Scottish Self-Determination

Whit’s A’ This Aboot?

Whit’s A’ This Aboot?

Aye, whit’s goin’ on here?

It’s about the position we’re in: stuck in the UK with no way out. Unless… ach ye ken the story – we need to ask the British state if it’s ok if we have another referendum and hope we all say yes. But even if we did say yes, they’d still control it. They’d be in charge. They’d call the shots. And they’d win again for sure. Do you really think they’d risk losing this time? Nae way.

But screw them. We don’t need to ask. And that’s why this website has been made. It’s about not asking. At least not asking the British establishment if, ‘please sir, can we have a referendum?’.

But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t ask questions. Irrespective of whether you voted Yes or No in 2014 or if you didn’t or couldn’t vote, we should all ask questions about Scotland’s weird position within the Union.

Try asking this question for instance: If Scotland is in a voluntary union, why is it that we need permission to leave? You might remember, for example, that Britain didn’t need to ask the EU if it could leave the European Union. It just left.

So why can’t we can’t just leave the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? Why do we have to ask permission? We’re a country like any other country in the world except that we happen to be in a union with another country. But if we don’t want to be in this union anymore, why is that we just can’t leave it?

And if asking that question starts to make you wonder, or think, or start something nagging at the back of your mind, it might make you ask more questions about Scotland’s position in the Union. Like these, perhaps:

What is the Union? What actually is the UK? How come we ended up here? Why did Scotland join the Union anyway? What was in it for us? What’s in it for us now?

British prime ministers are fond of talking about ‘our precious Union’. But precious or not it’s still just a union. So why can’t we just leave? Because the British state says we’re not allowed. We can humiliate ourselves from time to time by asking only to humiliated again when we’re told to get back in our box (dressed up as ‘now is not the time’). So maybe the union’s a prison. Maybe it’s a precious prison.

But if it’s a prison, then how did the Union begin? Were we conquered by England and forced to join a union prison? No, that can’t be because we haven’t been conquered since the 13th century and we all know what happened then – Robert the Bruce kicked the English out and freed our country from English rule in 1314.

Maybe we just walked into this union prison then. But why? Why would we do that? Big Spain and little Portugal have been neighbours for hundreds of years, a bit like England and Scotland, but Portugal isn’t in a union prison with Spain.

So what happened? Why did we walk into a union prison with England in 1707? What on earth possessed us do such a thing? And why can’t we get out?

Questions, questions. Are they nagging you yet? They should be.

The Run Up To The Union

We were an independent nation, one of the oldest in Europe. Older than England, to be sure. But we’re not independent anymore. Why?
Here’s the lead up to the theft of our independence.

We Have Catch’d Scotland

After the passing of the Acts of Union, England was very pleased with itself, as well it might. At a stroke, Scotland had gone from international competitor to a rich new resource, ripe for exploitation.

The Darien Venture

Scotland’s attempt to form a colony in Panama could not be allowed to succeed. Whether they shared a king or not, Scotland would not be allowed to get in the way of England’s empire and Darien was deliberately sabotaged by the East India Company and the Royal Navy.