Someone tried to knock the idea of Abstentionism off the podium this morning….I wonder why.
So let’s start with what it’s not!
Well, it’s not new for a start and when used it didn’t fail! So I suppose we can safely say it’s not a ‘gimmick’ or a trick to attract votes.
Abstention works!
How does it work?
Abstention is only a tool towards Independence, once applied it would be up to our MPs and the Scottish government to take things forward.
Abstention would do two things, send a clear message that we will no longer play the Westminster game and get the ball moving in the right direction!
The intention of the ISP is to educate the people of Scotland of what is possible through Abstention, a road through a brick wall that thus far has been thought impossible.
They are sowing the seeds!
Westminster by their own admission would have to repeal the Act if we had the courage to walk away, then a newly elected Scottish government would have the job of getting on with it.
…..and work is on the way as to what kind of government we might want.
It’s a long process but no longer than the one we are enduring and losing at the moment.
Abstentionism ensures the start of the journey!
JOAN’S JOURNEY CONTINUES 
On the money as usual Joan. I saw the ‘gimmick’ comment and chose to ignore it. It is a sound, proven tactic to show the Westminster government that the Scottish electorate means business.
An excellent riposte to those who are stuck in the mire of the coloniser’s making. There is no way of achieving independence using domestic Westminster laws.
They passed the Scotland Act 1998 to create a Scottish Executive but that sounded too much like continuing colonial rule so they changed Executive to Parliament and tried to infer that we were getting closer to independence via Devolution.
Our elected representatives at both Westminster and Holyrood will never accept or act on Abstentionism, simply because it would be a personal and financial disaster for them.
They are quite comfortable with the status quo thank you very much and any concerns they have for their constituents or the people of Scotland come a very poor second to their own interests and that of their families.
After all, there is no guarantee that in a newly independent Scotland that any of them would be elected under our new electoral system and quite frankly who would employ them in any other role once they had lost whatever powers they had to support businesses and to do the bidding of lobbyists?
Most of them come with no other skills or experience other than as a supposed elected representative that cannot even get that role right.
That’s also why our political parties and especially their Leaders (ISP excepted) are terrified of Direct (Popular) Democracy. However, the more people hear about DD, the more they like the concept and they absolutely love the idea of having the Power of Recall.