By Maggie Ritchie
FORMER SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars has stated that the independence movement must break its ‘deadly tie’ to the SNP.
As the party faithful head to Glasgow for this weekend’s conference, Sillars condemned the ‘monumental political misjudgment’ that tied a second independence referendum to the issue of Brexit.
In a shock move and a no-holds-barred attack on Nicola Sturgeon, the veteran nationalist called for those who want an independent Scotland to distance themselves from the SNP.
“The independence movement must reconsider their relationship with the SNP, especially in light of the error-strewn course taken by leaders with no strategic nous, out of their depth.”
Sturgeon’s decision in March to call a fresh independence vote by the middle of 2019 was seen as the main reason the party lost 21 MPs and half a million votes in the general election in June.
Sillars was one of the few prominent nationalists to declare himself in the Leave camp, while Nicola Sturgeon has been vocal in her criticism of Brexit.
Writing in the Daily Record, Sillars condemned the first resolution at the SNP conference, which he described as ‘an unthinking paen of praise for the EU’.
And he argued that the SNP’s ‘sucking up to Brussels’ will only serve to scupper any chance of an independent Scotland.
“In sucking up to Brussels, the SNP may hope to end EU resistance to independence. It won’t. While the SNP think they are using Brussels against Westminster, it’s the other way round.
“Naive Scots serve Brussels’ purpose just now but we will get the same answer next time as in 2014: ‘You can join, but wait in the queue.’
“As long as the EU are there, denying Scots membership, we have fatal uncertainty injected into our debate.
He added: “The movement must no longer be seen as an adjunct of the SNP, a deadly tie that makes independence hostage to their electoral fate.
“The movement won’t win independence until it is itself truly independent.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel