The unthinking

Contrary to his assertion, Tommy Sheppard didn't "upset" me at the IFS Conference; he disgusted me. Although my initial reaction to his behaviour would be more accurately described as bemusement, the lasting impression is of a mind so tightly closed as to be barely functional. My abhorrence for unthinking party loyalty is well known. In Tommy Sheppard, we find dumb partisan devotion writ large.

Anybody reading his column will surely come away with the same impression. Sheppard starts with the unshakeable conviction that it's all about the SNP, then shapes his arguments so they lead to that conclusion. Anybody who witnessed his behaviour at that conference would be revolted by the hypocrisy when Sheppard writes of a need for "a new spirit of tolerance and compromise". Those words jar gratingly with the blank intolerance and rigid dogmatism of his response to being approached by someone presuming to suggest he might care to look at some thinking on the constitutional issue that was not strictly aligned with what had been handed down to him by the SNP leadership.

The tragedy is that the near-caricature close-mindedness exhibited by Tommy Sheppard is all too characteristic of the prevailing attitude in the SNP. An attitude that percolates down from the party leadership to the rank-and-file members by way of the main beneficiaries of electoral success and those who seek the rewards of elected office. It is very much a case of party before either cause or country. An attitude so deeply ingrained that party loyalists such as Tommy Sheppard fail to distinguish between electoral success for the SNP and progress for Scotland's cause. This, despite the fact that there is no discernible correlation between the two.

The SNP wants to claim ownership of the entire pro-independence vote. This is the clear subtext to Sheppard's column. The only way the drivel about splitting the independence vote makes any kind of sense is if the fight to restore Scotland's independence is exclusively associated with one party. In reality, it's not the independence vote that is split but the party vote. And THAT is what those in the upper echelons of the SNP cannot tolerate. They want the pro-independence vote all to themselves. They are absolutely convinced they are entitled to that vote. They reject the notion that their party's failure to deliver any kind of progress for Scotland's cause should be a factor.

There was a time when the single-party approach to the constitutional issue made perfect sense. I argued for it myself on the grounds that we needed to invest extraordinary power in the party of government if it was to go head-to-head with the British state. I was obliged to rethink my position as I watched Nicola Sturgeon take the power we had invested in the SNP and use it for purposes that had nothing whatever to do with Scotland's cause even as that cause languished in the doldrums for a decade.

Nicola Sturgeon killed the single-party approach stone dead. Dead beyond any hope of revivification. It is typical of the SNP leadership that they have declined to accept this and failed to adapt to the altered environment. They behave as if nothing has changed since 2012. The SNP headquarters should have a sign above the door stating that dissenting opinions and new ideas are strictly forbidden. A similar sign might usefully be attached to Tommy Sheppard's forehead.

Here is the truth that Sheppard and his ilk shun like the plague. The SNP does not own the pro-independence vote. It used to own that vote. Ownership of that vote was not taken from them. They gave it up. Having given it up, the SNP would have to work very hard to win it back. None of the leading figures in the party seem willing to undertake that work. The sense of entitlement is such that they suppose they need only portray those who have given up on the SNP as traitors to the cause in order to bring them back into the fold.

The truth is that there is no longer any reason for pro-independence voters to vote for the SNP. That there is no reason is entirely the party's fault. They have failed to provide pro-independence voters with a reason to vote for them. They appear to feel no obligation to provide a reason. The party demands the same blind, mindless loyalty from voters that it gets from people like Tommy Sheppard. That's not a good look.

Just don't approach the SNP with any ideas as to how they might go about regaining the support the party's leadership has wantonly squandered over the past decade. As I discovered, that approach is likely to be met with an unedifying exhibition of extreme intolerance.