Lesley Riddoch: Bold new NEC can help change SNP for the better

It would be easy to dissect his controversial column in yesterday’s National, but read the paper’s comments section – dissection is already there in spades.

And actually, that’s enough.

Not because Alyn was right in any aspect of his column. But because it is happily now completely irrelevant.

What the SNP most needed is precisely what has happened – democratic change.

Now the winners must motor away from further engagement with bruised egos.

At long last, SNP activists have serious work to do. Dwelling endlessly on the words of one man is not just a distraction, it’s the compulsive behaviour of the completely disenfranchised.

And happily, that’s not where reform-supporters within the SNP find themselves today. There’s a real opportunity to modernise this party, democratise the next independence campaign and also the likely first government of an independent Scotland.

READ MORE: Alyn Smith: OK. So you defeated me. Now it’s time to deliver

That’s the scale of the task before the NEC winners today and it demands their full attention. If change is to be consensually agreed and negotiated, it will take longer to embed in the rulebook and the culture of the SNP than anyone imagines.

So let’s get our eyes back on the prize folks – the creation of a more open, transparent, responsive SNP, in which the mockery of “policy debate” offered up during successive party conferences is never seen again.

Let’s look forward to lively, contentious party conferences that don’t duck the big issues or charge pro-indy groups eye-watering sums to hold fringe meetings – £6-8k for an hour’s virtual presence last weekend in an online system that probably cost no more than £1k.

And yes, let’s even relish the problems that will inevitably occur as the SNP changes stride – because they are proof positive the party is reaching beyond its considerable comfort zone.

How will a clear sense of purpose be maintained while policy directions are challenged? Will more interactive policy-making processes be manageable and democratic? Might the constant need to explain and debate hamper the First Minister’s Covid responsibilities?

I don’t know. But I do know these are the right challenges for the SNP’s NEC to be grappling with – the challenge of renewing vigour and democratic process without destabilising Britain’s third largest political party.

The timing isn’t wrong – it’s perfectly right.

We are in for an eventful, few years as Scotland moves towards indyref2 and independence. That can’t be done with many cylinders misfiring – and that’s how the SNP has progressed lately. Despite its heft, membership, star performer and stellar election prospects – the SNP has been hirpling along, underpowered and underperforming because so few people are truly trusted and involved.

This must change – so too the paranoid fear of internal disagreement. Of course, bickering dents any endeavour. But dissent is actually normal and the current turmoil within the SNP arises from the unnatural absence of dissent, the absence of proper channels for debate, or ways for enthusiastic members to do more than pay their annual dues and become increasingly angry armchair critics.

Personality wars nearly always arise when vital democratic channels for debate are blocked and normal levels of disagreement between committed, intelligent people become demonised.

The more folk are stuck on the sidelines, the more angry they become, the more personal their criticism and extreme the distance between the status quo and their outsider’s perception of what needs to be done.

Being marginalised virtually guarantees discontent amongst folk with the energy and desire to improve their party and community.

READ MORE: Richard Walker: Bitter SNP division will not win hearts and minds

In any other democracy some of that energy could easily be poured into participation in powerful and genuinely local councils. But not in Scotland. The centre here is in total control and attracts to it people who favour that approach. The more people are ignored the louder they shout, giving embattled politicians all the reason they need to keep decision-making to themselves.

Thus, centralised power becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, even while it’s condemned as a discredited and broken democratic system – the most poisonous legacy of top down, Winner takes all Britain. Something has to change. And it just has.

Of course, the tail can’t wag the dog and NEC members/think tanks/ ex leaders can’t expect their ideas to waltz straight into implementation. But they can expect to be heard and taken seriously.

So too active, alternative indy actors like Common Weal whose work has never once (to my knowledge) been cited by the SNP leadership, currency campaigners like Timothy Rideout and formidable legal minds like Joanna Cherry whose strategy for putting Scotland on the front foot – prepared for legal challenge after asserting our right to act next year – doubtless commands majority support within the party.

There are also some new kids on the block. Today, Yes Alba will announce election results for its first steering committee, charged with setting up a new national membership organisation by New Year’s Day.

This bold decision to organise an all-party/no party grassroots Yes movement from scratch is a beautiful and precious thing. It’s the start of “ordinary Scots” exercising agency and abandoning the angst that comes from generations of exclusion from the formal political process. The SNP would be well advised to let it grow.

Within the party, reform candidates clearly want policy debate – let’s hope the leadership encourages that. The folk just elected have the energy and mandate to open up discussion without derailing the SNP. Why not let them do it?

Yes, there will be mistakes – but that’s the surest sign of democratic activity returning to the SNP after years of o’er tightly controlled management.

Sure, what’s set to happen could be viewed as a challenge to Nicola’s authority by a ragtag bundle of policy nit-pickers – that’s certainly Smith’s view and doubtless hostile papers will repeat it. What I see is a long overdue coming of age, where activists are stepping up from the easy sniping zone of the party’s margins and into the bright, difficult world of power where progress demands discussion, hard work and awkward compromise all around. This is surely progress. Indeed, this is the process of independence working its way through the SNP.

The aim is not to usurp the SNP leader but to create a modern party fit for the long bumpy road ahead. And ironically, that will help members turn out with a spring in their steps to campaign for May’s elections.

OK, this may be unduly optimistic.

But sometimes – against all the doom-laden odds – good things happen. See America, see Biden.

Smith said yesterday; “To oppose is easy, to govern is hard.”

That’s precisely why the SNP leadership should welcome having fewer supporters doomed forever to angry opposition– and more sharing the difficult task of establishing good governance.

How well and how far the SNP changes depends on people – especially the newly elected SNP President, Mike Russell.

But first, it’s vital that new and old faces on the NEC meet soon – even if just online – to build bonds of respect and common purpose. After that, anything is possible.