I THINK Peter Piper in his website comments “Many new members of the SNP are disillusioned” (Letters, October 18) is being a bit hard on the party.

When I joined the SNP, usually the only activity happened when there was a by-election; there was no Scottish Parliament so the party survived in branches and constituency associations.

I joined in Peterhead, in 1966, and our only outlet at that time was the branch, monthly meetings, treasurers’ report and all the paraphernalia of a democratic party.

The effect in Peterhead was amazing. The local council was non-political so the branch put up three candidates; one Tory lady was so impressed by myself that at the local elections she was going to give me a “plumper” – meaning that while there might be vacancies she would just vote for me. It was all in vain, as my boss withdrew his permission, reasoning “James, we would never see you”. We did have one candidate, Douglas MacDonald, who became a councillor, and a very good one at that.

The branch and East Aberdeenshire constituency was a bit dated in the eyes of the Young Turks, so we managed to take control; the annual event was the Bannockburn Rally and we ran a bus; we also worked in a council by-election in Aberdeen, and lost by nine votes. The constituency was Ellon, Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Central Buchan, New Pitsligo, Turriff, Rosehearty, Inverstcairn and Maud, New Deer and Auchnagatt – a lot of ground to cover. (One sidelight was Inverstcairn – Billy Wolfe liked the sound of that but could not find it on any map; we had to tell him it was a name for three villages, Inverallochy. St Combs and Cairnbulg.)

I got a job in Edinburgh and left just as the Provost had nominated me as a Justice of the Peace, which I could not take up.

The purpose of the above was the minutiae which kept all thing together. Delivering raffle tickets to New Pitsligo on a wet Sunday afternoon with the bairns in the back seat was thrilling!

The constituency almost went SNP in 1970, and was taken by Douglas Henderson in 1974; it was lost in 1979 when Mrs Thatcher came to power.

I was in Peterhead when Winnie won Hamilton in 1967 and she appeared at the SNP conference in Aberdeen in 1968 – heady days!

When I came to Edinburgh in 1969 I told my wife I would not be so involved; at the first Corstorphine Branch AGM I was quizzed by Lt Col Muriel Gibson, who got me elected branch vice-chairman and I was off again on the SNP bandwagon.

To put things into perspective, during the 1970 election I was canvassing on a wet Sunday in Broomhall and when I got back to the rooms, Muriel asked me how I had got on. “I feel like a very unsuccessful Jehovah’s Witness” was my response.

In 1970 we lost Hamilton but gained the Western Isles; there was no golden road.

Since then I stood as a parliamentary candidate four times: Edinburgh North twice, Central Fife (now Glenrothes) and Dundee West, as well as being a branch and constituency chairman and National Council elected member, before hanging up my parliamentary boots to concentrate on my job.

The party always struggled to survive, so any idea that it sat on its hands is not true; people come and people go and you could never count on more than half a dozen activists in a branch.

The Yes campaign generated a host of new members and SNP HQ was swamped; if all the marchers knocked doors we would be independent now.

Keep plugging away.

Jim Lynch
Edinburgh