CommonSpace columnist Siobhan Tolland says Yessers, No voters and undecideds should unite in acknowledgement of how symbolically important indyref 2 is for Scotland and democracy
IT’S that feeling, isn’t it? Every morning you wake up to another radically shifting world as though you’ve been asleep for 20 years. So after an exhausting day of trying to figure it all out, you lie in bed congratulating yourself in having a bit of a grasp of this new world. And then the next dawn brings another world we don’t recognise.
Standing on this quick sand of political change lies our tiny wee country of five million people. Caught up in a quagmire of domestic and international events, we have been left existential crisis-y. Who are we? What is our purpose? And what does this all mean for us?
So here we are: two referendums within 18 months have left us with two impossibly incompatible choices. We cannot have the two things we voted for. We just can’t. We have to choose between the UK or the EU. Theresa May’s speech has made that impossible.
The nature of the crossroads Scotland is now left standing at is deeply profound. The burden of these choices weighs heavily.
The nature of the crossroads Scotland is now left standing at is deeply profound. We are stuck between two vastly different choices and all the myriad of possibilities that may or may not exist amid these two. The burden of these choices weighs heavily.
The only thing that’s certain, of course, is that all paths lead to uncertainty. There is no choice available to us that allows us to remain as we are. Stability is no longer an option.
And so here we are treading water, waiting for the boats to come, but we can’t tread that water forever.
I bumped into my uncle days after Brexit. Him being a No voter I asked him, rather wryly, how Better Together was working out for him. Ashen-faced, he responded that he hadn’t voted for this. Months later, he still ponders that he needs to vote Yes in the next referendum.
And this is where the second certainty lies. As we try to navigate through these events unfolding before us, our one and only certainty has to be that the decisions about our future have to be made by us. Our right to decide our own path has to take precedence above all else now.
Indyref 2 is now a democratic imperative. It is the single most important act of democracy that our nation can take.
This is why indyref 2 becomes so important. I feel, sometimes, that we are getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. Because, as Yessers, we tend to focus on our need to have the Yes result, but as understandable as that might be, we have to start teasing out the issues that drive the need for a referendum from the need to get a Yes result, because they are different.
Indyref 2 is now a democratic imperative. It is the single most important act of democracy that our nation can take. We have an enormous decision to make, and we have to make that decision ourselves. In these turbulent times it is more important than ever that we take control and decide our own fate: whatever that decision may be.
The Scottish Parliament can’t make that decision for us. And the Westminster Parliament definitely can’t make that decision for us. Events have raised deep-seated constitutional uncertainties that now must be resolved. And leaving it in the hands of politicians – any politician – would be a democratic deficit.
A second independence referendum will initiate the national discussion and debate that we need to have. The fundamental issues that recent events have thrown up for us have to be thrashed out and debated.
The No/Remainers have to have these discussions. The Yes/Leavers have to make difficult decisions. The ‘don’t knows’ need to find a way. We all have to collectively debate our future and choose the path we want to travel.
We have an enormous decision to make, and we have to make that decision ourselves. In these turbulent times it is more important than ever that we take control and decide our own fate: whatever that decision may be.
Some Yes supporters advise that we should wait until we can guarantee a win for Yes. But what if we never have the guarantee that we can win? Then, we’ll wait and we’ll wait, and Article 50 will be triggered, and the UK will start negotiating the terms of leaving the single market. Then we’ll leave, Brexit will happen proper – we’ll be out of the EU.
Is that what we want? To hold off and hold off while events fly past us at warp speed, spinning ever increasingly out of our control? Surely the point is to take control of our own decisions and take control when we have these decisions to make.
Because time is a factor now. If we hold off a referendum until after Brexit, for instance, our entry into the EU becomes more difficult. If waiting for that Yes victory reduces our options, haven’t we done a disservice to our democracy?
I don’t think Nicola Sturgeon has a choice regarding a referendum. It would, indeed, be to her democratic shame to reject one now. For our political certainties, individually, and as a nation are no longer obvious.
The fact is, now, that no one knows what Scotland really wants. And the only way we can know for certain is by putting our crosses on the ballot papers in a referendum.
The No/Remainers have to have these discussions. The Yes/Leavers have to make difficult decisions. The ‘don’t knows’ need to find a way. We all have to collectively debate our future and choose the path we want to travel.
When (if?) the second independence referendum is called we will all get into fifth gear and fight for independence until we fall down exhausted. I have promised that of myself. But until that point we need to relinquish ownership of the notion of a referendum and clarify exactly what a referendum means for everyone.
It is a nation taking control over its own path. This is not a referendum exclusively for Yes voters, No voters or the ‘don’t knows’. It is a referendum for every single one of us, regardless of our beliefs. It is all of us making a decision together.
We cannot confuse the issue of having a referendum with how we will vote in that referendum, for the referendum taps into something much deeper and more fundamental.
Regardless of how we will vote, the act of making that decision ourselves is surely the single most important act we can make in these times.
Indyref 2 has to happen then, our future is too important for it not to.
Our democracy is too important.
Picture courtesy of michael_swan
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