SOVEREIGNTY LIES WITH SCOTTISH PEOPLE? - NOT ACCORDING TO UK GOVERNMENT OR SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT

ANSWERS ‘NOT ACCEPTABLE’ - INDEPENDENCE FIRST

INDEPENDENCE FIRST, the referendum campaign recently wrote to both the UK Government and the Scottish Parliament demanding a democratic referendum for the people of Scotland on independence.

The Scottish Parliament replied: “The Scotland Act 1998 sets out the statutory framework for the Scottish devolution settlement. Schedule 5 to the Act defines matters which are reserved to the United Kingdom Parliament.”

“The devolution settlement and constitutional matters generally are reserved matters under the Act. The Government of the United Kingdom is responsible therefore for considering any fundamental changes to the existing devolution framework in Scotland.”

Joe Middleton Press Officer of Independence First commented: “In other words, we’re passing the buck to our colleagues down south! However it does not matter what the UK Labour Government put into their devolved parliament bill, the Scottish people have an absolute right to self determination under international law.”

The Scottish Office in London replied “It is worth noting that in the UK political system the UK parliament is sovereign and it is for Parliament to decide whether or not to hold a referendum on any particular issue - and what the terms of any referendum should be.”

Mr Middleton commented ”This is simply not accurate, in England Parliament is sovereign, but in Scotland the people are sovereign. These answers are not acceptable. Obviously both the UK Government and Scottish Parliament are deliberately ignoring Scotland’s rights to democracy under international law.”

INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT UNITES FOR ‘DEMOCRACY FOR SCOTLAND’ RALLY

Photos from the march through Edinburgh and the subsequent demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament.

Campaigners who are calling for a referendum on Scottish independence have had a highly successful march and rally in Edinburgh on Saturday the 30th of September. The march and rally was for Independence First the Scottish independence referendum campaign. A spokesperson for the campaign said it was "a powerful message to the Scottish parliament that democracy will not be denied."

Around a thousand people marched behind a full pipe band from East Market Street onto Princes Street, up the mound, over George IV Bridge and down the Royal Mile to end up at a rally outside the Scottish Parliament. There was an excellent turnout of members of the public and political activists from all the various groups who support Scottish independence (including the four main pro-independence parties which have representatives in the Scottish parliament).

Independence First had distributed 10,000 leaflets for the event and had launched an e-petition through the Scottish Parliament, this e-petition is ongoing for another month.

Speakers at the after march rally included official representatives of the SNP, SSP, Greens and Solidarity parties plus Bill Wilson, Lloyd Quinan and Campbell Martin MSP as well as Scotia and Ted Christopher who provided musical entertainment.

The rally began with an outline of the situation that had led to the union by Dr Tony Parker an academic from the University of Dundee. Dr Parker pointed out that political control had been lost with the 1603 union of crowns as had trade with France. The English Government eventually effectively threatened Scotland with invasion after cutting off her trade routes and bribed the politicians of the day.

Bill Wilson of the SNP who spoke for Independence First pointed out that these politicians "fled through the back door" from an angry mob and the numerous petitions lodged by the Scottish public against the union. Wilson said the importance of Independence First was that it was broad enough to include absolutely everyone who supported independence and he also mentioned the e-petition IF are running through the Scottish Parliament (sign here).

Independence First activist Chris Osborne gave some of the history of Independence First and explained that the movement had started from initial internet discussions around a small group of activists who were deliberately drawn from different political opinions to think up ideas to promote independence. These ideas eventually solidified behind the referendum proposal as being the best route to achieve the maximum possible support for independence and the campaign had grown from there.

Tommy Sheridan MSP of Solidarity said that his vision was of a free socialist republic without nuclear weapons and he fully endorsed Independence First's call for a democratic referendum as the first step towards that aim. Carolyn Leckie of the SSP said that her commitment to Independence had been absolute ever since she was a young child and that Scottish independence was the key to unlocking a much fairer society.

Aileen Campbell of the Scottish National Party blasted the Liberal Democrats for ruling out an Independence Referendum "How can they call themselves Democrats?" she asked. "Make no mistake if we win an election we will hold our referendum and will win it for the people of Scotland" she pledged.  

Lloyd Quinan announced that the campaign had received supportive messages from other national independence groupings in the Basque Country, Catalonia and Corsica. "There is huge international support behind our cause. Our simple demand for a referendum on independence can be respected by any democrat. To a resounding cheer he said "I am Scottish not British". He added "Anything the British or Brutish Imperial State does, it doesn't do in my name or the name of the people of Scotland we need our own international voice."

Activists from all parties and groups were impressed by the organisation of the event and the substantial turnout. Douglas Blackie an SNP activist from Aberdeen commented "This was a fantastic day and a fantastic march. I'd say it was bigger than the SNP's Bannockburn marches, it's the best march I've seen for years."

Brian Archibald a Shop Steward from Midlothian commented "This was the broadest and most positive political demonstration I can remember from twenty years campaigning for independence." 

Joe Middleton Press Officer of Independence First said the march was "a powerful message to the Scottish parliament that democracy will not be denied for the people of Scotland." and he also said it proved the worth of having a campaign purely about support for a democratic referendum on independence.

"The great turnout here today proves that our campaign has genuine political weight. The next step will be to call for a million people to use their votes for independence in the first and second votes for the Scottish Parliament. One million people is not an awful lot of voters for a country our size and we believe it's well within the grasp of the independence movement if we work together."  

MSPS REJECT INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM DEBATE CALLS

MSPs today (15/11) voted down calls for Holyrood to debate holding a referendum on Scottish independence. The campaign group Independence First had put forward a petition to the Scottish Parliament on the issue.

It attracted more than 1,300 signatures in support and called on MSPs to debate what the Parliament could do to bring about an early referendum but members of Holyrood's Public Petitions Committee voted by six to three to simply note the petition and close it, taking no further action.

Sandra White, the SNP MSP for the Glasgow region, had wanted to find out ministers' views on the matter. She insisted: "I think the Scottish Parliament does have the powers to look at this, setting up a referendum. There's nothing to stop the Scottish Parliament arranging for a referendum because that would not involve a change in the law."

That was supported by former SNP member Campbell Martin. Mr Martin, now an independent MSP for the West of Scotland, said the unionist parties should not be scared of holding such a vote. He said: "If you are not scared of democracy and people power, I don't see why you shouldn't ask the people this question and why the Scottish Parliament should not play a part in doing that. Let's ask the Executive whether it can do anything to facilitate such a referendum and what its position would be."

But Jackie Baillie, the Labour MSP for Dumbarton, argued Scots had had their say on the issue at last year's general election. She said: "At the last democratic opportunity for people to voice their opinion on this, the general election, I believe the share of the vote for parties supporting independence dropped substantially."

And committee convener Michael McMahon pointed out people would also have the chance to make their feelings known at next year's Scottish Parliament elections.

He said: "We will have a debate called an election, political parties will be elected, some of them will say: 'We will have a referendum.' If the outcome of that is that those parties win, then they can take that issue up and they can debate it."

He spoke out against the idea of writing to the Executive on the matter, saying: "At the present time the Scottish Executive doesn't support independence. There's no point in us writing to the Executive for the Executive to tell us exactly what we already know."

Afterwards Joe Middleton, the media officer for Independence First commented: "A UK wide election with a biased media concentrating on London based parties is hardly an accurate representation of Scotland's feelings about independence! "

“It is a great pity that the executive has not only decided to ignore all the people who signed our e-petition, but also the two and a half million people who according to opinion polls support independence. The idea that the results of the last election gave a clear indication of the public's thoughts on constitutional change is entirely false - as we made clear in our written submission to the committee.

"People vote for political parties for a variety of different reasons. Independence is supported by individuals on the left and right of politics and some of those people support Labour, Tories and Lib Dems. The only way to get a clear idea of the Scottish public's desires on independence is to ask them directly. This executive isn't asking because it doesn't think it will like the answer.”