How SNP created a 'grassroots' movement that could end their independence dream – Euan McColm

Of course, the SNP was pulling the strings. These groups didn’t just materialise. Somebody had to start them and that somebody was usually a card-carrying member of the governing party.

The SNP – keen, for very good reasons, to provide some evidence that support for independence was growing – magicked up grassroots groups the length and breadth of Scotland. And by putting the right people in positions of authority, the SNP ensured all these disparate groups were fully signed up to its strategy.

Flag-waving narcissists

The downside of creating these groups and, by extension, the idea of a “wider Yes movement” is that some of those recruited to assist started to think they were responsible for the independence campaign’s progress. Let’s not be sentimental about things. All the “creatives”, the Hell’s Angels for Freedom, the Businesswomen for Yes, the lot of them, were little more than participants in a series of SNP-orchestrated photo opportunities.

Support for independence did not grow because various narcissists waved flags on Calton Hill but thanks to a campaign designed by the SNP leadership. The party’s recent woes have sparked debate among nationalists about the future direction of their campaign.#

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Robin McAlpine of the Common Weal think tank has been excoriating in print and on the airwaves about what he sees at the failings of the SNP’s independence strategy, meanwhile the high-profile campaigner Lesley Riddoch reckons it’s time for an independence strategy beyond the SNP’s (whatever that may currently be). There is lots more of this stuff, online, with various nationalists demanding a campaign restart under the direction of the “wider Yes movement”.

Answers not angry lectures

This sort of thing is such glorious music to the ears of unionist politicians. Every nationalist who walks away from the SNP represents the further weakening of the independence cause. The people who must be convinced to change their minds if independence is to become a reality have no interest in listening to the flowery claims of performance poets for Scotland or the angry lectures of chippy Z-listers. They want clear answers to complex questions delivered by people who appear to know what they are talking about.

The SNP is in crisis and things may get worse before they get better but there is no other vehicle with which the independence journey can be completed. Members of the “wider Yes movement” are very good at waving flags and lying to each other about how well it’s all going from the stage at rallies in Glasgow’s George Square but there is scant evidence that any of these activists has a workable plan to achieve independence.

Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf, and now John Swinney, all failed on taking office to be fully frank with their supporters about how difficult it would be to deliver a second referendum. It’s no wonder so many people think there must be a better way. The fact is, however, only a united SNP, supported by the “wider Yes movement”, has any hope of ever breaking up the UK.