Is it Alba's time?

Kenny MacAskill is correct when he says, “It’s not the need for independence that requires pushed but the how”. [Here is what is wrong with John Swinney’s election plan] The problem is that just as Swinney’s ‘strategy’ is convincing only to those already in the SNP camp and longing to be convinced, Kenny MacAskill’s ‘strategy’ is credible only to those who desperately want it to be credible. Plain old-fashioned Scottish nationalists like me wish only a plague on both these partisan houses. Neither one of them is offering the radical solution that Scotland’s particular situation demands.

Neither Alba Party nor the SNP is proposing a genuine strategy for restoring Scotland’s independence because that is not what the leaderships of these parties are looking for. They are considering only what works for themselves and their party. Kenny is right that Swinney’s ‘strategy’ is “all about keeping the SNP in power at Holyrood”. But his own ‘strategy’ is entirely about challenging the SNP for that power. Both party leaderships are solely focused on electoral success.

The leaderships of both Alba Party and the SNP have come to suppose that the aims of the independence movement and their personal/partisan ambitions are one and the same. It suits John Swinney to suppose that what is good for the SNP is good for Scotland’s cause. It suits Kenny MacAskill to believe that what benefits Alba Party benefits Scotland’s cause. Thus, two tribes go to war.

People pick a side. Those who pick the SNP tribe defend Swinney’s ‘strategy’ because it is the ‘strategy’ of the tribe they are part of. Those who choose Alba Party defend MacAskill’s ‘strategy’ because that is what they have to do as members of that tribe. The actual worth to Scotland’s cause of either strategy ceases to be a consideration. That it is theirs because it is right becomes conflated with it being right because it is theirs. The practicalities don’t merit any though whatever.

This dearth of pragmatic reflection may be most clearly seen in relation to the Swinney ‘strategy’. The National did a vox pop as delegates were leaving the hall after the vote at the end of the ‘independence’ debate. The following is typical of the responses.

There’s a lot of thought process that has gone into it, and I think it’s the right time to talk about independence and get to the voters as soon as possible.”

I think it’s a fresh look at it, and I think it is something that we need to get to the voters.

This individual appears to genuinely believe that Swinney’s ‘strategy’ is “fresh” and something that has been given a great deal of thought. In reality, it is a straight copy of the procedure for the 2014 sham referendum. Moreover, John Swinney has actually told this individual that it it is a straight copy and thuse required no thought whatever. He is quite open about the fact that he wants to repeat everything that happened from the 2011 election onward, while hoping for a different outcome. This individual has been told all this by Swinney himself. Yet the feel compelled to believe something which cannot be true so that they can continue to support Swinney in the manner expected of a member of the SNP tribe.

Pretty much the same thing happens with members of the Alba tribe. They flatly refuse to listen to, never mind think about, any of the problems with the plebiscite election ‘strategy’ being pushed by Kenny MacAskill as he desperately tries to counter the SNP’s to date successful use of ‘independence’ as an electioneering device. It has to look like a different strategy. In fact, it is nothing more than a different way of obtaining a mandate to do the same thing.

The point is that Alba supporters decline to know the flaws and deficiencies in the MacAskill ‘strategy’. Primarily, the fact that a plebiscite election can never be as conclusive as a constitutional referendum needs to be. Alba supporters choose to believe that the MacAskill ‘strategy’ will work because that is what is expected of members of the Alba tribe.

Neither set of supporters is looking at their party’s proposals objectively and dispassionately. Neither tribe is subjecting either proposal to rational scrutiny. I may be overstating for effect. But not by much. Both sets of supporters adhere to what is no more than the width of a midgie fart away from being a faith position.

This is no way to run a liberation campaign! Which is only to be expected given that neither Swinney nor MacAskill is trying to run a liberation campaign for Scotland. They are both engaged in running election campaigns for their parties.

After yesterday’s conference vote, the SNP must now be considered a lost cause. For probably too long I clung to the hope that the SNP would be turned around by the combination of internal dissent and external pressure from such as the Manifesto for Independence Petition. The hoped for rebellion within the SNP didn’t materialise, and neither did the external pressure from the independence movement. It’s like everybody decided to just let John Swinney get on with it. It’s as if nobody, bar a relatively tiny faction, was interested in finding a real strategy for independence. They just want the win for their party.

That the SNP has no intention of restoring Scotland’s independence does not alter the fact that they are on course to be the largest party and party of government after the 2026 election. The public will for the most part, remain ignorant of the fact that the SNP has no strategy for independence largely because the mainstream media won’t tell them. In fact, the media will lie. All the public will see is headlines like the following from The National. [emphasis added]

SNP members vote for John Swinney’s independence strategy

SNP members react as John Swinney independence strategy passes

The polls are telling us that the SNP will continue to dominate. That means that the 2026 Scottish general elect will not be used to progress Scotland’s cause. Persuading the party best placed to do it was always the obvious first choice. Now that it is clear the SNP will not do what is required, we must look elsewhere. As I see it, there are two possibilities. Three, if you count just giving up.

What is needed is a party with a strong, radical proposal for restoring independence to run against the SNP. A party which the whole independence movement can get behind. A party which, with sufficient effort, can be made to rival the SNP in the space of less than six months.

We should have no qualms about running against the SNP because not only has it failed Scotland’s cause for the past eleven years, and not only has it declined to make the 2026 election the trigger for a process leading to independence, it is proposing that Scotland’s First Minister acknowledge the British state’s veto on the exercise of our right of self-determination, validate the alien doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and deny the sovereignty of Scotland’s people. What John Swinney proposes is not only woefully bad as a ‘strategy for independence, it is a fully-fledged act of treachery. Nobody who values Scotland’s distinct political culture and national identity could possibly vote for what Swinney proposes. To do so is to be complicit in an act of betrayal. To vote SNP is to be an accomplice to Swinney’s intended treachery.

Where might we look for the party that will be true to Scotland’s cause. Most readers will be aware that with a small team and an even smaller budget, I started to launch just such a party almost a year ago - New Scotland Party (NSP). When I launched NSP I stated that although we wanted to be ready to stand candidates, we had no plans to do so in the 2026 election. NSP was eventually put on hiatus as we concentrated on the #ScottishUDI strategy and the Manifesto for Independence Petition.

Given the present need for a real ‘party of independence’, a relaunch of NSP has to be considered. But it would be a monumental challenge to go from a standing start to electoral challenger in only a few months. And the cost would be enormous. While keeping NSP in mind, we must seek some other prospect.

I always hoped that Alba Party would become the radical alternative to the SNP it should have been from the outset. Some very unfortunate choices were made by the party’s leadership in its early days and the price is still being paid. But political parties are rightly just the vehicles for political ideas. There is no practical reason Alba Party could not transform itself by taking on board the new thinking behind the #ScottishUDI strategy.

The opportunity is there. Will Kenny MacAskill pick up the baton that John Swinney has thrown away?