revealed the real Westminster strategy to democracy in Scotland.
Spot on again, George.
Thank you, George. This is a great piece of writing, and all so true. It would be no bad thing for Bella to keep it on the home page ut least until the end of the leadership election.
You wrote: “If by some miracle, with a energised new leader and a re-vamped sense of purpose, an SNP government actually magicked up a form of governance that delivered a vibrant economy, and a set of radical policies that facilitated Scottish independence, the British state would shut down Holyrood immediately”. It has taken a long time for this to become apparent. I don’t know whether the SNP leadership were consciously aware that going too far or too fast would lead to the closing down of Holyrood, or whether it was just a vague fear that always lurked in the background, that it was safer to not even try to talk about.
As you highlight at the start of your article, Tolstoy – and many other people as well – understood all this more than 100 years ago. What this tells us is that we need to find new ways of governing ourselves, ways of meeting together where everything can be talked about. In relation to the growing pressure for another referendum (or the equivalent), I believe that it is extremely important to be talking – now – about how a new Scotland would operate as what you call a “genuine democracy”. This process itself needs to model what a genuine democracy would look like. If, following a positive referendum result, a new constitution and institutions are designed by the same inner circle of politicians, the probability is that we will be back into another cycle of bleaching.
Brilliant article. But gets us nowhere.
UDI.
That’ll focus their twisted colonial brains..then you’ll see the evil empire crawl out and you can watch as ‘better together’ goes down the drain.
You don’t allow excrement to hang about your house. You flush it away…immediately.
UDI! Oh but it’s illegal I hear idiots say. So it’s illegal..who cares? So is the Sassenachs telling us we cannot have independence and nobody seems to care about that.
Independence for Scotland…absolutely now.
What is worse, to be in prison got a sentence of no time limit or parole for a crime you did not commit?
Or to break for freedom, with the risks that entails?
I too am beginning to believe that not only the tories but labour too will destroy Scotland to keep us in the “laughable union”.
UDI should be table with a clear means of establishing it and gaining international approval!
P.S. if UFI obtained via a country’s ballot box is deemed illegal, what is rule from another where that rule has been rejected by the country?
I agree with everything said in response to a great post by George, especially you Squiggly, But I would say from now on it’s “Bitter Together” now let’s take proper steps and get the Fuck out of this mess .
Totally agree Squiggly , UDI and from now on it’s BITTER together.
Devolution is just a form of government. If a political party or entire political class are bad at devolved government then they’ll also be bad at independent government. The SNP/Greens appear to have undersold wind rights by billions of pounds, they’ve pushed forward with their so called National Care Service despite all the warnings, and there’s still no sign of local taxation reform despite the vast wealth which this article rightly says we could capture. They decided a wind rights auction should have a *maximum* price ceiling. That’s just incompetence irrespective of constitutional status.
I strongly believe democracy in Scotland will only be revived through the renewal of non-nationalist, grass roots, issue-based politics.