Siskipa - Little Steps

Are you frustrated Ms Sturgeon has not yet told Bawjaws where to park his UK bus?

Angry at the apparent complacency at SNP HQ as we hurtle towards an ever increasing fascist government at Westminster?

Tearing your hair out, in Peter Bell's case it is almost all gone, at the inaction over an independence referendum as we hurtle towards the Brexit cliff edge?

Find Micheal Russell's claim the SNP will fight to save devolution in the courts after rejecting the Internal Market Bill; a bit of a wet blanket?

Aye?

Well maybees what I am about to say is not going to help your rising "angst, sturm und tonder" in the slightest, not that I have not had all the above, running through my brain since the Brexit Bill made it through Westminster.

It was fascinating the Scottish Reserve Bank which comes to life on the 1st of January 2021, has released drafts of an independent Scotland's currency this week. So when folk ask the daft Unionist question of "What Currency will Scotland use?" we can show them the nice pictures of an independent Scotland's currency. It seems we are going back to the pre 1707 unit, then in common use, the Pound Scots. Me, I'd have preferred Merks and Groats ... but what the hell, eh?

This week I received my electoral roll update and noted that you can register to vote if you permanently live in Scotland, not just have a holiday home here .... Sorry House of Windsor that means you and a lot of your rich pals will not get a vote but my Polish friends across the road will.

If you look under the surface of the the obvious strife over Brexit and lack of SNP action you find a lot of the i's and t's left undotted and uncrossed prior to the 2014 independence referendum have now been dotted and crossed.

Scotland now has in place either the actual or nascent bodies, the limited control of welfare is an example of a 'nascent body", we require as an independent nation to flourish from day one. Something we did not have before. The EU has more empathy with Scotland's position of being dragged out the EU against our will than it did in 2014, with statements like "Scotland will be assured of quick entry into the EU Customs Union and full accession to the EU will be quickly implemented" or Donald Tusk's "The EU looks forward to an independent Scotland being a full and active member."

Setting this all this "stuff"of Government up and changing international opinion takes time and we are now on the cusp of deciding whether expediency now needs to take over from effectiveness or will that remain a case of putting the cart before the horse, for now.

So would part of me cry out for UDI tomorrow?

Most certainly but the other part of me says all the hard work is nearly done, Westminster's intransigence and ignorance is shifting the load for us both at home and abroad, the weight of popular opinion is rolling our way, we are not quite there yet but; "it's coming still for aa that."

In 2012 support for independence was at 23% by 2014 we had shifted that to 45%, over the 40% tipping point where the idea becomes a normal aspiration, not just one for extremists or dreamers. In 2020, with little or no active campaigning, we have seen that support rise to 54% with over 63% of Scots voters believing that Scotland will be independent within five years, no matter their political persuasion. A recent survey of CBI members revealed only 20% had concerns about their business futures in an independent Scotland.

These are all key "little steps" which we need to be in place before we take the one big step to an independent nation, no matter how frustrating it is for us of the claidheamh mór, targe and dirk of the Highland charge ilk; hard though it is for us to do, we maybe need to keep them all hidden in the thatch of our tigh na dubh just a little longer before "Now's the time and now's the hour".