By Mark E. Saunders of “The Scottish Minuteman” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=61575625542197

And Now For Something Completely Different

A number of the anti-Scottish Independence media outlets have started reporting on a recent ‘proposal’ by former UK ambassador and Scottish independence campaigner Craig Murray. 

Murray’s plan, described by some political pundits as “sinister”, suggests that the Scottish Government should simply declare an independence date without Westminster’s consent.

Among his more controversial proposals are; the requiring civil servants to swear an oath of allegiance to a new Scottish state or face dismissal, encouraging Scottish citizens to occupy UK Government buildings and blockade military bases as part of a national campaign of civil disobedience.

I wouldn’t describe Craig Murray’s latest idea as “sinister”, and I’m not sure I would even describe it as a “plan.”

I would, however, describe it as a political thought experiment — perhaps even a manifesto for confrontation with the new UK Prime Minister.

Is Murray’s proposal realistic? Of course it isn’t.

But it does raise a more interesting question: why do ideas like this emerge in the first place?

Talk of moving from constitutional politics towards unilateral action and civil disobedience is usually a sign of deep and growing frustration. The idea has most likely emerged because parts of the Scottish independence movement now feel that normal democratic channels have become permanently blocked.

And when that sense of political deadlock takes hold — even among intelligent and capable people — they inevitably begin searching, from the sublime to the ridiculous, for ways around it. Consequently, the frustration being expressed by Murray is a real political phenomenon.

I believe many people in Scotland feel that successive Westminster governments — both red and blue — have ignored, delayed or dismissed their democratic aspirations. And that has created a level of anger and disillusionment that cannot simply be waved away.

I also believe that demographic and political pressures will continue to build across all four nations of the UK. Eventually, cracks will begin to appear in the Celtic dam. And the pressure behind that dam may become something no Prime Minister can simply stop with a finger.

However, Craig Murray’s proposed solution is another matter entirely.

The idea that civil servants should be required to swear an oath of allegiance to a new state before independence has even been achieved — with dismissal as the consequence for refusal — raises serious questions about coercion, employment rights and the political neutrality of the civil service.

Likewise, attempts to occupy government buildings or blockade military bases would not strengthen the democratic case for independence; they would risk undermining it — both nationally and internationally.

Frustration can explain why such ideas emerge and find themselves written down.

It does not necessarily make them workable.

As a route to independence, this proposal is not so much a political roadmap as it is a political fantasy — as mad as a box of frogs.

But perhaps Westminster has yet to accept that boxed-in Scots, when politically awakened, are a very different beast than a box of frogs.