Why The Claim of Right Matters
Aye, right. Fuel costs a fortune, folk are talking about heating or eating this winter and you think a bit of old Scottish legislation is the answer?
No, we don’t. But what we do believe is the answer is using that old bit of legislation – called the Claim of Right, by the way – to get out of the UK. To get out of this corrupt Union that doesn’t serve our interests. And then using that old bit of legislation to build a better Scotland. A Scotland that doesn’t have food banks. A Scotland that uses its own green energy to heat its houses and power our industries cheaply and export what we don’t need to make us rich.
It’s not just about independence. It really isn’t. But without independence, we can’t do anything. But with independence, the Claim of Right upholds the sovereignty of you, the Scottish people over all other authorities, including parliament. The Claim of Right matters.
- It matters because it empowers the people of Scotland to save themselves from the injustice, hunger, inequality, austerity and desperation being visited on them by the powerful, the wealthy, the privileged and the greedy.
- It matters because it tells us why we hold certain values so dear, why we feel injustice and inequality so deeply and helps us to remember and know again who we are, individually and as a nation.
- It matters because it provides the Scottish people with the power to ‘sack’ an oppressive and corrupt government through a tribunal, known as the Convention of the Estates, and replace it with one that will serve the common good and uphold the sovereignty of the people. We can depose the government.
- It matters because the Claim of Right empowers the Convention of the Estates to act as a parliament, to reinstate civil rights and freedoms, to act as an ‘ombudsman’ over any elected government and to ensure that the principles of the Scottish Constitution are upheld.
To sum up, this constitution matters to our knowing of who we are and where we come from; it matters to our understanding of how we got to where we are today; it matters to our understanding of what we are really capable of doing and entitled to do; it matters to the rights we should have today and which we are entitled to reclaim; it matters to our relationship with any government and our power to hold it directly answerable to the people. And it matters, above all, to the kind of nation and the kind of world we have the right and the power to choose and to create for ourselves.
We Have an Ancient and Modern Blueprint for Our Future
It’s your Claim of Right. You can use it to kill the Union with England and get on with building a better country. You can serve on a Convention of the Estates. There will be conventions called for all of Scotland – it’s not centred on Edinburgh.
If you want your own country to return to governing itself and to create a better country, start by joining Salvo. Then download the booklet this page is based on. And tell everyone – your family, friends, and colleagues. Spread the word. We will do this.