'I'M a bit of a pessimist," a laughing Kyle Renton tells me. "When you’ve been involved in politics for years and years, you become pessimistic."
Renton, 28 — described by Buzzfeed in 2014 as the "pro-independence Scottish teenager more popular on Facebook than the Labour Party" — is explaining his latest project. He, along with a handful of other activists, are spreading the word about the latest independence project by word-of-mouth and online, "the People’s Constitution of Scotland".
"I’ve voted SNP my whole life and I will continue to do so, but recently it’s not just me, it’s everybody – just seems to be a bit irritated. A bit antsy," he explains.
Renton believes "nothing seems to be happening," and explains his upset at the moves made by both former first minister Humza Yousaf and current First Minister John Swinney.
"The campaign has never really been restarted. The grassroots seem to be completely splintered. There are all these different groups – Liberation Scotland and Salvo, who are away to the UN. And I don’t really see that doing anything. It happened before ," he says.
He is referring to the attempts of Liberation Scotland and Salvo to have Scotland “decolonised” by the United Nations.
A Scotland-UN delegation previously visited the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in 1980.
Renton adds: "They actually had binders put in front of them in New York to ask about if they would consider Scotland to be colonised, but nothing ever happened. So this is your answer to it."
Renton has set up a website for the public to be involved in writing Scotland's draft constitution and in time, create a preliminary national assembly – a gathering of the people to carry the constitution forward and give it democratic strength.
Renton and the group of activists are inviting everyone to join in with creating the constitution, adding: "It isn't optional, it's imperative that it's the people that do this. I'm looking for nationwide contributions and then we will pull together a constitutional convention across the country."
The precedent
"Everybody floats the Claim of Right all the time – but it is a legitimate thing. The Scottish people are sovereign in Scotland," Renton says and points to MacCormick against Lord Advocate.
The case – perhaps the most famous constitutional case in Scottish legal history – saw John MacCormick (below), chairman of the Scottish Covenant Association and Rector of Glasgow University, and Ian Hamilton, one of the four who returned the Stone of Destiny to Scotland in 1954, request an interdict to prevent the UK Government from publishing any proclamation of a title including Elizabeth II.
Renton, who is a full-time writer, notes: "The Lord President of the Court of Session, Lord Cooper, actually quoted that 'the principle of the unlimited sovereignty of Parliament is a distinctively English principle which has no counterpart in Scottish constitutional law'.
"And that is when the Claim of Right was affirmed by MPs in Westminster, and again in Holyrood, and again recently in Westminster, stating that the people of Scotland have a right to choose whatever form of government they desire, and that the people are fundamentally sovereign.
"So in Scotland, the people are not bound by devolution. Holyrood is bound by devolution. There’s nothing they can do other than request another referendum. And it’s never going to happen. Not now. They’ve made that clear."
Renton sees activists, and all the different Yes groups across Scotland, still active but with no coherent strategy, and lots of different ideas.
"We’ve been separated by party politics and government policy, but the main goal we should all be focusing on and uniting under is that of independence," he says.
"So the idea of a constitution is that the people, being sovereign, not bound by the shackles of devolution, are able to create this constitution. They’re able to say, 'this is the Scotland that we want, this is the Scotland that we need as an independent state, this is what we want to see happening'."
The group has written a draft and is asking people to read it and suggest edits, retractions and any other points they feel should be included.
And once it’s finished, it can be given to Holyrood.
"We’ve done the groundwork, this is what the people want," Renton says, adding that they will tell MSPs, and then ask: "Why are we not moving forward?"
'Why don’t we create a preliminary people’s assembly?'
The second stage of Renton's plan comes after the constitution is in place. He wants to create a "completely unofficial" people’s assembly made up of the best minds, academics and leaders from all across Scotland, with Yes groups and "your average Joe".
"In preparation for independence, pull the grassroots movement back together, reunite everybody," he says.
"We’ll have a constitution, and if the party – the SNP, Holyrood – tries and tries every single option, then the next option would be for the people to make moves for the people: a people’s assembly run by the people, not bound by the shackles of devolution.
"We’re prisoners in our own land. The people’s assembly, with enough backing by the public – with campaign grassroots movements, lectures across the country by the best brains – again, this is after the Holyrood election – can go to Westminster and say, 'Holyrood is bound by these shackles, but we are not. We have created a people’s assembly. We have the founding documents. If you’re not willing to negotiate with Holyrood, then you can negotiate with us'.
"And that is, in my mind, the only way forward unless Holyrood’s willing to declare UDI [unilateral declaration of independence], which they’re not and they never will be."
However, the constitution is currently the focus.
This all depends on the political parties in Holyrood gaining a pro-independence majority in 2026, Renton knows. If they don't, he adds, "the vehicle for independence is gone".
I ask Renton, being a pessimist, how does he continue to have hope and drive to create this project? And how can the movement, tired and beat up, find that energy again to believe and assist in the project?
"There are very few things left that push me along," he laughs. "I’ve got two kids, I love my kids to bits — they keep me going.
"But the only other thing that keeps me going is my love for this country and my desire to see it unbounded from those shackles, to see an independent Scotland.
"And it doesn’t matter how it happens – whether it’s through Holyrood, Westminster or the will of the people – I just want to see it happen. And if it means I have to put my own time into doing it, then that’s fine.
"I really created this in hopes that everybody would get involved, everybody would want to be a part of it, and then I could hand it over to everybody else.
"I have no desire to front anything anymore. I just wanted to get the wheels in motion so that the country can pull behind it and make it happen."
Scots can get involved here with the project.
