For me, Scottish independence was a preference rather than an all-consuming passion. Although, as the subterfuges and misinformation of the No camp gathered pace throughout 2013 and 2014, it was difficult not to become emotional about independence.

Watching that dismal cohort of English C-listers from media and entertainment walking up Buchanan Street just prior to September 14 was a moment of peak revulsion. “Look at us,” they were saying, “we’re really important people, so you should listen to us.”

There often seemed to be an element of ridicule when prominent No campaigners dismissed aspirations of self-determination: too wee; too stupid; too poor. Yet, even David Cameron had acknowledged that an independent Scotland had all the attributes to make a success of independence.

Then they insisted on slandering ordinary Scots with false claims that the referendum campaign had been divisive and nasty and that families and communities were being torn apart. The UK Electoral Reform Society would later confirm that the process had been an uplifting one. Many thousands of people who had previously felt excluded from the political process had found their voices.

There was something rather magical about belonging to the generation which had restored full independence. That said (and let’s speak frankly here), there were a lot of worse positions to be in than belonging to a union with jolly old England.

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Alex Salmond had spoken eloquently about the five unions that would continue to connect Scotland to England following independence: the European Union; the Nato defence union; sterling; the monarchy; and the "social union" between all the peoples of the UK.

Scotland was not living under a state of occupation by an aggressive foreign foe. Rather, it had a significant degree of autonomy within a benign unitary arrangement in which the majority of its citizens clearly felt at ease.

I voted Yes because I wanted us to be able to sign our own cheques; to make our own mistakes and not to be blaming the English for any of our failures. The fact remained though, that independence would never be as important as faith, family or the fortunes of my favourite football club.

Having observed what has happened to Scotland under 10 years of SNP governance, I’ve now had cause to re-consider my sense of optimism about Scottish independence. I’m now relieved that Yes didn’t prevail in 2014.

And besides, it’s become clear to me that many of those who have made careers and earned life-changing salaries from independence had seen it simply as a business sector in which profits and future connections could be made.

There were no guarantees that the SNP would have formed the first administration of the newly-independent nation. It would have had to change its name for starters, but it’s inconceivable that the party led by Alex Salmond - with all of its fixtures and fittings intact - would not have triumphed in that first post-independence election.

And yes, you can argue that a government led by Mr Salmond would not have chosen to embrace the shrill authoritarianism that has come to characterise the SNP in the Sturgeon/Yousaf/Swinney era. He’d surely have chivvied out the malign band of aggressive misogynists who have since infiltrated the party and chased them off the premises.

Yet, such were the sophisticated levels of orchestration deployed by the forces within the SNP hell-bent on destroying Mr Salmond that he would not have survived long. The former First Minister was rightly found not guilty of all the criminal charges arraigned against him during his trial, but his own admitted behaviours while in office would eventually have been exposed.

It’s tempting to choose from a large suite of SNP policy failures to show why these people could never have been entrusted with the added responsibilities that full independence would have conferred. The party’s habit of choosing the worst person for the job means that Scotland remains unchallenged as the drugs death capital of Europe.

The educational attainment gap remains stubbornly wide. Scotland’s poorest communities in 2014 remain the poorest 10 years later. To deflect attention from their failure to improve the lives of Scotland’s poorest people, they’ve contrived an insidious piece of political double-think: the “imagined benefit”.

Thus, they magic up a fanciful number of people who might otherwise have died or become addicted or fallen below the poverty line were it not for their intervention. Effectively, they’re saying: “look, we know that being shot by a firing squad isn’t great, but think what might have happened if we hadn’t banned burning at the stake.”

However, policy failures and poor political judgment are not the sole preserve of the SNP in the last decade. There have been just as many political fiascos authored by the UK Government during this time.

What has been unforgivable though, is how the SNP has created a climate of fear across every sector in which its writ runs, including within its own ranks. The unionists were wrong to accuse the Yes campaign of sewing division prior to 2014, but since Nicola Sturgeon came to power in 2015 the sense of threat and civic strife has become palpable across Scotland.

A dejected Yes supporter in Edinburgh makes his way home in the early hours of September 19, 2014. A dejected Yes supporter in Edinburgh makes his way home in the early hours of September 19, 2014. (Image: PA)

Just as unconscionable is how this party now openly rewards mediocrity and infantilism while people of real talent such as Joanna Cherry, Joan McAlpine and Ash Regan are bullied. The deputy leader, Kate Forbes, only holds her position because the party’s rank and file refused to participate in the extraordinary campaign of malevolence and vindictiveness that the leadership - aided by the odious Scottish Greens - visited upon her. The SNP has developed a deep loathing of working-class communities and nowhere was this more evident than in its Hate Crime legislation. This formed part of a pattern that started with the absurd Named Persons legislation. It continued with its minimum unit alcohol pricing legislation.

Sitting alongside this is the substantive threat that exists within the SNP towards women and girls. Luckily, the UK Government’s use of a Section 35 order removed some of the jeopardy embedded at the heart of the proposed GRR legislation.

The fact remains though, that the SNP stands accused of harbouring known sexual predators and refusing to act on warnings and complaints about named individuals until their crimes become the focus of police investigations.

In the 10 years since the independence referendum, the SNP has become a menace to the people of Scotland, especially women and poor people. Not until all those who helped create this climate of fear and loathing are removed for good can any of us even think about an independent Scotland. The SNP has ruined it for an entire generation and made Scotland a darker place.

Kevin McKenna is a Herald columnist and feature writer who specialises in politics, community and faith. He can be found on X @kmckenna63