The SNP is bruised, battered and disheartened. The future of its Scottish Government is on a knife edge. Party leader and First Minister Humza Yousaf may fall from his lofty height or survive to be the puppet of his one-time rival Ash Reagan or perform a trick of Houdini-like wonder to put him back on top of the pile. As of now, we can only speculate, but now is the time for the SNP to look at how it presents itself to the voters.
Fifty percent is not enough
Central to the SNPs difficulties is that at least half of Scottish voters want independence, but half of Scotland’s voters are not inclined to vote SNP. The latest poll from Redfield and Wilton say 32% (down from 45% in 2019) would vote SNP if there were a general election today.
The poll was published before the SNP/Scottish Greens government was ended by Yousaf. The political fall-out that has surrounded the demise of the coalition is not something that will warm voters to politics in general or the SNP in particular.
Nonetheless, the end of the SNP/Scottish Greens affair gives the SNP a chance to reposition itself with the voters and, crucially, its members and activists.
Of course, independence must feature as the heart of the SNP’s offering and it must ensure it claims ownership for its most popular policies of free prescriptions, free higher education, free bus travel for the young and so on. It must also present Scotland with a credible vision of what an SNP Scottish government can do in the next two years. This conflates the Westminster general election with the next Scottish one in 2026. That is both necessary and unavoidable if the party is not to be badly damaged as a Westminster force and rebuild voter confidence for 2026.
Key SNP policy initiatives
The key territory the SNP must address involves
- the economy – creating more jobs
- cost of living – making energy generated in Scotland more affordable
- education – get tough, but get innovative on post-school training
- housing – innovative measures to get more young people on the housing ladder
- health – a public information drive to promote healthier living
- the public realm – finding the money to allow councils to fix the roads and tidy our towns and cities
- crime and punishment – refocus on violence, sexual attack, shoplifting and digital fraud
In short, focus on the issues that really matter to most people most of the time and the issues that most people believe are the fundamentals of government. Real nitty-gritty politics. Doing the basics well means all the rest is easier to do because the voters will see the SNP has been on their side in delivering policies that improve life for most of the people most of the time.
This approach is what the SNP was once good at. It delivered social democracy for most of the people. It was a devastatingly successful strategy at Holyrood and Westminster. It was the approach that made the SNP a consistently winning electoral machine. All that has been lost. It is not too late to save the Westminster day and save gains for Holyrood in 2026.
The SNP needs to say it is a social democratic party. One that will deliver social democratic policies that support the least fortunate, empower the talented, engage enterprise and unlock Scotland’s natural resources to serve all the people. By the way, will say the SNP, we want to do all these things as an independent country. Until then you can rely on us to do the right thing to make your life better now.
Simple messages. Sensible policies.
Listen to an interview with Martin Roche here
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