The SNP must swallow its pride and make peace with Alex Salmond if they ever hope to deliver independence.
They will never square the circle between high support for Scottish independence and falling support for them while hogging the limelight as the only means of delivering the freedom they claim to seek for this country.
So they need to chum up with Alba and others of the Indy persuasion and invite Salmond and all those they’ve fallen out with back inside the big tent.
If they can’t do that, they’ll wither on the vine as Labour under Keir Starmer wipes them and their hopes of independence out for a generation or more.
All of that of course supposes they actually want independence badly enough to make peace with folk they’ve been at war with, their fellow travellers in the greater cause.
If they’ve any chance of rescuing their drowning hopes, and if they truly believe the cause is bigger than their egos and careers, then they’ll put aside their differences and work with folk who have the same aims but who now see them as the weak link in the chain when it comes to delivering Scotland from Westminster rule.
To be honest, I’m not sure it can be done.
‘In Salmond, SNP lost sharpest tactical thinker’
The SNP are beset by problems and the party has lost the faith of many true believers who think they’re only interested in cushy salaries and comfy berths in London and Edinburgh.
The ground has shifted under their feet and they face electoral Armageddon unless they make common cause with all but the daftest elements of the independence movement.
When Alex Salmond stood down they lost their sharpest tactical thinker, a leader who’d taken them to the cusp of independence.
The rift between many in the party and Salmond and many others is very deep.
But if they can put aside their differences and work for the greater good of independence, nominating a sole independence candidate to stand at the general election, they may have an outside chance to win the day.
Even then it’s a long shot.
Many folk are drawn to independence as a warm fuzzy feeling but the SNP have failed to answer the tough economic questions to persuade enough people that it’s a realistic proposition that isn’t going to make them and their families poorer.
‘SNP must extend olive branch’
Various things have also made the job tougher than in the 2014 referendum.
There’s been Brexit for one thing and no guarantee of future EU membership which many in the SNP crave, and of course even if that membership was forthcoming (unlikely in my view for a host of reasons) the prospect of a hard border with England our biggest individual trading partner would alarm many businesses and voters alike.
The elephant in the room is the resurgence of the Labour Party.
No more can the SNP whinge about the nasty Tories if there’s a realistic possibility of a Labour government.
Many folk attracted to independence wanted it because they saw no prospect of getting the Conservatives out of power.
But now Labour look like wiping the floor with Rishi Sunak and co.
That scenario is an attractive one to those who prize solidarity within the UK and many soft independence voters.
The SNP’s lame attempts to seriously advance the cause of independence leaves them desperately in need of old friends and new.
If they truly want to achieve independence they must extend the olive branch to Salmond, the Alba Party and all like-minded folk or face defeat for a decade or more.
I’ve often mused that if reincarnation exists I’d come back as a resident of the south of France or Italy with their glorious climate of summer sunshine.
But in truth by day three of our recent unseasonably warm weather I wilted like a parched tomato plant.
Some folk look at the sun and develop a deep brown hue like polished mahogany – thirty minutes in it leaves me like a shrivelled prune.
I like the idea of the sun and warm weather more than I like actual exposure to it.
On a few occasions last week as an early riser I found myself enjoying the heat of the sun with a coffee in the back garden thinking of the glorious spell to come.
By 8.30 am reality had kicked in and I had to seek shelter in the summer house as my peely-wally skin fried.
Some folk are built for the sun others aren’t and it doesn’t matter how we persevere, the roasting realities of a baking hot day are soon inescapable.
Gingers like me have a natural aversion to the orb in the sky akin to Dracula and the sight of a crucifix.
Some like it hot, I don’t.
