Scottish flags were worn like capes — little protection against a chilly evening in Edinburgh on Wednesday, hours after the British Supreme Court ruled that Scotland cannot unilaterally conduct a referendum on leaving the UK — and “Yes” signs strung with lights were waved against the darkening sky.
Anti-Tory placards made an appearance, some recycled from 2014, others with a fresh angle.
“Our colonial status has been confirmed — and the law is an ass,” one placard read.
Photo: AFP
Groups of bagpipers huddled together, warming up their instruments and stopping for a cigarette break.
The Proclaimers were blasted from a stereo on the stage, funded by the Scottish Independence Foundation.
A small, but lively counterprotest across the road shouted over a loudspeaker, calling for the Scottish independence campaign leaders to be put in the dock for treason.
Photo: REUTERS
“The union has worked for 400 years,” said Ronnie Kane, codirector of the pro-union campaign group A Force For Good. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
The independence supporters were equally buoyant.
Jim Brack described the ruling as a “win win,” saying: “It has revitalized the situation. We were perhaps getting a bit complacent.”
The unanimous ruling torpedoed the Scottish government’s push to hold a plebiscite in October next year — eight years after Scots narrowly opted to remain in a pre-Brexit UK.
Julia Stryl, 52, agreed that the result would provide a boost to the independence movement.
“[Westminster] hoped the Supreme Court would be neutral. Now, it’s Westminster that’s clearly blocking the democratic right to independence for the Scottish people,” she said.
The crowd on the evening was diverse, with speakers from the US, France, Spain’s Catalonia and elsewhere. The fallout from Brexit was a strong consideration for many who had voted pro-union in 2014, but since changed their mind.
“I regret it,” said Elise Tallaron, who is French and has lived in the UK since 1996. “Even then, I could see strong arguments for independence.”
She is now treasurer for the Yes For EU movement.
It was clear that sentiment against the Conservative Party of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, always strong in Scotland, had been gathering force amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit and a cost-of-living crisis.
One placard read: “Scotland can’t afford to be part of the UK.”
British lawmaker Tommy Sheppard of the Scottish National Party (SNP), who took the train from London to attend, declared that Scotland did not need to be “enslaved” to a “decaying, post-Brexit isolationist” union any longer.
David Spacey, 56, believed that Westminster had played the wrong card on a new referendum.
“After the punishment budget, things are getting grim. At the moment the chance of independence is 50/50. [The union] could win it. If they wait, and people get poorer and struggle to pay their bills, support for independence will only increase,” he said.
The crowd cheered loudly when Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made a surprise appearance.
“Today it has been clarified that the UK is not a voluntary partnership of nations,” she said, adding that the result would create only “temporary relief” for unionists.
“No establishment Westminster or otherwise will silence the voice of the Scottish people,” she said.
Sturgeon faced strong calls from those present to make her proposal for an SNP convention next year a cross-party movement.
Scottish Socialist Party spokesperson Colin Fox said: “Today could be a historic day if independence supporters realize we need a better strategy to beat the forces of British state that bar our way.”
Between speakers, bagpipers provided brief musical interludes. The unofficial national anthem, Flower of Scotland, was sung. One person was taken ill and removed by ambulance. The counterprotest did not let up from the other side of the road.
Lesley Riddoch, an independence campaigner and organizer of the rally, summed up the overall sentiment when she told the crowd: “We may not have yet convinced people that independence is the answer, but certainly Westminster and any belief in Westminster is gone and that is massive progress — and something for us to build on.”
Additional reporting by AFP
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
The tale of a middle-aged Chinese man, or “uncle,” who disguised himself as a woman to secretly film and share videos of his hookups with more than 1,000 men shook China’s social media, spurring fears for public health, privacy and marital fidelity. The hashtag “red uncle” was the top trending item on China’s popular microblog Sina Weibo yesterday, drawing at least 200 million views as users expressed incredulity and shock. The online posts told of how the man in the eastern city of Nanjing had lured 1,691 heterosexual men into sexual encounters at his home that he then recorded and distributed online. The
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
CEREMONY EXPECTED: Abdullah Ocalan said he believes in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons, and called on the group to put that into practice The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group yesterday renewed a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state. In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber’s YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps. “It should be considered natural for you to publicly ensure the disarmament of the relevant groups in a way that addresses the expectations
RSS