WHO IS ENTITLED TO DECIDE SCOTLAND’S FUTURE?

This article started with reading a tweet: 

Which then prompts, the question, – if Scotland must make a future national scale decision on independence, or anything else for that matter, then who should be entitled to vote? 

Those of you who have been following our twitter for a while, will know that we’ve always been resolutely focussed on the scope of highlighting Scotland’s accelerating potentials, to use #BlockchainTechnology to underpin the security of future national decisions. As well as for the generality of all future democracy. 

Those conceptuals for Scotland’s blockchain democracy initiated on our twitter in January 2016. 

Fast forward to 31.7.2018 and Scotland’s government, in collaboration with their blockchain public infrastructure partner – Edinburgh’s Wallet Services, confirmed Scotland’s future democracy will be best underpinned with blockchain. Bingo!

It therefore isn’t a matter of, if distributed ledger technology will be applied to democracy, it’s when, where, how significantly, and by which organisations. 

20.9.2018 Mid Fife and Glenrothes MSP Jenny Gilruth lodged the Motion in Scotland’s Parliament, defining that future national decisions such as those in relation to independence and EU membership, are best underpinned with blockchain technology. 

Writing as at mid December 2018, our summary of existing best-in-world capability, is with Scotland’s political leaders, at the source request of Ian Blackford, Scotland’s Westminster Leader. This relates only to establishing a blockchain democracy platform, first cornerstone of The Scottish Common Blockchain, specifically to establish a national online register for measuring desire for independence. 

The generality of future election voting, is outwith anything newly submitted. 

Participation in The Scottish Common Blockchain could be accessed by anyone in possession of an existing or future National Entitlement Card. That’s where it gets tricky, … when asking who is entitled to an entitlement card? 

And ask yourself this in the meantime. Why should everyone go to all this effort to modernise and revolutionise democracy, so as to deliver absolutely flawless vote records, and so as to replace an archaic perception of trust, with the better modern variant of cryptographic proof, if the actual list of people who can take part in voting itself, is absolutely flawed? 

Whilst revolutionising democracy, as everything is starting with a blank piece of digital paper, the opportunity presents itself for our government to ask itself, what sort of democracy do we wish to aspire to become?  It will no doubt be accommodating and welcoming, but it certainly needs to modernise to reflect the needs of a modern and highly ambitious new democracy. And when it comes to eligibility to participate, it needs to say goodbye, absolutely, to the last remnants of imperialist mentality.

And which operating structure will oversee this new eligibility to participate? The UK Electoral Commission, currently oversees elections. To quote Henry Hill of Conservative Home, an organisation at the extreme polar opposite of Scotland’s ambitions for independence, quote ‘the home of Conservatism’, – drum roll please … Henry concludes that, ‘The Electoral Commission is Not Fit for Purpose. 

Scotland surely now needs its own brand new equivalent of the UK Electoral Commission, to oversee all new blockchain distributed ledger technology democracy? 

Fundamentally, surely only those people who permanently live in Scotland, should get to decide on future national decisions? 

Scotland’s blockchain democracy therefore needs to be underpinned with totally new rules for eligibility. In so doing, the 50% of people of Scotland who don’t normally even bother to vote in general elections, will perhaps begin to realise that their participation is valued, and makes a difference. 

Scotland can then start making inroads into emulating Scandinavia participation normality, circa 85% … 

It’s therefore now for Scotland’s government to determine, if and how the following groups of people, for example, should be able to participate. 

• Those from other countries (together with their families) who own holiday homes in Scotland?
• Those from other countries (together with their families) who own empty homes in Scotland?
• English citizens who are military personnel in Scotland. (England citizens in UK Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy personnel – and family members, based at Scotland’s many military bases, were eligible to vote in Scotland’s 2014 independence referendum?)
• Anyone who can evidence place of residence in Scotland, but cannot confirm PRIMARY place of residence in Scotland
• Those previously hoodwinked by postal vote thieves? Underlined, blockchain democracy can retain checkable records, for those who have been authorised by voters, to either assist with, or directly make proxy votes. 
• Those who have dementia. 
• Those otherwise mentally incapable of deciding for themselves. 
• International students?

If we may be so bold as to say so, there are currently circa 200,000 EU Nationals living in Scotland. Why not make things very easy? All these 200,000 people are immediately welcomed with open arms, into Scotland’s voting electorate. Thereafter, new arriving EU nationals (presuming Scotland has independence) should spend a certain amount of time living here, before becoming entitled to vote. How long? Here’s a tiny snapshot: 

In further conclusion, it’s one thing starting with a new definition of who gets to vote. It’s another thing entirely, defining new sets of rules to govern the actions and behaviour of those who wish to be remunerated for running our country. 

It’s time for Scotland to define that those who lie, cheat, spread fake news and disinformation, and those who illegally purchase election results – should be fully held to account. We’ll now get to work on an additional new article defining those new potentials. 

Best wishes all