INDEPENDENCE is starting to feel like that suit of clothes you left in the wardrobe and didn’t try on again until after pandemic. It doesn’t seem to really fit anymore. Maybe the wearer has changed – perhaps a bit bigger thanks to Covid binge-watching and snacks; or slightly slimmer after all the jogging there was time for – or maybe it’s just the times that have changed, and the suit of clothes no longer seems quite in fashion. Threads are coming loose and starting to run – pull one end, you fear, and the entire outfit might just unravel in your hands.

What is independence now? It’s been so long since the last referendum that the concept has become somewhat ghostly: a shapeshifting creature, that’s one thing to this Yes voter, and quite a different notion to another Yes voter.

As a moderate, questioning independence supporter, I’m becoming confused about ‘what independence really means’ today. I came to independence as a former Labour voter, alienated by the Iraq War. Long dissatisfied with the UK’s political system, slowly but surely over the noughties I came to believe that reforming Westminster was impossible. It’s a small step from that position to soft support for Scottish independence.

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Before the first referendum the notion of independence appealed to my left-wing views. The Yes movement’s pro-immigration position helped tamp down my distaste for nationalism. Like many Yes voters, I support independence from a progressive not nationalist perspective. I wasn’t hugely comfortable with all the Saltires but that could slide given independence presented itself as an opportunity for progressive voters to finally – for once in Britain, for once in my lifetime – reshape society for the better in a relatively painless fashion.

Now, though, when someone says ‘independence’ I’m no longer sure what they mean. There seems to be as many concepts of independence as there are Yes voters. Does independence mean Scotland in Europe, or out? There’s two sides to this within the Yes movement, though clearly the pro-European camp dominates. Should we be in Nato? Again, two sides, though more evenly balanced. And if we’re in Nato, what about Trident?

Do we keep the pound, join the Euro, or create our own currency? Do we want a border with England or free movement?

Some advocate constitutional autarky: no EU, no Nato, no link to the Bank of England. Others, want a globalised form of independence: tight EU alignment, Nato membership, and the pound.

It really isn’t good enough to say these questions will be sorted after a Yes vote. Quite simply, I want to know what I’m voting for, and I really can no longer trust the SNP – or the Greens now that they’re in government – to present this case honestly.

If I’m to take the SNP as my pathfinders to independence, then what map am I now following? I struggle to see how progressive voters find what the SNP currently stands for as some sort of Pole star. The party appears intent on pitting worker against worker in the current rail dispute.

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Employment minister Richard Lochhead tells Scottish workers “to be sensible” when it comes to pay demands. Nicola Sturgeon points to train drivers earning around £50,000. Such condescension is astonishing. Sturgeon and Lochhead are quite well paid, I understand. It’s also the language of Tories. One wonders how Greens can tolerate to be in government with a party that’s drifted in such a direction.

But maybe that’s just the leftie me – what if I were a more conservative voter, someone motivated by the complaints of business rather than workers. Given that I’ve written about industry and business most of my life, and know plenty of small entrepreneurs and wealthy investors, it’s not hard to think myself into their shoes. So what industrial policy has the SNP really got? It cannot even build a ferry.

Many voters care deeply now about green politics. What has the SNP really done to boast of in terms of the environment? ScotWind? It was a fire sale of national assets. As someone very sympathetic to environmental politics, one fears for the long-term consequences for Greens as a result of sharing a bed with nationalists.

What about those big three policy areas which affect us all: schools, hospitals and policing? Well, it’s all a disastrous mess – just ask any teacher, nurse or cop.

Social issues? Here, the SNP talks a good game – putting a lot of emphasis on equality and fairness. For progressive voters like me that’s good but the party is also home to many who’d roll back equality and rights.

So what am I being asked to vote for as an independence supporter? The SNP’s vision – whatever that may be? Or the vision of a myriad other Yes voters? There’s no storyline and everything needs a storyline. The fatal flaw in Brexit was that nobody knew what Brexit meant.

With wearying, embarrassing, frankly insulting, absurdity, Sturgeon announced in the Sunday National newspaper that ‘Now is the Time’, claiming she’s ready to “kick off a new campaign”. How many ‘indy is coming’ false promises do we need?

Eight years have elapsed since the last referendum. There’s been plenty of time to create a modern vision of what independence means. The SNP has deliberately failed to do so in order to keep the prospect of independence dangling to ensure it maintains its grip on power.

A project like independence doesn’t belong to a political party. It belongs to the people. The Yes movement should take the project out of the hands of conniving politicians, and simply establish a People’s Constitutional Convention to discuss what we really want from independence. Let us decide – in a Citizens’ Assembly forum, set up by citizens on our own authority – what independence means. Once that’s done, hand the template to the politicians to take to a referendum.

Of course, that leads us inevitably to the question of if, or when, there’ll ever be another referendum. Being citizen-minded rather than political-minded, one wonders if again a collection of ordinary people might have made more headway on the path to a second referendum than all the SNP politicians in Holyrood and Westminster.

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