"With its very own breath of brandy and death. Dragging its tail in the sea"
In the end, the longing was too much.
The vision of stepping out of the past, shrugging off the centuries of oppression, poverty, and helplessness to stand tall, strong, and beautiful a reborn free nation. Gifting our children a golden future in a country of their own.
We had never experienced such a time of desire, of passion, of need, of freedom. The thrill of this mix of emotions and opportunity entered our hearts and our veins. We changed, we knew there was something else for our country, something better, we’d seen it.
We wanted this so, so much and that’s what did for us.
They took our hope and our love of our country and they turned it into anger, hatred, and regret.
We didn't know how to deal with the deep disappointment of loss and the aftermath. How to direct all that despair and the determination that this wasn’t the end, we would never give up, the dream would never die.
But our opponents did and they set their plans.
They decided to take control of that passion and corrupt it, transform it, into something they could own and dominate.
And so it started, the pieces were moved into place, the seeds were planted, the assets deployed, and Information sought to compromise or suborn.
This is how they did it;
They created an icon, they called her Nicola and they imbued her with every good grace; intelligence, compassion, bravery. They pictured her hugging children, she talked of love and kindness. During the dark times when we feared for our lives, she was ever present and we clung to her and obeyed her commands. We believed in her, we had faith; Nicola had a plan, Nicola was so much cleverer than the rest; we were with Nicola, In Nicola we trust.
Every deity needs an enemy an existential danger. Nicola's opponents from within or outwith the independence movement became the enemy. We would always be at war. Anyone that stepped out of line was a traitor and was aiding the enemy.
And while everyone relaxed because Nicola had it covered, they took control of the Party of Independence and they removed the foundations of the movement.
Any popular demonstration for independence that wasn’t sanctioned by the Party, was denigrated and sneered at with politicians complaining that it gave independence a bad name.
They gave the SNP a new constitution that hollowed out party democracy and ensured their control.
They promised us another independence referendum was imminent and any criticism or questioning of the Party would jeopardise our chances. We should ‘keep our eyes on the prize’, we could deal with any worries after independence.
They worked to divide the united movement, to splinter it, and have us turn on each other.
Alex Salmond was the leader they most feared, he had taken the party from the wilderness to dominance and won us our 2014 chance. They accused him of awful crimes and hoped to have him jailed as a sex offender. Nicola was their creature and she did as she was bid.
Alex Salmond was a victim of an unlawful and biased process. He was acquitted of all charges by a female judge and a majority female jury.
But far too many believed Nicola when she told them Salmond was an enemy.
The Salmond affair brought other Scottish institutions into disrepute; the Crown Office, the Police, and the Scottish Parliament committee system.
It led to the unfair jailing of the journalist; Craig Murray.
And a re-write of Party history with Salmond removed.
The wee Blue book produced by Stuart Campbell was, by general consensus the best piece of campaigning literature in 2014. Campbell was dangerous he was far too useful to the movement, far too intelligent and perceptive. He had to be ostracised and he too became an enemy.
They brought in a divisive policy; gender self-identification. Self-Identification has been causing problems for governments across the globe so it was an ideal policy for division. The Sturgeon administration pursued the most extreme form of self-identification and the debate was conducted with such toxicity, it turned friends into foes.
Anyone in the movement that disagreed with the self-identification policy was an enemy.
Anyone that hadn't 'wheesht for indy' was an enemy.
The enemies were piling up.
The 2014 white paper that everyone across the independence political spectrum united behind and ‘All of us first’ was but a distant dream. The Growth Commission, Currency, EU membership; these independence policies lack coherence or widespread support.
The independence broad church was further shattered by going into coalition with the Greens and their inept policies based on ideology and ignorance.
The party politicians are now fat and greedy, nepotism is rife, people are promoted far beyond their abilities because of who they know and how far they are prepared to toe the party line.
A new breed of activists has emerged, intent on a political career, with priorities that are not Scotland nor independence, unknown in 2014 they have rapidly embedded themselves in positions of influence.
The Sturgeon administration produced nothing of note, no big infrastructure projects, no transformative policies, and no change to being fuel poor in a country of energy plenty.
Confidence in our institutions, public services, and politicians faded. Confidence in ourselves faded.
Now we are in the endgame;
Destroy the Icon and destroy independence. The tent in the garden, expose the corruption, leave the movement without a leader, without direction, lost, angry, and alone.
They have one problem and we have one hope.
We start again, don’t dwell on the past, we use what we have, we use all the strength we have left and we fight, we turn to the leaders that struggled for decades to bring us to that day in 2014 and we start again.
Death or Victory
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