by Rab Bruce’s Spider

Are we seeing the first signs of the campaign for IndyRef2? That’s from the Yes side, since the Unionists have never stopped campaigning, but perhaps the Scottish Government are beginning to put things in place in anticipation of another IndyRef when the full calamity of Brexit becomes apparent.

The Programme for Government announced last week was full of exciting, progressive ideas. Of course, the Scottish media concentrated on the tax hikes which weren’t included but only mentioned as a possibility. This, of course, is the infamous Tax Trap which the Tories set, and they are doing their best to spring it even though no tax rises have been announced. Having spent the past few years calling on the Scottish Government to use the powers it has – even though powers over Income Tax only came into force this year – they are now squealing about the possibility of tax increases to fund the very things they are claiming the Scottish Government needs to do. Hypocrisy is becoming an overused word when it comes to the Unionist Parties, but it is very apt when talking about the Tories and the Tax Trap.

But let’s get back to the Programme For Government. From environmental issues to scrapping the Public Sector Pay Cap, the Scottish Government clearly intends to use its limited powers to improve things in Scotland in some quite radical ways. Of course, some of the announcements are aspirational and are very long term, which means they could be completely derailed if the SNP are ever voted out of power, but at least they are showing some ambition.

The most important announcement, though, was the creation of a Scottish National Investment Bank. Not only is this an excellent idea for creating funding for national investment, it is a clear signal that this new Bank could become the foundation of a new Central Bank for an independent Scotland which has its own currency. This is one of the vital building blocks of any nation, and we should not underestimate the importance of this new Bank. The sooner it is up and running the better.

Less well publicised is the fact that the Scottish Government are sending "ambassadors" to several overseas posts. They are not official ambassadors, of course, with their stated objective being to help foster relations in order to boost trade and inward investment, but the very fact that the Scottish Government is doing this at all suggests that, at last, they are beginning to realise that, as a step on the road towards becoming a normal country, Scotland needs to act as if it is already independent.

There is no doubt that the First Minister’s call for IndyRef2 in the wake of the Brexit vote backfired slightly, but that’s because of the anti-SNP media stance and the fact that most people haven’t yet realised the true impact of Brexit. The danger in waiting is that the media will normalise Brexit and persuade people that it would be better to stick with an insular, xenophobic, Right Wing, Austerity-driven and economically impoverished UK than to take the step into the unknown waters of independence.

Except, of course, that these are not uncharted waters. There are around 200 independent nations in the world. Many of them have problems, but Scotland is ideally placed to become a stable nation with a wealth of natural resources and an outward-looking philosophy. We already comply with all EU requirements, we have more natural resources than just about any other country of our size, and we have a long tradition of producing inventors and innovators thanks to our excellent universities, five of which are in the top 200 in the world. For a nation of 5.4 million people, that is quite phenomenal.

So, let’s hope that we are indeed taking those first steps and that, when the time is right, the SNP will come out with all guns blazing. With support from the greens and the wider Yes movement, we might just be able to persuade enough people that British exceptionalism does us more harm than good. We’ll only get one shot at it, so the foundations need to be in place. Fortunately, the Scottish Government appears to be laying those foundations.