While Europe’s eye is fix’d on mighty things,
The fate of Empires and the fall of Kings;
While quacks of State must each produce his plan,
And even children lisp the Rights of Man;
Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,
The Rights of Woman merit some attention.
I AM, of course, quoting from our National Bard Robert Burns, who will be celebrated in Scotland and across the world later this week.
However, as I reflected on the devastating news that the Scottish and UK governments have both decided to sit back and allow the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery, it was the words of Scotland’s first Makar, Edwin Morgan, that I thought of. In his poem, read by Liz Lochhead, to celebrate the opening of the new Scottish building, he asserted:
What do the people want of the place?
They want it to be filled with thinking persons as open and adventurous as its architecture.
A nest of fearties is what they do not want.
A symposium of procrastinators is what they do not want.
A phalanx of forelock-tuggers is what they do not want.
And perhaps above all the droopy mantra of ‘it wizny me’ is what they do not want.
I wonder what Morgan would have thought of the decision to surrender the battle to save Grangemouth without a fight? Its workers deserve better. And Scotland must demand better. A record £10.6 billion flowed to the UK Treasury in revenue from Scotland’s offshore oil and gas activity in 2022-23. If less than 1% of the annual bounty of Scotland’s oil was invested in the hydrocracker at Grangemouth the life of the refinery would be extended beyond 2025.
Supporting an investment in a strategic national asset shouldn’t need open and adventurous thinking. It just needs a government to stop procrastinating out of fear of upsetting their Green partners.
A team that will roll its sleeves up, work with Unite the Union and get on with the job of saving the refinery – saving the jobs it provides and the significant benefit it brings to the Scottish economy.
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf: Keir Starmer must 'respect' Scotland on independence
For years we have condemned the Tories for devastating our industrial capacity. The images of Ravenscraig being demolished have been melted into our national psyche.
But why, now, with a Scottish Parliament in place, do we not have a Scottish Government demanding that Scotland should see a share of those revenues invested in our oil and gas infrastructure?
The UK Government doesn’t care if Scottish industrial infrastructure is decimated as long as it doesn’t impact on areas where votes actually matter to it. The absurd reality is that England will have six refineries but Scotland will become the only top-25 oil-producing nation in the world without a refining capacity. This is a disgrace.
An independent Scotland needs Grangemouth. In the here and now our industrial backbone needs it, too, so it simply won’t cut it for the Scottish Government to sit back and watch it close and say “it wizny me”.
It is a strategic blunder.
When Scotland become independent, oil will be the powerhouse of the early years of our nation. It is an act of extreme folly to allow Scotland to be asset stripped of a key part of our energy sector.
Without a refinery we will be forced to send all of our North Sea oil to England and further afield for refining, exporting the added value and the highly skilled and well-paid jobs, as the people of Scotland are left with low-paid service jobs. With vision, Scotland should be the beating heart of Europe’s energy industry.
An important aspect of becoming an independent country is to start acting like one. If the UK Government is happy to sit back and watch the closure of Grangemouth, the Scottish Government should step up to the plate.
Meanwhile, the Alba Party at Westminster brought forward a bill last week to transfer to the Scottish Parliament the powers to hold a referendum on independence. Despite a strong majority of Scotland’s MPs voting for the bill, it was overwhelmingly defeated, as we knew it would be.
But wasn’t it interesting that the highest number of votes against the right of the Scottish people to self-determination came from Labour MPs? We should remind Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer of this when they next try to woo Yes voters.
For many years the national movement was in a very strong strategic position in Scotland because we had a route to gain Scottish independence. We secured the re-establishment of our Parliament, we then won a majority in that Parliament for a referendum.
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Now there is a roadblock and there has been since 2014. The reality is Westminster will say “no” to another referendum, regardless of whether the next prime minister wears a blue rosette or a red rosette.
So we have to find a new route forward. Alba have that route. In the absence of a referendum, we must treat every election, whether it be for Westminster or Holyrood, as the means by which people can exercise their sovereignty.
This is why the Scottish Parliament Powers Bill I’ve proposed is important because it’s within the gift of Scottish Parliament to introduce and pass a bill which allows people in Scotland to say they want the issue of independence decided within the powers of the Scottish Parliament.
If you have a vote in an election for independence, and the people of Scotland have said in a referendum that Scotland is where the issue of independence should be decided, then you have a winning strategy that can face down Westminster and put Scotland back on the road towards independence.
It is disappointing that so few pro-independence members of the Scottish Parliament have taken up the opportunity to discuss taking this strategy forward. The Scottish Parliament Powers Bill stands ready to be brought forward if independence parties in the Parliament give it support.
Humza Yousaf could embrace it tomorrow and his government could be the one to take if forward – something which I would be happy to support because a winning strategy to deliver independence is what our movement needs.
The Alba Party way forward is the way forward for independence.
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