The launch of the People United, a cross-border campaign for Scottish independence, will hopefully inject some positivity into a melancholic movement. It aims to start an international debate about self-determination, not just for Scotland, but for the rest of the UK, Catalonia, the Basque Country and beyond.

Source Direct: Independence – Uniting the Peoples


It’s endlessly frustrating when constitutional division works to reproduce the status quo. All the more galling when the benefits accrue to such a dubious bunch. Clearly, we need some mechanism to break the vicious cycle.

Source Direct: Is Scottish Home Rule the Answer?


Sturgeon remains intent on governing as before, appeasing the Left with low-cost cultural liberalism, appeasing the right with low taxes and by perpetuating wealth and privilege intact.

Source Direct: Non-Coalition of Chaos


Neil Mackay is one of Scotland’s most respected columnists – and one of the most reliably pro-Sturgeon. His scathing assessment of the SNP’s campaign therefore merits attention

Source Direct: An Independence Election?


Five years on from the Brexit vote, everything has been leading to this moment of truth for independence. But that mood of certainty is giving way to frustration and self-doubt. Whisper it, but the Yes bloc is experiencing an identity crisis.

Source Direct: A Yes Slump?




I share the anxiety that this unprecedented peacetime crisis of the British state may pass without a firm conclusion. For this reason, I have campaigned for years for an early referendum. But I am also wary of a potentially sadistic dynamic between leadership and base.

Source Direct: Indy Shoegazers


The prospects for farce were highlighted by Peter Murrell’s evidence yesterday: when Labour MSP Jackie Baillie implied he was being coached off camera, Murrell answered that his eye was distracted by a rogue magpie. You could almost see Malcolm Tucker off camera, stamping his foot with rage.

Source Direct: Two Tribes Go to War


You can’t really argue with twenty polls in a row for independence. And those same polls show the SNP sweeping May’s planned elections. Yet dig deeper and the Scottish independence movement is filled with dread and acrimony.

Source Direct: Scotland – Now?