I DON'T think that it would be an understatement to concede that these are uncertain times for the SNP.
No party can hope to endure weeks of negative headlines without this having an impact on how the party is perceived and we are now beginning to see this reflected in opinion polls.
Where we don’t know what medium to long term impact this will have on the party one thing we do know is that all this attention is not having the same impact on support for independence.
People’s views on the constitution and desire to see their nation independent are not affected around the acquisition of motorhomes, police investigations or the hiring of auditors. It is determined by the fact that people believe that another type of future is possible and that future will be significantly better than the condition Scotland currently finds itself in.
That is not going to change any time soon.
What the SNP therefore need to do is to recalibrate and positively reconnect to our core mission and that means getting back to basics about securing independence for our nation.
We must use this period to assertively restate our case and align support for independence to support for the SNP. Every vote for the SNP must be seen as a vote for independence and every election an opportunity to progress the cause of an independent Scotland.
The referendum route to independence is now dead.
The UK Government have repeatedly said that they will not grant the necessary order or powers for an agreed process to take place. If anything they have become even more assertive in that view.
Where we have done absolutely everything possible to engage the UK none of it has had any impact on a Westminster supremely indifferent to democratic outcomes in Scotland.
With that Section 30 window closing we also tried to pursue a Scottish Parliament route to a referendum by having a referendum designed and delivered through Holyrood. With that we have also found that route similarly closed with the Supreme Court ruling that we do not have the necessary legal powers to conduct that referendum.
Beyond that the next stage was to treat the next election as a de facto referendum on independence and we were scheduled to have this debated at a special conference of the SNP.
This seems to have been quietly parked by the new SNP leadership and replaced with an approach which seeks to secure sustained majority support for independence instead. This currently leaves us without a clear independence strategy and this needs to be rectified as soon as possible.
What I believe should now happen is that we contest every election with the first line of each successive manifesto stating that ‘if the Scottish National Party secures 50% plus of the vote this will mean Scotland will become an independent nation’.
Every election will therefore become a verdict on independence and every vote secured for the SNP a vote to ensure our nation becomes sovereign.
This will not need to be a one policy manifesto.
For instance at the next Westminster election we also need to set ourselves up as the defenders of our Parliament and to state that we stand for the Scottish interest. We should also recommit to rejoining the EU and pledge to oppose Westminster legislation that damages the best interests of Scotland.
For Scottish elections we would also include a programme for Government. Scottish elections as well as deciding whether we should become an independent nation also determine the Government of the day.
We should therefore outline what we would do in Government initially as a devolved Government and further outline what more we could do as a Government in an independent Scotland. Independence as well being front, first and foremost should run through everything we pledge to do with every vote we secure.
We of course can not be responsible for how the UK Government would respond to the SNP winning such an election. The expectation would be that the UK follow democratic norms and accept the democratic will of the people.
But Westminster, particularly under this Tory Government, have never been the greatest respecters of Scottish democracy.
What we do know if we win such an election with 50% plus of the vote is that Scotland has decided to become an independent nation. Westminster might ignore democracy but it can not ignore hard fact and what has democratically been determined.
Demonstrating that Scotland wants to be an independent nation is the one thing that is within our control and the one thing that moves the dial about Scottish independence forward.
There is no magic wand that makes Scotland an independent country overnight there is only hard work. This is hard work made all the harder by losing an agreed referendum less than 10 years ago.
Everything we do must always be legal and democratic and we must work with the democratic grain that has been forever bound to our movement.
There have been calls for a constitutional convention and I have no issue with the establishing of such a fora. But this will only work if it is clearly defined and mutual respect is the foundation in which all parties engage. A code of conduct would have to be central to any working together.
More than anything we have to take our destiny into our own hands and fashion a course which we control. We can never be responsible for how the UK will respond to democratic outcomes in Scotland but we can demonstrate that Scotland wants to become an independent nation.
Our job must be to show that this is what Scotland wants. We may be facing an election in just over a year. It must be an independence election.
