Scottish independence: Why you shouldn't buy into Boris Johnson, Gordon Brown and Alister Jack's opposition to second referendum – Christine Grahame MSP

In the past few weeks, with support for independence running in the upper 50s, it has flushed out the nature of opposition to the Scottish people even having the right to a referendum in the event of an overall majority for the SNP in 2021.
In 2002, in the Telegraph newspaper, Boris Johnson wrote that "it is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies". (Picture: PA)In 2002, in the Telegraph newspaper, Boris Johnson wrote that "it is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies". (Picture: PA)
In 2002, in the Telegraph newspaper, Boris Johnson wrote that "it is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies". (Picture: PA)

There is an interesting but predictable cast: Boris Johnson, Gordon Brown and Alister (who?) Jack.

Consider for starters the right of a people to self-determination under the UN Charter of Human Rights, and I paraphrase: when the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government, expressed in periodic and genuine elections held by universal and equal suffrage and to be held by secret vote or by equivalent free-voting procedures.

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Add to that, that sovereignty in Scotland lies with the people, not Westminster (check out the Declaration of Arbroath versus Henry VIII of England declaring himself head of the English church). The Queen, like her predecessor Mary is, for example, Queen of Scots, not Scotland.

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It should follow that with the SNP standing on a referendum-for-independence manifesto, it has every democratic right if it wins that overall majority to call a referendum despite Alister (who?) Jack dismissing this with disdain.

So, who are these actors? Let’s start with Boris. Know a man by his words is my mantra and separately by his actions which may not follow. This Eton-educated “fit as a butcher’s dog” chappie said that voting Tory would cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3.

No comment needed, and a bit Trumpian. Nearer his political reality, he also said that he had discovered that there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters. Out of the mouths of babes and Boris.

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Drawing further on his past comments, he once claimed that his ideal world is we're in the EU, trying to make it better. Ooops, where is that oven-ready Brexit deal? Has it gone orf? Past its sell-by date? His foot in mouth also scraped the barrel of ignorance when he referred to “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”. I kid you not. From these, you get the flavour of the man which isn’t tasty.

Most recently he called devolution “a disaster”. Well with free personal care for the elderly, a non-privatised NHS, a state-owned water company, no tuition fees for students, no prescription charges, getting the government we vote for – give me that disaster any day.

In a supporting role, we have Gordon Brown, as Count Dracula, brought out from his political twilight to reprise his stint as preserver of the Union by offering a better deal for Scotland, a sort of third way.

The script is the Vow. Remember that? Greater powers for the Scottish Parliament, engineered by wir Gordon days before the 2014 vote, signed off by David Cameron, Ed Milliband and Nick Clegg – remember them?

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They now are as forgotten as that Vow. As for millionaire Alister (Union) Jack, he is yet another UK Secretary of State for Scotland who is the cabinet’s man in Scotland and not Scotland’s man in the cabinet. In fact, come back David Mundell, did I really say that?

Controversial stuff? Not at all, and at least I’m not writing again about Covid.

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