Following the Scottish Parliament Election, is the Sun Rising or Setting Upon Independence for Scotland? The Times They are a Changin’

Professor Joe Goldblatt

During the recent 2026 Scottish Parliamentary election my wife and I knocked upon hundreds of doors from posh neighbourhoods in Bruntsfield to working class streets in Gorgie. It soon became clear that the electorate, my fellow friends, neighbours, and citizens were vastly divided in their opinions.

Approximately one third of the people we spoke with were considering voting for the incumbent SNP government, however, they also had deep and complex reservations because of their deepening cost of living woes.

Another one third were attracted to the Green party despite their lack of overall voting influence within the 129 seat parliament. The Green voters seemed to be mostly young people under forty yers of age who were voting to protest the establishment legacy parties and to demonstrate their protest of the older generations lack of more aggressive climate action.

However, the loudest and most vocal party was one I was surprised to meet behind both posh and working class doors. When I asked them they what party they supported they shouted at me “I am fed up with all of them!”

i quickly learned that all three preferences were equally valid and that as an regular party activist I must learn to listen harder to the concerns and fears of my fellow citizens. Interestingly, I rarely heard any hopes, ambitions, or aspirations upon any doorstep regardless of the socio – economic status of any of the neighbourhoods.

One woman who resided in a very wealthy street, was standing underneath a crystal chandelier and when I asked her what concerns keept her up at night replied “The cost of living crisis!” When I probes further I discovered it was the rise in independent school fees due to the new VAT policy of the Westminster Labour government that were her major concern. In other parts of the city the major concerns were deciding between heating and eating.

As my aching 73 year old knees made their way up many steep stairs within Edinburgh’s tenement buildings I began to hear in my memory the Bob Dylan song that he wrote in 1964 as he was just starting his career at the age of 23. During this time the Vietnam War was dramatically escallating, a new band entitled The Beatles were dethroning King Elvis while creating passionate support from millions of young people, and China was becoming a nuclear power. According to Dylan’s song “The times they are a changin'”

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’

Bob Dylan 1964

In 1964 I was one of those young people who were a changing’. I followed Caesar Chavez to march with thousands of other mostly young people to boycot lettuce as we protested the poor treatment of farm workers in Texas. Later I marched with even larger numbers to protest the Vietnam war.

When i turned 18 I took an even bolder step and applied for conscientious objector status to protest what I believed was an unjust and illegal war in Vietnam.

When I stood before four men wearing slightly worn army uniforms and smoking large cigars I was slighly intimidated and conflicted. I appreciated their brvery and service, however, my consciousness and values would not let me join their fight.

The chair of the draft board asked me if I was refusing to defend my country due to my religious beliefs. I explained that my religion had nothing to do with my decision to seek conscientious objector status. My decision was personal and represented my absolute objection to that particular war.

A few weeks later I was invited back to the draft board to sign the statement prepared by the government that included my reasons for refusing to fight. The statement was incorrect and included erroneous comments such as “He will not fight because he is Jewish.”

I demanded that the statement be corrected and begrudgingly the clerk agreed to amend my comments and I then, and only then, I signed and affixed the date to the document.

A few days later I received a letter from my draft board announcing that I had been granted my request for a 1-A-O, conscientious objector status. When I read the letter aloud to my mother, the wife of a former distinguished army veteran, she frowned and muttered “What will I tell people?”

Mama, soon realised that the times were changing. And so they are today in Scotland and all over the world .

Over time human beings have been able to progress historically through our ability to change and grow in order to address the complex natural evolution of society.

The 2026 Scottish Parliament election is yet another example of this change and growth in thinking that is happening all around us and we must now, just as my wife and I did upon each doorstep, listen more carefully to new ways of

moving forward together.

As the land of my birth celebrates the 250th anniversary of American independence we must ask and answer a similar question to one posed by the American patriot Dr Benjamin Franklin.

When Franklin stood before the Declaration of Independence document he noticed that the carving upon the back of the wooden chair placed before him was symbolic of the sun. He then asked “Is the sun rising or setting upon our country today?”

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’

Bob Dylan 1964

I believe that if all six political parties that have been elected to the Scottish Parliament must find through listening, respect, and when needed, comprimise, new ways to work together for the mutual economic, educational, environmental, social, and cultural benefit for all generations of Scottish citizens.

Then and only then will our often illusive Scottish sun representing both hope and ambition rise again.

Professor Joe Goldblatt has lived and worked in Scotland for 20 years. His views are his own. For more information about his views visit www.joegoldblatt.scot

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