THE SNP’s depute leader has insisted Scotland will never receive another Section 30 order from Westminster.
Keith Brown told an audience at The National’s Indyref @ 10 event that independence campaigners have “got to accept” Scotland will never be granted another referendum through requesting one and Yes supporters must take the matter “into our own hands”.
He insisted the movement must stop playing by Westminster’s “rules” and work to build an “unanswerable” case of self-determination, which he suggested can be achieved by means of a constitutional convention.
For the referendum in 2014, Scotland was allowed to hold a vote by means of a Section 30 order being granted, which temporarily transferred the necessary powers from Westminster to Holyrood.
During a Q&A, one audience member suggested Scots are “kidding themselves” if they think another Section 30 is going to get granted to which Brown responded: “I think we have to realise that.
“People have got to accept they’re [Westminster] not going to give us one. Stop playing by their rules and thinking we’ve got to go pleading to them. I think we have to take it into our own hands.”
Brown later stressed Scotland would never become independent without a referendum, but insisted if the country can demonstrate the majority are behind independence then it “can’t be stopped”.
He went on: “Section 30 is never going to be granted by us requesting it, we have to demonstrate the support of the people in Scotland, so it makes it unanswerable because eventually, Scotland is not going to become independent without a referendum.
“We have to have a majority of people voting for it, but we’ve got to do it by force of the arguments that we have and we do it for our own sake. We radicalise our own people because we want to win independence.
“If you get the political arguments right, if the people are with you, then it can’t be stopped. But you have to get the people with you and that’s the big task.”
Brown said he would like to see a constitutional convention established, similar to the body set up to make the case for a Scottish Parliament.
After the 1987 General Election, the Scottish Constitutional Convention was formed to ask for a parliament with law-making powers which involved representatives from political parties in Scotland, local authorities, churches and voluntary organisations.
Its final report "Scotland’s Parliament, Scotland’s Right" was published in November 1995 and contained proposals for a devolution arrangement.
Brown said: “My view, and I laid this out at the SNP conference, is the constitutional convention is very important and it actually worked for the Unionist parties when they campaigned for a Scottish Parliament.
“A constitutional convention involves every single elected person in Scotland of any party as long as they believe in Scotland’s right to choose and then you use that convention, you build the international support.
“[Also], and the SNP’s been a bit sniffy about this, we get out there, we do the marches, the demonstrations, and we show it, because Westminster has to know one thing above all else - that it’s not just the SNP and it’s not just the Scottish Parliament, it’s the people, civic Scotland, the Law Society, churches, trade unions, STUC’s position is Scotland has to have the right to choose.
“You take it out of Westminster’s hands by building that case. The idea we wait and wait for Westminster, they’re never going to say yes. It’s not in their interests to do so.
“The Supreme Court can do what they want, the most supreme authority in Scotland is the people of Scotland.”
