Secret fury?

When I saw yet another headline in The National referring to a certain amount of disquiet among SNP activists in the wake of the party's woeful performance in the Hamilton by-election, I thought my earlier article Rumblings in the ranks might have earned me some 'Telt ye!' privileges. Then I noticed the reference to "quiet anger" and I thought, what hell is the point of that!?

In that earlier piece I speculated about the possibility of an "internal revolt against the Sturgeonist cabal which effortlessly hijacked the SNP in the months and years subsequent to the 2014 referendum". The comments from SNP activists quoted anonymously in today's Nation hardly suggest an appetite for outright revolt. They barely seem willing to complain or criticise aloud. They certainly don't want to be identified. In other words, they are not prepared to stand up and be counted even when offering only the most innocuous critique.

It is almost as if these SNP members think there is something improper about their anger. They seem almost ashamed to be a bit annoyed with a leadership that has done enormous harm to the party while totally failing Scotland's cause. The impression is left of them being apologetic when by all logic and sense it is they who are due apologies from a party leadership that has taken their loyalty for granted while recklessly squandering their efforts on behalf of both party and cause.

I fear "quiet anger" won't cut it. If the cabal in control of the SNP has any talent at all it is a highly developed talent for selective ignoring. Their lack of awareness has become legendary. There is so much that they choose not to know, one wonders at times if there is anything left for them to have genuine knowledge of. John Swinney demonstrates this idiosyncratic reading of the room when he compares the Hamilton humiliation to a previous even more pronounced electoral trouncing in order to portray it as an "electoral success". One suspects that by tomorrow he'll have convinced himself the SNP actually won in Hamilton.

You are not going to penetrate that kind of armour against reality with rubber spears of "quiet anger". To so much as make a dent, the anger has to be loud. The angry voice won't pierce the protective shell surrounding the SNP leadership unless it piercing. If it is no time for the leaders to be timid, then it is surely no time for similar timidity from those to whom the leaders are supposed to answer.

The SNP's culpability for the failure to progress Scotland's cause is beyond question. But when there is such an obvious and easy villain of the piece it can make of them a very convenient dumping place for all blame. It would be serious folly for SNP members to forget their own responsibility in all of this. And to perhaps a lesser extent the same goes for the entire independence movement. We get the political parties we make. Or we get the political parties we allow others to make. By our actions or our neglect, we all have contributed to the current dire state of the 'party of independence'. And to the parlous condition of the campaign to restore Scotland's independence.

We cannot and must not leave it all to the career politicians. It must be plainly evident to all by now that left to their own self-serving devices the professional politicians will invariably fuck things up in ways ranging from the trivial to the monumental. If there is something we want from the political system, we must be a force within that system. We must make our presence felt. We must make ourselves visible. We must ensure our voice is heard.

Quiet anger won't get the job done. Get loud!