Analysing the crisis in the SNP and the future of the independence movement [during the leadership contest of 2023]
"I have seen first-hand the people power at the heart of the modern independence movement, and have been inspired by it. But no matter how impressive the organisers are, and how profound the impact of 2014, it is impossible to live off those fumes forever. Now, they have been extinguished. Recognising that, and fully appreciating the new context, is the most essential starting point if the future is to be shaped, rather than the past reenacted.
Such a moment can also be a time of opportunity if the intellectual straightjacket bound up with the post-2014 period can be removed, opening as yet uncharted vistas of thought and action in relation to the future of Scottish politics as it moves into a new chapter. The loosening of the SNP’s totalising grip may come to be viewed as a historic necessity in the development of the national movement. In the meantime, those on the left who disagree about independence can work together on a range of class issues and progressive policy proposals to provide a countermeasure to neoliberal Scotland in the devolved context."