The following comment appeared earlier this evening on Wings Over Scotland and we are reproducing it in full. We haven't secured Mia's permission but we hope she agrees that the comment needs to be spread as far as possible right now.
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Mia says:

8 December, 2023 at 7:18 pm

Humza Yousaf: “This is a dark day for devolution”

No, it isn’t, Mr Yousaf. Today is a day like any other for devolution because keeping the door open for Westminster to trash Holyrood legislation whenever Westminster (or the crown) wants is precisely what devolution was designed to do. You, like your predecessor with the ridiculous court case on the referendum bill, by incompetence or design, simply served them the opportunity on a platter.

Power devolved is power retained, Mr Yousaf. Even the dogs in the street know that by now. It is a bit embarrassing that, being the FM of Scotland and, despite devolution having been standing in Scotland for 23 years, you still do not seem to appreciate the practical implications of that.

Humza Yousaf: “Sovereignty should lie with the people of Scotland, not Westminster government”

Sovereignty ALREADY lies with the people of Scotland, Mr Yousaf. It is you and your predecessor who have insisted in handing Scotland’s sovereignty to the Westminster government, Westminster parliament and an English court, time and time again for the last 9 years.

It is about time you stopped embarrassing Scotland and started leading by example by reasserting Scotland’s popular sovereignty rather than continuously watering it down, just as you did when you handed the stone of destiny to the English monarch, and just as you are doing right now, keeping the lord advocate in control of Scotland’s legislative body, or just as you are doing by abusing your position of power to force legislation on Scotland next to nobody voted for.

Humza Yousaf: “Today’s judgement confirms beyond doubt that devolution is fundamentally flawed”

Goodness, Mr Yousaf, and you are only realising of this NOW? Did you really have to waste our precious public money in this ridiculous charade to learn that obvious point?

Humza Yousaf: “The court has confirmed that legislation passed by a majority in Holyrood can be struck down by Westminster”

As we all, but you, it seems, already knew, Mr Yousaf.

Humza Yousaf: “the only way to guarantee we get true self-government is through independence”

Well, Mr Yousaf, and did you really have to waste over £200,000 of our precious public money to find that out when everybody in the country already knew that? What have you been doing in the SNP all these years if you have only learned this now?

So, Mr Yousaf, what exactly are you going to do to deliver and guarantee that self-government?

Are you going to do something? Anything? or, just as your predecessor did during 8 long years, absolutely nothing other than dishing platitudes and soundbites?

I tell you what, Mr Yousaf. You really want self-government for Scotland or you are just bluffing?

Because it is in your hand to deliver it next week as it was, for 8 years, in the hands of your predecessor to deliver it.

How?

1. Send the Lord Advocate that you placed in your cabinet packing and as far away from the executive and legislative bodies as you possibly can.

2. Send the UK civil servants packing and replace them with Scottish ones

3. Remove the Crown Office from the jugular of the CPS

4 Restore the barriers between the judicial power and the executive and legislative bodies. In other words, restore democracy.

5. as FM and leader of the majority party and the Bute House Agreement, gather the majority of pro-independence MSPs, bring to parliament and pass a bill to reject the Scotland Act so Holyrood recovers all legislative powers and the Scottish government gain all executive powers in full.

6. Once that is done, communicate to England and the UN the intention to terminate the Treaty of Union and Act of Union with England, and communicate the day the union officially ends in line with the timeline established by the Vienna Convention in the Law of Treaties.

7. In anticipation of the Kingdom of England behaving as a hostile partner, seek intervention from the UN to act as a mediator during the negotiations with the Kingdom of England to dissolve the union and distribute common assets between both union partners.

8. Recall Scotland’s MPs from Westminster and set up a negotiation committee with the most capable MPs/MSPs in preparation for the negotiations of the dissolution of the union and division of common union assets.

9. Bring to Holyrood and pass an Act to end the treaty of union and the act of union with England setting up a date for independence day.

10. Seek membership of EFTA

11. Instruct the negotiation committee to immediately start negotiations with the representatives of the Kingdom of England.

12. Call Scotland’s first general election as an independent state

13. Dissolve the SNP

Now, Mr Yousaf, do you have enough conviction, courage and will to deliver self-government for Scotland, or are you, just like your predecessor was, another professional charlatan who talks the talk but never walks the walk?

Over to you, Mr Yousaf.