Our next meeting, the Autumn Convention on Scotland’s Future, will be at Adelaide Place, 209 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4HZ on Saturday 8 November 2025, starting at 10 am.

The Convention will begin in great style with a talk by Scotland’s Makar, Pàdraig MacAoidh [Peter Mackay], on ‘What It’s Like To Be a Scot Today’, following the cultural theme with which we’ve opened all of our meetings to date. 

Following that, Jim Osborne of the Scottish Currency Group, who was one of the Poverty & Wellbeing discussion panel members at our Summer Convention in Perth, will discuss Pension Provision in Scotland, with a chance for the audience to have its say.

The whole of the afternoon session, in response to demand from Convention participants, will be devoted to discussing The Road to Independence.  It’s a large topic to cover in a short time, but we hope at least to begin new conversations about it, and we’ll no doubt be returning to it in future Convention meetings. 

Over the course of the afternoon we expect to hear from as many of the main areas of the independence movement as possible.  That will involve airing a range of viewpoints, but our aim will be to establish common ground, and a better understanding of how we might all move forward.

Our roster of speakers and panel participants for the afternoon session is still under discussion, and we’ll keep you up to date with developments on this page.

Attendance at the Autumn Convention is free, but booking is essential. If you’re on our Convention mailing list, you should receive an invitation to the Autumn Convention shortly, and you can reserve your place simply by responding to that.

For new Convention participants, the booking form is here.

What is the Convention all about?

The purposes of the Convention are –

• To bring people together from all over Scotland, free from party politics, to discuss matters of critical importance to the nation.
• To identify the huge opportunities awaiting Scotland as we proceed towards self-determination.
• To reach consensus on how we may deal with them to our advantage in an independent Scotland.
• To identify perceived obstacles to independence and how they can be circumvented.

Our Mission Statement, endorsed at the inaugural meeting of the Convention on 1 March 2025, is as follows:

       “Our aim is to provide a public forum which unites the whole of society with regular discussion and open debate, free from party politics, on matters of                critical importance to the nation, and with a clear focus on Scotland’s future and the achievement of meaningful self-determination.”

The Story So Far

Summer Convention 2025

The second gathering of the Convention took place on Saturday 14 June 2025 at the Salutation Hotel, Perth.  The programme was as follows:

• Stuart McHardy and Roger Emmerson held a discussion on the topic ‘Wha’s Like Us? A Look at Scottishness, Scotland and Independence’.
• John Hutchison, IFS Secretary, gave an update on ‘Scotland’s Future – Our Land’, with a report on the recent Community Land Scotland AGM and the progress of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.
• John Proctor, Chair of Energy Scotland, gave an update on “Scotland’s Energy Future”, with some calls for action by the Scottish and UK Governments.
• Geoff Bush summarised the Spring Convention discussions on “Scotland’s Democratic Future”, with some calls for action by the Scottish Government.
• There was an afternoon session on the topic of “Poverty and the Wellbeing Economy”, with contributions by Eva Comrie, lawyer and activist, William Thomson of Scotonomics, Craig Dalzell of Common Weal, Annie Miller of Basic Income Network Scotland, Dave Thompson of Christians For Independence and Jim Osborne of the Scottish Currency Group.

You can read a fuller account of the day here.

Spring Convention 2025

The first of a series of one day events on Scotland’s Future took place on Saturday 1 March 2025 at Greyfriars Charteris Centre in Edinburgh. The programme was as follows:

• Alastair McIntosh gave an opening address on “The Roots and Vision of a Nation”
• Ailsa Raeburn, Community Land Scotland and Laurie Macfarlane, Future Economy Scotland led a session on “Scotland’s Future – Our Land”
• Robin McAlpine, Common Weal gave a presentation on Doing Things Differently – “How Can the People Influence Risk-Averse Politicians?”
• John Proctor and colleagues from Energy Scotland led a discussion session on – “Scotland’s Energy Future”.
• John Brown and colleagues from Constitution for Scotland, Liberation Scotland and Campaign Group Respect Scottish Sovereignty led a discussion on – “Scotland’s Democratic Future”