How to Annul The Union

We are Sovereign and we can End the Union

The SNP’s independence strategy since 2014 has been to exhort Indy supporters to ‘keep convincing the undecided’ and to promise indyref2 at some point in the future while expecting support for independence to increase simply by letting ‘the Tories’ continue to bash Scotland.

It has proved a poor strategy. The polls haven’t moved since 2014, the once mighty Yes movement is weak and leaderless, huge open Indy goals have been missed and Manifesto commitments have been ignored. The commitment to re-run the 2014 referendum in 2023 but only if a) the Pandemic is over and, b) Westminster allows us (through a Section 30 order) has hardly set the heather on fire.

The window to take our independence is closing. Who would bet against the overwhelming power and vast financial resources of a corrupt Westminster tying Scotland into a new Spanish-style constitution that prevents us ever being independent?

We need to force the issue. We need to take back our independence. We need to get our government to act. Not by re-running the 2014 referendum – a referendum that, if it’s ever graciously granted by Westminster, will be under UK control, not Scotland’s.

We need to demand our freedom. Why should a modern, educated, wealthy Scotland be shackled to and controlled by another country? How did that happen anyway?

How Scotland Was Forced Into Union With England

It’s the answer to that question that is both the source of our pain and our escape route from it: the 1707 Union of Scotland and England.

It is the Union that holds Scotland tight in Westminster’s control. It is the Union that strips us of our wealth. It is the Union that dumps a nuclear submarine base 40 miles from Glasgow. It is the Union that is to blame. We should rage against the Union.

It is the Union that needs to be the focus of our anger. We need to be angry about the Union and how it came to be. We need to rage against the injustices that are the direct result of the Union. And we need to understand how it can be ended.

It is a Union that was forced upon Scotland by a threatening enemy and voted through Parliament by a bunch of hard up aristocrats who’d lost their shirts on Darien and who were only too happy to take the enemy’s gold. An enemy with whom we shared a king but who’d actively sabotaged the Darien project. It was an enemy still keen to accomplish what Edward Longshanks couldn’t, and who didn’t hesitate to sharpen their negotiations by cutting off Scotland’s trade.

In short, Scotland was forced into Union with England, a Union that was greased with bribes and that ignored the rage of the people when they found out.

We need to channel the rage of our 18th century ancestors into today’s Indy campaigns. Scots need to understand that it is the Union that is the only barrier to our freedom, that it is the Union that is to blame.

Once we understand that, then the answer is obvious – Kill the Union. And to do that, we need to re-examine the Treaty of Union itself and the position of the Claim of Right within the Treaty.

The Claim of Right: How To End The Union

The 1689 Claim of Right set out in statute an ancient right of the Scots people to limit the power of their government and is sometimes referred to as the Scottish Constitution.

Just because it was passed in 1689 doesn’t mean that it’s some crusty old legislation that has no relevance today and can safely be ignored – although that’s exactly what the Westminster government would like you to do. After all, it does all the time.

But the Claim of Right is a fundamental and crucial condition of the Treaty of Union itself. And it provides a route out of the Union.

Bluntly put, and unlike in England, it affirms the power of the people. In Scotland, Parliament does not reign sovereign; the people do. Should the people wish to challenge the governing power of the UK and forfeit its right to govern, we have both the right and the constitutional mechanism to declare it. The mechanism is the Convention of the Estates – the assemblies of the communities.

We need a revitalised Yes movement to become an End The Union movement – an assembly of the communities – that takes back our independence. Instead of our independence beginning with a question that is set only with the Union’s permission in a process under its control, taking back our independence is under our control. We will decide our future, free from outside interference.

We have a modern Claim of Right and the means by which to enforce it. We can use it to End the Union.

A non-partisan think tank of progressive thinkers who have come together to progress debate on Scotland’s constitutional future.