A road map to unionism ?

OK so tomorrow the Scottish government /SNP will lay out their policy on Britex . Strange thing is that I thought they had done that some time ago when they said that a situation where Scotland voted to remain in the EU but were dragged out by a vote elsewhere in the UK would lead to a situation where we could go for independence.

This “policy” has been watered down as we have progressed through the farce that is the UK governments position (or non-position) on Britex. We have come from the initial position which should have been taken advantage of the day following the EU referendum to “Scotland should be a member of the free trade area” to “Scotland should be a member of the EU economic area”. Neither of these options are what the Scottish people voted for at the EU referendum we voted for full membership with the option of another independence referendum if we were dragged out against our will. It is as simple as that.

During, and around the time of the SNP conference I became concerned at the content of speeches from Nicola Sturgeon , Angus Robertson and John Swinney. The cause of my concern was that it could have been construed from the speeches of Nicola and Angus that the main concern of the SNP was to ,in some way assist the UK to come out of the Britex negotiations with Scotland remaining a firm member of the UK. In fact, during an interview Angus Robertson agreed that if Scotland could be kept a member of the Free trade area, or even the EU economic area then there would be no need for another independence referendum. John Swinny made a statement around the same time stating that in the event of another independence referendum we could be in exactly the situation we were in during the last one with a policy of a joint currency with England. This to me showed either that he was on a different planet from the rest of us, or because there was such a remote chance of another referendum that it really did not matter what he said as it would have no effect anyway.

So, all of this gave me cause for concern that the SNP had strayed from their remit according to the second chapter in their own constitution, which clearly makes them the party of independence.

We are more than two years from the last independence referendum and the SNP have made not a single effort to address the issues we lost the last one on.

They have not clarified the situation on pensions.

They have not clarified the situation on the monetary situation in an independent Scotland, in fact as mentioned above , John Swinny has muddied the waters regarding this.

They have missed two golden opportunities with both the Westminster elections and the recent Scottish elections to insert into either manifesto the intention to wrest control from Westminster of the ability for Scotland to call and organise any future independence referendum.

Now,because of the Brexit situation and the new “I am not voting to come out of one union just to be held in another union” attitude they have not implemented an initiative of education as to the benefits of the EU.

Probably the most important omission they have been guilty of is their failure to foster the support of the wonderful grass roots organisations that sprung up during the referendum , in a road map  to independence campaign which could have been highlighting the failures of the UK to abide by the promises made during the independence campaign and things like the silly “vow”.

So it is with that back drop that I lay out my reservations regarding the possible content of tomorrows statement of the way forward for Scotland in connection with Britex .

I have long campaigned for a proper road map to independence.

I hope I am wrong but I have a feeling that tomorrows statement from the SNP will produce a road map to unionism.

This is not our road