When Playing With Fire, Don’t Be Standing In Oil

Nobody can beat the Scots but ourselves. Independence has never been the majority opinion of Scotland before. In the last year it has undeniably been demonstrated in poll after poll. Yet some advocates of independence are now the most vocal and intent on tearing it all down.

Yes, they whole Alex Salmond affair was handled wrong and there is a Gordian knot of egos, lies, incompetence and more than a touch of imperfection that has been the chink in the armour that allowed the arrow to penetrate and wound.

That a side we need to take a breath and look seriously at the ground on which we stand because this probably is our last. Lose this and our nations soul could be lost and the only winners will be those who seek to surrender our nations last vestiges of its identity and viability.

If the SNP are not returned in majority in May, while they may be the biggest party unionists will block together to outvote them on anything that can progress Scotland as a nation. However, the even bigger threat will come from a weakened Scottish parliament, is that the EU and other nations will see that Scotland’s desire for independence has passed its peak. They will walk away, decades of goodwill will have been squandered!

Westminster will full on attack our institutions such as the SNHS and a low turnout SNP vote will see the Scottish Tories seats increase. We are not only playing with fire, we are covered in oil too!

I have many, many concerns about some in the SNP, their policies and cliques but I don’t have any misgivings about my country. You can think Nicola won’t bring independence in 2-3 years or 5. Lose Holyrood and you won’t see it in 10 or 20 because deconstruction and attempt to rebuild a movement. One that meets the myriad of ideals that so many have about their perfect wee Scotland will never get off the drawing board.

This is our last fight, we need pragmatism and guile. Pragmatism will help us compromise our ideal Scotland for a Scotland that everyone can live and prosper in. After independence even unionists will demand how iScotland is shaped.

Winning control of a devolved Holyrood is a Skirmish on the way to the last battle of this protracted war. If we throw the skirmish, we throw not just the forthcoming battle but the entire war and spoils that are too great to lose!

If you don’t like the leadership, move to change it, if you don’t like the policies move to change them. You don’t change a party by leaving it, you change it by becoming more active and vocal. A politician works from a power base, let them clearly see where that power base lies. By not being in a party you are not on their radar.

Independence will be the great reset button for Scotland, new parties, new parliament and new ideas. Whatever they are called, whatever side of the political spectrum the fall they will all have to be professional politicians capable of operating on the international stage, not just on Scottish social media. They will have to be capable of worldwide media scrutiny and be articulate and again pragmatic! We won’t change the world but we can influence it!

However, to get there we need to stop beating ourselves. Nothing and nobody is going to be perfect or just. This isn’t a one off piece of art we are creating it’s a country, an evolutionary entity that will change through the will and ideas of its people. If we are wholly subsumed into the U.K. nobody from Trans activist to Radical socialists will get a fraction of what they want. It will be utter scorched earth to make anything other than dependence a reality. The U.K. can do this because the web of wealth won’t affect their bottom line, they will just make sure less wealth stays in Scotland.