I'll just point out that today is the 690th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath. This is usually quoted as being Scotland's Declaration of Independence (especially from England) but that is IMHO just how our history was at that time. Much more important is the declaration that the king owes his crown to his subjects, and that they can and will remove him from the throne if he ceases to represent the interests of the nation. This is the invention of democracy in the modern world: Magna Carta, important as it is, contains nothing of this; in Magna Carta, King John was forced to cede certain rights to his subjects, but it remained that those rights were his to cede, whereas Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, derived his power from the Scots.
This has clear echoes in the American Declaration of Independence (hardly surprising when 10 of the 13 colonial governors who signed the Declaration were Scots), which is why Americans celebrate Tartan Day today.
It also shows in our constitution to this day: John was King of England, Robert the Bruce was King of the Scots (not of Scotland). In England the King was sovereign, in Scotland the people were sovereign. That means that in the present day in England Parliament is sovereign, while in Scotland the people are sovereign, as ever (the Union in 1707 was a joining of two countries, not the absorption of one into the other).
So you need not look across the Atlantic for a model of constitutional democracy for a sovereign people, whose government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed: it is right here, where it was invented.
Slainthe mhor!
This has clear echoes in the American Declaration of Independence (hardly surprising when 10 of the 13 colonial governors who signed the Declaration were Scots), which is why Americans celebrate Tartan Day today.
It also shows in our constitution to this day: John was King of England, Robert the Bruce was King of the Scots (not of Scotland). In England the King was sovereign, in Scotland the people were sovereign. That means that in the present day in England Parliament is sovereign, while in Scotland the people are sovereign, as ever (the Union in 1707 was a joining of two countries, not the absorption of one into the other).
So you need not look across the Atlantic for a model of constitutional democracy for a sovereign people, whose government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed: it is right here, where it was invented.
Slainthe mhor!
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