'Independence must be about changing lives...not flags. So let's hear the vision'

Add to that a year of pandemic uncertainty and the accompanying restrictions preventing rallies, canvassing and public meetings, building momentum and excitement in these circumstances is not an easy thing to achieve.

Yet we saw record turnouts. And despite a rocky period, Nicola Sturgeon returns as an immeasurably strengthened First Minister. Some have argued that the SNP, having just missed an outright majority, failed to meet its electoral objective. But this was always a more unlikely possibility.

It has without doubt been a triumph for the party – and especially its leadership. Internally, the First Minister has restored discipline, with her opponents now neutralised. Some of these joined Alba, another source of potential headaches extinguished, having failed to make an electoral breakthrough. The Greens, with their eight MSPs combine to form a pro-independence majority with a clear mandate for a referendum.

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It is therefore unsurprising that the post-election coverage and analysis has focussed on what this means for the Union and in particular about the possibility of a new vote on independence. It is notable that SNP representatives feel quite at home with this discussion. Since they have already set in place the frame that there will be no referendum until the Covid crisis passes, they have time. But they also have the added bonus of being able to play out – after all, lots of it is pantomime – the rhetorical battle that pitches the sovereignty of the Scottish people against an ailing Westminster establishment.

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We are far away from a referendum in reality – and not just because waiting until the passing of the Covid crisis feels similar to waiting until the “fog of Brexit” clears. But because the wrangling over the terms of a referendum could be a drawn-out process. Even if one is eventually accepted, we could be looking at changes to the question, demands for a threshold majority to be met, or for the outcome of negotiations after a referendum, should it be successful, to be tied to a confirmatory vote.

All of these are important issues that the independence movement must debate and be attuned to. But it would be a profound mistake to focus on these mechanics at the expense of building a popular and coherent vision for Scotland as an independent nation.

Kate Forbes speaks as she retains her seat of Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency

To be blunt, beyond the soundbites, the SNP leadership does not have this in place. The ease and flow of the answers around Scotland’s right to decide are not on display when questions are asked about economic strategy, borders, currency, or the difficulties of re-joining the European Union. Indeed, the current approach seems to defer these challenges: “We will set out our plans in due course.”

That is not convincing, but it is perhaps understandable as the outdated Growth Commission lingers around somewhat awkwardly. At a time when state intervention in the economy is seen as a requirement to rebuild from the pandemic, even by erstwhile neoliberals, the SNP is armed with a document that could have been written in the mid-1990s.

When SNP Finance Secretary Kate Forbes was asked about currency during the election, she repeated the now infamous line that Scotland would move to a new currency only after a period of Sterlingisation in which six tests would have to be met. Not only would these tests be near-impossible to meet, even the most generous estimate involves a period of at least 10 years without a central bank.

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Yet the architect of this policy, Andrew Wilson, said in an interview after the election that Scotland required the “firepower of an independent country” to recover from the pandemic. It just doesn’t tally. Without a central bank, borrowing would be set at a premium and quantitative easing made impossible. If the argument is that political independence is required to build Scotland anew, free from the shackles of Tory rule at Westminster, then it follows that economic sovereignty is not an optional extra, but a fundamental necessity.

This is not an era for resuscitating fading orthodoxies, though some are desperate to cling to them. The poverty and inequality that has been so exposed during the last year demands an alternative. As we move forward we need an economic and social renewal that only a democratic revolution can bring about. In this sense, independence is either an insurgency against a failed system, or it is merely a nationalist flag -hanging exercise.

Read more: Scotland must have the full powers of independence to deal with the economic legacy of Covid

The last referendum was not some dry, constitutional debate. It was a rebellion against austerity, the betrayals of New Labour and a conductor for deeply-felt resentment at political institutions that might as well have been built on a different planet. This political awakening shook the halls of power – and demanded a better society. The yearning for a new referendum among independence supporters is not just motivated by winning independence, but re-animating that spirit.

While 2014 cannot be repeated, nor can a referendum or, indeed, independence be won without the energy that drove that movement. It cannot be left to politicians to do the negotiating behind closed doors. It cannot be left to corporate lobby groups to design economic plans that prioritise the interests of City and the Scottish establishment.

The SNP is in a strong position. But that demands action. No more obfuscation – but a galvanising plan to move forward. The negotiations for a referendum should start in earnest in order that a vote can be delivered in the first half of this parliament. The Growth Commission must be scrapped – urgently – so that a transformational prospectus which includes economic control can be developed.

It is time to reinvigorate the debate about what the future of Scotland should look like – and to do so outside the boardrooms, the television studios and, potentially, the courts. As much as the discussion of how a referendum is brought about dominates, we need also to inject a vision of why independence is desirable in the first place.

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