IT’S been an odd couple of weeks. After the recent SNP National Assembly, I wrote a draft proposal for consideration in the manifesto development process that was a trial balloon for some good ideas suggested by Peter A Bell. It was circulated amongst 300-plus party members, including political education officers and members of the NEC for comment and feedback.

A couple of weeks ago it suddenly appeared in the pages of Wings Over Scotland, touted as a leak of the SNP’s draft manifesto. Five minutes of research would have revealed that wasn’t remotely true and that I was its original author – but that doesn’t seem to have suited the narrative being constructed around the document so due diligence went out of the window.

So, for the record, I am not involved in any way with the drafting of the manifesto for the upcoming election. I have not seen the draft text and have not been asked to contribute to it in any way.

I have made a few suggestions to the team at HQ writing it but I don’t imagine they have paid much attention to them. I’d like to see, for example, the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly adopted wholesale as, at the very least, ambitions that we will consider with an open mind and do our best to implement if they are in any way practical.

But, as I have said before in this publication, it is not my place to write policy, merely to facilitate its development. So I don’t expect that I will have much influence over what eventually appears in the manifesto.

What I do expect to achieve is to give ordinary members much more influence over the content of the next one. Hopefully the one that will set the scene for an independent Scotland to flourish on an international stage.

To that end the Policy Development Committee has been working for months to convene a series of expert working groups to investigate the most pressing issues that we face and to generate a series of policy papers that will present the party with facts, credible academic opinion and expert suggestions as to how best to address the questions we will have to answer over the next five years.

I announced internally to the party’s political education officers the formation of the first three working groups – on housing, economics and the transition to independence – just a couple of weeks ago. I sought their assistance in reaching out to the membership, to tap the vast reserves of experience and knowledge that I know lies just beneath the surface of our party.

We will shortly be transitioning to seeking out those subject matter experts in industry, the third sector and academia that might share their insight and evidence with us and help us build the evidence base necessary for the party to begin making sound, well-informed decisions as to what policies we will need to prosper in an uncertain future.

So, if you are a member of the party, or an interested subject matter expert looking to influence what will appear in the SNP’s next manifesto, now is the time to reach out to us and to offer to contribute.

It has always been my contention that, within the SNP, members should make policy, and I will endeavour to make it so.

So, if you want to be involved in the process of designing the new Scotland we all aspire to, the membership of the SNP is where the action is.