THE IDEA BEHIND THE WORD: From The Province Of The Cat by George Gunn

Management is not leadership. Governance is not inspiration. Administering a fixed budget determined by another government is the facilitation of colonialism. To accept the rules of the ruling elite is to be ever imprisoned by them. This state of affairs cannot go on. It has no future. 

With a majority of MSP’s supporting independence, the SNP having 58 seats and the Greens having 15 seats, the Holyrood Parliament now has an opportunity to change the rules of established political practise. Yet the first act of the MSP’s was to swear an oath of allegiance to the King and his successors. The oath states,

I (Member’s Name), do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Charles, His Heirs and Successors, according to Law. So help me God.

And the affirmation goes on:

I (Member’s Name), do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Charles, His Heirs and Successors, according to Law.

So, instead of swearing allegiance to the people of Scotland our elected members put King, God and the Law first. For many of them this is simply a lie. Beginning your political career with a lie is not a good start. Whether they swear allegiance to the oath in English, Gaelic, Scots or Urdu, the knee is till bent, the cap doffed, the Crown is accepted as sovereign, the Scottish people betrayed, the union solidified, the Claim of Right ignored and the future shaped out to resemble the past.

A month on from the election and the Ukanian state has deftly arranged the appearance of Peter Murrell to plead guilty in an Edinburgh court to upstage the much heralded vote on a second referendum, as announced by John Swinney. Before the vote he said,

“Today, I seek confirmation from this parliament that this is a voluntary union and that the people of Scotland have the right to decide whether we remain in that union, That is a principle that should be accepted by all those in this chamber who believe in independence but also all those who believe in the union. Because what is at stake are the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland.”

But what the Murrell court appearance allowed was the opportunity for His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition and the drunken skinheads of Reform UK to cause chaos and irrelevance in the chamber. The proposition was backed by 72 votes to 55 against. But who would know as its significance was lost amid the wrecking tabloid concerns of unionist politicians who do not give a damn for the right of the people of Scotland to choose their future, or who even have a scintilla of respect for the institution of the Scottish Parliament itself. They are there to do damage, to ridicule and undermine the very democracy which facilitated their mainly list seats.

The contempt is staggering but not surprising. The BBC and the rag bag of other media can hardly contain their joy, just as they could barely contain their anger at the return of the SNP for the fifth election in a row and along with the Greens providing a majority for independence. Already the process of digging up dirt on the brand new SNP and Green MSP’s has begun, just as it is well underway on Zack Polanski in England. All this means is that we are in danger of losing our democracy, and soon. 

With a turnout of 53% the writing is on the wall. In 2021 it was 65.5%. This time around 47% of those eligible to vote did not turn out. The unceasing attacks by the media on all things Scottish and the campaign to render Scotland as being just the same as England has done its work. All politicians are the same, the trope goes. Scotland is bad at everything. This is the meat that has fed Reform UK. Despite the oath of allegiance to the King there are SNP and Green politicians who passionately believe in independence and the environment, who will work tirelessly to improve the quality of life for all the people of Scotland. On the other side of the house are the naysayers: just how many of the Reform UK MSP’s actually believe in anything? 

What many of the critics of the SNP and the Yes movement in general say is that independence is just a word. But a word is never lacking when you have an idea behind it and there must be a better idea than going to the Ukanian government asking, yet again, for a Section 30 order to be told, yet again, “No!”. This procedural dog dance, in a climate where democracy and the politics that is supposed to sustain it, is reduced to a conversation between political power and market power, with the majority of people (voters) reduced to the role of spectators. This is the world where the poor and middle class pay taxes, where the rich pay accountants, where the very rich pay lawyers and the ultra-rich pay politicians. The more money billionaires accumulate, the greater their control of the political system, which means they pay less tax, which means they accumulate more, which means their control intensifies. They reshape the world to suit their demands. 

This is the world of Ukania and it is from this inequality and injustice we seek independence for Scotland. The idea is to build an equitable and just society and when we have done so to ensure that many of the people, some of the best and most active people, can feel that they have a place in the country they have helped to bring about. A new Scotland cannot reproduce the greed and corruption of Ukania. In this the Peter Murrell affair is a grave and timely warning. It is sobering to remember that all power is unstable, because those who wield it can have it taken away and to believe, even in independence, without understanding leads to fascism – and Reform UK. 

In many countries – and within our own UK state – we see oppression exercised in the name of management as normal 21st century politics. This is not Scotland’s future. It cannot be. We have to break up the machine of oppression because there are those who have the machine at their disposal and there are those who are at the disposal of the machine. A new politics requires active physical participation, not passive smart phone observation. We cannot simply vote our democratic rights away at every election. We have to keep them local and make them work to build a decent society where the wealth of the nation is shared out equitably to all her citizens. That is the idea behind the word independence. If we achieve that then England will learn that she cannot do what she likes with Scotland.

It is also wise to remember that the tasks of changing and interpreting the world are not the same. The days of superstition and mediocrity have to be behind us, as should be the current system where the rich rule and the poor serve. Those self-interested advocates of the rich who constantly preach the gospel of growth have the bizarre defence that, on a finite planet, all the current system of capital has to do to function is to use up more resources, so that it can function on a larger scale. This is the philosophy of desert makers. A dispassionate observer of contemporary Ukania might say that because it is not functioning it is not growing its economy. This is due, the observer would be likely to deduce, to the incompetence and mediocrity – and class suspicions – of the politicians who are drawn from a very narrow social, economic and class pool – and from the deregulated corruption rife in every aspect and area of the Ukanian economy. Even whispering that this needs to change is branded as heresy. 

Of course this is project fear – a fear of any change that threatens gain. Fear is the oppression of the people. Gain is the corruption of the people. In Ukania ll the people are asked to do is obey. To be submissive. To let our thoughts be forced to pass from one instant to the next without being able to lay hold of the meaning of the past or the significance of the future. That is what it means to obey. What Reform UK do is that they draw their strength from the lowest part of our humanity and the media promote it as protest. It is not. It is conformity. It is death. 

In Scotland we have a tradition, however loose and undefined, of freedom. A tradition is never more vital than when it is facing extinction. Going to Westminster to ask for our independence is following the path to the place where our limited freedom will experience extinction. The danger here is that the very articulation of the collapse of our civilised debate – even of our civilisation – ends up becoming the master narrative of those who are opposed to debate – who are hostile even to civilisation. 

The idea behind the word independence is that it is no good having state control if there is no economic control, if all independence means is a change in authority. The recent £18 monthly hike to the average monthly household power bill is a case in point. How can John Swinney effectively tackle the cost of living crisis when the price of energy is out of his control? Democracy has to extend to the whole of the Scottish economy. Unless this happens real political power will remain where it has always been: in the hands of a wealthy unelected cabal. These are the rich who start wars and expect the poor to pay for them. Democratic responsibility without economic authority leads to political atrophy. This atrophy suits the rich. They are the ones who hold the power over every-day economic life, not John Swinney. 

The idea behind the word independence is that we must use our democracy, fragile as it is, to challenge corporate power, to dismantle it and share the proceeds with the people. What other future is there for Scotland? We need to stop having things done to us rather than by us. With the prospect of Nigel Farage as Prime Minister in Westminster and Donald Trump’s gang suspending democracy in Washington is Scotland going to act like Hamlet – thought without action – or are we to be like Othello – action without thought? “There has never been a period like the present”, is what gormless politicians say when they are trying to excuse their foolishness. We cannot afford their foolishness. We have the word independence – so let us explore fully the idea behind it. Before the word is banned.

©George Gunn 2026

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