Sovereignty and democracy
Enshrined in The Declaration of Arbroath
(1320) is the principle that sovereignty rests with the people. The
Declaration clearly states ......
Quem si ab inceptis desisteret, Regi Anglorum, aut Anlicis nos aut Regnum
nostrum volens subicere, tanquam Inimicum nostrum et sui, nostrique Juris
subversorem, statim expellere niteremur, et alium Regem nostrum, qui ad
defensionem nostram sufficeret, faceremus.
Yet Robert
himself, should he turn aside from the task that he has begun, and yield
Scotland or us to the English King and people, we should cast him out as the
enemy of us, as subverter of our rights and of his own, and should choose
another king to defend our freedom
There you have it. That Declaration of Scottish Independence, 675 years old,
states clearly that the people will choose their king. Not to be titled,
King of Scotland, but King of Scots. Emphasising this Celtic attitude
that the power of the throne is derived upward from the people.
This
contrasts markedly with the English concept of sovereignty where the monarch is
sovereign over the people and the land. Hence King of England, and not
King of the English. The two philosophies collide after The Treaty of Union
(1707) to the point where the Westminster Parliament now considers itself to
have absolute sovereignty.
This still raises inconsistencies today. On 30th March 1989 George Robertson
(Now Secretary General of NATO) and all Scottish Labour MPs (except Tam
Dalyell) signed a Claim of Right declaring that the Scottish people, not
Westminster, were sovereign .....
"We, gathered as the Scottish
Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the
Scottish people to determine the form of government best suited to their needs,
and do hereby declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations their
interests shall be paramount."
However, the view of the English
members of the Labour Party is quite different, in that they consider
Westminster to be sovereign. So Labour may say it will give Scotland a Parliament, but in reality they will not entrench its powers to prevent a
future hostile Westminster from abolishing it.
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