The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill is an offense to the democratic will of the people of Scotland. That cabinet ministers of the UK Government may make, by order, a unilateral decision on any law without parliamentary scrutiny and without the opportunity for members elected, at the behest of the people, to scrutinise such changes is reprehensible.
The sections of the bill relating to devolved competencies and retention of powers which should be devolved are an affront to the Scottish Parliament, to the Devolution settlement and to the Sewel convention. They should not be allowed to stand.
The fact that the UK Government has signaled an intent to press ahead without legislative consent is an affront to Devolution.
The decision of the UK Government to take the Scottish Government before the Supreme Court over the Continuity bill is unacceptable.
The fact that not a single promise from 2014 has been delivered in full to the people of Scotland, which in Scotland constituted a verbal contract between Westminster and the Scottish electorate has not been fulfilled and consequentially the Edinburgh Agreement is in abeyance, it being that such conduct did not "command the confidence of parliaments, governments and people"; and did not "deliver a fair test and a decisive expression of the views of people in Scotland and a result that everyone will respect", it being that failing to live up to pledges during such a referendum is not respect and as a consequence the decision is not a decisive expresion of the will of the Scottish people. An agreement based on false statements meaning that such an expression is made without a fully informed electorate and therefore the electorate should be returned to a point before said referendum.
In response to the current constitutional situation, at the urging of the membership, the executive committee of Forward as One, in line with the constitution of Forward as One did pose the question to the membership and to the executive that:
The Forward as One Committee does resolve to submit to parliament a petition to seek parliament to urge the Scottish Government to proceed with obtaining a section 30 order for the purposes of holding a second referendum on Scotland's independence from the United Kingdom and to participate in the subsequent debate before said committee on behalf of the membership.
While the petitions committee may assert that such a petition should not proceed on the basis of previous discussions and/or actions, we would impress upon the committee that the constitutional situation has changed dramatically and the executive committee of Forward as One is representing the views of the members in engaging their democratic right to engagement with parliament as defined under the European Convention on Human Rights and refusal to proceed by the committee would be a derogation of the convention without a legitimate aim. It being a public body would be in contravention of Section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998.