(Swans - January 16, 2006) In "The Case For Scottish Independence" (Swans, November 7, 2005), Joe Davison seems to want independence on certain terms only, those terms being that it is an unambiguous socialist republic.

"In order to pursue any political objectives whatsoever, however, the first step must be national independence. It is quite obvious that the devolved settlement is not capable of making any substantial changes in Scottish society. Economic control remains firmly with the UK government as does broadcasting, defence, etc. Most importantly, on every international body the UK government misrepresents Scotland's interests by subordinating them to the wishes of our much larger neighbour."

"To gain independence we must prove that the public want it. People vote for political parties for a variety of different reasons and independence support is split over all the political parties. A substantial amount of voters for the traditional unionist parties, i.e., Labour, Tories, and Lib-Dems, are in fact independence supporters according to opinion polls."

Read the full article.

See also letters and Joe Davison's original article.