Why SNP folk are fighting ahead of party conference
◆ Feuding among nationalists has reached an extraordinary level for a simple reason: the game is up, writes Jackie Baillie
This weekend, the SNP will gather to hold their annual conference for 2024 – the first since John Swinney returned as leader. And as delegates arrive at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, they will be arriving to a shadow of the SNP conferences of the past decade.
Gone now are the legions of SNP MPS – sent to Westminster to represent their communities but who instead fanned the flames of division and grievance. Gone, too, will be the battalion of hopeful young activists – replaced now by battle-hardened nationalist veterans, and dwindling in number.
And gone, too, will be the Beatlemania of the Sturgeon years when the SNP conference resembled a rock concert more than it did the governing body of a political party. This year, the banners will be lower, the lights will be dimmer and the self-confident strut of a party convinced of their own inevitable victory will be replaced by the limp of a wounded animal.
Frankly, for the SNP, the party is over. The prophecy of continual victory has been found to be false and they are now forced to re-evaluate what they stand for in the cold, sober light of day.
Now listen, this is not a situation unique to the SNP. Every party has its ups and downs. Every party has its jubilant conference on the brink of victory and its post-defeat conferences. What really matters, however, is how it reacts to the new reality. The SNP has a choice – reassess the reasons for its thrashing at the general election and the reasons it is now in a battle for power at Holyrood, or sink deeper into the world of delusion, division and disharmony that they now find themselves in.
The early signals are that they have chosen the latter. In the last few weeks, all the SNP has done is reheat the same old attacks on Labour that helped drive thousands of Scots away from them at the election. While the SNP force through cuts to services and hike train fares, they have returned to blaming Labour for their own financial incompetence and the chaos caused by the Tories.
Frankly, it is insulting the intelligence of Scots to blame the Labour government, which has been in place for a matter of weeks, for cuts carried out and caused by the SNP.
They must think Scots button up the back, but the fact is that they know the nationalists’ chickens are coming home to roost.
As we speak, the SNP is tearing itself apart yet again – with backbenchers hitting out at ministers and former leaders calling senior party figures words that should not be repeated in this esteemed paper. To be honest, it’s looking like this conference will resemble a wake more than a celebration of 17 years of SNP government.
And who can blame them: our NHS is in crisis and waiting lists are now at an all-time high, with 860,000 of our fellow Scots waiting in pain; train fares are rising; the economy has stalled; and their party is in a mess.
The game is up. This weekend is simply a formality for a party increasingly in decline.