I’VE been asked a few times if/when I will stand for election again. The question always takes me aback – I’ve spent six years and a lot of money working to become a lawyer. But there are other reasons why, for me personally, standing for election is in the past.

For one thing, "doing politics differently" includes realising that politics, particularly left and feminist politics, is about more than elections. And everyone needs to recognise when it’s time to step back and let a new generation lead progressive movements.

But a more negative reason for vowing never to put myself out there again is that my experience of party politics could be toxic – and when you’re a candidate or an elected representative it can be a lonely life. Those politicians who have milked the system and used movements to feed their own egos have given all politicians a bad name.

But that sometimes leads to unfair scrutiny and criticism of those who are sacrificing privacy, family and friends to do their bit to change the world. And women seem to get it in the neck far more than men.

I had many great and supportive pals in politics but when I was an MSP I sometimes felt there was almost a presumption that I would "sell out". Rumours flew that I was a "careerist" – an epithet I never heard attached to men who might have actually deserved it. To my regret, I remember feeling that I had to prove, somehow, that I wasn’t. I wish now that I’d let it all come in one ear and go out the other.

Over time, instead of feeling confident, liberated and free to express my opinions, I would speak with the spectre in my head of umpteen critics breathing down my neck. On the left, there is a tendency – the culprits being generally white, middle-aged men – to pick over everything you say to find a flaw. Some folk seemed to pore over media quotes so that they could emerge, triumphantly, with something you said that wasn’t quite on message.

It would be great if things were different now but, unfortunately, I can see it happening all over again. When the Sunday Herald carried a profile piece on Rise candidate and National columnist Cat Boyd, it generated a lot of sympathetic comment. But it also attracted venomous criticism.

In politics you expect to come under fire from your ideological opponents. If you’re pro-independence you’ll be attacked by unionists. If you’re on the left, you’ll be attacked by the right. But in this case the bullets aimed at Cat Boyd were being fired by self-righteous, self-appointed guardians of the one true socialist faith, whatever that is.

In radical politics there is a term ‘ultra-leftism’ – which is not a compliment. It refers to those who are obsessed with political purity, who are too dogmatic to make their politics relevant to real people, who prefer high and mighty slogans to practical policies. I’m not usually one for quoting Lenin – but he was right when he described ultra-leftism as an "infantile disorder". It’s a condition that has hamstrung the left for its entire existence.

We will never build a movement big enough to change society if people enthused enough to get involved soon find themselves under examination by the high priests of left-wing orthodoxy.

It’s not just their own who are the targets. In these post-referendum times, the "left" is a very broad, amorphous thing. It spans the huge SNP membership as well as the Greens, Rise and others like me who choose not to be in a political party.

That diversity is a good thing. But diversity shouldn’t mean political warfare. I understand why so many people have chosen the practical vehicle of the SNP to try and push towards independence as quickly as possible. I also understand why other people are trying to build strong pro-independence parties of the left that will offer constructive opposition in Holyrood rather than the destructive negativity of the three pro-Union parties.

In the meantime, I hope the three pro-independence parties in this election will desist from treating each other as enemies. I’ve heard of friends in the SNP, whose politics are no different to mine, being given a hard time on social media and elsewhere by some who’ve chosen to align with Rise. And I’m also aware that some SNP members have an equally sectarian attitude towards Rise and the Scottish Green Party.

If we are to move forward to independence in the future we need to maintain cross-party, cross-movement trust, cooperation and solidarity. We shouldn’t forget that, without that diversity, we would never have moved support for independence from 28 per cent to 45 per cent in two years.

Maybe party political tribalism is an inevitable consequence of two major elections coming hard on the heels of the 2014 referendum. But in whose interest is it?

Maybe a colourful, critical quote will grab some headlines – but will it propel us towards our common goals of independence and a more equal Scotland?

With the might of the British state ranged against us, achieving independence was never going to be easy. Bitterness and suspicion within the independence movement will make it even more difficult. So let’s hope this election campaign will be conducted by all the pro-independence parties with maturity, restraint and respect.