You can get The National's Real Scottish Politics newsletter free and direct to your inbox every weekday.
IT'S what isn’t on the SNP’s conference agenda this year that has prompted fury among party members.
Usually when National reporters get their eyes on the provisional agenda – which to be fair can be amended before the conference itself – we are obviously looking out for the most interesting motions, which are often about independence.
But this time, when it was leaked out on Thursday afternoon, a furious source told me that it was "unprecedented" that not a single resolution on moving independence forward was included.
The conference committee, they said, should only really be checking that motions are fit for purpose, not blocking things en masse because it isn’t politically convenient.
Numerous sources have told me today that there were multiple – one claimed dozens – resolutions from various branches that called for a de facto referendum in various guises.
When I spoke to a source this afternoon and asked how they felt about the debate on independence seemingly being shut down by the SNP leadership, they laughed.
“They are avoiding any discussion,” they said, completely unsurprised.
“All we’re going to see is drift from the party. Activists won’t be active, some members will leave. The SNP are turning into a Westminster-style party and not an independence movement.”
Another member told me that they believed John Swinney and the leadership had “messed this up” by trying to shut down the debate.
“There are no circumstances in which John Swinney can close down a debate at the SNP conference after the year we’ve had,” they said, noting Peter Murrell’s embezzlement of party funds, for one.
“He promised culture would improve and he shot down the most popular proposal for advancing independence.”
They added: “Let’s wait for Andy Burnham to change his mind, that’s the extent of John’s strategy.
“The branches will be absolutely fuming, it’s an affront to democracy.”
Those I spoke to were pretty miffed about the refusal to engage on independence strategy, to say the least.
It is a sticky position for the SNP; there are very few ways in which they can wade through the constitutional debate with a Westminster Government that is refusing to engage on the issue.
Legally, the Supreme Court ruled that Holyrood can’t hold a referendum on independence as it’s a reserved issue under Westminster’s control.
Politically, Swinney’s SNP majority push, using Alex Salmond’s 2011 win as precedent, failed just a few months ago.
But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t let members talk about it. That is democracy.
Swinney took the constitution brief into his own portfolio after the Holyrood election, after years of a Constitution Secretary and, briefly, an Independence Minister.
Questions will now be asked if that move by Swinney is in order to allow him to take the reins over the democratic route forward, or to stifle any debate about it.
On the independence motions that are actually in the provisional agenda; the first one seems baffling.
It reads: “Conference instructs the NEC to appoint an Independence Commission to update and renew the prospectus for Scottish Independence along the lines of the Scotland's Future booklet produced before the Independence Referendum.”
The Scottish Government has already renewed the prospectus for independence in the Building a New Scotland series, which covered a wealth of topics and was started by Nicola Sturgeon. The first one was published in 2022 , over four years ago.
That was then dropped as part of budget negotiations with the Scottish LibDems, but according to the Scottish Government, the series of white-papers was concluded anyway.
So what is the point of renewing them again?
One thing is for sure: the SNP members that I spoke to are not happy. Some on X/Twitter are threatening to quit their membership, others have called on the conference committee to change its mind.
The SNP are not divided on the issue of independence, but they are on how to get there. If the party leadership keeps trying to avoid uncomfortable questions then it will only deepen frustrations of the activists that it depends on.
.png?w=600)
