Future Scotland
It was. In the first round of voting Macron’s centrist party collapsed to just 21% of the vote, with the far-right almost doubling their results to 33%. His gamble not only backfired, but almost gave the keys to power to some of the most dangerous people in Europe.And yet something else unexpectedly happened. Leaders of the French greens, socialists, communists, and social democrats, seeing the divide between them as a weakness, came together and formed the New Popular Front. It was an alliance that united France’s progressive parties under a united banner and pledged to block the far-right from seeking power. Forming so close to an election, they still won 28% of the vote and took over Macron’s centrist party as the main opposition to the far-right. With the second round of voting to take place on July 7th, the left now campaign with a new wave of united momentum behind them.
With Keir Starmer’s crushing victory in the UK general election, with his manifesto firmly baked within fiscal conservatism and no democratic reforms, it’s not hard to see us heading down a similar path in years to come. The newly elected Nigel Farage and his band of far-right goons within the Reform have built consistent pressure for English politics to drift continuously to the right, and both the Conservative and Labour Party have drifted without question. Meanwhile Scotland can only watch in horror as our already miniscule influence within Westminster is reduced to Scottish Labour MPs wagging their tails behind the new Prime Minister.
Every single corner of Scotland is crying for change, and for half of Scotland’s population that change comes in the form of Scottish independence. In steps the SNP, who have eagerly promised for years that a vote for them is to ask Westminster over and over again for another independence referendum. With this tired pledge is their manifesto with no new transformational politics. Simply put, the SNP offered the same tired cut and paste message and policies since 2017 – the electorate are not buying it any longer.
They reduced the SNP to a devastating 9 seats. Voters instead turned to Labour to oust the Tories at Westminster, punching much of the remaining energy left within the independence movement. Keen eyed political analysts will be quick to point out that many seats have a labour majority smaller than the Scottish Green’s vote, who managed to quadruple their votes and come third place in multiple central belt seats. They would also be quick to point out that the declining voter turnout suggested a sizeable group of traditional left-leaning voters did not feel motivated to back the SNP. The SNP did not offer change and voters firmly punished them for it.
Will the SNP finally take the hint? Well the conservatives within their own ranks certainly cannot and will not. Already the party’s right have attempted to ignore the data and voting trends and instead make this about “wokeness”. No, it wasn’t the SNP’s fault, it was those dastardly Greens they lost votes to! It was those pesky trans people that simply asked for decency and respect! It what Holyrood trying to make us recycle more or take away our wood burning stoves! Though if you spoke real voters on the door step then you will know the above arguments appeared as often as we see unicorns skipping around Stirling Castle.
Now the once enthusiastic activists for independence are now left wondering what happens next. How do we engage voters to actually believe independence can be delivered? How do we build a vision that wins back the SNP’s traditional voters? Much like progressives in France, and even Israel’s left-wing parties uniting to end the onslaught in Gaza, the independence movement must evolve to become bigger than just independence. It must become a progressive national movement that seeks to unite Scotland’s radicals and reformists in a united front.
Deep in our country’s beating heart is an army of activists who share the same vision of Scotland as the mainstream independence movement. It is the thousands social justice campaigners who rallied with Black Lives Matter and Scotland’s LGBTQ+ community, and sent the Home Office to think again during the Kenmure Street protests. It is the thousands of climate youth activists, bravely standing up against oil giants and face frequent arrests to save our environment from collapse. It is Scotland’s international community, who have rallied on an almost weekly basis to condemn the genocide in Gaza and campaign for Scotland’s return to the European Union. It is the trade unionists who formed Enough is Enough, selling out venues for political rallies and marching in the tens of thousands for better pay and conditions. It is tomorrow’s economists, proposing a range of reformist and radical policies on land and tax that can fundamentally reshape our country for the better.
Independently these groups have been impressive and commendable. But together, under a united progressive front, it would become a political movement no government can even think to ignore. An army of activists in the ears of every voter in Scotland, it would force conservatives and unionist to respond.
It is no secret that such a broad coalition will be exceptionally hard to build, or in some cases we’ve already gone backwards. When the Bute House Agreement was cemented in 2021, it was done so to unite Scotland’s parliamentary pro-independence MSPs alongside progressive values. It quickly brought progressive policies, such as rent controls and land reform, higher up on the agenda. It was by no means a perfect agreement, but it no less brought net positive change. Yet when Humza Yousaf scrapped the agreement, destroying his own leadership in the process, it badly harmed what was a healthy relationship between Scotland’s social democratic parties.
In the background conservative forces have used their influence to keep progressive groups apart, with the particular use of culture wars to create in-fighting. Scotland went from being a nation quite literally leading the world on inclusive LGBTQ+ policies, to a toxic political landscape with increasing levels of hatred. In many ways it is what led to the birth of the Alba Party, who often seem more like an anti-SNP party than one advocating independence.
When the UK government defied Scottish democracy to block multiple pieces of legislation, then winning a Supreme Court ruling that gave them the greenlight to block future Holyrood legislation, the centre and left simply surrendered. No momentum was built from this – barely even a whimper. We simply moved on to the next political battle. The conservative and unionist strategy of divide and rule worked perfectly.
Yet the above challenges make a united progressive front more of a necessity. By building a broad alliance of progressives, we expose each other to different ways of thinking that can help grow our understanding of one another. It reminds us that our smaller differences are nothing in comparison to uniting against the Westminster right. By coming together we can form concrete goals that align with all our interests at heart. It makes us more immune to conservative tactics of division.
Such a movement would not take away the independence or identity of individual organisations. Individual groups are entitled to have key differences and stick to their core principles. That is something which any united progressive front should acknowledge. Yet, a united progressive front would centralise resources so the core message and voice of individual groups are shared amongst more activists. An army of activists that engages with Scotland’s masses also makes our population more conscious of Westminster’s attack on our democracy, workers and environment.
How a united progressive front would work in an electoral sense would be tricky, and will largely require compromise from the SNP. First, the SNP would need to demonstrate their policies align with such a movement if they are to take advantage of massive political capital. An example of this is reversing the council tax freeze and instead implementing the STUC’s wealth tax proposals for Scotland’s super wealthy households. Another could be adopting more ambitious policies for a Just Transition that aligns with the likes of Extinction Rebellion or Green New Deal Rising. They could opt to promote the Job Guarantee, a policy created by the original US civil rights movement and championed by BLM campaigners today. They could even go further on rent controls and land reform, which would bring praise from both economists and community campaigners alike. By adopting the policies that civic Scotland is crying out for, civic Scotland is more likely to return the favour in the form of activism and votes.
In time, with building a broad coalition and ambitious policies, the SNP and Greens can heal their relationship and discuss a strategy going into the Holyrood 2026 election. But with the election only two years away, it will perhaps need to become a longer term vision. One way or another, the SNP has a lot to prove to civic Scotland, and to the Scottish Greens who they badly treated at the end of the Bute House Agreement.
As we come closer to the 10th anniversary of the Scottish independence referendum, many of us will begin to feel the nostalgia of summer 2014. A time of real excitement and an atmosphere of hope. It is a feeling that has not quite returned and yet so many of us crave again. Yet whilst Scotland is no longer the same as it was in 2014, and we cannot re-run the same campaign, the excitement and hope can still return. It requires a bigger vision and even bigger action.
So what are you waiting for? Don’t just sit their in a room full of already converted pro-independence activists and pat ourselves on the back. Reach out to your trade union and local climate group. Start organising and cooperating with local communities. Start asking the SNP and Greens to do more.
Take action.
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Indeed, a valid and reasoned argument , do we as first step send this to SNP , Greens etc , and ask for some debate discussion , does the current situation in France provide clues on mobilising activity
I’d fully endorse this approach. Just looking at the actions of the French left is inspiring and energising. Let’s hope momentum can be kept up through the vote today
Part of the problem is that the SNP has done nothing the improve the life of most Scots since the departure of Alex Salmond. All of the big changes and radical improvements were done during hist time as leader. I do not suggest that he return to lead us but we do not have anyone with his vision or chutspah leading any of our parties. Yes we manage the scaps we are given with child poverty assistance and help for some that are on rthe margins of society but where are the actions setting things up to make an independent Scotland practical?
Where are the bones of a real people’s Bank of Scotland, or the basis of an organisation to manage and run a Scottish utility company. What about Local government change to reintroduce something like real LOCAL democracy with funding raised and spent locally was promised many years ago. The land commission is laudable but it is deep in the long grass. Shake the trees and make things happen; some might not like it but you cannot govern without making and implementing decisions.
Start with replacing council tax with a land tax to include all of the land in Scotland. Reorganise local councils so that local communities decide what happens in their area, Community Councils with teeth, and the cash from the Land tax to make things happen. Retain larger area councils but let them look after regional infrastructure, without the enormous bureaucracy and tribes of officials.
‘…where are the actions setting things up to make an independent Scotland practical?’
The Scottish government has been quietly (and, it has to be said, cack-handedly) creating the state bureaucracy and trappings of state that would made an independent Scotland practically feasible and administratively capable of assuming, with minimal disruption to the current Scottish etablishment, the levers of government that are currently reserved to Whitehall. My partner is a Principal Business Analyst and Senior Product Manager in this state-building process.
The Scottish government, just like the ferries, will be up and running and ready to go if and when it exits the UK – maybe. Like the ferry-building, the process continues to be fraught with the delays and bureaucratic sclerosis that have beset it since the project’s inception in 2011.
The SNP deserved all it got. It had become complacent, and just assumed that independence and the SNP were synonymous. Alba was actually a very good idea of Alex Salmond’s, designed to capture the list vote at the last Holyrood election whole the SNP would take the constituency one. It was a great strategy to game the system, based perhaps on his previously presenting the choice on the list as ‘Alex Salmond for First Minister’. Alba was and is a genuinely separate party, and it also starts with A so appears at the top of the voting paper. Using the Gaelic name for Scotland was also a good idea. Alex is a politician through and through, in the best sense. He believes in independence.
The Unionists of course went for him as they always would with their trumped up charges. And they managed to divide Salmond and Sturgeon. The SNP wanted exclusive rights to the independence vote and they saw Alba as competition rather than part of a pro-independence alliance. So they attacked it at every turn. A classic case of unionist divide and rule. The SNP later tried to demonstrate their inclusiveness by inviting the Greens in – but this was really a one-sided arrangement, keeping the rivals close and controlled. Except that both parties were in fact being bought and sold for corporate gold. There is nothing genuinely green about a Freeport; and giving away our sovereignty to the WHO and WEF in the so-called Pandemic Treaty is unforgivable.
The SNP are the Oliver Twist party, the epitome of the Scottish cringe. They go cap in hand to the super rich for ‘philanthropy’ and do as they are told. When their MPs and our Parliament were deliberately mocked and ridiculed, they just stood there and feebly accepted it. They became more interested in staying in power than actually standing up for Scotland.
Worse, the mockery and contempt shown for Scotland by Westminster was mirrored by the Holyrood’s contempt of the Highlands and Islands. Nobody listens to ordinary people and at least here in the rural areas we are still apparently ruled by Freemasonry. Which does exactly as it pleases, above the law, regardless of elected politicians. And they in turn are ruled by the king. It makes a mockery of democracy and Scottish justice.
My personal experience of the SNP over the last four years has been one of utter betrayal at every level. Such a parcel of rogues. I couldn’t vote for them anymore. For all the good things they have done, and the many genuine, well-intentioned people who have been part of the party, I think the SNP will find it very difficult to recover any credibility after this. Political parties in general are being called into question: we need politicians who will put constituents before party. And we need a complete shake up of internal governance – get public utilities and the police back under local democratic control; create empowered local authorities on the Scandinavian model, allow for (even celebrate) the regional diversity. In short, stop being so afraid if losing control and believe in Scotland.
This was a Westminster election. The SNP failed to stand up for us there. (Why didn’t they just walk out?) The vote for Labour / LibDems was a protest at that. They probably won’t do much for us either but they could hardly fo worse. Some of us, me included, had no wish to be represented at Westminster at all and either didn’t vote at all or spoiled our ballots. It’s not my Parliament. If Sinn Feinn had stood here, I might have voted for them..
In any case the election was a stage-managed farce. The result was more or less a foregone conclusion. Postal votes were not received in time, we had the nonsense of the ID cards, there was very little campaigning, the whole thing was just going through the motions. The oligarchs, here as elsewhere, are just softening us all up for a fascist coup d’état.
No doubt the unionists will now crow that independence is dead. Far from it. This battle is just getting going. But the SNP now need to recognise they do not ‘own’ Scotland and cannot offer any leadership to the Yes movement. They have no real vision to offer except more of the same, and that’s simply not good enough. We need independence so we can do things differently. We need a radical, decentralised, democratic, empowered Scotland that is not dependent on international so-called ‘investors’ who are really just pirates. One that is not bought and sold for corporate gold.
Alba only got 12000 votes across the whole of Scotland!
They are just not relevant to everyone (vast majority of Scots) except their own Alba sect.
They get vastly more attention than their support justifies.
There are a range of reasons why SNP had a poor electoral performance but Alba was not one of them.
Time for AS to wind up Alba and stop trashing his reputation and legacy.
‘We need a radical, decentralised, democratic, empowered Scotland that is not dependent on international so-called “investors”…’
And how will making government in Scotland independent of the UK bring this about?
How will independence bring it about? Without independence it will not happen at all. Independence gives us the opportunity.
Not it won’t. The independence that the Scottish government is currently preparing the ground for (and which, let’s face it, is the only independence we’re going to get) won’t enable us to bring about ‘a radical, decentralised, democratic, empowered Scotland that is not dependent on international so-called “investors”…’. At best, it will give us a wee Westminster in Edinburgh, leaving the current establishment in Scotland virtually intact.
Independence is a distraction from the real work of community development, of building capacity among the ‘Wretched of the Earth’ to liberate themselves from their immiseration and, in so doing, transform the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is exercised globally, by which matrix we’re socially constructed and in which we’re inescapably enmeshed. That’s revolutionary praxis; ‘independence’ is just more of the same.
I agree that the SNP’s vision seems to be a ‘wee Westminster in Edinburgh’, but I’m not referring to ‘the independence that the Scottish government is currently preparing the ground for’. The whole point about independence is that it’s self-determination. It means we’ll get to choose our own future. I confidently predict the SNP’s cringeworthy vision certainly won’t be ‘ the only independence we’re going to get’, because it’s not worth having. I also predict the rise of other pro-independence candidates, parties, and movements who do not share the SNP’s managerialism and consumer politics. I just hope we don’t end up with some seriously fascist populists because not all change is necessarily for the better.
‘It means we’ll get to choose our own future.’
Naw an it daesnae. Independence means that a Scottish government will be able to make public decisions untrammelled by the checks the UK government currently has on its power. It doesn’t follow from this that we, who are subject to that power, will enjoy any greater autonomy or self-determination.
And can predict all you like; we won’t get a choice in determining the post-independence establishment. We’re currently being stitched by the Scottish government into a matrix of governing institutions that will preserve the status quo, the existing power relations in Scotland. The idea that we as citizens will be any more able to challenge those power relations in an independent Scotland than we are at present is delusional.
Well the UK government has untrammelled power over Scotland. Neither the Scottish Parliament nor the Scottish people are able to hold it to account. At Westminster, Scottish MPs are a small minority.
Following independence, the Scottish government will be elected by the Scottish people. And it will be possible to vote it out of office if – like all the present parties on all sides – it betrays us. Just like most of our neighbours and many other countries.
There’s nothing ‘delusional’ about that. Dozens of countries have become independent from Westminster including the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, large parts of Africa, and Ireland. I don’t think any of them regret that and nor will we.
On the other hand the idea that the SNP would necessarily rule independent Scotland is nonsense because after independence the SNP will be redundant.
So, all independence will mean is that the Scottish government (of whatever hue – red, blue, green,or tartan) will have untrammelled power over Scotland.
(In any case, the UK government doesn’t have untrammelled power over Scotland. It’s power over anything is trammelled by the UK parliament and the courts in England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.)
Why on earth should the Scottish parliament or the Scottish people be able to hold the UK government to account? Surely, that’s the job of the UK parliament and the people of all the nations that make up the Union?
The Scottish people already elect the Scottish government.
There’s certainly nothing delusional about the fact that dozens of countries have become independent of the UK. What is delusional is, as I said, the idea that we as citizens will be any more able to challenge those power relations in an independent Scotland than we are at present.
And of course the SNP wouldn’t necessarily rule Scotland after independence. Who cares who rules Scotland when the establishment – the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is exercised in Scotland – would remain intact.
“Who cares who rules Scotland when the establishment – the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is exercised in Scotland – would remain intact.”
That’s. The. Point.
I don’t wish to start along correspondence about this but I do disagree with you.
Independence will not mean that the Scottish government (of whatever hue – red, blue, green, or tartan) will have untrammelled power over Scotland. It will be held to account by parliament and courts, as in other democratic countries, and probably far more effectively than in London where the government regularly ignores both and gets away with it.
Of course the Scottish parliament or the Scottish people should be able to hold the UK government to account, if the UK claims to represent us.
It’s not exclusive to Scotland, it’s the job of every citizen within the UK.
The Scottish people already elect the Scottish government. We also elect the UK government, where we are always overrruled and treated with contempt. Should the UK government have the right to undermine, veto and mock the democratic will of the Scottish people? Certainly not.
We as citizens will be far more able to challenge power relations in an independent Scotland than we are at present; and there is no reason to suppose that the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is exercised in Scotland would necessarily remain intact – I though I accept that this is a risk we need to be aware and take action on. I agree it needs to change; but without independence from London, it would be impossible to do that.
I’m glad you see it Mike.
Now, perhaps, you could explain how our having our our own wee Westminster in Edinburgh will change the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is currently exercised in Scotland?
“Are you so blind you cannot see”
The so called YES movement is the biggest barrier to progressive change and achieving ndependence.
It has demonised the SNP in the minds of those we seek to persuade, feeding the simultaneous SNP bad prpoganda of the media.
Over 90 years the SNP has built uninterrupted growing support for Independence and in recent years introduced many policies that support people living in Scotland to a much greater degree than the other nations of the UK on almost every measure.
Unfortunately groups of people have been unwilling and unable to contribute to the continued progress of the SNP , unable to accept ideas or views different to their own , unable to participate and influence within a successful movement.
Instead they refer to a vague YES movement with no structure, no policies, no cohesion which almost uniquely communicates negative comments about the SNP ..go figure!
If this commentariat elite cannot even influence the SNP, cannot collaborate for the common good, how are they going to persuade millions of our fellow citizens to participate in progressive change
Join the SNP, change the SNP , build a New Scotland ( NSP!)
Rousing words! Where’s the beef?
Sadly the SNP have refused to listen to anyone including their own members and still expect to monopolise the Yes vote. They do not speak up for Scotland and (for all the good things they have done) serve corporate greed. The Highlands and Islands have been betrayed by the SNP which is why the LibDems have got in. It’s not really unionism, it’s a protest vote.
The SNP just seem to have fallen into the old trap of thinking they ‘own’ Scotland. They don’t.
Like the Greens they are now bought and sold for the World Economic Forum’s totalitarian gold. Shame on them. Their arrogant complacence has come home to roost.
The Yes movement needs to regroup and relaunch, and be led by others.
“Far-right Goons”. That’s your problem. Anyone who doesn’t accept your Neo-Marxist religious-like beliefs is far-right. Crying wolf all the time merely distracts.
A friend of mine who’s sympathetic to Reform UK was told by a Russell Group right wing Student that if Reform UK don’t get a grip of mass immigration and critical social justice madness, then “they” would.
This was not some empty threat from a sad incel screaming abuse (without risk) from his bedroom on some obscure chat room, but a very able individual who with many more like him will take their place in the corridors of power then act just as socialism in the UK shows it is failing big-time. They won’t be as democratically and social-justice minded as Reform UK.
Democracy is about debating and coming to a consensus, not demonizing those who political philosophy is not as extreme-left as yours.
‘Democracy is about debating and coming to a consensus…’
That’s right. It’s not about winning elections, being in the majority, or any such else; it’s about making collective public decisions, by free and open negotiation and bargaining, in a civic forum in which all citizens have equal opportunity to participate in rational discourse without coercion or manipulation. At least, that’s what it’s about according to Jürgen Habermas, of the evil Frankfurt School of Critical Theory.
‘…not [about] demonising those whose political philosophy [is different from] yours.’
Is that why you’re never done demonising those, whose political philosophy is different from yours, as woke, self-hating, Jew-loving, neo-Marxist, graduates?
If the French left leaning parties can organise in a week to counter the threat from the right, why can’t the YES movement, civic Scotland, organise in 22 months another YES campaign and stand candidates on LIST only for all YESSERS 2nd votes from all parties? Maximise the YES vote.
Pull together with others from the trade unions for yes, artists, architects, EU groups, pension groups, women for indy, Believe in Scotland business groups etc etc. Yes people would have to be prepared to actually be elected if this took off. Ive been thinking about what happened on Thursday and our impotence to get even a whiff of a referendum. Voters would be able to vote for their political party of choice on the constituency ballot and the YES group on the List. (remember the effectiveness of a one word election slogan, change? this time YES, connects it again to independence) The joyous part of 2014 was the energy from the YES groups of all many diverse kinds, if we could recreate that spirit, I think we could be on to something at last.
Cameron Archibald refers several times to a ‘united progressive front.’ We had such a united front at Holyrood. It gave us the decision to allow self identification for trans people. This, in turn, led to Isla Bryson a convicted rapist being housed (briefly) in a women’s prison, before being transferred to a men’s prison. This incident, helped lead to the SNP’s drubbing on Thursday. (Sure, Labour was also guilty but they tip-toed away and left the SNP to carry the can; that’s politics.)
‘The SNP and Greens can heal their relationship.’ There are lots of newly elected Labour MPs eager to aid this reconciliation
‘We had such a united front at Holyrood. It gave us the decision to allow self identification for trans people.’
And that was the right decision (for reasons I’ve rehearsed elsewhere on this site), whatever the subsequent consequences.
Don’t start. I disagree as you know. This isn’t the place to reopen all that but I think that whole ‘debate’ was set up to divide and destroy us. The Unionists – and their funders – set Holyrood up to be knocked down. They wanted an excuse to veto Holyrood and Holyrood walked straight into the trap.
But from the Brexit referendum on, the SNP Scottish Government has cringed and let Westminster walk over Holyrood, let our MPs be repeatedly humiliated at Westminster, and have just done as they are told by London ( which in turn does as its told by the sane US robber barons that own plitics over there.
We need independence from the whole corrupt lot of them.
The whole transgender debate in Scotland has been a Unionist conspiracy to divide and destroy Holyrood? Get a grip, man!
Well, not the whole transgender debate of course, but a very convenient vehicle nonetheless for stoking division, dividing and ruling.
The ‘transgender agenda’ is really driven by the technocrats and transhumanists as part of their ‘4th Industrial Revolution’, weaponising people’s compassion against them with their cognitive warfare.
But those addicted to wealth and power lie through their teeth and play all sides against each other.
I stand corrected, John. The whole transgender debate is a conspiracy on the part of the World Economic Forum to divide and destroy ‘the people’?
Get a grip, man! You’re beginning to sound like our old friend, SteveH, who’d have us believe that the whole transgender debate is a conspiracy on the part of ‘graduates’ to divide and destroy our ‘white’ culture.
What I sound like to you is clearly very different from what I sound like to myself. Perhaps I do not express myself very clearly; if so I apologise.
This article seems to make an assumption that all Trades Unionists, all LGBwhatever people, all Greens, all whatever else you like all support Scottish independence. If that’s what the author is trying to say, I know for sure that it’s wrong. There has been an alignment in France because Marine Le Pen got the most votes.