DODGING through the crowds on Edinburgh’s High Street on Tuesday – you can’t walk in a straight line in Festival Edinburgh such is the press of people – it was clear that the city’s pre-eminent position as the festival capital of the world is being firmly re-established after two dismal years of pandemic shutdown, providing a much-needed financial shot in the arm for the city and its hinterland, as well as many reasons to be cheerful.
In addition to the International, Fringe, Film, Book and many other festivals, Edinburgh also has a Festival of Politics hosted in the Parliament. It has been a bit of a moveable feast but is now being held again within the pressured month of August. However, politics also creeps into the other festivals, and the Book Festival in particular always provides political hacks with some stories.
Our own First Minister, who has a genuine love for, and knowledge of, the world of books is a class act, whether being interviewed or interviewing on the Book Festival stage – and this year had a few pithy remarks to make about the ongoing horror show that is the Tory leadership contest.
A less successful intervention came from Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner, who used a Book Festival event to express her regret that Scottish voters did not understand their purpose in life, which is – according to her – solely to ensure English voters are saved from themselves and their own unfortunate choices.
I rather like Angela Rayner – she often calls a spade exactly that and faces down Tory misogyny at Westminster – but unfortunately, she appears to be completely tone deaf in regards to Scotland which may not have been in front of her – festival audiences being wonderfully eclectic and diverse – but was certainly all around her when she spoke.
Labour at its highest levels does seem to understand, if only dimly, that its position on the constitution is costing it dear. However, the answer is not to turn to scolding or spin doctors but principles.
The principle Labour should be avowing in Scotland is that of Scotland’s right to choose – in other words, the simple principle of democracy.
That would place them in the mainstream of Scottish politics again rather than their current position on the right, shoring up an increasingly nasty Tory party while scrapping for the same votes. Keir Starmer, however, is so frightened of being accused of plotting to seize the keys of Downing Street by putting Nicola Sturgeon in his pocket (as if!) that he is willingly dancing to a Tory tune on these issues as on many others, especially Brexit.
This can only be disastrous, even if he gains power, for if he wins as a pseudo-Tory, he will have to govern as such.
Labour is not a party confident in its position and convinced of its case. The sounds emanating from the near hysterical, grubby Tory hustings in Perth confirm the same is true for them. Both know that, despite the bluster, their game is almost up.
I have a persistent critic of these columns who regularly upbraids me for not laying out, week by week, the exact route to an independent Scottish state. He approaches politics as if it were instant coffee – just add hot water and the job is done.
However, the reality is much more complicated. Getting to our goal needs a collective act of persuasion greater than that which took place in 2014. It demands organisation, information and education. It needs solid and persistent work in thousands of places by thousands of people and it will always be buffeted by the events of the day.
Sometimes we all get downhearted. Certainly, the news of the times is bad at home and abroad and the non-existent, careless, insulting Westminster response is both infuriating and frightening.
But sometimes it is also important to seek out and, despite everything, spread whatever reasons to be cheerful we can find, and this is one of those moments. We can offer tangible confirmation of progress to something better, for it exists not only in the way our opponents are reacting but also in what is happening on the ground to bring independence closer.
For example, this weekend I’m speaking in Dumfries, where MSP Emma Harper is organising more and more events to spread the indy message. On Monday, I have a Zoom meeting with the Bonnyrigg and Loanhead SNP branch and next weekend I am on the road again to Stirling. Two nights ago, I was on (almost) home turf attending the Dalriada Branch in mid-Argyll.
Across the country – from Angus to Ayr – individuals and groups are hitting the streets and doorsteps and organising themselves to do more and more as the nights draw in. They know what they want and they know the work they have to do to get it.
Bit by bit, the engine is revving up and the petrol in the tank is the work of Yes activists the length and breadth of Scotland.
Thomas Hardy once said that when he was starting out he knew 20 young men who wanted to be writers. However, he was the only one who achieved that ambition because – as he put it so memorably – he actually sat down and wrote.
Scotland is going to become independent not because we demonstrated or marched but because those who believe in a better Scotland, back in the EU, worked their socks off to bring the entire country round to that view. They didn’t just shout about it or complain about others not doing it. They got on and delivered.
Our enemies love to see us divided and exult when their arrogance inflames our anger. We need to ignore all those provocations.
Like those on Edinburgh’s High Street during festival time, we must keep heading cheerfully in the right direction, no matter the pressures, because there is no doubt that we are getting there.
