I will be voting SNP with both votes today because ...

I will be voting SNP with both votes today because "food banks are not part of the welfare state, they are symbol that the welfare state is failing" (Mhairi Black, maiden speech)

(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mhairi-black-speech-in-full-snp-mp-tears-apart-conservative-government-and-labour-opposition-in-10389334.html)

I will be voting SNP with both votes today because "the Scottish National Party is resolutely opposed to renewing [Trident]"

(http://www.theweek.co.uk/52318/pros-and-cons-of-trident-snp-piles-pressure-on-labour)

I will be voting SNP with both votes today because  "two Lanarkshire steel mills have been saved from closure [...] in a deal brokered by the Scottish government"

(https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/24/tata-scottish-steel-works-rescued-by-liberty-house).

I will be voting SNP with both votes today because "the Treasury [...] endangered £7 billion of public funding in Scotland [and] we are indebted to Scotland’s Finance Secretary, John Swinney, and to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for securing a no-detriment deal for Scotland"

(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmhansrd/cm160224/debtext/160224-0001.htm)

I will be voting SNP with both votes today because nothing would cause the Tories in Westminster more dismay than a second SNP majority, and nothing would delight them more than if the SNP were to lose that majority.

During the referendum campaign the No side often made reference to "solidarity between the workers of Leith and the workers of Liverpool". Yet when the Hillsborough verdict was delivered that solidarity was most in evidence among veterans of the Yes campaign, while embittered unionists like Muriel Gray attempted shamelessly to spin it as an "SNP Bad" story.

When online misogyny needed to be challenged, and when rape-apologists like Roosh V and his cohorts needed to be kept off our streets, it was veterans of the Yes campaign that rallied in solidarity with our mothers, sisters and daughters, while the unionists merely closed ranks to protect misogynists like Brian Spanner.

It would seem unionist solidarity only extends as far as the absolution of any crime as long as inveterate hatred of the SNP is maintained. When they say solidarity they are merely referring to a sort of siege mentality.  

Independence is about solidarity too. But it is a different kind of solidarity. We stand in solidarity with 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees fleeing violence abroad which is thwarted while the UK controls our borders and serves the interests of the arms dealers that provide the bombs that fall on them. Our solidarity extends from Leith to Liverpool and beyond to Syria and Somalia and everywhere our humanitarian intentions are hindered by UK Government policy. Independence is our chance to embrace the world.

Scotland is in a transitional state. We are enduring the birth pangs of Independence, as I have observed elsewhere. We are all midwives of our shared future, and all the varied choices we wish our offspring to enjoy rely on a single united and concerted effort just now.

Only giving both votes to the SNP will secure a majority at Holyrood.