THE ongoing media fixation with the royal family has highlighted deeply flawed issues in the UK’s outdated dysfunctional system of governance. We live in a state where we the people are not even citizens in our own land. Rather, we are mere subjects, and therefore passive onlookers and spectators in a country which is not even a fully-fledged democracy. Scotland is not prospering within the overcentralised UK. In a sovereign, self-governing Scotland, the people will be the supreme sovereign authority, thus there is a need to provide a written constitution, authorised by the people; one that will clearly define the role of the various institutions that enable the operation of the state; the responsibilities of those who are running them and, particularly at local community level, provide for active participation by the citizenry.