Meanwhile, north of the border.

 We lived just outside of Edinburgh for a couple of years from 1974 to 1976 and, back then, the SNP was more an object of ridicule than a political force. How things have changed since those days. I'm all for self-determination and am a staunch nationalist (Scottish, Welsh, Irish etc etc) at heart. Because of my early baptism in SNP politics (thank you, Jim and Joy Deacon), I've always tried to keep abreast of what's going on north of the border and it will be interesting to see how things develop after the recent arrest of Alex Salmond.

His arrest on fourteen separate charges including breach of the peace, sexual assault, indecent assault, and attempted rape is going to cause a storm in more ways than one. There is going to be a howling gale of British(English?) nationalist gloating, of finger pointing, and taunting on social media and in the pages of the anti-independence press. These are serious and shocking charges and this is a very big story. However it must never be forgotten that Alex Salmond deserves due process and so do those who made the allegations which led to his arrest. He is innocent until proven guilty and he deserves a fair trial, if, indeed, this matter goes to a trial. Those who made the allegations against him deserve a fair hearing. That needs to be said, because it is a point that is likely to be lost amidst the rush to judgement in a hostile press and the insults and slurs that have already started to fly on social media. Salmond deserves to make his case, and the case of those who made the allegations against him must be heard equally as well. The Scottish legal process must be respected: justice demands it.

Opponents of independence have always been keen to personalise the independence cause. They have consistently sought to portray the desire for independence as the personal construct of, first, Alex Salmond, and more latterly of Nicola Sturgeon. As sure as night follows day, they are going to seize with unseemly glee on the arrest of Salmond and the court case which will follow should the Procurator Fiscal’s office decide to proceed with a trial. It’s all their anti-SNP Christmasses come at once. Salmond is a giant of the Scottish independence movement, but he is not the movement. He has had and continues to have a huge, albeit diminishing, influence on the independence movement, but he is not the reason for independence. The movement is bigger than any individual. The reasons for independence are not embodied in any one person no matter who they are, despite what some in the media are already hinting as they try to make political capital out of the situation.

Let's not forget that, above all, the reasons for independence are to do with the consistent and continual failures of the British state and the British political establishment to respond to and to act on the democratic desires of the people of Scotland. The story of independence is the story of the systemic failure of the British state, that remains unchanged no matter what personal failures are alleged about any individual. Making the case for Scottish independence means making the case for a nation in which the government is democratically accountable to the people of Scotland, elected by the people of Scotland, and which works in the interests of the people of Scotland. That case remains the exact same today as it did yesterday. That is why no matter what happens with respect to Alex Salmond’s legal issues, the reasons for independence will remain unchanged.  And, why, if I had the vote in Scotland, I'd still be supporting the SNP.