Peter A Bell
@peterabell.bsky.social
Thinker. Listener. Talker. Reader. Writer. No attitude immutable. No conclusion final. No opinion humble.
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
Power is never given. Power is only taken. That which is given is not power, but an affirmation of the power of the giver.
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
www.facebook.com/share/v/1DBC...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
www.facebook.com/share/v/1DBC...
Redirecting...
www.facebook.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Power is never given. Power is only taken. That which is given is not power, but an affirmation of the power of the giver.
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
www.facebook.com/share/v/1DBC...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
www.facebook.com/share/v/1DBC...
The British did not build a global empire by allowing its territorial captures an easy escape route through legal channels.
peterabell.substack.com/p/a-void-unf...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
peterabell.substack.com/p/a-void-unf...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
November 13, 2025 at 12:51 PM
The British did not build a global empire by allowing its territorial captures an easy escape route through legal channels.
peterabell.substack.com/p/a-void-unf...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
peterabell.substack.com/p/a-void-unf...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
A void unfilled
I define a route to independence as a sequence of actions with the restoration of Scotland’s independence as the endpoint. If it does not have independence as the endpoint, it is not a route to independence.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
I define a route to independence as a sequence of actions with the restoration of Scotland’s independence as the endpoint. If it does not have independence as the endpoint, it is not a route to independence.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
A void unfilled
Thoughts on the IFS Autumn Convention “Routes To Independence” discussion
open.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:30 AM
A void unfilled
I define a route to independence as a sequence of actions with the restoration of Scotland’s independence as the endpoint. If it does not have independence as the endpoint, it is not a route to independence.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
I define a route to independence as a sequence of actions with the restoration of Scotland’s independence as the endpoint. If it does not have independence as the endpoint, it is not a route to independence.
open.substack.com/pub/peterabe...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
A proper constitutional referendum must be binary. There can be only two options.
peterabell.wordpress.com/2024/11/27/a...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUD
peterabell.wordpress.com/2024/11/27/a...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUD
A true constitutional referendum
The following suggested criteria for a true constitutional referendum were first published in July 2023 as an appendix to the Stirling Directive. I republish them here following a conversation with…
peterabell.wordpress.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:20 PM
A proper constitutional referendum must be binary. There can be only two options.
peterabell.wordpress.com/2024/11/27/a...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUD
peterabell.wordpress.com/2024/11/27/a...
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUD
The SNP leadership has to change. Otherwise, the SNP needs a change of leadership
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
November 10, 2025 at 8:48 AM
The SNP leadership has to change. Otherwise, the SNP needs a change of leadership
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
#EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
Independence is the aspiration. A proper constitutional referendum is the destination.
drive.google.com/file/d/1V09l... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
drive.google.com/file/d/1V09l... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
Pete A Bell at IFS Autumn Convention - Made with Clipchamp_1762675252714.mp4
drive.google.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Independence is the aspiration. A proper constitutional referendum is the destination.
drive.google.com/file/d/1V09l... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI
drive.google.com/file/d/1V09l... #EndTheUnion #ScottishUDI