In 2014, thanks to the publication of the White Paper, Westminster’s best liars, spinners and dark forces took us apart line by line. Why was this not foreseen? To me this was a well meant act of political arrogance, devoid of common sense.
Lesson 1: Come in under the radar. Don’t give the Opposition your game – Better Together did not give us theirs!
Scottish Restitution is NOT a political entity. Restitution is a constitutional question, a manifestation of the Sovereignty of the People. Once we have restored our previous state of determining our own destiny we chose a political system or elect a temporary Government to help us build a new political structure – to deliver the wishes of the people today and to facilitate our vision for the future in terms of our CONSTITUTION- that is politics!
Lesson 2: Demonstrate we have a political mandate to Restore our Constitution and on that basis call it. No Nation ever, anywhere successfully requested their Right of Sovereignty. The SNP has DEMONSTRATED beyond doubt this is the will of the people. Furthermore, 87% of YES voters in 2014 were NOT SNP.
In 2014 the Better Together campaign went on the attack. They did not attack the people who demanded the return of their Sovereignty. They attacked the SNP and especially the Leadership. If I was a betting man I would have put the rent money on a sex scandal. Works every time (ok Doris is an exception to the rule). They did not attack the Green Party who were 100% behind the Yes Campaign. This was NOT because they felt the Greens were insignificant. Absolutely not. When an army is about to attack you the best defense is to divide them. This dilutes the message of the attack. Better Together understood this tactic and totally ignored the Greens to keep the attack SNP/Salmon centric. So..
Lesson 3: Split the opposition. Then split them again. If we have 2 or 3 or 4 Unique Campaigns all dedicated to a common end, the Restoration of our Sovereignty, who do they attack. If they focus on a single campaign they are exposed to attack from the others. Under attack they MUST defend or die on the battlefield. Here’s the rub – they actually do NOT have a defense. Consider this: Why are we Better Together? Westminster, the Quislings, the NO Campaign, not one of them could answer that question; of course they couldn’t, it is not and never was true! In a sense it is akin to asking a burglar if you should lock your back door?
There are many incredible minds, leaders and strategists on the Restitution side. It would be quite wrong, in fact arrogant to suggested the details of the approach However, I end with a simple warning:
Lesson 4: If you fail to plan you had better plan to fail. If you fail to organise the you better organise your failure and finally – if we do not hang together, we will hang separately
In summary: there are a number of very credible Restitution Groups. Alliance for Independence, All Under One Banner, Socialist Independence and of course the SNP, the Greens and there will be others. We need an initial facilitator to promote or propose an initial pitch from various groups or Individuals to submit a pitch to form a Steering Group for Restitution. This would be Bootstrap stuff to get us Organisation, Momentum and ultimately Credibility. Count me in, I am locked and loaded and so are very many other Scottish Patriots.