The SNP held its annual conference in Edinburgh at the weekend, where the party spent three days licking its wounds and seeking to regroup.

Read our report here 👈

One of our readers was less than impressed, and today writes that the SNP has not been honest about the reality of the last decade.

Keith Howell of West Linton writes:

"The SNP conference could not be honest about the reality of the last decade of its politics of pretence.

In the run-up to the 2014 independence referendum, the SNP presented a prospectus to the people of Scotland based largely on wishful thinking. Unsurprisingly the majority were unconvinced.

In the intervening years the SNP Government has blamed others for everything that has gone wrong whilst holding out independence as the answer to all our problems. This has culminated in the recent General Election in which the SNP suffered the consequences of too many broken promises, and so often prioritising an imagined future independence over the current realities for the people of Scotland. Meanwhile, across all the essentials we depend on the Scottish Government for, we have seen decline and failings, from education to health, from drug deaths to ferries, from missed environmental targets to levels of homelessness.

In his conference speech John Swinney was at it again, as he committed to ensuring we all come to 'understand' that independence is 'urgent and essential'. He also sought to demonise the new Labour UK Government, wanting to ensure there is someone else to deflect all his Government’s problems on to.

John Swinney is First Minister because the next generation of SNP leadership contenders prefer the old guard to take the brunt of electorate disenchantment with the SNP. They want to pick up the pieces afterwards, with Scotland meanwhile having to suffer all the consequences of continued SNP incompetence and misjudgements."