‘I was, I think, the last speaker, and after dwelling on the encroachments made by the Court of Session, confirmed by the final judgement of the House of Lords, and on the manner in which we had been treated in Parliament, where the voices of the Scottish Members had been altogether overborne by the English majority, I said, on the spur of the moment, that such injustice was enough to justify Scotland in demanding the repeal of the Union. With that, to my surprise, and somewhat to my consternation, the meeting rose as one man, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and cheering again and again. No doubt the enthusiastic feelings of the people assisted our object, but I took care not to speak of repeal of the Union at our subsequent meetings.’ *
Reverend Walter Wood of Elie, describing his visit to the south of Dumfriesshire in the winter of 1842/3 – demonstrating that the question of Scottish independence is not an entirely new one in the church!
At the end of November 2022, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish Government did not have a unilateral right to hold another independence referendum. This was in response to a case brought by the Scottish Government which sought to circumnavigate the clause in the Scotland Act which requires, under Section 30, an agreement from the Westminster Parliament for such a referendum to be held. In 2014 such an agreement was given and a ‘once in a generation’ referendum was held which although eventually clearly won by the Unionists was nevertheless far closer than had been anticipated.
