THE SNP must take action to draft a constitution for an independent state to prepare for the next referendum, an academic has argued.

Writing in today’s Seven Days, Dr Elliot Bulmer said the independence movement feels like it has been “wandering in the wilderness for a long time”.

He wrote: “Yet we seem no closer to the Promised Land. Where is the milk and honey? Are we just drifting in the desert, waiting for the Section 30 order to magically appear?”

He argued the SNP appeared to have a “credible constitutional plan” for the establishment of a new Scottish state from 1977 to around 2005, which was not perfect but served as draft which was ready to go on the “very day when the flags change on Edinburgh Castle”.

But he went on: “There is no sign that the current SNP leadership knows what a constitution is, what a constitution does, or why a constitution is essential and integral to the case for independence.

“At best, they seem to see it as a ‘nice to have’, a cherry-on-the-cake that can be delayed until the opportune time. They have no apparent understanding that independence is a state-building project and that the constitution, as the blueprint and foundation for the state, is the only place to start.

“They do not understand how much campaigning traction could be gained by a good constitution, both in mobilising the base of independence supporters and in reassuring wavering Unionists that independence need not be the end of their world.”

Bulmer said unless there was a proper constitution setting out clear foundations for democracy, good governance, public ethics and human rights in Scotland, then there was a risk of slipping back into “the Pharaonic despotism of ‘parliamentary sovereignty’ and the inscrutable ‘unwritten constitution’”.

He added: “If the SNP leadership still believe in independence, they need to show it – now – by doing the preparatory work necessary to bring it about.

“That means passing a Constitutional Transition Act to establish a Constituent Assembly with clear terms of reference to draft a constitution for an independent state, to be submitted to the people in the next referendum.”

A spokesperson for the SNP said: “Led by political director Michael Russell, the SNP is establishing a dedicated taskforce to bring forward a comprehensive case for independence, which will be put before the people of Scotland in a post-pandemic referendum when it is safe to do so.”