The genesis of the manifesto for independence
The Manifesto for Independence was created in 2020 by Geoff Bush and Peter A Bell to pressure pro-independence parties like the SNP to take concrete steps towards restoring Scotland’s independence. The manifesto outlines a plan for achieving independence and calls for stronger commitment to this goal from political parties.
The intention was to create a plan that all members of the independence movement could support by focusing solely on the central constitutional issue and removing any extraneous details or policies. No mention of currency, central banks, or industrial policy was included, just a focus on the constitutional issue.
Suppose the people of a nation were kept in ignorance of their constitutional rights and recourses. Suppose they were, by various means both subtle and crude, uneducated and/or deceived regarding the history, traditions and culture of the nation they inhabit. What would become of these people?
Who would wish to create such a situation?
Who would benefit from the people of a nation being kept in ignorance of their entitlements under a constitution whose very existence has been kept from them?
In a very real sense, the true status of Scotland is foreign to the people of Scotland. The true standing of the people of Scotland is foreign to them. The real Scotland is, to a large part of the nation’s people, a foreign place. A place they are unaware of. A place that they have been purposefully kept in ignorance of.
What happens when they find out?
A Manifesto for Independence
This manifesto is the additional policy that pro-independence parties should add to their own manifestos in the 2026 Holyrood election to achieve restoration of Scotland’s independence.
A Manifesto for Independence
- Repudiate the Section 30 process as an illegitimate constraint on Scotland’s right of self-determination.
- Declare one or all future Scottish Parliament or UK Parliament elections to be a plebiscite on the question of the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament to facilitate the exercise of Scotland’s right of self-determination.
- Assert the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament on the basis of its democratic legitimacy and the sovereignty of Scotland’s people, citing the fact this is the only way the people of Scotland can be enabled to exercise our human right of self-determination.
- Recall Scotland’s Members of Parliament from Westminster to sit on a National Convention convened by the Scottish Parliament, with Members of the Scottish Parliament and such representatives of civic society as are deemed appropriate by the Scottish Parliament for the purpose of overseeing the drafting of a Constitution for Scotland.
- Propose dissolution of the Union with England subject to approval by the Scottish Parliament and ratification by the people of Scotland in a confirmatory referendum that stands as the formal exercise by the people of Scotland of our inalienable right of self-determination.
- Hold a referendum on the question of the Union under the auspices of the Scottish Parliament and subject to oversight and management by the National Convention and such bodies as may be appointed by the Scottish Parliament.