It is so difficult to articulate in printable language my loathing of this Tory government and the ever-increasing levels of torture they are insistent on inflicting on the vulnerable people who seek safety on our shores.

This week’s scheduled flight to Rwanda was a particularly heinous act of barbarity which saw individuals picked at random and physically forced onto a flight to be trafficked to another country rather than have their asylum case assessed in the UK.

There is a deliberate misleading of the public to make people believe that these individuals have had their cases heard and refused in the UK – but the fact is that the Tory government has abandoned their responsibility under international law to process asylum cases and are engaging in the exchange of human beings for cash with another country.

READ MORE: Ex-Brexit Party MEP in Twitter meltdown as idea to 'make Rwanda plan work' mocked

Some of the testimonies of those last people to be granted a reprieve were truly harrowing as they sat shackled on a plane waiting to be transported to a country they had never been to. These people were terrified of what awaited them at the other end – they came here to seek refuge, to join family members, to make a better life for themselves and were met not with compassion, but with the evilness that pervades every branch of this Tory government. The UK banned slavery in 1833, but in 2022, Priti Patel is reintroducing the capture, incarceration and forced transportation of mainly black and ethnic minority men and paying foreign governments to take them.

I was not the only person who shed a tear of joy when I got the news that the last person was removed from that modern-day Middle Passage. Thank God for every single person who fought the government to prevent this flight:the lawyers, politicians and the public who said, “not today, not in my name”. However, as soon as that last man was removed, Priti Patel was planning the next flight. Forget the torment to the individuals; forget the arbitrary Hunger Games nature of selecting victims;forget the £500,000 cost of each flight.

There is no price too high for the Home Office when it comes to implementing state-sponsored racism and people trafficking.

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was the backstop here, it was this convention that was created in the wake of WW2 to prevent any reoccurrence of the types of tyranny and evil that was witnessed in the 20th century. The UK were one of the leading voices in at the time, but now that it has been used to curtail fascism in the Tory party, there is a drive to withdraw from the convention altogether. The only country to ever withdraw from the convention is Russia, so I guess it makes sense that the Conservative Party would follow the lead of their paymasters.

The ECHR is about more than just preventing human trafficking by the UK Government, it underpins the Good Friday Agreement and peace in the North of Ireland. The idea that Boris Johnson and this government of villainy would jeopardise hard won peace in Ireland to play to the racists and fascists in his supporter base will come as no surprise, but it should enrage and repulse in equal measure.

READ MORE: UK Government's own website contradicts Priti Patel's claims 'Rwanda is safe'

This week, Nicola Sturgeon announced that we would be holding an independence referendum next year, and it is abundantly clear that only independence can free us from association with the horrors of the UK. The leadership of the Labour Party can’t even say they would stop trafficking people to Rwanda, only that they wouldn’t spend as much money.

It is clear that all Tories, red and blue, are committed to appeasing the right in England and during this year it is incumbent on every one of us to make the case for how Scotland could and would do things differently. Independence won’t be won in newspaper columns or on Twitter, it will be won in our communities, streets and homes.

People will not be berated into believing that we will be better off forging our own path, but they may well be convinced by reasoned and passionate discussion. So talk to your friends, families and co-workers about why you believe that Scotland can and will succeed as an independent nation and be part of the better future you want to see.