by Rab Bruce’s Spider

Enough has been said and written about the SNP’s war on CyberNats and how the Unionist media has exploited the views expressed by some senior SNP politicians, but it’s the backlash from that sorry episode which reveals some interesting perspectives.

Anyone who has ever argued with a Unionist about independence knows that they all have this absolute conviction that anyone who is Yes is automatically a member of the SNP. Oddly, some Yessers also seem to be displaying this conviction. Yes, some people have announced they will be cancelling their membership of the SNP, but any gloating by Unionists over what they will no doubt portray as another civil war misses one major point. That is the very simple notion that you don’t need to be a member of the SNP to support Scotland becoming a normal country.

It’s also odd that a support which has been likened to a cult for blindly agreeing with any comment from the SNP leadership is now being mocked for … not blindly agreeing with comments from the SNP leadership.

It is a political reality that the SNP is the only vehicle through which our status as a normal nation can be achieved, but that doesn’t mean we necessarily agree with all their policies, nor with every comment made by SNP officials. Indeed, is there anyone who agrees with every single policy their Party stands for? OK, perhaps Scottish Tory voters have it easy there since their branch office only has one policy, but it’s not something which applies in normal circumstances.

But let’s hope the SNP get a grip soon. Some of the signals they are sending out are dismaying many of their most ardent supporters, and there is a growing feeling that some within the Party would prefer to maintain the status quo for the sake of their careers rather than risk everything on going for independence. I’m not sure this can be the whole truth since failing to push for independence would surely see the demise of the Party. Nevertheless, they really need to up their game when it comes to denouncing media misrepresentation, and they ought to display a bit more official support for things like the All Under One Banner marches because this would go a long way to appeasing the grumblers. It wouldn’t even need to be much more than an official comment that it is nice to see such a demand for independence from the grass roots.

It is that failure to be more outspoken and the suggestions that some in the Party want to become part of the Westminster system which is annoying many in the grass roots support. But even those individuals who have resigned from the Party are not going to suddenly decide to vote NO in another indyref. That’s not how grass roots Yes operates.