In spite, or maybe because of, my semi-retirement, I’ve devoted a few recent Saturdays to events organised by components of the Yes movement. Not large gatherings, but useful get-togethers nonetheless. Good to keep the brain exercised on topic, lest the intellect withers.
These events bring together the already converted. I know most of the people. I quite enjoy the fact that I’m not the oldest at these meetings, not by a long way, an experience which is sadly less and less common.
For now, I think it’s fair to say these events are not exactly hoatching with energy and passion; anyone seeking a new momentum behind the drive for independence will need to look elsewhere. But some activity is better than none and things, as they say, can only get better.
What worries me more than the numbers is the way the organisers view themselves as observers rather than creators of Scotland’s political landscape. There’s little understanding of how to use the coming election to advance the central objective of independence. No sense of the movement itself becoming a political force; putting its own champions into government.
Our movement has been in the doldrums for some time, indeed for most of the years since the heady heights of the 2014 referendum campaign. As I’ve argued for a while now the reason why that exuberance is proving so hard to re-ignite is that a substantial chunk of people who believe in independence no longer see how it can be achieved.
Westminster says no. The Supreme Court says no. And until we get a convincing narrative to counter that it will be difficult to move through the gears. That begins by explaining to people that UK law needs to change if their right to self determination is to be exercised.
As our campaigns atrophied in the wake of unionist denial, we started arguing about other stuff, with a tenuous relationship to independence. Identity politics assumed an importance it would not have had if the campaign for self-government had not been derailed.
The next iteration of this phenomenon – which has been high on the agenda at recent events – seems to be a growing focus on changing the structures of the devolved government.
Whilst no-one is suggesting we shouldn’t improve how we make decisions, reform of Holyrood has never been high on the agenda of the Yes movement. I guess this is because we’ve all regarded devolution as an interim set-up, a stepping stone towards a new independent government. And once we have the power to do so a new modern constitution would be replete with improvements.
Perhaps this has been a mistake. Perhaps arguing for reform of the current arrangements can be a way to make the case for independence. But it would be a mistake to look at these reforms just within the framework of today’s devolved parliament because a new one would not only have much wider scope and authority, but a quite different relationship to the institutions of government in the UK, Europe and beyond.
The thing which animates people most is the notion of a second chamber at Holyrood. Not a debate about whether an independent parliament in Scotland should have a senate, but whether the existing one should.
One keynote speaker at the recent Scottish Independence Convention event in Glasgow argued that the Scottish government would be improved by the creation of a second chamber established as a citizens’ assembly of one hundred people; selected at random and paid to take a sabbatical from their work for two years.
I have a several serious concerns about this. Firstly, the malaise of distrust and hostility to elected politicians which this proposal seeks to tackle is hardly likely to be salved by creating another hundred of them.
Secondly, it is not democratic to have people who are elected compromised or controlled by people who are not. The comparison is often made with jury selection, randomly done and seeking to represent a cross section of the population. But juries are there to determine facts in a specific case, not opinions. It is not their role to represent others.
Most of all, this just isn’t the biggest problem. Way ahead of creating a second chamber would changing the voting system to allow voters to express preferences and encourage smaller parties and independents.
Or changing the parliament so that the executive is not drawn from its members. Currently any governing party will have to deploy nearly half of their number to ministerial positions. This results in the brightest and most able people getting mired in the administration of things, rather than directing the apparatus of government.
Don’t get me wrong. I love talking about constitutions and a big part of the attraction of a new independent country is getting a better one. But that is something to be done when we have the power to do so. Making this the focus of debate now is, as the cockneys say, a bit previous.