IT’S no surprise that new polls show such strong support for independence, such as The National’s last week.
It is encouraging, but more than that – it’s revealing.
Something is shifting and people are starting to see clearly what many of us have felt for a long time: that Scotland is not an equal partner in this so-called Union. That our democracy can be dismissed, delayed and diluted by powers we didn’t vote for.
But if this is the result when the public see a glimmer of what’s happening, imagine if we exposed it all, with front and centre headlines. When people in Scotland vote for one party and end up governed by another, that alone tells a story.
When we have more MPs in London than we do in the whole of Scotland. When we vote to remain in the European Union and were dragged out regardless, the message couldn’t be clearer. And now, when some placed their hopes in a Labour revival, they’ve been met with a reheated version of Tory policy but faster and with fewer apologies.
These moments aren’t just disappointing, they’re disempowering and hopefully more people are beginning to join the dots. At Holyrood, I’m there to debate, to challenge, to listen, and to shape real change for the people who sent me. All of us are elected by people in Scotland to work for Scotland.
And while devolution has let us do a great deal of good, we’re constantly forced to do it within boundaries we didn’t choose. We legislate with purpose, often with broad support, only to see our decisions picked apart or even blocked entirely.
We saw it with the use of Section 35. We saw it in the Supreme Court ruling that forced changes to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act, despite it passing unanimously in the Scottish Parliament.
And now again in another court ruling that has significant implications for how we apply equality-based policy here in Scotland.
We debate. We vote. We pass the law. And then we wait to see if the UK institutions will let it stand.
This is the kind of erosion that people don’t always see unless they’re looking closely. Take the UK Internal Market Act. It didn’t come with flashy headlines, but it has had serious consequences.
It means that even when the Scottish Parliament takes decisions in devolved areas, such as banning single-use plastics, we can be told we have to accept goods from elsewhere in the UK that don’t meet our standards. It locks us into Westminster’s way of doing things, even when we are trying to do something better.
And while we’re constantly fighting to hold on to our ability to make decisions, we’re also doing the hard work of using those devolved powers to improve people’s lives.
We’ve introduced world-leading policies such as the Scottish Child Payment. We’ve made period products free to access via local authorities. We brought in minimum alcohol pricing to save lives. We’ve prioritised housing, climate action, and progressive taxation. And now, the Scottish Government has committed to removing the two-child benefit cap in Scotland, which has punished families for too long.
That's a massive step forward. But even as we move in that direction, we’re still doing it within the confines of a UK system that could snatch that power away again if it suits it.
So much of what we do now is about mitigating the damage caused elsewhere. We protect people from the worst of Westminster’s decisions, while trying to build something better. But how much further could we go, how much faster, if we weren’t constantly having to shield people from policies we didn’t vote for?
Brexit, too, continues to hit economy. We see the impact every day, in labour shortages, rising costs and disrupted trade. My constituency, with its proud fishing and farming industries, knows the cost of that vote better than most. And for what? We’re still waiting to see any benefit.
We’ve seen how powerful devolution can be, but what we’re consistently seeing now isn’t protection of our devolution by the UK, it’s erosion. It’s slow but very deliberate. I see it in the Parliament from our Unionist MSPs. A disdain by some for our political institution. Step by step, they are chipping away at Scotland’s ability to make its own choices. Just as we make headway, there’s that pull on our collar to get back in our box.
And yes, I know that in any democracy, we won’t always agree with every decision made. That’s the deal. But true democracy means having the right to make those decisions in the first place, and for those decisions to be ours, not made or unmade by a government we didn’t elect or a judiciary that is not wholly ours.
If only that were the front-page story across the country, that Scotland has passed good, progressive, compassionate laws, only to be told they can’t be implemented.
If only more people knew how often we’re overruled. I wonder how it would feel across civic society if that truth were told more clearly, instead of being buried beneath “SNP bad” headlines and recycled outrage.
Because the truth is, we have the proof. We’ve lived the consequences. And we’re now seeing, through polling, that people are beginning to connect those dots. We need to bring this specific conversation to doorsteps and living rooms, and community halls. Not to win an argument, but to let people see clearly what’s happening.
Because if Scotland’s Parliament was fully respected and free to act on the will of the people, we wouldn’t just be mitigating harm. We’d be building the country we know we can be. We shouldn’t be overruled, we shouldn’t be content to allow it, and we shouldn’t stay quiet about it either.
