Borne of frustration, New Scotland Party is the brainchild of Peter A Bell: independence supporter, thinker and writer. The party aims to focus attention on defining the much-debated single route to independence to allow a concerted, unified effort towards the final goal as soon as is practicable. This may sound very familiar.
The attitude to achieving this goal will be very different to the political manoeuvrings of the last ten years. Defiance will replace compliance. Asserting Scottish national sovereignty will replace deference.
It is evident that almost all existing parties accept the rules and cultural niceties of the UK parliamentary system. There is no recognition of the fact that this system is constructed to deter any liberation movement harmful to the British establishment’s interests. By abiding by the rules, set to shackle ambitions of independence, these nominally Scottish independence parties are ensuring continuation of the status quo.
Purpose before party
The game of party politics distracts leaders and administrators from the core tenets at the foundation of the organisation. Instead, they become consumed in a numbers game and attracting wealth for campaign coffers. This fixation on funds overpowers everything else to the point that beliefs, and with them, party manifestos, can be bought and sold. The neoliberal play book necessitates these positive feedback loops which destroy the corrective institutions in society, our politics, media and academia.
New Scotland Party aims to outflank this phenomenon by spreading agency throughout the party. There will be no leadership structure as such, beyond the necessary administrative roles. Any member will be able to bring ideas or proposals to the group if a minimal level of support can be attracted to second and third a motion.
The recent US election illustrated the diminution of the power of, so called, legacy media to influence public opinion in the developing social media and podcast environment. A podcast between host Joe Rogan and Donald Trump, a week before the election, received 40 million views on YouTube. These are voluntary consumers, not someone whose chosen entertainment was disrupted to air an advert, costing the party $millions.
Embrace new technologies
By stepping outside of UK electoral norms, and with the clever use of new technologies, and through defiance in the face of rules written to deny democracy to Scots, it is possible that the New Scotland Party could act as a spanner in the works of the establishment machine. A system which runs on ancient fuel, stagnant and wilfully blind to the constant change the evolution of ideas affords.
Scotland has suffered the ignominy of being left behind within the UK. To avoid being left behind, as part of the UK, by the rest of the world, Scotland must strike out in a new direction and find its place in the global order, which is also in flux.
A manifesto for defiance
In Peter’s own words:
“I am firmly persuaded that if we want better politics, we have to start by creating better political parties. Scotland has a distinctive political culture. But this distinctive political culture is neither reflected in nor represented by the existing political parties. By starting afresh, and with the right attitude, my hope is that we can create a model demonstrating the kind of politics we might have with independence restored.
“It follows that the British state must be regarded as our colonialist opponents in a struggle for liberation. From Scotland’s perspective, the British state is neither a friendly nor a benign power. We are persuaded that when the people of Scotland are made aware of their subordinate status within a grotesquely asymmetric political union, they will reject this arrangement in favour of restoration of full independence.
“New Scotland Party intends to demonstrate to the people of Scotland what a genuine party of liberation looks like in the hope that they will then put pressure on Scotland’s political elite demanding less compliance with British rules and more defiance of British imperialism.”
New Scotland Party will formally launch at 10am on 30 November 2024 with an event at Salutation Hotel in Perth. Attendance information will be released nearer the time.
Martin Luther King Jr. said: “I have no time for the tranquillising drug of gradualism and incrementalism.” Many in the independence movement concur and conflate these sentiments with the current placid state of those in nominal leadership of parties constituted to end the Union.
More in politics.
