Finally! We’ve got a referendum coming. Indyref 2.
When the first minister was on the telly, outlining her plans for the referendum next October or so, I was up oot the seat at work whooping and hollering.
This is a huge moment in history, and we’re the lucky ones who get to be a part of it.
Win or lose, Yes or No, we will all live through an epoch-defining moment in our nation’s history.
No. More than that. We’ll DEFINE our nation’s history, with our own hand, with our own ballot.
You, my sweet and indulgent reader, will be as significant a player on the world stage as one of Napoleon’s soldiers, or one of the early settlers in Iceland.
Or maybe a member of a sports team in our biggest ever final.
People will remember what we choose to do now.
Relief for many with an eye on Europe
I’m part of the indy movement, such as it is.
And let me tell you, this referendum hasnae come a minute too soon.
Things were getting tense in camp Yes.
🏴 Evidence from 2021 Scottish Election Study shows that the majority of people in Scotland – 61% – think @scotgov has the mandate to deliver an independence referendum.
🗳️ The mandate is clear, and Scotland will have the choice. Let's do this together: https://t.co/bkLETLnJTB pic.twitter.com/aTYDkD77a2
— Yes (@YesScot) June 16, 2022
I was in Frews at the five ways roundabout after a United game.
An Arab pal is an SNP MP. Stephen’s his name. I met him for a pint. I also met Paul, my slightly surly but extremely sound Jambo pal who was up for the game.
He is ganting for independence and thinks the SNP are dragging their feet on it, getting a wee bit too comfy in the seat of power.
The pair clashed. Fingers were pointed.
“Where’s oor referendum?!,” Was the demand.
“Patience, it’s coming.”
“Aye, right!”
Tense times for your brave correspondent sandwiched in between them trying to calm the whole thing down.
The pair of them did cool off and we actually ended up happily steaming in a beer garden chatting about other stuff.
But for me, for Paul, for Stephen and for most folk who’ve been keeping a beady eye on indy developments, this announcement is a big relief.
Finally we can focus our energy on getting Scotland its place at the European table.
No time to stay silent
I appreciate, however, that for many folk in Scotland, another year-long constitutional debate sounds hellish.
The political loudhailers will be out and in constant use.
Semi-professional rabble-rousers like me will never, ever be shutting their pus about it all the way until October 2023.
A fresh independence referendum next year!
This means a year of lively, positive discussion amongst everyone that lives here about what Scotland could & should look like
For me, Scotland independent and European is a bright future 🏴🇪🇺❤️ pic.twitter.com/xSInKqcp8X
— Alistair Heather (@Historic_Ally) June 14, 2022
What I’m most keen for, this time round, is for as many people as possible to find their voice.
I want to hear you, whatever your life experience, whatever your opinion.
I want to hear you articulate what an independent Scotland should look like.
Or, if you prefer, what a positive change for Scotland within the UK would be.
English voices count in this Scottish independence debate
The fact of articulating your vision for a new country is an empowering act.
And of all the voices I’m desperate to hear, the ones I’ll be listening out for most in this Scottish independence referendum will be those of the English.
There’s something like 400,000 English folk in Scotland.
About 10% of the adult population were born there. That’s without counting the thousands more who have English lineage.
They will be, for me, a litmus test. I want this debate to be inclusive, intersectional, respectful.
If these 400,000 English Scots embrace this referendum as their own, accept that it’s for their future and that they have every bit as legitimate a say in it as anyone else, I’ll feel we’ve been successful in our democratic project.
We did make some English folk here genuinely feel a bit unwelcome in 2013/14 as we shouted and protested and marched our way to that famous 45/55 split at the polls.
Doing that again would be a failure of grassroots people politics.
Thinking about it, one of Sturgeon's most incomprehensible claims was that the Indyref2 argument will be a peaceful and wholesome debate.
It'll tear our country apart; 2014 was gruesome, and any new version would be worse. Dividing families, communities, and towns.
— Stephen Kerr MSP (@RealStephenKerr) June 15, 2022
The question at the heart of this referendum is this: do you, as someone resident in Scotland, want to have democratic power over the government of the land?
It’s not about where you’re from.
Ethnic Scots get the same vote as newly arrived French and African Scots.
English voices matter as much as Scottish ones, when they come from residents.
Anti-Westminster and anti-English are two different things
I was reminded of this in an Arbroath cafe while I was leafing through a newspaper, sipping a coffee, and quietly buzzing to myself about the thrill of another referendum.
A woman passing my table asked “anything interesting in there?” in a lovely Manchester accent.
I cheerily identified the big news of the day and her face fell: she really didnae want another one.
She sat with me for a bit and we chatted.
It turns out that several people had said things like “we’ll get rid o these f***ing English” to her during the last Scottish independence referendum, meaning “get rid of Westminster”.
And then they were surprised that she was upset.
She was a working class woman who has been here 20 years. This is her referendum too.
As the Makar Kathleen Jamie wrote: “‘Come all ye’, the country says. ‘You win me who take me most to heart’.”
This vote is a chance for all Scots – ethnic or new, English or Angolan – to stake a claim to the future of the place, and to take Scotland to their hearts.
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