HERE is today’s sermon: there are no short cuts in politics. Frustrating as it is, getting millions of people to move in a progressive direction at the same time is difficult. It takes dedication, discipline and enormous amounts of patience. Often, decades go by with nothing much to show except sore knuckles from chapping strangers’ doors and too many forests-worth of leaflets dispatched into the void.

But here’s the pay-off: the world does change. Deep down, human beings are predisposed to rise up against inequality, oppression and stupid rulers. No matter how hard the particular establishment of the day tries to convince us we are all powerless, atomised individuals who should hunker down and let our “betters” run the show, every so often humanity recognises its collective strength. It gets up off its knees and changes the world for the better.

Real politics is about preparing the ground for such social revolutions. It’s not about gimmicks. It is not about throwing the toys out of the political pram. It’s about graft, persuasion, and seeking the weak spot in the oppressor’s specious arguments; then exploiting them until the popular will hardens enough to cast off the chains.

All of which is a preamble to explaining how irritated I was by the story (in the Murdoch-owned Times of all places) that Stuart Campbell – protean force behind the Wings Over Scotland blogsite – is contemplating launching a new pro-independence party. Says comrade Stuart: “I think the SNP is a shambles at the moment. It doesn’t know what it’s doing.”

READ MORE: Wings Over Scotland founder plans to start new party

For the record, I don’t doubt Mr Campbell’s organisational capabilities. His mastery of social media suggests he is more than capable of masterminding a web-based, European-style populist movement outside the SNP, drawing on the very same frustrations with the SNP Holyrood leadership that have already spawned the All Under One Banner (AUOB) marches.

I also note the intriguing caveat tucked away in Campbell’s Times interview that he will only actually decide to fire the starting gun for a new Wings party nearer the date of the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections. Clearly, he is kite-flying in the best tradition. But kites have a habit of carrying the kite flyer into the stratosphere on windy days. And we’ve had a lot of windy days this summer.

Above all, I agree with Campbell that there is a growing frustration in SNP ranks at what they perceive as the over-cautious response of the First Minister and her immediate – and perhaps too intimate – political entourage.

The grassroots unease at the distinctly establishment economics of the internal Growth Commission report was palpable. And the First Minister’s reluctance to appear at any of the AUOB marches is all too obvious. The SNP leadership can’t explain away either AUOB or the prospect of a breakaway Wings party as complete aberrations.

Here we come to my big “but”. Launching a new Wings independence party in opposition to the SNP – especially at the moment when we are nearer the break-up of the UK state than we have ever been – is sheer folly.

If the tactic is designed to push the First Minister into being more radical, it will surely fail because it actually gives the SNP leadership the excuse to brand grassroots opposition as nutters and slitters. Launching a new party would actually consolidate the SNP leadership approach.

The National: Nicola Sturgeon

Secondly, the anti-independence British media would have exactly the story they desire to poison the debate during a fresh independence referendum or the next Holyrood elections, when the Yes movement needs to increase its majority in the Scottish Parliament. As it is, Saturday’s story unhelpfully diverted media attention from Scottish Labour’s decision to form a circular firing squad.

Thirdly, a new party would have to differentiate itself effectively and I’m far from clear what a new Wings party would stand for.

I suspect that in order to get a new organisation up and running quickly, it would offer a hodgepodge of populist slogans rather than a programme for government. To date, Scottish political culture has managed to avoid that particular swamp, which is one reason why we have eschewed the poison of anti-immigration rhetoric that has infected even the Labour Party in England.

Campbell theorises that a Wings party could mobilise support from working-class voters who are disenchanted with mainstream politics.

Certainly, it is correct that at the 2017 snap General Election, the SNP lost half a million voters from the 2014 referendum – people who don’t normally cast a ballot and who were radicalised by the prospect of a new Scotland. Winning those working-class voters back is equally as important to winning indyref2 as converting former No voters (which the SNP leadership is concentrating on). But how do we do that?

READ MORE: Campbell: Wings Party would be ‘positive’ destination for unhappy SNP voters

I suspect Campbell believes his combination of earthy language to describe political opponents, plus a dash of populism, will do the trick. And he has a point that the political language of the SNP is increasingly tailored to an imagined, middle-class group of former No voters – which could end up alienating folk in the housing schemes. But I think any strategy to create a winning majority it is more complicated than using satirical expletives.

Regular readers of this column will know I have repeatedly criticised the SNP leadership from a left-wing position. This is not me being doctrinaire. To win a majority for independence means – first and foremost – convincing the mass of ordinary Scots that constitutional change will actually make their lives better quickly and in a real way. That austerity will end, decent jobs appear, the NHS improve, and life be more fun.

To achieve all that, we need to radically recast the private-sector economy – meaning the community takes control of where money is invested for the long term, not the banks. It means devolving real power from MSPs at Holyrood and letting folk in Scotland’s housing schemes and rural communities make political decisions for themselves.

It means taking the big estates away from the landed gentry and the banks away from City ownership. This is not a vague populism; this is a radical programme for giving Scotland back to the people who live there. Otherwise, independence will change not a jot for ordinary folk.

I share Campbell’s impatience. But we need to win over wavering working-class voters not through rhetoric (earthy or otherwise) but by concrete actions that show change is possible. Only the SNP can deliver such a programme – starting immediately and not waiting for independence.

READ MORE: Majority support for an early vote on indy changes everything

It means nationalising the Ferguson shipyard. It means challenging UK Treasury limits on Scottish spending. It means creating a public National Investment Bank and urging Scots to shift to it from RBS. It means creating a public national infrastructure company to build our hospitals and schools.

Swearing is a good way of letting off steam. Dreaming of setting up new political parties is a diverting, late-night fantasy – whether over a dram or a glass of milk. But truly changing the world is about organisation, discipline and having a programme that wins mass appeal. Anything else is winging it and will only let our opponents triumph.