How are Westminster parties denying Scottish democracy?
For decades Westminster party politicians said that all Scotland had to do was vote for an independence party to move on the process towards independence.
In the 2011 Holyrood election – when a majority of MSPs were elected on a manifesto pledge of holding a referendum – they kept to that promise and we had a referendum in 2014.
In the run up to that referendum the Scottish and Westminster party leaders promised that a ‘No’ vote meant that “Power lies with the Scottish people and we believe it is for the Scottish people to decide how we are governed.”
Following the referendum all parties in the Scottish Parliament – the SNP, Labour, Tories, Lib Dems and Greens – signed up to the Smith Commission report which “agreed that nothing in this report prevents Scotland becoming an independent country in the future should the people of Scotland so choose”.
In the 2016 Holyrood election the people of Scotland were faced with that choice and elected more MSPs, on more votes than 2011, who were pledged to support an independence referendum.
Since then those same Westminster parties, who supported a referendum in 2011 and promised that it was a decision for the people of Scotland, have broken that long-held promise and denied an independence referendum.
The only party strong enough to ensure the democratic right of the Scottish people to move to independence is the SNP.