SNP leadership has built an indy strategy that cannot deliver

The National

a day ago

Put together, they paint the same picture – the SNP leadership has built an independence strategy that can't deliver and isn't even trying to inspire people to believe it can. Swinney's 'route' is nothing more than this – win an SNP majority at Holyrood in 2026 and ask Westminster for a referendum. That's it.
No civic leadership to carry the case beyond party lines. No plan for public mobilisation. No day-one actions that show Scotland taking responsibility for itself. Just another request to London, built on the hope that what happened in 2011-14 will happen again.
But 2014 wasn't some rule we can repeat. It happened because Westminster thought it would win. It only said yes when it believed the risk was zero. That precedent doesn't work the moment it thinks it could lose. Swinney's entire plan rests on the false belief that the UK will eventually give in if we keep playing by its rules.
It also rests on votes he's never going to get. I'm not talking about people like me who used to vote SNP but won't any more. I mean those who support independence but will never vote SNP for reasons that have nothing to do with the Union.
Swinney's strategy needs them to ignore all that and back the SNP any way. They won't, and that means the plan is dead before it starts.
You can't weld a national movement to a single party when a chunk of that movement will never wear the party badge.
Robin McAlpine's piece made it clear – party leaders are the least-trusted messengers. Civic, cultural and professional figures are far more effective at shifting opinion, but the SNP have stopped working alongside them in any real way.
They've centralised the movement into a party machine and mistaken that for a national campaign. That's not strategy, that's self-interest wearing a Saltire.
Now look at Seamus Logan's Westminster diary. It's meant as a personal insight but it shows how normal Westminster life has become for SNP MPs – speeches, receptions, endless meetings, office routines.
I don't question the workload, but I do question the mindset. If the 'primary task' is independence, Westminster should feel like a temporary assignment with a hard end date — not a career track you settle into. The longer you adapt to its rhythms, the more you forget why you're supposed to be there in the first place.
The reality is that Swinney's plan isn't designed to win independence. It's designed to preserve control of the issue inside the SNP. It shuts out those who won't vote for the party, and it leaves the wider Yes movement sitting idle while the clock runs down. It's the politics of waiting, not the politics of doing.
History will remember them as futilitarians – leaders who turned Scotland's bid for freedom into a case study in how to waste a nation's hope.
James Murphy
via email
I HAVE read with great interest within this newspaper columns and letters on the strategies which could lead us to independence – demanding a second referendum; using the election as a de facto referendum; giving the people of Scotland authority by enacting a UN declaration and appealing to the UN for decolonisation.
While I would be delighted if any of these strategies did lead to our independence, I think they are all jumping the gun. I want independence yesterday but the sad fact is that at the moment we don't have a mandate!
Polling shows support for independence at around 50%. If approximately half our population favour independence, this means half are happy with the status quo.
How can we expect Westminster or the UN. To act in our favour with the country split down the middle? It won't, so we are wasting our time and efforts. Until we grow a settled, significant majority, all of the above strategies will get nowhere.
We must focus on growing our mandate first and then all of the strategies will become much more possible. The prime question is how to do this! Local and national politicians did not choose to abolish the Skye bridge tolls. It took brave action from protesters to force this change. Thatcher's poll tax was not defeated by the Labour Party opposition. It was defeated by protesters who refused to pay and who organised a mass movement through direct street action.
Similarly, as Robin McAlpine has explained in his columns this and last week, it can't be the SNP.
They are constrained to act within the devolution settlement so will never achieve the level of support we need.
The only people who can convince enough of our population is ourselves through united and visible action. Support for independence grew in 2014 during the referendum campaign from 28% to 45% and possibly it was only lost by false promises and a lack of policy within the SNP. The currency stance is a prime example.
Remember how the whole of our population was energised, with debate everywhere. This paper is a great help in relaying the message but it only reaches a minority. We need to recreate this debate by acting together to determine the people's constitution and prospectus for independence.
We could surprise ourselves by just how quickly we could achieve this boost. However, If we leave it to the SNP and other parties, it's not going to happen.
Campbell Anderson
Edinburgh
DOES onywan really believe that gin ilka person in Scotland o voting age voted fur an independence pairty, Westminster wuid tak ony heed? Keir Starmer is sic ae carin cheil he wuid niver ignore the wushes o the people.
Aa he wants is fur peace an understanding, the richt o sel-determination an respect fur national an international law. Humanity personified. Aye right.
George T Watt
via email