The Future Scotland Forum

We need better focus in the Yes Movement. Our enemies are happy to see infighting and fragmentation, indeed they are counting on it. Without the focus of a campaign for a specific referendum outcome to align disparate interests and points of view around a common cause, there is a risk of precisely the fragmentation and dissipation of momentum they seek.

While we benefited, prior to the referendum, from unforced errors on the part of our opponents, the shoe is on the other foot now. They are now able to adopt the dictum "don't interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake" and quietly give us enough rope, which we will hang ourselves with if we are not careful. Unity, focus and resolve are more important now than ever.  

At the same time that necessary focus cannot be the electoral fortunes of an individual political party. That would be divisive when we now enjoy an embryonic pluralism in the nascent parliamentary democracy of an Independent Scotland, with the SNP and the Greens being joined by RISE and others. This pluralism is necessary. We need mature responsible political parties, offering the electorate a genuine choice, prepared and ready for the first election to the parliament of an Independent Scotland once that is achieved.

However, while an election is not just about our party of government, but also our form of governance, a united position is required to achieve that very Independence, and so I advocate voting SNP for both constituency and list this May.

Nevertheless all possible future Scotlands must be open for description and discussion in a way that transcends party politics and allows everyone's voice to be heard, and a suitable forum is required. This forum is currently lacking. The referendum provided a focal point for these discussions previously, and in the absence of the Yes campaign that we could unite behind then, we need something else now.

Therefore we need either a new campaign around a specific date for IndyRef 2 (I have suggested 2020 previously) to provide the necessary focus, or a civic forum with an advisory role to be set up which can consider long term issues such as Independence, social justice, climate change, and so on, without seeking to influence the outcome of an election contested between political parties - a sort of Future Scotland Forum.

This Future Forum must be free to acknowledge disparate views, and would not promote any particular set of policies, which could be construed as support for a particular party. Rather than make submissions to parliament or the country, it would receive submissions for discussion, and need not conclude discussions with a single set of recommendations. Various proposals can be entertained, with the single thing they all have in common being that Independence is required to fulfil them.

Thus we can preserve the diversity of opinion combined with the unity of purpose that we enjoyed two years ago, and rehearse the debates that will become necessary when a new date is set in a spirit of open and respectful enquiry.