Still thou are blest, compared wi’ me.

We all have heroes; it’s a dull life without role models and aspirations. Naturally Robert Burns and Jimmy Reid are two of mine, but there’s many more. This year has seen some of my current crop perform well as others have bombed. In a Scottish context those most worthy of admiration are the proponents of Scotland’s independence or the defenders of the best of Scottish values and institutions.

October 2022 I spoke at ‘Yestival’ in Freedom Square Glasgow. That busy, positive event included blethers with Annemarie Ward the fearless and driven campaigner for recovery and Grouse Beater suave erudite champion of all things Scottish cultural and historical. Both have suffered from the misdirected slings and arrows of Scots jealous and mistaken.

There followed an upbeat Alba Party Annual Conference in Stirling. Prior to a hard winter we demanded an end to the scandal of fuel poor Scots living in energy rich Scotland and passed our policy on addictions secured by a tear jerking and powerful speech by Leanne Tervit. We rededicated ourselves to the pursuit of our nation’s independence and left determined to secure it. That remains a constant.

Liz Truss resigned ; we dashed to Aberdeen for a #WeeAlbaBook event where Alex Salmond, Neale Hanvey and Yvonne Ridley shocked, encouraged and entertained in equal measure. Charlie Abel’s CD was the booty from the raffle and the following week we were in the great Yes! city of Dundee on the #WeeAlbaBook tour once more.  

In trepidation we watched as the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was introduced to Parliament and its impact featured on the doorsteps of the by-elections in Broxburn, Uphill & Winchburn and Glasgow Linn. Alba votes increased in both but the SNP reaction was to walk out of Westminster when Alba MPs Kenny McAskill and Neale Hanvey spoke.

Ridicule ensued where a Scots flasher appeared in court as a man and a woman on the same day and who can ever forget that debacle of the rapist sent to a women’s prison? 

Lawyers warned of issues surrounding the provision of legal aid and the erosion of basic principles of Scottish justice; there was great mirth when Indy Knitter Margaret Tervit created the Salmond triplets and as Scotland shivered and starved the FM jetted to Egypt at no little expense talking loss and damage at COP27. At the same time £133m was axed from Scottish Government energy efficiency schemes.

Rishi Sunak took over and intimated that his beady eyes remain fixed upon the bounty of our North Sea. Scotland, the country that discovered oil yet remains for many a desert.

Following the Supreme Court decision that Scotland couldn’t hold a lawful independence referendum we demonstrated throughout Scotland, including in Stirling, and Alba held assemblies to establish the views of the public on the route to our self-determination. Scotland United was the overwhelming choice of the public.

We stood outside Cornton Vale with WomenWontWheesht as Caroline McAllister led protests against males in female jails which ultimately assisted in bringing to an end the tenure of the FM who sold out Scotland’s women and betrayed the Independence movement.

There have been 60 #WeeAlbaBook events, 4 Alba Equalities Roadshows and innumerable gatherings of Independenistas; by-elections for Charlie Abel in Dyce, John Marshall in Bellshill and Denise Sommerville in Girvan have kept the Alba banner aloft and optimism for our independence alive. At all events the overwhelming concerns have been housing, food and fuel costs, low wages, ill health including addictions difficulties and troubles arising from Scotland’s inability to control all economic levers. The support for self determination is overwhelming and the electorate want a vehicle to deliver this with urgency. 

The continuity candidate unsurprisingly became FM; he and his newly appointed Westminster colleague trail for votes for their party and ignore the pleas of the people for a #ScotlandUnited approach. This is party before country and a shameful betrayal of the giants  of our movement.

Today we saw what we may hope is the nadir of the selling out of our movement – the insistence of our Cabinet Secretary for Justice that juryless trials can comprise justice, Fergus Ewing suspended for the sin of representing the views and interest of his constituents and the majority of Scotland and the claims that the riches of the North Sea should remain where they rest as our people hunger and shiver.

Jimmy Reid famously proclaimed that we are not rats; he may not have been entirely right with that evaluation. For the sake of Scotland, for the integrity of a nation, and the destiny of a people I do hope that we have heroes in waiting.

For now, forward though I cannae see, I guess and fear.