Holyrood campers vow to fight legal action to eject them

The campaigners said they have lodged papers at the Court of Session after the Scottish Parliament launched legal action against them – the 21 day limit for them to respond to a notice to quit the grounds expired yesterday.

But Holyrood bosses said the two caravans and five tents which have been on the Parliament’s land since November are close to the main entrance of the building and are preventing other people from using the public space.

They added their presence may also bring into question Holyrood’s impartiality so far as the independence debate is concerned.

“Gary”, a representative for the camp said, however, told a pro-independence broadcaster that the encampment was on “our land” and that no laws were being broken.

He added the activists had a right at common law to the land. On May 1, he said, people in Scotland would take to the streets to demand independence in solidarity with pro-independence campaigners in Catalonia.

Gary added: “No political party, no MSP, no MP, no nobody can get you your independence other than yourself. We need to take our independence.

“You’re born sovereign on the land. You’re a King and Queen within your own right. You need to grasp that. You need to realise that the only way that you’ll get something is to take it.

“It’s your right of claim… which again goes back to the Declaration of Arbroath, the Scots law before the Union.”