Newington's Evan Williams, a former adviser to the Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, found a sombre mood at the SNP conference in Glasgow.

For any other party, ten years in power and a commanding poll lead would be a cause for celebration. For the SNP, however, the conference in Glasgow was a decidedly subdued affair.

The usual set piece labour bashing helped to lift the mood a little and Mhairi Black’s withering attack on Jeremy Corbyn had some delegates identifying her as a future leader in waiting. In case you missed it, Mhairi was disappointed with Jeremy for not being radical enough. Meanwhile in the tea rooms and fringe meetings similar sentiments were being expressed about the SNP leadership’s lack of radical edge.

The SNP’s problem is simple – a few short years ago most of their members believed independence was in their grasp, and for that prize they were willing to put aside any difference and all other political disagreement was shelved. Now that independence seems a more distant prospect, the iron discipline that took them to 2015’s general election success is increasingly fragile.

Like all parties, the SNP is a broad coalition of interests. But unlike most parties orientated somewhere on a broad left-right political spectrum, nationalism draws its adherents from everywhere and nowhere. The Alex Salmond strategy of ‘talk left and do little’ served well enough while independence was there to keep the troops busy (and productive). In 2017, after the loss of 21 seats, the sense of disappointment at missed opportunities was palpable.

There were a few strong policy announcements worthy of note. In education, John Swinney offered £20,000 to entice people to train as teachers in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) subjects, and Nicola Sturgeon promised a publicly owned not for profit energy company by the end of the parliament.

Catalan flags among the delegates probably didn’t outnumber saltires, but it was a close run thing. While the SNP leadership are all for solidarity with their fellow independence seekers, they are nevertheless nervous about what might happen. When the likes of Nicola Sturgeon and Angus Robertson joined the SNP the party’s plan was to win a majority of Scottish seats at a General Election and claim a mandate for unilateral Declaration of Independence. The creation of the Scottish Parliament and the negotiated Edinburgh Agreement for the independence referendum changed all that. It both made the case for independence more clearly legitimate, and made the rejection of that case in 2014 all the more devastating for the party. Angus Robertson’s introduction to Nicola Sturgeon included a little audience participation, and when he asked delegates to put up their hands if they had joined because of the independence referendum a sea of hands went up.

The old timers still run the party but they only do so with the consent of a new, more radical and perhaps more impatient cohort of members. That’s why a boiler plate ‘aren’t labour a bit rubbish’ speech by Mhairi Black was lauded as one of the great moments of conference.

This helps explain why Nicola Sturgeon can’t seem to get credit even among her own party for the SNP’s continued dominance of Scottish Politics, and its why the SNP have no real choice but to keep talking left and perhaps do a bit more in the hope of keeping the whole team pulling in the same direction.

If you would like to know more about Scottish politics and government please contact Evan Williams on [email protected]