Scots barbs and English commentators

"A poll showing that the Scots wish independence is a rarity: I can remember only one other, some years ago. The much more common view expressed in polls - and certainly at the ballot box - is that somewhere between a quarter and a third of Scots say they wish independence.

The high watermark in a British general election was in the second election in 1974, at 30.4 per cent of the Scots electorate - which was something of a freak result, since the vote fell to the low teens in the 1980s. In 1997, it was 22.1 per cent: it fell to 20.1 per cent in 2001 and to 17.7 per cent in 2005. In Scots parliament elections, the high was the first such vote, in 1999, with 28.7; in the last election, in 2003, it was 23.8 per cent.

The highest vote the party has received was in 1994, with 32.6 per cent in the European parliament elections. These are substantial votes: but they are also volatile, and never more than a third."

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_lloyd/2006/11/scots_barbs_and_english_commen.html

John Lloyd has deliberately directly equated SNP support with independence support however he should know that these are not the same thing.

The Scottish Green Party, the Scottish Socialist Party and Solidarity all support independence as well. In addition to this there are numerous small groups and parties such as the Free Scotland Party, the Scottish Independence Party, the Scottish Enterprise Party the Communist Party of Scotland, the Scottish republican Socialist Movement and the Celtic League who all support independence as well.

This widening of independence support then includes every political organisation which is actually based in Scotland (Labour Lib Dems and Tories are London controlled and it shows) and in fact many voters of the unionist parties actually support independence as well.

Two organisations have been set up to represent this cross party support, one is the Scottish Independence Convention, where the Greens SNP and SSP meet on a regular basis with others from 'civic Scotland' to discuss promoting independence in the style of the successful 'constitutional (devolution) convention'.

The other is the referendum campaign Independence First www.independence1st.com which has not only received messages of support from all the organisations listed above but which is aimed directly at the Scottish people of all parties and none who support a democratic referendum on independence.

The independence movement as a whole is more united than it has ever been, the SNP is the biggest player in that movement but it is not the whole story and as long as commentators ignore every other organisation in that movement they will fail to understand the massive rise in independence support.

Independence is very simple, it is about democratic equality with other nations, a union with a country ten times our size is not equal and never has been.

This has been recognised by every organisation based in Scotland, it's a pity our media aren't more open minded and less biased. It appears the only voices they want to hear are the 39% minority who share their preference for the status quo.