WHERE NOW after last week’s General Election? The future looks bleak. Another decade of brutal austerity from the most right-wing, reactionary, Tory Government in my memory. The sacrifice of our influence, citizenship and future in Europe on a false altar of one-nation Conservatism.

The terrifying prospect of voter ID for future elections, gerrymandering of constituency boundaries, limiting the ability of the courts to uphold the rule of law by a government that doesn’t play by the rules. The Tories plan on locking power at Westminster for themselves for a lot longer than five years.

Imagine being an EU citizen, immigrant or refugee in England today. What fresh hell will come your way from the half-formed dog-whistle utterances of the Prime Minister? Boris Johnson’s Trump-like transmogrification is near completion. Make no mistake, we are at the abyss.

When Jo Swinson resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrats last week she castigated the “rise of nationalism” across England and Scotland. She was wrong to conflate the increasing xenophobia of Brexiteers in England with the aspiration of those who want Scotland to be independent.

Wanting to be the same as any other country across the globe and run your own affairs is the most natural thing ever. I’m not a nationalist. I joined the SNP in early 2017 after many years as an activist in the Labour Party.

I had watched the steady and brutal decline of my working-class community from the rise of Thatcher in 1979 and through the 1980s when long-term unemployment became common place for the many. Good, hard-working people lost their dignity. People and communities became broken. We now face the same except on a worse scale.

For 30 years of my lifetime, the Tories have been in power at Westminster. We get the government our southern neighbours vote for. For me, the key turning point in moving from No to Yes was the realisation that Scotland is diverging more each day from the rest of the UK. Last week’s election showed that so powerfully.

The 1940’s social contract that bound the UK – a convergence on a common welfare state and NHS – has broken down. The NHS is being privatised in England and will now be opened up to the ravages of the USA’s Big Pharma; the bulk of England has chosen to cut itself adrift from the EU regardless of any economic argument.

It has taken me a long time, but I’ve realised we will never achieve a progressive and fair society within the UK. The see-saw politics of Tory and Labour governments at Westminster has resulted in several failed generations in my lifetime. For me the only way to deliver radical and progressive change in Scotland – the kind we have seen from the Scottish Parliament – is for a new referendum on independence.

Scotland is entitled legally,

morally and politically to decide whether to take control of its own destiny and future. The fact the SNP won a landslide in Scotland last week tells you that people want to choose a different future for Scotland. This week the First Minister will set out her plans for a new independence referendum. Westminster has no moral or political mandate to deny our right to choose a different future for Scotland.

The Tories have no mandate in Scotland. They stood on a ticket claiming voting for them would stop a second independence referendum. In Scotland, they lost the majority of their seats, while Labour were all but wiped out.

The LibDems are like one of those extra attachments you get when you buy a new hoover. Utterly useless and irrelevant. The LibDems are illiberal in their opposition to our right to choose a different future for Scotland.

It is heartening to see some Scottish Labour politicians now accepting Scotland has the democratic right to hold a new independence referendum. And yet there are many in that party who would deny the people a democratic choice. Unless Labour in Scotland starts respecting the right of Scots to choose their own future it will go the way of the LibDems.

I want to see the Scottish Parliament take power to legislate for a new independence referendum so that Scots can choose. If the UK Government continues to refuse that right, then all other legal options should be pursued. Ultimately, a continued denial of democracy will be the death knell of the Tories in the forthcoming Holyrood elections, and will make an overwhelming case for Scottish independence.

I want to be able to choose a Scotland where we eradicate rough sleeping and homelessness. Where everyone has a decent home. Where food banks aren’t needed because no-one goes hungry. Where our welfare system is compassionate and humane. A safer and stronger NHS. Where everyone has the right to the very best education. Where rights for all workers are real.