Edinburgh & Lothians

What Is Salvo?

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In July, Sara Salyers of Salvo was the guest speaker at a meeting of our Edinburgh Group. What is Salvo? what are its aims? and how might those aims be achieved?

Historical Context

Sara spoke for about the historical context of the 1707 Treaty of Union in terms of related legislation in both the Scottish and English Parliaments. She also spoke about the role of the Monarch in England and Scotland. This is an important point to understand because the role and position of the monarch is very different in the two nations.

Salvo’s Aim

Salvo’s aim is to clarify Scotland’s constitutional situation.

  • Is Scotland a voluntary partner in a political union?
  • Did England annex Scotland? making us an annexed territory?
  • Or are we a colony?

Salvo’s position is that England annexed Scotland. And Sara went into some detail of how they have reached that conclusion.

The next step is to take their research and conclusions to an international body for clarification. Sara said that when and where that will happen will be announced nearer the time.

Questions from the audience

What gave the English Parliament the right to declare a Supreme Court above Scots Law?

What is Liberation.scot?

We’ve put up with this for a long time. How do we convince international authorities that this is a pressing matter?  Comparisions between what happened in British Colonies re how people were treated and what happened in Scotland.

Our language has certainly be annexed

Will England pay attention to your efforts? Or just treat what you say as some historical anachronism?

Had the Brexit vote gone differently with the EU would we be in a stronger position or a weaker position? 

Salvo and Liberation is about restoring to Scotland something that belongs to Scotland

Have you got any feelers out to other nations, Norway, Iceland maybe?

What are the actual next steps to move this forward?

Joanna Cherry has said that she thinks Salvo is not a viable option. What is your reply to that?

Can there be some debate / conference between Salvo and those who doubt your approach?

Back Out On the Streets Campaigning

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From Jean of our Edinburgh and Lothian Group:

We were very happy to get back out on the streets in Edinburgh after so long away. We had a fine day near the farmer’s market beneath the Castle. With our banners and posters tied to the railings and staying socially distanced, showing our flag to many passers-by.

We had leaflets available but rather than approach people we kept the leaflets a transparent bag also hung on the railings.

I don’t think we got any converts, but I had three long very interesting conversations with supporters, including a couple of visitors from Worcester, England.

We also got our first Donations!

And from Mary of the Greater Glasgow Group:

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George Kerevan: Alba Party’s Economic Plans

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Julia Laurie, co-convenor of Edinburgh and Lothians Pensioners for Indy group writes:

The following podcast took place on Tuesday the 27th April, only 9 days before the Scottish Elections, and I knew this could not be edited and posted before then. I therefore decided to complete it after the election when we knew the results. You will now know that Alba Party did not achieve any MSP seats, but have no intention of disappearing, and are in fact pressing ahead with the party structure and planning their first conference. This podcast may therefore still be of interest to some of our members.

George Kerevan

George Kerevan, an economist and a member of Alba, came to speak to our group on Alba’s economic plans for an Independent Scotland. George has spoken to us on a number of occasions, and has become a friend of our group.

Alba’s Economic Plan

Alec Neil and George wrote Alba’s economic policy. It focuses on building the economy through a massive house building programme. To achieve this a new land tax will be brought in, land will be compulsorily purchased, and crash training courses will be provided to create the labour to build, therefore creating jobs and boosting the economy. The Alba Party plan to build environmentally friendly housing, not in huge estates, but in pockets of houses to help population growth throughout Scotland. Their aim is 30,000 houses per year.

George also spoke about pensions partly funded by a sovereign renewables energy fund. He outlined how a Scottish currency could be run in parallel with the sterling for a few years. Like many, I am extremely interested in the economic policies, so for me, this was a very exciting presentation. We had excellent questions from our members, these are a few examples: 

  • Would private/company pension funds be able to invest in a Scottish currency?
  • How do you see Now Scotland interacting going forward with Alba, SNP & Greens?
  • Do you subscribe to the SNP promise  to increase the state pension to the EU average?

You can listen here:

George Kerevan: The Alba Party’s Economic Plans

I hope you enjoyed listening to George, I found his talk and answers to be clear and interesting. We had loads of good comments so I think our Edinburgh & Lothians members were definitely engaged

Our Next Meeting:

Our next meeting is being held on Tuesday the 18th of May. We are hoping for a good turnout. It will be a chat meeting among our members to take stock of the current political situation and to decide how the group will progress from here. At present, we have no further speakers organised, but all suggestions are gratefully accepted!

Kenny MacAskill: the Alba Party

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Kenny MacAskill, MP is standing for the Alba Party on the Lothian List, in the Holyrood Election on 6th May.

Julia Laurie, co-convenor of Edinburgh & Lothians Pensioners4Indy group, writes:

With the forthcoming Scottish Elections, and the Alba Party having burst onto the scene at the last moment, I decided to try to engage a representative from the party to help our members make an informed decision on who to vote for on the list.

Our guest speaker

Kenny MacAskill

Kenny MacAskill is well known to most of us having been involved in Scottish politics for many years, but I was not sure how our members would feel as he was voted in as an SNP MP, and is now standing for Alba as an MSP, however, I need not have worried, and we had a good turnout. As an MSP for Lothian Region he was best known for his role as Cabinet Secretary for Justice from 25/5/11 – 25/11/14. Also an author, he has been involved writing seven books from Building a Nation in 2004 to Radical Scotland 2020.

Kenny talked about all aspects of Alba, why he joined, starting a new party so close to an election, their policies, people, ambitions, and plans for the future. And we had many varied questions: 

  • what legal action do you think we can take to gain Independence with reference to Ciaran Martin’s lecture?
  • can we factor food poverty into our arguments in support of independence?
  • what’s Alba Party view on currency?
  • can primacy for constitutional matters be transferred to the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish people in an election?
  • what is Alba’s position on a written Constitution?
  • if he is elected as MSP will he resign as MP?
  • What do you think about the First Minister saying she will not work with Alba?
  • how high on the Alba Party agenda is land tax, & green energy?
  • how can we best deal with the Border after independence?

You can listen to the talk here:

Kenny MacAskill MP talks about the Alba Party and why he left SNP to join it.

Next meetings:

I hope you enjoyed hearing what Kenny MacAskill had to say. The only question he passed on was economics, suggesting we asked Dr Jim Walker, or George Kerevan to speak to us. I am delighted to say that George will be joining us for a second meeting on Alba on the 27th of April, just 7 days hence.

Having two meetings on the Alba Party, will give us a good idea of what their ambitions are. Following the election on the 6th of May, our next meeting will be on Tuesday the 18th May, to discuss the results, and future plans for our group.