Kenny MacAskill: SNP leadership should be listening to members

The National

15 hours ago

As our National Bard wrote, 'Now's the day and now's the hour'.
The former PM, after all, isn't just a Labour grandee but a lifelong party loyalist, never broaching criticism of the central machine, let alone seeking to intervene since his resignation as leader.
But his comments on the two-child cap on benefits and on poverty in the UK cut right across the bows of Rachel Reeves.
It's all indicative of the crisis engulfing Keir Starmer's Labour Government and the UK's accelerating decline, economically and socially.
Keir StarmerIt's a world away from Brown's 2014 sermons about 'the broad shoulders of the UK' sustaining Scotland, let alone supporting the poor and vulnerable across Britain, and equally distant from the promised 'pooling and sharing', as Scotland's budget tightens and inequality increases in the UK.
The UK is in deep trouble. Its economic situation is dire, its political direction even gloomier and global perception of it plummeting.
The 2014 boast of a 'force for good' rings hollow with the UK complicit in Israel's genocide and craven to Trump's US triumphalism.
Far from a post-Brexit 'New Great Britannia', the UK is a poor and third-rate power.
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It's also indicative of the lies told during the independence referendum campaign of securing membership of the EU, the strength of sterling and the safety from economic turbulence within the British bosom.
Increasing exposure of that fraud, along with the growing travails of daily life in the UK, are undoubtedly why independence support has remained so high, despite the failings of the SNP Government and the absence of any full-on campaign for freedom. It shows though that an opportunity exists.
That was why last week in this column I welcomed John Swinney's proposal of an independence convention, given the opportunity it offered for the movement and our land.
I did, though, caveat it that it had to be called soon and certainly before the election; be all-encompassing of the movement; and have a purpose which is realisable of making Holyrood 2026 a plebiscite election. That call was made not simply by the Alba Party but by other Yes groups and also by many SNP branches.
It was therefore bitterly disappointing to see it summarily rebuffed by the First Minister without discussion, and also that he did it at a Festival event, without firstly engaging with his party membership.
It's viewed as grossly disrespectful for a minister to make a major statement publicly before doing so in Parliament, and that applies to both Holyrood and Westminster.
It equally, though, applies to a political party when related to a major strategic or policy issue. The membership is surely entitled to be told first, especially when the subject is due for debate at a coming conference. It's disrespectful and also undemocratic.
At a critical time, internal debate within the SNP is being closed down and policy and strategy on this most important of issues left to leadership dictat.
I'm currently reading the late great Professor Sir Neil McCormick's biography which narrates many of the great debates which the SNP had over the years such as on independence in Europe and the Constitutional Convention.
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They were thrilling debates where the membership, sometimes narrowly, decided upon the change. It wasn't dictat from the top and the membership was energised and the leadership strengthened by it. Instead, we're left with the First Minister's strategy of pursuing the unachievable, to seek the unobtainable. The SNP are just not capable of delivering a majority of seats at Holyrood on their own. This isn't 2011 and John Swinney isn't Alex Salmond.
Moreover, Starmer and his Cabinet have already said no to a second referendum and nothing will change that. He's no more going to blink than did Boris Johnson, when we were last told that it was a given.
We need to push now, not sit tight. Yet there's no sign of that from the SNP leadership and Kate Forbes's departure is confirmation of that. Doubtless childcare is to the fore but it's hard to imagine that if she thought she was going to lead a nation to its destiny that she wouldn't have held on.
If the SNP wish to close the ever-growing gap between those willing to vote for them and those who support independence but won't back them, then they need to listen to the growing dissent within their own ranks, not just the voices who have already departed.
That means being serious about independence, not mouthing platitudes. The movement is bigger than any party or individual, the cause of independence transcends all.
The branches still pushing for a change in SNP direction and policy are to be commended.
If, as is likely, they are thwarted by the party machine, then Alba stands ready to work with them. But for a plebiscite election, not pursuing the unachievable to seek the unobtainable.