WHEN I first started writing for newspapers more than 40 years ago, the only feedback was the occasional letter. Online publication and social media have changed all that which is good for writers and readers, though some individuals have taken these new opportunities to mean that they can say anything they like, as bluntly as they like, wherever they like.

There are one or two people who comment regularly on this column whose trenchantly expressed criticism (to put it mildly) is that I fail in my supposed duty to provide for them every week a detailed and infallible route map for Scotland’s journey from dependence to independence.

I suspect that even if the Archangel Gabriel himself was to appear with that on tablets of stone they would still be dissatisfied, and say so, but none the less hope springs eternal, so on this last day of 2022, let me suggest what might lie ahead in 2023 and why I believe it should be good news for all of us who have spent our lives campaigning for change.

I would, however, enter one caveat. Contrary to what many believe, there isn’t a definitive, all things tied down and all opposition squared straight line plan for any country to achieve statehood. There never has been no matter in which part of the globe you look. The politics of independence is different in every place it arises and at every time it is pursued. It is a politics of contention, a massive three-dimensional struggle in which the two sides make many moves and countermoves in order to secure a victory.

And no two cases are the same.

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In 18th century America, for instance, it was only at the very end of the revolutionary process that the outcome became clear and was backed – albeit reluctantly – by the majority. Until then most colonials would have settled for some new arrangement well short of independence had Britain adjusted its policy and swallowed its pride.

Of course, I understand the feelings of those independence supporters who are frustrated that there has not been another referendum as yet.

However, they fail to recognise not just the reality of the past eight years but also how much has changed.

In that time, a massively increased and very diverse national movement has had to come to terms with the defeat of 2014 and then to grapple with what Brexit would mean for the cause, which as the 2017 General election showed could have been far from positive.

Then there was a pandemic.

In fact, the remarkable thing is not that there hasn’t been another referendum, but that support for independence in the first one has not waned. Indeed, as the British Social Attitudes Survey confirmed in September the actual number of those backing indy has more than doubled in the last decade making it the majority choice of the Scottish people despite an increasingly rabid anti-indy media and a contemptuous Westminster establishment.

That is tangible and bankable progress, particularly as Scotland’s constitutional history is one of slow shifts.

To recognise these difficulties, perhaps sometimes compounded by being in Government (but not being in Government would make things harder still), is not to evade responsibility but to emphasise that we are engaged in something that is far from easy and always unpredictable.

SEEKING a peaceful democratic route out of the UK, while the wider world that we wish to join faces huge challenges means that the right path is often unclear and sometimes suddenly blocked by circumstance as well as more often by malicious intent.

None the less we go on moving forward and the choice that now faces us in the early months of 2023 is particularly crucial.

Not since the summer of 1997 and the decision to back the Yes/Yes devolution vote has there been a more important internal moment for the independence campaign, of which the largest – but not the only – part are the SNP. The deliberate barrier created by the refusal of all the Westminster parties to follow democratic norms and recognise the mandate for a referendum that exists at Holyrood, means that a plebiscite election is the only alternative.

This is uncharted constitutional and electoral territory. The entire Yes movement needs to consider with care and thought how it is to be approached. It must also do so with the aim of seeking as much unanimity as possible which is why in addition to the SNP’s internal mechanisms, which will engage every branch and constituency and culminate in a democratic decision made by the membership in conference it is also good to see a special congress of Yes organisations planned to take place in parallel.

If as a movement we can coalesce round not an inflexible handed down plan but a strategy democratically agreed by all – and how to implement it – then we will have put in place a firm foundation for action across the country, inspiring our fellow citizens with the many cases for independence that exist and the many visions of the new state we wish to make for ourselves and for future generations.

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That is the task for 2023 and it has the potential to be unifying good news for all those who are prepared to take part, commit to the highest standards of campaigning based on mutual respect within the movement and are determined to look forward together in hope not backward in division and dislike.

Meanwhile Unionists will time waste and filibuster at Holyrood and show arrogant disdain at Westminster whilst the usual gurning suspects in the media will do their worst.

But they won’t prevail. The people are mightier, as that motto of the Highland Land League has it, which is why we should approach 2023 with optimism.

There is a way forward and if we are united behind it we cannot be beaten.

So a Happy New Year to one and all – including those who are already sharpening their keyboards to respond to this column.