Peter A Bell
@peterabell.bsky.social
Thinker. Listener. Talker. Reader. Writer. No attitude immutable. No conclusion final. No opinion humble.
So, almost certainly no mandate to ask for a referendum that almost certainly would not be granted and which definitely wouldn’t restore independence even if it was.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
The Swinney Swindle
Look up the word ‘swindle’ in pretty much any dictionary and you will find that the majority of definitions refer to money or property.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 12:33 PM
So, almost certainly no mandate to ask for a referendum that almost certainly would not be granted and which definitely wouldn’t restore independence even if it was.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
It is change that is - or appears to be - out of control that provokes anxiety.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
Tales of chaos and the promise of order
I agree to some extent with much of what is said about people’s aversion to change.
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:25 AM
It is change that is - or appears to be - out of control that provokes anxiety.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
December 8, 2025 at 9:00 AM
A political union which can only be sustained with open threats, empty promises, transparent dishonesty, cancerous corruption and utter contempt for democratic principles is a political union which is broken beyond repair. It is a political union which must end.
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
December 5, 2025 at 10:11 AM
A political union which can only be sustained with open threats, empty promises, transparent dishonesty, cancerous corruption and utter contempt for democratic principles is a political union which is broken beyond repair. It is a political union which must end.
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
Reacting with fury to Farage and his ilk merely fuels the very conflict he wants to ignite.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
Worse than a racist
Nigel Farage may be genuinely racist, or he may not.
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reacting with fury to Farage and his ilk merely fuels the very conflict he wants to ignite.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
December 3, 2025 at 9:50 AM
What is required is not more papers and reports and statistics and charts and graphs and social media memes. What is needed is action. Or at least a credible plan of action.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
Reasons to be cheerless
To say that independence must have the support of the majority is merely stating the obvious.
open.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:10 PM
What is required is not more papers and reports and statistics and charts and graphs and social media memes. What is needed is action. Or at least a credible plan of action.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
Reposted by Peter A Bell
'Shabana Mahmood is engineering the biggest humanitarian emergency this country has seen in decades with the latest shake-up of asylum and immigration policy – and it will fall to civil society to clean up the carnage she creates.'
Robina Qureshi, via The National
archive.is/GHDKO
Robina Qureshi, via The National
archive.is/GHDKO
December 2, 2025 at 9:00 AM
'Shabana Mahmood is engineering the biggest humanitarian emergency this country has seen in decades with the latest shake-up of asylum and immigration policy – and it will fall to civil society to clean up the carnage she creates.'
Robina Qureshi, via The National
archive.is/GHDKO
Robina Qureshi, via The National
archive.is/GHDKO
November 30, 2025 at 2:25 PM
November 30, 2025 at 1:43 PM
A proper constitutional referendum is determinative and self-executing. A Section 30 referendum is deliberative and non-self-executing. It is the diametric opposite of what a proper constitutional referendum is.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
The real constitutional issue
Once again, our old friend James Murphy makes a very pertinent observation in a below-the-line comment on an item in The National (Economic case for UK ‘torn apart’ by Labour Budget, Stephen Flynn say...
open.substack.com
November 29, 2025 at 11:02 AM
A proper constitutional referendum is determinative and self-executing. A Section 30 referendum is deliberative and non-self-executing. It is the diametric opposite of what a proper constitutional referendum is.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
If the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is doing this to make the proscription of Palestine Action look even more ridiculous then we must applaud them. Great work, guys!
www.thenational.scot/news/2565626... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
www.thenational.scot/news/2565626... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
'Like a parking ticket': Scottish activists face £100 fines for 'terrorism'
SCOTTISH prosecutors face claims they have reduced terrorism to the level of a parking ticket after asking activists accused of supporting a…
www.thenational.scot
November 28, 2025 at 8:40 AM
If the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is doing this to make the proscription of Palestine Action look even more ridiculous then we must applaud them. Great work, guys!
www.thenational.scot/news/2565626... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
www.thenational.scot/news/2565626... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
November 27, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Make it work!
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
Make it work!
A recurring theme in discourse on the constitutional issue is the notion that in order to make progress all that is needed is for all the pro-independence parties to ‘sit down round the table and thra...
open.substack.com
November 27, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Make it work!
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
Why UDI Might Be Necessary
November 27, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Why UDI Might Be Necessary
How to kill a cause
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
How to kill a cause
Jonathon Shafi’s column in The National today nicely captures a feeling I think many of us are familiar with - the feeling that Scotland’s cause is being killed.
open.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:31 PM
How to kill a cause
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
There is an itch for action and the leadership of the independence movement is scratching in entirely the wrong place.
peterabell.substack.com/p/how-to-kil... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
peterabell.substack.com/p/how-to-kil... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
How to kill a cause
Jonathon Shafi’s column in The National today nicely captures a feeling I think many of us are familiar with - the feeling that Scotland’s cause is being killed.
peterabell.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:22 AM
There is an itch for action and the leadership of the independence movement is scratching in entirely the wrong place.
peterabell.substack.com/p/how-to-kil... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
peterabell.substack.com/p/how-to-kil... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
Football changed Scotland's identity.
peterabell.substack.com/p/a-proud-ma... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
peterabell.substack.com/p/a-proud-ma... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
November 23, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Football changed Scotland's identity.
peterabell.substack.com/p/a-proud-ma... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
peterabell.substack.com/p/a-proud-ma... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
The liberation process is hard, adversarial politics. It demands hard, calculating politicians prepared to be audaciously assertive and confidently confrontational.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
Just tell the truth!
Regular readers will be familiar with the name James Murphy, whose letters published in The National are required reading for anyone with an interest in the struggle to restore Scotland’s independence...
open.substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:00 PM
The liberation process is hard, adversarial politics. It demands hard, calculating politicians prepared to be audaciously assertive and confidently confrontational.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
Proactive civil disobedience. I like it!
300 charities warn Labour: 'We won't comply with forced volunteering' | The National www.thenational.scot/news/2562400... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
300 charities warn Labour: 'We won't comply with forced volunteering' | The National www.thenational.scot/news/2562400... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
300 organisations warn Labour: 'We will not comply with proposed Home Office rules'
HUNDREDS of charities and voluntary organisations have warned the UK Government that they will not comply with plans to force asylum seekers to…
www.thenational.scot
November 15, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Proactive civil disobedience. I like it!
300 charities warn Labour: 'We won't comply with forced volunteering' | The National www.thenational.scot/news/2562400... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
300 charities warn Labour: 'We won't comply with forced volunteering' | The National www.thenational.scot/news/2562400... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
November 14, 2025 at 9:45 AM
November 14, 2025 at 5:52 AM