Trying to figure out WTF is going on In my previous article, I sought to refute the notion that the Scottish Parliament is not and cannot ever be the 'real' parliament of Scotland. I made the case that the Scottish Parliament is or should be regarded as the original parliament of Scotland wrest from us with the imposition of the Union but later returned, albeit in chains. I made the point that it really is just a matter of how you think about it. It is what you conceive it to be. By conceiving it in a certain way and adhering to that conception, you make it that which you have conceived. Tell a powerful enough story, and it becomes reality. What I did not get around to explaining more fully in that article is why it is to the advantage of the independence movement that we tell a powerful story of the Scottish Parliament as the continued and continuing parliament of Scotland that is prevented from serving as such by the limitations imposed on it by the coloniser. It's our parliament just as it's our oil and our energy and our water. Just as our resources are arrogated by England-as-Britain to be exploited for its benefit, so our parliament has been usurped by England-as-Britain to serve its purposes rather than the interests of Scotland's people.
This story about the Scottish Parliament fits perfectly with the broader saga of Scotland's experience of subordination, suppression, and expropriation. That is why it is preferrable to the alternative story as told by Unionists and now a few people in the independence movement- including Sara Salyers - of the Scottish Parliament being ineluctably and incorrigibly the property of the British state. If this alternative story is to be believed, we have no parliament. There is nothing that was taken from us. Therefore, there is nothing to take back. This is not a story on which to build a campaign. If all one is concerned with is provoking indignation that this foreign institution has been foist on us, Sara Salyers's version will do the job. But it is a story whose ending is already written. And ending which according to the story itself, cannot be amended. There is nothing to be done. The ending of the story that I tell is for us to write. If the Scottish Parliament is the rightful parliament of Scotland which has been hijacked by the British, then it is for us to resolve the tale by writing an ending in which the usurper is thrown out on their ear and our parliament is restored to its rightful status. A perfect fit with the story we are writing about restoring the rightful status of our nation. Every political campaign needs a powerful story. Every nation needs a powerful story. If the story told by the campaign echoes an appealing story of the nation, the campaign will tend to succeed. If the story of our nation is of a nation once free, then annexed, then liberated, then it should be matched by a story of a parliament once ours, then taken, then recovered. You're currently a free subscriber to Peter A Bell. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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Tuesday, 8 July 2025
Telling a powerful story
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