THE death of Alex Salmond, the one true statesman Scotland has produced in our time, leaves unaltered the fact that there are essentially only two requirements which must be fulfilled for Scotland to leave the Union, both of which are entirely within our own power.

The first of these is that the people of Scotland must be given a direct vote on independence. That means a head-count vote on the issue, with the express understanding that a positive result will have Scotland become independent.

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In the UK there are only two ways such a vote can come about. One is by an official referendum, which can only occur if organised by London, or by Edinburgh with London’s consent. Since London keeps refusing, that is not going to happen. The other way is by a general election either at Westminster or at Holyrood, in which a party (or parties) standing throughout Scotland issues the appropriate manifesto to turn the election into an independence plebiscite within Scotland. That is an exceedingly simple thing to do, and London could not interfere.

The second requirement is, of course, to win that vote. For years now, support for independence has hovered around 50%, despite valiant efforts of Yes campaigners to increase it, and SNP ineptitude tending in the other direction. That solid one-half support can therefore be taken as the starting point for a real national campaign, which will only get under way once the plebiscite is set up, as it was in the approach to the 2014 referendum.

And how does Scotland actually go independent after positively voting for it?

Well it might be, and it seems to me likely, that London would then – but only then – take the view that it could no longer resist, and would enter independence negotiations with Edinburgh. Scotland should make no outright request for that, but merely issue a standing invitation. Independence would come about as negotiated.

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Failing that, there would have to be a body with the legal, constitutional and political power to take the step of removing Scotland from the Union, by its own fiat. The only such body is the Scottish MPs, who are the country’s supreme representatives and the modern equivalent of those who gave Scotland’s independence away three centuries ago. And there’s the rub, because the SNP so mishandled the recent election as to lose almost all of its seats, and crucially its majority of them.

If the independence plebiscite was to be at a Westminster election, a positive head-count result would put an indy MP in virtually every Scottish seat, and the required body would be ready-made. If it was to be at Holyrood, the only possibility of taking the step of independence would be by drawing London into negotiation (by promising to repeat the plebiscite at the next Westminster election).

Although we in Scotland have the route to independence fully within our own power, currently there is no sign that any version of the above scenarios is going to be offered to the Scottish people. Over the last decade a considerable number of loyal workers for independence have passed away, and Alex Salmond will not be the only one to be turning in his grave. So SNP, re-think your blundering position and do the right thing, or be damned.

Alan Crocket
Motherwell

STARMER saying he wouldn’t rejoin the EU in his lifetime just makes his demise attractive.

Anyway, who cares if the UK rejoins ever? What matters is us kicking Starmer and his English oppressors into touch and Scotland joining the EU.

We just have to make Starmer completely irrelevant to our lives.

Jim Taylor
via thenational.scot