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Dave Coull · Hello

Hello I'm Dave Coull. An old age pensioner these days but quite active for my age.

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Hello Dave - welcome to Our-Scotland, I see you're one of the organisers for Independence First - hopefully by the time of the next rally we'll have an SNP led administration - unless your planning on having it before the election anyway. You weren't by any chance the guy in the kilt with the beard were you that was sitting on a wee chair down near the front of the stage?

Mctosh45

Welcome Dave, keep up the good work.

Dave Coull

Thanks for the welcome. Regarding the timing of our next Independence First demonstration, I personally think we should have it AFTER the election, to put pressure for an early independence referendum on WHOEVER forms the new executive, but there will be a motion at our meeting in a couple of weeks' time that we have should have it _before_ the election, and I have a feeling I will be outvoted. No, the guy in the kilt with the beard sitting on a wee chair down near the front of the stage wasn't me, that was Niall, our treasurer, counting the pennies we had collected in donations. It's Niall who will be proposing the motion about us having a demonstration _before_ the election.

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Ah right cool - I can see there would be advantages and disatvantages either way - having it before might keep the idea fresh in peoples minds and tempt them to vote pro-indy, but then having it after as you say will keep the pressure piled on to whoever gets in - tough choice. Good luck either way though Smile

Theresa

Welcome to the forum, Dave! And thanks for all your work. The Independence First folks are remarkable people! Very Happy

SLG

Hi Dave, welcome to the forum, glad to see more of the IF here Smile

We'll have to wait and see, but it looks pretty certain to me that the SNP will make gains and may even get the largest number of votes. I very much doubt they will manage to get the support of Parliament for a referendum. So in those circumstances, there would be huge support for an IF march IMO.

Would a march before the election mainly to put pressure on the Lib Dems to agree to a referendum as part of a coalition deal with the SNP? I think it would be difficult to get folk out for a large scale march at that time.

Dave Coull

I am not going to stick my neck out and predict the result of an election in six months' time, like somebody said a week can be a long time in politics, but what I _will_ say is that opinion polls over a number of years have consistently shown that, whatever political party folk may vote for,
a majority would vote for independence in a single-issue referendum. So we in Independence First intend to continue to press, with increasing vigour, our DEMAND for a referendum, as our internationally-recognised democratic right of self-determination, whoever is in government. Some of our members want a demonstration in March 2007, to mark the three hundredth anniversary of the very last sitting of the old Scottish parliament. I think the trouble with that is, it could be portrayed by the media as being a party-political thing, which could detract from our status as a non-party-political campaign.

I think it is better to have a demonstration sometime around late May, and I think this would get a LOT of support. So whichever parties form
the executive (and it does seem likely to be a coalition of one kind
or another) they would be reminded that the demand for an early referendum on independence, which we first placed before both the Scottish Executive and the British government on the 26th of June 2006,
is right at the top of their in-tray.

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Whats actually happening with the petition atm? is it still collecting signatures or has it moved on to a different stage?

Dave Coull

The Independence First e-petition to the Scottish Parliament stopped collecting signatures on the 31st October, and has moved on to the next stage. It will be considered by the Petitions Committee of the parliament on Wednesday 15th November, a week from today. Sometimes the committee asks petitioners to speak to them when they consider a petition, but they haven't asked for anybody to do so in this case. A limited number of seats are available for members of the public to watch proceedings of the petitions committee, but you have to book in advance. I'm not sure if there are any public seats still available now or not. Even if the petitions committee should reject our petition, it was still well worth doing, because it has helped to raise awareness of the fact that there is a non-party-political campaign which is demanding a referendum on independence. Also, consider this: before the United Nations will consider investigating any complaint against a member state (and of course a complaint can be under investigation for many months), it requires that "all domestic means of redress have been exhausted......."

We have written to the Scottish Executive and to the British Government
stating our claim of right for a self-determination referendum, we have held a march to the Scottish parliament, and we have petitioned the Scottish parliament.

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" Also, consider this: before the United Nations will consider investigating any complaint against a member state (and of course a complaint can be under investigation for many months), it requires that "all domestic means of redress have been exhausted......."

Some interesting times ahead Very Happy

azzuri

Sorry to hijack the emerging thread here but welcome to the forum Dave - hope you enjoy it!

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