Agenda: What we need now is a campaign for independence, not devolved power.

Everyone on the Yes side should be examining why Better Together won. If there is to be another independence referendum, then lessons must be learnt from the weaknesses and errors (including my own) of 2014. Strengths too, must be assessed and built upon for next time. This is what I have tried to do in my book In Place of Failure.

A critical examination of what went before the referendum will also be essential. It’s a pity that the SNP draft conference agenda deliberately omits resolutions submitted on this issue. Punting the issue it into the long grass is a mistake.

Whether or when we hold another referendum is a question that can’t be dodged, especially when the Scotland Bill is seen as the tax trap it is, when the Tory Government’s austerity measures start to bite even deeper into the lives of the poor and the boundary redistribution for Westminster guarantees another Tory victory in 2020.

This likely latter outcome has not yet been factored into the Scottish political mind but it will start to tell in a couple of years. An analysis of the period preceding the 2014 campaign is crucial. To debate only the timing of the next referendum is to put the cart before the horse.

A successful referendum result has to be built on a sustained independence campaign long before a referendum date is set. That was not what happened before 2014. Although everyone knows the SNP stands for independence, in elections and by-elections since 1992 they haven’t specifically asked people to vote for it.

All sorts of slogans were employed over the years, on the theme of a strong voice for Scotland. In two important by-elections, won by the SNP, in Glasgow and Fife, the party said independence was “on the back burner” and “parked”. The only time since 1992 the SNP asked people to vote for independence was at the referendum. A price was paid for that decade and a half of neglect.

In January 2014 a poll showed support for independence at 29 per cent. That it climbed to almost 46 per cent is testament to the work by thousands of people in local Yes campaigns, despite being handicapped by an SNP White Paper that, on at least two counts (a currency union and 10 per cent cut in corporation tax), was a gift to the No side.

I understood, but never agreed with, the gradualist approach adopted by the SNP. I can understand if that is again their posture going into the 2016 elections, in an attempt to hold on to an overall majority. If such a tactic is the chosen one, then any idea of a referendum over the next four years disappears. If, in next year ‘s election the merits and necessity of independence are not to the fore, there will be no mandate at Holyrood for a referendum. The Herald recently reported a "senior” SNP source saying there would be no action on a referendum until 2020, implying that is when a mandate might sought.

So, if circumstances and events conspire in the next four years to produce a majority for independence, this can’t be acted on as no mandate for a referendum will exist. What is required now, based on an analysis of what went wrong in 2014, is a campaign for independence, not devolved power.

We must first consolidate that 46 per cent in a consistent, sustained educational campaign to bring over No voters who, confronted with what is coming from a Westminster government we not did not elect, can increasingly be won over to Yes. That is the horse and the cart, which is the referendum, should be ready to roll when the time is right, but before 2020.

In Place of Failure: Making it Yes Next Time ... Soon is published on tomorrow by Vagabond Voices, priced £7.95 www.inplaceoffailure.scot