THE hashtag I have used on online platforms for many months to describe when best I think our independence referendum should take place this year is #indyrefJune21.
Let me thank the many who supported me, a French national and a New Scot, daring to set the date for Scotland’s future. You won’t be surprised to read the reaction of others asking for clarification.
The first thing that we must all clarify when talking on how soon the vote should take place is to remind people that the second half of 2020 was what we agreed on both within the SNP and in the wider Yes movement.
The second clarification is the most important one and justifies why the referendum did not take place last year, it is of course Covid-permitting. There is again agreement across our movement and beyond that setting a date for an independence referendum during a pandemic would be ill-advised.
The last one is about EU nationals and why June is so important for the hundreds of thousands of EU nationals, like me, living in Scotland today. The deadline for applying to the settled status scheme is the end of June this year.
The3million organisation set up to help EU nationals across the UK is warning that many of us would have not applied by the end of June, for many reasons including living under strict regulations and reduced incomes in the middle of a pandemic.
For the ones who disagree that a referendum on independence should take place much later, I would ask them to join me and the3million to demand that the UK Government postpones the arbitrary deadline for us to apply to remain in our own homes.
I would also urge everyone to ask our friends, colleagues and neighbours from the EU to go and apply now for settled status. It is a wicked Tory policy part of the inhuman, xenophobic and despicable implementation of the hostile environment towards migrants in the Brexit Britain we live in.
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Local volunteers at Citizens Advice Scotland are ready and are giving all the immigration advice needed. This June deadline applies also for nationals from the European Economic Area and from Switzerland, for them and for their families living here in Scotland.
With the constant attack on our values and on our democracy, we have all heard the positive messages from south of the Border regarding Scotland finding a path out of this Brexit boorach. Many wish to have a competent government as we have, they wish to have a leader like our amazing First Minister and a route back to Europe.
Some have already relocated to Scotland, many are EU nationals wanting to join the SNP and the wider Yes movement. I can understand this and share their frustration that this pandemic is making it very difficult for them to move up before the June deadline.
The new franchise for our Scottish elections is also well understood and another reason for folk to move up. When I first wrote a topical resolution at an SNP conference to give all the people who live here the right to vote, I would have never thought the law would be granted so quickly.
Let us shout out from the rooftops that if you are a foreign citizen aged 16 or older living in Scotland, the law has changed. You can now register to vote and take part in Scottish elections. Tell people you know who came to make Scotland their home that they are helping us to make Scotland what it is today, a modern and outward-looking nation.
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Democracy must be for all who live here. As the late Bashir Ahmed, the Scottish Parliament’s first Muslim MSP who migrated from Pakistan, famously said: “It’s not where we came from that’s important, it’s where we’re going together.”
For any new Scot hesitating, tell them that they are invited to participate in our Scottish elections, it would be impolite to decline the invitation coming straight from Scotland’s Parliament.
The next Scottish elections will take place in May, Covid-permitting. Let’s spread the world and ask people to register and to register to vote by post, whoever they wish to vote for. In the months coming, I will of course ask people to vote SNP in May and to cast both votes SNP to secure the same majority that we did in 2011 followed by a referendum on independence.
This is how we will replicate the same feast of democracy that we achieved in 2014. The world is watching and they are expecting us to win independence. June makes sense and I have explained why, please write back and tell us your reason why you would want our independence to be held on another month this year.
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