Here we go again!

How many times have we waited with bated breath for the SNP rank and file revolt that never came? It seems that every year we anticipate the party’s conference, thinking this will be the one where the delegates grow a spine and dare to choose cause before party. Every year, we are disappointed. Last October, it was the Newington resolution, based largely on the thinking behind #ScottishUDI, which promised a major upset. That resolution didn’t even make it onto the agenda despite the efforts of myself and a few others to drum up support for the Newington resolution from outside the party. Again, the independence movement showed little or no interest.

It’s a strange thing. Every time there is an opportunity to give the constitutional issue a mighty shove, the independence movement is nowhere to be found. Both the 2021 and the 2026 Scottish general elections had the potential to be the trigger for a process leading to a proper constitutional referendum and independence. On both occasions, the independence movement chose to let the opportunity slide. The opportunities were squandered.

It looks like we’re about to go through the same routine again this year. The people inside the SNP who are trying to have the party reclaim the right to call itself the party of independence will get no support from the wider independence movement, and their efforts will be fruitless. That’s because the wider independence movement has not yet learned that however much they detest the SNP, it is the party in power. If we want action on the constitutional issue, it is the SNP we must target.

I am far from convinced that making a UK general election a de facto referendum will achieve anything. I am certain that a de facto referendum on independence will achieve nothing. What is the point in having a vote on something that can’t be delivered? What happens if the vote goes in favour of Yes? Nothing! Nothing can happen because the Scottish Parliament lacks the requisite legislative competence. That legislative competence is one of the many powers that are being withheld from the Scottish Parliament by the British state.

I know I’m being repetitive on this matter, but what else can I do when there is no indication the message is getting through? All putative routes to independence converge at the question of legislative competence. The fight to restore Scotland’s independence cannot proceed until the Scottish Parliament acquires the legislative competence to authorise a proper constitutional referendum. The only way the Scottish Parliament can acquire the necessary legislative competence is by taking it in defiance of the British state.

If the Scottish Parliament is going to assert the legislative competence under discussion, then it would be helpful if it had a mandate to do so. This is where a de facto referendum comes in. A de facto referendum can be used to generate a mandate. It has to be a Holyrood election, of course. But there is no reason a UK general election couldn’t be used as a dry run before the next Scottish Parliament election in 2031.

It would be good if at least one branch submitted a resolution for the SNP conference in October urging the party to adopt a strategy of generating a mandate for the Scottish Parliament to take the power to hold a proper constitutional referendum. It would be good if the independence movement then created a clamour for this resolution, such as would be difficult for the SNP leadership to ignore.

The National’s recent poll on a unilateral declaration of independence opened a door to a debate outside the confines of the independence industry. That door is swinging shut. We must do whatever we can to ensure this doesn’t happen. We must somehow get the word out to the voters that the politicians are lying to them and deceiving them all for the sake of electoral success and everything that entails.

Most importantly, we must not let the SNP leadership and the rest of the independence industry dictate the terms of debate. Then maybe this time we can get something out of the conference.

Here we go again!