by Frances Watt
We urge OTS readers to support the work of Leah Gunn Barrett.
Below we've re-published (with permission) the three most recent articles. They present a snapshot of the broad range of topics addressed by Leah, all of which are relevant to Scots.
Please have a quick scroll through Dear Scotland archive:
Archive - Dear Scotland (substack.com)
Aug 30, 2024
Viceroy Ian Murray says a small business that must balance its books is like a government with a sovereign currency and central bank that doesn’t, demonstrating once again his woeful ignorance of government finance. His cluelessness is matched by Chancellor Reeves’ who says she learned financial management at her mother’s kitchen table.
First, a government can create as much money as the economy and people need in order to flourish. It’s not constrained by what it collects in taxes since taxes don’t fund government spending - money created by the government’s bank, the Bank of England, does.
Since the Viceroy brought up the post-war UK economy, which was in far worse shape than today’s, let me remind him that the Attlee Labour government opened the spending taps which ushered in an era of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity. He also nationalised natural public goods such as health, education, energy, housing and transport, giving ownership of these assets back to the people. If Attlee had imposed austerity as Reeves is doing, he would have relegated the UK to third world status.
Second, unlike Westminster, the Scottish administration must balance its budget, the majority of which is the Block Grant, pocket money Westminster, in its ‘wisdom’, deems sufficient to provide the public services Scots rely upon. The Viceroy doesn’t acknowledge that when Westminster cuts spending, as Reeves is doing, Scotland’s allowance is reduced, accordingly.
The Scottish budget is under pressure because Holyrood isn’t a government, but a devolved administration. It doesn’t have a central bank so can’t create money or invest in its economy and most of the taxes collected in Scotland flow to London. It doesn’t control economic, foreign or trade policy or possess any of the other powers of a normal sovereign government.
Viceroy Murray’s right about one thing, however - Scots do deserve better. But we won’t get it until we refuse to be a UK vassal and become a grown-up nation again.
Aug 29, 2024
In its first weeks, the Starmer government has introduced funding cuts that have precipitated Holyrood spending cuts and approved Ofgem plans to transfer renewable power from Scotland to England, with no benefit for Scots. On top of that, the Secretary of State for Scotland announced he will bypass the Scottish administration and use direct funding to further undermine the devolution settlement and there’s talk about ending universal services like free prescriptions and university tuition.
It’s clear that the UK government doesn’t respect Scottish sovereignty which lies with the people. But our own administration claims it’s powerless to act. So we the People must apply maximum pressure on Scotland’s elected representatives to push back against the colonial power by incorporating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) into Scots law, which would give the Scottish People the right to hold referendums on devolved legislation, breathing life into the principle of Popular Sovereignty.
If you would like to also sign the letter to the First Minister requesting enactment of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR), please go to https://wecollect.scot/contact/ and copy and paste the following text in the message box: “I would like to add my signature to the RSS letter to the First Minister about ICCPR enactment”. Your signature registration will be confirmed by e-mail but your e-mail address will remain confidential.
Dear First Minister,
Your government has acknowledged that the Scottish People are sovereign and has confirmed that “popular sovereignty remains the best way of ensuring good government for current and future generations of people who live in Scotland.”[1]
Popular Sovereignty was codified in the Claim of Right 1689, a pre-condition of the 1707 Treaty of Union, which has been endorsed by the Scottish Parliament and the Westminster Parliament[2] both of whom recognise “the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of government best suited to their needs.”[3]
However, Popular Sovereignty requires that the People have direct political rights, such as the right to popular referendums, without which they are unable exercise their sovereignty. These rights aren’t part of UK law despite the UK Government ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) back in 1976. ICCPR, Article 25, commits the UK to guaranteeing civil and political rights and Popular Sovereignty is the “other form of government best suited to our needs.”
The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) has repeatedly criticised the UK government for failing to legislate political rights but recently praised the Scottish Government for enacting into Scots law another UN convention ratified by the UK, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the UK has also failed to incorporate into domestic law.
There are no legal reasons why the Scottish Government can’t do the same for ICCPR. Under the Scotland Act 1998, “observing and implementing international obligations, obligations under the Human Rights Convention and obligations under EU law” are not reserved.[4]
Incorporating political rights into Scots law, as recommended by the Scottish Human Rights Commission[5], would give the Scottish People the power to accept or refuse proposed devolved legislation via a Referendum. Without political rights, Popular Sovereignty is meaningless.
Furthermore, legislating for political rights would be a significant step towards a more consensual form of government than the Westminster model. It could give an immediate boost to the entire independence movement and offer a compelling argument in favour of the independence parties during the 2026 election.
Thank you for your consideration. Please feel free to contact us if we can provide any further information.
On behalf of Respect Scottish Sovereignty (RSS),
Henry Ferguson - wecollect.scot
Andy Anderson - AndersonPublications.co.uk
David Younger - ScotlandDecides.org
Leah Gunn Barrett - DearScotland.substack.com
[1] https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-new-scotland-creating-modern-constitution-independent-scotland/
[2] Anon, 1988. A Claim of Right for Scotland, Edinburgh: [The Campaign]. The Scottish Parliament endorsed the Claim of Right on 26 January 2012, 28 March 2017 and 10 January 2023. The House of Commons endorsed the Claim of Right on 4 July 2018
[3] https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-new-scotland-creating-modern-constitution-independent-scotland/pages/5/
[4] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/46/schedule/5
[5] https://www.scottishhumanrights.com/media/2606/iccpr-parallel-report-uk-examination.pdf
Aug 27, 2024
On August 24th, Ukraine Independence Day, Keir Starmer pledged to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes” in a war that has killed over 500,000 Ukrainians - most likely an underestimate -, wounded over a million and seen the exodus of millions more. The UN predicts Ukraine’s population will fall from a pre-war 45 million to just 15 million by 2100.
Before the war, Ukraine was rated the most corrupt nation in Europe. In January, CIA Director Bill Burns warned Zelensky that ‘he was taking a larger share of the skim money than was going to the generals.’ How else could Zelensky and his wife pay up to 75 million Euros for Sting’s Tuscan wine estate? (See also this - it’s in Russian: https://public.nazk.gov.ua/documents/dbfd6951-3d06-4720-bc4a-fd9cf94042d0)
Zelensky’s post-war Tuscan retreat
As I’ve written before, this war was preventable had the US agreed to Ukrainian neutrality, i.e., not allow it to join NATO. Russia viewed Ukraine’s NATO membership as an existential threat, just as the US would view Russia establishing a military presence in Mexico or Canada as an existential threat. When Ukraine negotiated a peace agreement in Istanbul with Russia in April 2022, US lapdog Boris Johnson was dispatched to Kiev to tell Zelensky to ditch it because the US and NATO had his back.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revealed the real reason the US is fighting this proxy war. It’s not to ‘defend Ukrainian democracy’ of which there is precious little, but to weaken the Russian state which it has failed to do.
There’s another reason the US/NATO is fighting the war - to feed the voracious appetite of the military industrial complex (MIC), a lobby that has almost as much power over the US Congress and President as the Israel lobby. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Chief of Staff to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, said that in the early 1990s, Bill Clinton set up a commission manned by military contractors to decide whether NATO should be expanded. No surprise what they concluded.
But back to the UK. An April report by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) reveals that Ukraine is now the largest recipient of UK bilateral funding by a country mile - £228 million in 2023/24. In addition, the UK has pledged £7.1 billion in military aid since 2022, £1.6 billion in fiscal guarantees with another £3 billion over the next three years. That’s nearly £12 billion and counting. There’s never any ‘black hole’ when it comes to war spending.
Like the US, the UK arms industry has wormed its way into the apparatus of government, wielding outsize influence over policy decisions. It does this via the revolving door between industry, the military and government, and the presence of industry bodies such as the arms export unit within the Department of International Trade (DTI).
Meanwhile, Starmer’s government is busy slashing benefits to the most vulnerable and warning that the autumn budget will be ‘painful’, but not for him, the well-off or his corporate donors. His economically clueless Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, seems to relish her Cruella role.
To escape this miserable situation, Scots must first understand that they are sovereign over any government, meaning they have the right to determine the form of government best suited to their needs. Even Westminster has acknowledged this. Then they need to use their sovereign power to end Scotland’s subservient position within this failing state.
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