Less social media frenzy and more doorstep campaigning will win independence

Some folk in politics would start a fight in an empty house, but it is important, I think, that we remember the SNP are a team, and that means we can rely on each other to play our proper parts.

Mine is twofold – to present a credible and grown-up case for independence to a wider international audience via the platform I have at Westminster, and to help persuade people across Stirling and elsewhere to vote for independence when the referendum comes.

It is not to second guess how or when the referendum will happen. We have a troupe of Scottish Government ministers working on that as well as everything else the Government needs to work on. I trust them to deliver.

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What we in the wider party need to do is focus on winning the argument and winning the vote when it happens. Polls recently have been encouraging but we still have a job to do.

In Stirling we are putting together plans to get back out there campaigning not just towards elections but towards independence.

I’ve had a lot of meetings with diplomats and journalists and have put to them that independence will not be a distraction from Covid recovery, it will be integral to it.

Rejoining the EU, the single market and the customs union will put rocket boosters on our recovery. Regaining freedom of movement across the EU will be a huge boost for business, our universities and colleges and society as a whole.

Rejoining the EU structural funds will massively empower local government again where the Tory levelling-up agenda is less money and more political restrictions. Rejoining the Common Agricultural Policy will massively protect our farmers. And even, yes, rejoining the Common Fisheries Policy will be a huge boost to our fishing businesses – as an independent state we’ll be able to ensure we get a better deal than the UK secured for us.

The SNP’s recently published Social Justice Commission paper has a lot of exciting policy changes in it. We need to be out there explaining them to people and making the case on how independence will let us do things we presently cannot do.

There are plenty of arguments to make to bring home to the people of Scotland that we have the answers and independence is the way to a better future.

Or, we can waste our time on tweets, smears and wacky conspiracy theories while the rest of Scotland (to the extent they’re paying attention at all) wonders what on Earth we’re on about. I’m tired of seeing self-inflicted snark and snide outbursts on Twitter that just waste all our time. Let’s all just stop, eh?

Over the years I have been on the receiving end of more abuse than most, and we now know the reality of it. Big On Twitter emphatically does not translate to Big In Real Life, so let’s just allow those who want a row about personality, fringe issues or conspiracy theories to have it to themselves.

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We do not need to be dragged down to it. And let’s do a bit less social media and a bit more doorstep, it really is good to get out and about.

This is not wheesht for indy or other such nonsense, it is focus. The SNP are in good shape, we have sound finances audited by the internal mechanisms of the party and the Electoral Commission as well.

We have an inspirational leader and a strong team which has just romped the last umpteen elections. We have presented ourselves in as well as navigated the biggest public health crisis in a century. We’re winning, the people of Scotland are with us and the big prize is yet to come.

If Scotland’s history tells us anything it is that the biggest enemy of the Scots is the Scots ourselves. We cannot afford to be distracted, especially when the prize is so close.

There are people itching to start a row in an empty house, trawling the internet for grievance and outrage. You’re under no obligation to join them.