THE CASE FOR A NATIONAL CONVENTION

Why should we be using the words “independent and “independence?. These words misrepresent Scotland’s true constitutional situation and in doing so, create a movement attacking the very thing that the UK establishment want us to attack, namely, the Diceyan construct of the single sovereign “British” state as opposed to the unitary state consisting of its component parts which makes up the UK. They want us to concentrate our efforts in this direction because it is where their strength lies. Nothing can be done without the involvement of the UK state and to do otherwise is “illegal”. The Treaty, however, says something different. It is an international treaty agreement signed by two sovereign states. It is an accepted protocol in all international treaties that each signatory has the right to withdraw as it sees fit.

Scotland is and always has been an independent nation. The choice is whether or not to withdraw from the Union and that is a decision which can be made only in Scotland. Given that they are embedded in the UK and subject to the effective redrafting of the Treaty in the Diceyan model, our politicians find themselves trapped in a constitutional quagmire, partly of their own making. The people of Scotland have to make a complex series of decisions about what sort of country they wish to live in and no single political party can do more than offer their own manifesto to cover all the options as their leadership see them. That is never going to be to everyone’s liking but no alternatives are to be offered and no real chance to discuss and vote on the decisions which need to be taken when we are faced with bringing a new state into being.

Faced with proposals which do not intend to involve the people in decision making, the general movement makes the same mistakes as the politicians, worse, they have no road map to achieve their goal than dependency on the party political system which, so far, has shown no enthusiasm for using the tools they have at their disposal.

In short, self-determination is in short supply.

And so we are calling for a national convention. Its purpose is to examine and vote upon a wide range of issues from the Treaty to the constitution, the design of our parliamentary institutions, international trading relationships, national institutions and, no doubt many other things, all determined by the convention itself. This will take perhaps two years but we have to design a new state and we must take great care if we are to get the best results and it is essential that we have the involvement of the people of Scotland.

The make-up of the convention itself is, broadly speaking, three parts. The political representatives, the most important of whom are the fifty-seven Scottish MPs in Westminster who represent the legacy of Scotland’s parliament before the union, civic society – a range of organisations, NGOs, Scottish charities, professional bodies and labour representatives among others. And, finally, we have representatives of the people themselves. This last group is essential if the convention is to carry authority and to convey the approval of the whole of Scottish society in the creation of our new state.

Two last points. We expect that, initially at any rate, many of our elected politicians will be reluctant to join the convention. The expression of the will of the people will change this and, in reality, we are doing our politicians a favour by taking the pressure of feeling forced to comply with the institution of the UK state away from them. And, for those who would like to see a declaration of “independence”, while we do not wish to dictate the agenda of the convention, nevertheless the first resolution is that “the current Treaty of Union is not fit for purpose and we must negotiate a new treaty”. If you think about it, that is exactly a declaration of independence made through the machinery of self-determination.

 Please think about this carefully. Our voting platform leaves you, the people free to decide without any reference to Westminster. A national convention gives you, the people both the ability to make these decisions and the information necessary for you to make these decisions. No other so-called route to independence does this.

Time is running out. The pernicious divided culture of the extreme right in politics is spreading to Scotland and we need to act now.https://register.scotlanddecides.org/en/welcome

Please sign up and share widely - as far as possible. Our representatives will be most happy to visit your group or organisation to present the case and answer any questions. You can message on this site or directly to dyounger@rocketmail.com.

Thank you