“TIME FOR LEADERSHIP, ACTION AND UNITY” – MACASKILL – 30 December 2021

  

ALBA Depute Leader Kenny MacAskill MP has called for an Independence Convention to break the logjam between the Westminster and Holyrood Governments over Scotland’s right to choose her constitutional future in an Independence Referendum.  In a statement Kenny MacAskill MP for East Lothian said:

“The right of Scotland’s people to determine their constitutional future is theirs and theirs alone. 2022 must be the year when we as a nation begin to proclaim that political reality.

“Boris Johnson’s Government uses the doctrine of unlimited parliamentary sovereignty to deny our people the right to choose our own constitutional future in an Independence Referendum.  Meanwhile Nicola Sturgeon’s Government squanders a renewed mandate in 2021 for  that referendum, citing the need for full recovery from Covid, before she will introduce the Referendum Bill for which she has a majority and fails to assert the right to hold the referendum for which she has a clear and unambiguous mandate.

“Faced with such an impasse and the clamant need for political leadership what is to be done if we are to break the constitutional log-jam?

“First, we need leadership.  2022 must be the year when the Scottish Government and Holyrood seize the political initiative and stop handing a veto to Boris Johnston.  That means no more delay and no more prevarication.

“Second, we need action and a seriousness of intent. There must be a clear and unambiguous statement from the Scottish Government that the Scottish people and the Scottish people alone have the right to determine their future.  Furthermore, that no legal judgement or act of the Westminster parliament can override the sovereign will of the Scottish people to determine our own constitutional future.  The unlimited sovereignty of parliament is a uniquely English principle which has no counterpart in Scots law.  It is high time that our Government and our Parliament asserted that sovereign will.

“The Scottish Government must signal that they are serious about taking Scotland forward to Independence.  No more pressing the ‘restart button’ or beginning the campaign ‘in earnest’ every time there is an SNP conference.

“Third, we need unity. The way to break the constitutional log-jam is to convene a Scottish Independence Convention to which all of Scotland’s elected representatives would be invited – MSPs, MPs and Councillors to determine the way forward, decide the strategy and unite behind it.

“The three ingredients for success are leadership, action and unity.  An Independence Convention allows us to achieve all three and it is why following next year’s Local Government Elections ALBA will push for that Convention to be established without delay.”