Scottish Independence Initiative

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:  AN INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM WILL TAKE PLACE ON
5th MAY 2011


Britain doesn’t do referendums.  The idea of allowing the people to
take democracy into their own hands, and make important decisions by
themselves, like adults, is alien to the British political system.
Clement Atlee once claimed that the referendum was a tool of dictators
and social democrats have parroted his words ever since,

This tradition implies that British politics is best left to a
professional elite in Westminster who think and act on behalf of
everyone else.  It is assumed that Joe Public is too stupid to
participate directly in democracy but is magnanimously granted
permission to put a cross in a box every five years.

The only time there has ever been a British-wide referendum was in
1975.  The referendum question asked was: “Do you think the United
Kingdom should stay in the European Community?”  The Yes campaign won
by a margin of two-to-one.  And that folks was that for participatory
democracy in the UK.

Scotland has a troubled history of referendums.  The infamous 1979
referendum on setting up a Scottish Parliament had a high turnout of
64%. The Yes vote won by a small margin.  But the Westminster
Parliament rigged the election and over-ruled the majority decision of
the people of Scotland.  A lesson in British-style democracy was
learnt.

Now the London government has decreed that the second ever
British-wide national referendum will take place on 5th May 2011. This
referendum will be on whether or not to move to AV voting in each
constituency.  In reality it is a minor electoral change to the
Westminster system which will do very little to move towards genuine
proportional representation.

If the London government propose tokenistic tinkering with their
electoral system then fine, that’s up to them.  What is more
significant for Scotland is the timing of the AV vote which has been
scheduled for the same day as the important Holyrood elections in
2011.

As the SNP have commented: “It just shows that the Tory-led coalition
government with the LibDems is treating the Scottish Parliament and
the people of Scotland with contempt.”

It gets worse.  The British Royal Family have since announced that the
wedding of the heir to the throne will take place on the Friday before
the Holyrood election.  A national holiday has been announced.  The
Scottish elections will be further diminished.  It is worth noting too
that Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, has stated that this
election will be fought primarily on the case for Scottish
Independence.

It is hardly surprising that those of a more conspiratorial bent are
suggesting that this is a grand pincer movement by the British
establishment to diminish the importance of the forthcoming Scottish
elections.  That may or may not be the case.  But we can be sure of
one thing: neither of these events would EVER have been scheduled to
coincide with elections to the Palace of Westminster.

Q.    How should Scots respond to this disrespectful imposition of an
irrelevant referendum on the same day as the election of our national
parliament?

A.    We hijack it.  We use it for our own, much more important,
objectives.  We turn the AV referendum into a referendum on Scottish
Independence.

So with this in mind, we, the undersigned, call for all Scots who
support our country’s independence to write the word INDEPENDENCE in
bold letters across the AV voting slip on 5th May.

Let’s make sure the piles of “spoilt” ballot papers rejecting the
British electoral system – and rule from London - are greater than
those voting Yes or No.

This way we can finally have our first national referendum on Scottish
Independence.  The beauty of this initiative is that the London
government will fork up their own cash to print and distribute a
voting slip to every person in Scotland. Which is very generous of
them.  Thank you London!

Spread the word.  Use your vote on 5th May.  Vote INDEPENDENCE.

Support this initiative by removing the names and organisation at the
bottom of this message, insert your own, and circulate as widely as
possible.  We are all Spartacus!

Kevin Williamson & Mike Small
Editors, Bella Caledonia