I HAVE not left the SNP, the SNP have left me. However, the current First Minister Humza Yousaf’s bizarre and erroneous understanding is that I left the SNP.
TONY Blair, at the outset of the Scottish Parliament, famously described its powers as equal to that of a “Parish Council”. Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court confirmed that the 1998 Scotland Act indeed bequeathed parish council powers on Scotland’s future to the Scottish Parliament – except for the massive opportunities Scottish elections afford to ask the people about independence.
TWO events are colliding in Scottish politics – the Supreme Court case on whether the Scottish Parliament has the power to legislate on an independence referendum and almost daily calls for a Westminster election. Don’t shoot the messenger, but neither vote is likely to happen.
At the moment, in most of our islands, we are at the “twin tub” stage of transportation
IN response to Charlie Kerr (in your letters columns) and to avoid any misunderstandings, my flagging up of the possibility of the 2026 election being used as a direct independence vote is not “punting it into the future” but to put a time limit on the uses of the ballot box for independence, if a referendum is blocked or denied in the years until then (Why next election should be a backstop indy vote, July 17).
WHERE to now for Scotland and independence? The dust has settled after the election and that dust is looking quite undisturbed. We now surely need a “backstop” ballot box plan, to determine the democratic view of the people if a referendum, which no-one can still guarantee, does not happen by 2026.
THE UK Government’s Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack, is no fool. Personally, I find him likeable. As Joe Biden said: “We can disagree without being disagreeable.”
IT is darkest before the dawn. However, Plan B (to use the ballot box at an election for independence, if and when a referendum is blocked) can transform the 2021 Scottish election. Continued sly intransigence from Westminster is actually a huge help, meaning May of 2021 can be a bright time for the ballot boxes for independence.
A tribute by Barra's MP, Angus MacNeil
