On the run-up to the 10-year anniversary of the independence referendum, The Herald is looking back at the vote and what resulted in the aftermath. Kevin McKenna wrote about how it was ultimately the SNP that dropped the ball on independence when it was within grasp.

Read that column here 👈

Today, a reader agrees with McKenna, pointing to the 2015 Westminster election intake of 57 SNP MPs.

Colin Allison of Blairgowrie writes:

"I have admired Kevin McKenna’s writing for some time. He is straightforward, open and frank in his views. Saturday’s column (“‘Scots had independence in their grasp but SNP blew it’”, September 14) was no different and I agree with much of what he wrote.

As he led me through his last ten years and more of monitoring the SNP administration‘s ‘development’, what I was most struck by was his telling of the exchange he had with Kevin Pringle, the SNP communications chief at that time in 2015, when the SNP had just returned 57 MPs.

On offering his congratulations on the SNP achievement to Mr Pringle, Mr McKenna suggested that it might only be a matter of time until independence was achieved. Mr Pringle’s response in hindsight was rather chilling yet prophetic: “I don’t know an awful lot about some of these people…”

The article went on to describe the mess that many of “these [57] people” and other more established politicians made of the wave of optimism and enthusiasm of 2015. Above all, this once-in-a-generation opportunity to make the most of that platform was gradually squandered.

That single comment of Mr Pringle made me stop to consider what checks and balances, what selection processes and what life experience did these 57 new MPs have to equip them for representing their constituents and, indeed, the overall case for independence? 

Much of the above could as easily be applied to Holyrood. How many sitting Westminster MPs could the average man in the street in Scotland have named before the last general election – and, for that matter, could name those who sit in Holyrood?

The ideology, the politics, of a movement have to be managed by genuine honest adherents to the cause. Self-serving, selfishly motivated, controlling egos have no place in politics. Unfortunately, as Kevin McKenna points out so poignantly, our major political party in Scotland of the past 15 years has fallen victim to these most damaging traits. The fruits of this are there for all to see now in the face of police investigations and legal actions being threatened against the Scottish government.

So although I may not always agree with all of what Kevin McKenna writes, he has highlighted for me that there may be good in all/any political ideologies, but at the end of the day success comes down to the calibre and integrity of the people who drive the policies, which is sadly lacking across the political spectrum of the UK."

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