SNP conferences of late haven’t been what they were in the aftermath of the 2014 referendum. Gone are the days when a carnival atmosphere ensued. That’s for the best. Those times felt like our conference was on loan to an impatient ‘Yes’ movement rather than a conference of the party of government, focused on ensuring good public policy choices and Scottish self-determination.
But absent too from the weekend’s 90th annual conference was the miasma of despair that hung over us as the Sturgeon-Salmond feud gathered pace. Even last year in Aberdeen during Humza Yousaf’s first and last gathering as leader, uncertainty lingered heavily. Now, after the storm of the election and with a leader who commands the confidence of the membership, the air has cleared, and it feels like SNP conference is beginning to be returned to the SNP.
This being so, it’s undoubtedly the case that we’ve gathered in better circumstances than those today: heavily defeated at Westminster, on our third leader in just over 12 months, facing a difficult election to Holyrood in 2026 and without a clear route to independence. To misquote Japan’s long-reigning monarch, Hirohito, these developments are not necessarily to our advantage.
Are we a party in denial? That doesn’t seem to be the case. Our latest First Minister John Swinney wasn’t for dodging a difficult discussion – and he was spot on when he confessed that we had to be a party for aspirational middle-class Scots once again. Having turned our cheek on the big successful coalition politics that has sustained our dominance, largely through a series of political missteps than a philosophical shift, John Swinney completely gets the need to rebuild that coalition. Indeed, it’s worth remembering he was panned back in 2007 for saying that we needed to be on the side of aspirational Scots.
Kate Forbes – in some ways the darling of today’s SNP – declared from the conference podium and every fringe event she attended that wealth creation, prosperity and economic growth are firmly on the SNP’s agenda again, after a period where these words were seen as unclean by some at the top of the party. And then there’s Stephen Flynn, my old boss at Westminster. On the theme of confronting uncomfortable truths, he told conference something that nobody at the top of the party would’ve previously dared utter from the podium: get patient on the independence question. The ‘page one, line one’ election mantra can’t remain in situ – and having retained his seat at the election in spite of the challenges facing the party, Flynn will undoubtedly be a key figure on what comes next. He possesses that one thing that I wish more politicians would: a low threshold for bullshit. The SNP only needs more of this.
Renewal whilst still in government is a task of immense difficulty.
Accepting the party needs to see change is only the first step. Did this conference manage to tackle the question of what comes next? There was a suggestion about setting up a convention of pro-indy parties to help avoid a ‘fragmentation’ of the pro-independence movement. While this may be useful in one sense – the wider movement needs to have some sense of inclusion – I’m not convinced it’s necessarily the most productive way forward for my colleagues. Far better to reach out to allies in the Labour party – and elsewhere – who understand that the constitutional question requires a tidier debate than we enjoy now.
Seeking a new way forward that codifies the circumstances for a future referendum and constitutional change strikes me as the most productive way to progress. This was thankfully a part of the conference agenda (albeit on the fringes of the event) involving the Public Policy Centre at the University of Glasgow. While there is of course a danger with getting ahead of oneself, I have a sense of hesitant optimism that a new and better concord between my party and the electorate is being born, albeit gradually.
Renewal whilst still in government is a task of immense difficulty. The Conservative party has faced similar struggles, and it didn’t manage to rebuild trust while still in power – the process is no doubt an uphill battle. However, if Swinney and Forbes manage to design the right policy platform around the pillars of prosperity, aspiration, resilience and fairness, then change is possible. This means tackling structural problems in education, health and housing, and having a tax system that people sense is delivering for them. Achieving this would mean the SNP could well bounce back in time for 2026’s election.
And, to be entirely frank, a bounce back may also be aided by the political weather in London which, for all the talk of optimistic change, seems to be souring post-election. In a matter of weeks, Keir Starmer’s Labour has gone from being our foe to part of our route to salvation, as they appear to be replicating the politics of the Cameron and Osborne years.
Of course, it is only one conference and there are countless hurdles, reforms, and decisions ahead. But the SNP isn’t out quite yet.
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