IndyRef2

Yesterday I joked with my publisher that he should be grateful to  Nicola Sturgeon for doing his marketing for him.

He got the joke as Native Shore is set in the period running up to Indyref2.

Yesterday was a very clever move by the First Minister.

In referring the matter to the UK Supreme Court in the first instance, it deals with the legality issue head-on.

This missive to Prime Minister Johnson is also very cleverly crafted.

If there is indeed no legal route for Scotland to leave the United Kingdom, then that re-frames the polity’s character.

On this island, it is clear who Scotland’s friends are.

In the world I created in Native Shore there is already a Sinn Féin government in Dublin.

My fictional characters sound very much like Declan Karney on the subject of Scottish sovereignty.

Although, I’m sure that the Ulsturr Scatch will be delighted about this historic development in their ancestral homeland.

Putting a Yes Scotland flag on one of their bonfires in 2014 was probably just a bit of a misunderstanding.

The British state was set up to implement an imperialist project.

It worked better than all the other European competitors in the 18th century, the French, Dutch and Spanish.

The British Empire, of which the Scots were in at the ground level and provided the managerial class, ultimately created the first genuinely transglobal imperium.

The Scots, already in the empire business, realised that the logical step was to move from Regal Union (Est 1603) to full political integration, which they did in 1707.

So, Scotland was never a colony, and any attempts to frame this current situation within the paradigm of anti-colonialism is both historically illiterate and offence to those countries that had to endure the kilted invaders of the British Army.

For example, colonies do not get to keep their own legal system.

In 2014 the SNP asked the Scottish people if they wanted to revert to the Regal Union with the Saxe-Coburg family still providing the head of state.

There is no indication that the SNP have an issue with this arrangement being maintained in an independent Scotland.

Consequently, this type of grovelling can continue when Holyrood is a national parliament and not just a regional assembly.

Ms Sturgeon’s argument for the democratic will of the Scottish people IS unassailable.

It now remains to be seen if the legal architecture of the United Kingdom allows for that to be expressed.

If not, then the next UK General Election will have to be on an abstentionist basis.

That is, elect an SNP MP on the promise that they will not attend Westminster.

This will, in an entirely peaceful way, withdraw legitimacy from the British state to rule any part of Scotland.

Therefore, at least this embarrassing performance art will only be performed by the Scots in Edinburgh and not Westminister.

Small steps and all that.

This state’s journey from Crown Dominion to sovereign Republic capable of facing down the British state over Brexit didn’t happen overnight.

First Minister Sturgeon made her announcement on the centenary of the Irish Civil War starting with the shelling of the Four Courts in Dublin.

Thankfully the Scots, as they were never a colony, do not have to endure what happened here.

Just as in 2014 all they have to do is to vote to determine their future.

The date for IndyRef2 is also laden with history.

19^th October was the date in 1781 when General Cornwallis surrendered Yorktown.

It was the last major conflict that the British fought without an ally.

The chap who surrendered to those colonial upstarts is well known here for his role in suppressing the 1798  rebellion.

Bliain na bhFrancach ended when Cornwallis slaughtered the “mere Irish” at the battle of Ballinamuck in County Longford.

Professor Tom Devine observed in this book that he published in the run-up to IndyRef 2014 that from 1750 until the 1970s “there was no Scottish question”.

There is now though.

So, this is what history feels like.

Anyone who thinks that the chaps in London and their functionaries in Scotland will play fair hasn’t been paying attention.

At the very least expect some honest mistakes.

For the avoidance of doubt, my publisher agrees with me.

Interesting times…