I AM an SNP member. Like many others. I joined immediately after the 2014 referendum. I had worked during the referendum campaign to help promote a Yes vote while not being a member of the SNP. But after the narrow failure to gain a vote in favour of Scotland becoming independent I decided to join as I felt then that the party offered the only way forward to independence.

At my first local branch meeting, I listened to Ian Blackford (before he stood as a prospective MP) welcome all the new members with a message saying he felt the party would change in recognition of the new blood and fresh ideas which were likely to emerge from the hugely increased new membership.

While I’m still an SNP member, I have not been to a branch meeting since the first lockdown and that’s not entirely because of Covid!

Just before the pandemic, I attended a meeting where Tim Rideout of the Scottish Currency Group was seeking our branch support for a motion to conference which aimed to provide a more radical and speedy path to the creation of a Scottish currency as part of a new financial machinery to remove us from the control of the Bank of England (there’s a reason it’s called that).

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He made a lot of sense and I know many of the new members at the meeting felt, like me, that this was a sign that the SNP were willing to be more radical in their fight for independence.

Then one of the old guards of the party and the branch rose to make what to me sounded like an insultingly dismissive response to Tim’s proposed motion.

With no attempt to discuss or challenge his economic and financial analysis, the “newer members” as we were referred to, were told that our more senior and experienced colleagues in SNP HQ knew more about this matter than we did and that we should therefore let them get on with it and come to a decision without, in effect, having to defend themselves against this motion to conference.

In my younger days I was a member of a trade union and also of the Labour Party and I’d witnessed similar top-down “party” control which was why prior to 2014 I’d vowed never again to be a member of any similar organisation, political or otherwise.

When branch meetings restarted after Covid I thought about that last one, looked at what was going on within the SNP machine, and came to the view that, if anything, the attempts by party HQ to control from the top, while not listening to the voice of the ordinary membership and voters, had actually become more aggressive.

I am nevertheless a little saddened by Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation although I think it’s probably the right thing for her to have done.

I also feel that the abuse she has received over her term in office from the media, opposition politicians and others has been unforgiveable and unwarranted. All those who have made such attacks should be ashamed.

However, I look forward to the election of a new FM and party leader with a hope that this will be the start of a re-energising of the SNP and also for their role within the wider Yes movement.

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The fight for Scottish independence doesn’t just belong to the SNP and the sooner that is recognised by the party the better it will be for us all.

I’m not a youthful firebrand and am well past the age of retirement but, like many. I’ve become disillusioned by the loss of focus and inertia of the SNP machine towards gaining our country’s independence.

I look forward to a stronger, more forceful, less politically compliant, strategy for gaining that independence. I hope I’m not disappointed again!

John Curren

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