IT IS not the most professional or articulate quote I could come up with, but I’m going to go for it. I do believe Blues Brother Jake put it best when he said: “We’re getting the band back together”. That’s what I’m hoping for over the summer when the SNP launch our new independence drive.

Although we’re still awaiting the details and pulling together the plans, I’m hoping it can help bring together not just the voices of the enlarged SNP membership, but of members of all, and even of no, political parties.

The expected fallout, tantrums and recriminations from the Scottish elections have largely come and gone. It was never very likely that any one political party would encourage all their supporters to vote for someone else, especially against their own candidates. The promises of an SNP majority on the constituency votes alone failed to materialise and the lack of list votes meant that the SNP were returned to government with two seats short of a majority (despite receiving more overall votes than in the previous election).

People generally voted for who they wanted. It wasn’t the SNP’s fault that more people preferred "Both Votes SNP" rather than give their support to RISE or anyone else. Similarly, the Greens can’t be blamed for attempting to get their own candidates elected in constituencies. It really does all come down to who the voters think best represents them and the vision they have for the future.

The same arguments about tactical voting will no doubt re-appear with the council elections next May but before then we will see the launch of a drive for independence from the SNP.

We need to recognise that although there are other political parties that support independence, the primary source of activists will be from the SNP, rightly or wrongly. As Scotland’s largest political party with over 115,000 members, this should be no surprise. However, hopefully the new independence campaign can pull together as many people as possible from across the political spectrum. We need as many voices as possible coming together to create a chorus for independence.

I believe a key part of any new campaign should also look closely at the referendum campaign from 2014, assess what worked well and what needs refreshed. We need to find a way to make sure that our enthusiasm, desire and belief for independence transcends party politics and reaches out to all voters. We also need to re-capture the positivity of the Yes campaign: the street work, the mass rallies, the infectious good humour of a campaign that put routine political differences to one side in order to campaign for a bigger cause.

My local Yes campaign in Paisley was led by councillors, local SNP supporters and a number of people who, at that time, were not aligned to any political party. We thrived on working together to get our message out, from coffee mornings to street stalls, from chapping doors to delivering mountains of leaflets. There were never any arguments about who was right or wrong about their ideas for a future Scotland, these were all put aside as we concentrated on working together to give us the ability to allow those ideas to come to fruition. The common cause transcended party politics.

In 2014 we failed to persuade enough people to follow us but that shouldn’t mean we give up forever. If anything the hurt, disappointment and depression in the early hours of September 19 has made me more determined to campaign even harder for a Yes vote in the future. In fact, it has driven me into the heart of the British establishment in Westminster to make sure our voice is not left unheard and to continue to keep driving for independence.

It is a bit strange that those who voted No thought that the result of the referendum would make us give up on our dream of an independent Scotland. Our belief in a Scotland, where all the decisions affecting this country are made here, is not so weak and shallow that we would give up at the first hurdle. Especially as the infamous Vow lies in tatters and we see the UK Tory government increase their austerity agenda while Labour wanders like a lost soul trying to find a home.

A new independence campaign is necessary to persuade more voters in Scotland that their future is brighter with independence. We need to make sure that when the next referendum is called – and it will come when there is a big enough demand for it from the Scottish public – we are in a better position to win.

However, with a UK Tory government intent on hammering the poor and vulnerable, slashing public services and turning a blind eye to tax dodging, it won’t be long before more people make the switch to Yes. Add to this the weekly First Minister’s Questions session, when the Scottish Tories will be under more scrutiny – and where Labour will be seen as increasingly irrelevant – and the focus of political debate shifts to the choice of a fairer, stronger Scotland or a harsher, austerity-driven UK.

Most of all, we must look to ourselves. We must accept and critically analyse the mistakes of the 2014 campaign. We cannot make it that only one vision of what an independent Scotland would look like is presented, by entangling the future with an SNP manifesto as the White Paper did. We cannot allow ourselves to be boxed in over one definitive answer to very open and optional questions like currency.

We must build the case and show the different options available. We must find answers to the often described unanswered questions. We must be able to successfully build what all our different visions of an independent Scotland could be, for that is the beauty of what independence means, after all. We get to paint the future we as a nation wish to see, on a blank canvas. We would have total control in the hands of a democratically elected government that WE voted for. There are different visions and policies possible with independence. Let’s use that to our advantage.

Get the shades out, turn up the tunes – we’re getting the band back together.