On Wednesday, 7 October, The National reported that while speaking to a meeting of Holyrood committee conveners, First Minister John Swinney MSP made the following remark in response to a question from Scottish Greens Party MSP Patrick Harvie asking whether Scotland’s interests could be protected through intergovernmental arrangements in the event of a future UK Government taking a more hostile approach to devolution.

> Ultimately, the answer to that question lies in the fact that sovereign power rests with the United Kingdom Government, so it has the final say

In making this statement in his capacity as First Minister, John Swinney has acceded to the English constitutional doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. Sovereignty being by definition absolute and indivisible, the necessary corollary of this is denial of the principle that the people of Scotland are sovereign.

That the people of Scotland are sovereign is both a fact in accordance with Scotland’s constitutional tradition and the inviolable principle underpinning Scotland’s distinct political culture and identity as a nation.

As a citizen of Scotland and a lifelong advocate of restoring Scotland’s rightful status as an independent nation, I must condemn this perfidy and demand that John Swinney immediately retract the offending statement and that at the earliest opportunity he solemnly affirms the sovereignty of Scotland’s people.

I note, also, that First Minister John Swinney has petitioned Westminster for an Order in Council pursuant to Section 30 of the Scotland Act (1998), requesting limited, conditional, and temporary legislative competence to authorise a deliberative and non-self-executing referendum on Scottish independence.

I further note that he does this while holding a mandate from the people of Scotland to instigate a referendum and that he intends to make similar requests in the future and that issuing such a request has the same effect as the remark quoted above and that it carries the necessary implication of validating the UK Government’s asserted veto authority over the democratic will of Scotland’s people.

The Section 30 process must be repudiated as an illegitimate constraint on the exercise by Scotland’s people of our inalienable right of self-determination.

Ensuring that the people of Scotland have the means and opportunity to exercise our right of self-determination is the responsibility of the Scottish Government acting through the Scottish Parliament. The UK Government and Parliament have no legitimate role in the process by which the people of Scotland decide the constitutional status of our nation and choose the form of government which best serves our needs, priorities, and aspirations.

I urge the Scottish Government to immediately institute a Scottish Constitutional Convention charged with determining the process by which the people of Scotland are provided with the means and opportunity to fully and freely exercise our right of self-determination.

Peter A Bell and Cosignatories