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
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS