23 hours Ago
Such an approach was flawed from the start and it’s now been rendered completely obsolete. Keir Starmer has made it unambiguously clear, there will be no border poll while he is Prime Minister. He’s aiming for three terms in office, which means no referendum for at least the next 15 years, and agreement from the ultra-British-nationalist parties such as the Conservatives and Reform is even less likely.
Even if a UK prime minister couldn’t simply ignore such a deal, and we believe they both could and would, we don’t believe Scotland’s future should ever rest in the hands of polling companies and their week-to-week numbers. READ MORE: Scottish Tory bid to oust Maggie Chapman from Holyrood committee reeks of hypocrisy Independence for our nation is too fundamental to be reduced to market research. We said it was a terrible idea when Stephen Noon floated it, and it remains a terrible idea no matter who tries to dress it up and sell it.
You simply can’t polish a turd. Let’s be blunt. If we believed the UK was a benevolent democracy, we wouldn’t be independence supporters.
It’s the lack of democracy that drives this movement. So what happens when the UK says no, again? Or, more likely, “now is not the time”? Years will be wasted. If this is the position the SNP take into the 2026 election, we don’t expect much enthusiasm or buy-in from the wider movement and independence voters sitting out the election.
Worse still, this strategy risks eroding the SNP’s core appeal to those who vote for the party to deliver independence. If polling decides whether we even get to vote, and the final say rests with politicians like Ian Murray, then why vote SNP at all? That’s a question the party will have to face, because people are already asking it. And let’s be clear, independence isn’t the problem.
Support for it remains above 50%. SNP support, meanwhile, is in the low 30s. The numbers speak for themselves.
What we need is a new route, one that’s clear, credible, and democratically grounded. We support a national civic campaign, underpinned by a code of conduct, something we’ve supported steadfastly for years, and an independence convention. All of this is already SNP policy, overwhelmingly backed by members, but not implemented by the party leadership.
There’s also been a disappointing lack of engagement with the wider movement in recent months, a stark contrast to the approach under Humza Yousaf . Back then, Jamie Hepburn stood out as a genuine bridge builder, someone who recognised the value of a united, inclusive campaign and did much to build bridges across the movement. More than 10 years on from the referendum campaign, the Yes movement is still here.
It’s here to stay and ignoring it hoping it will go away, as had happened for much of the last decade, has not worked and won’t work. Above all, our ask for a route forward at the 2026 election is this – the legal power to hold a referendum must be transferred to the Scottish Parliament. A reasonable safeguard, such as allowing one vote per two parliamentary terms could be agreed.
However, the principle must be upheld: Scotland’s future must be decided by Scotland’s people, through our own Parliament. But we can’t just keep asking for this forever. At some point, we have to answer the hard and inevitable question – what happens when Westminster says no, again and again? We can’t accept silence or rejection indefinitely.
And on this Nicola Sturgeon was right, the only option left is to treat the next Westminster election, in 2029, as a de facto referendum. Calls for a Northern Ireland-style deal, feel like we’ve driven down a road, found a roadblock, loudly proclaimed we will find a way around the roadblock, reversed a few miles, changed drivers, complained about the roadblock and are now heading back down the same road towards the same dead end..
