A code of conduct for Yessers? Here's what the SNP should do

Richard is one of Scotland’s outstanding journalists with a stellar career in most of the country’s big newspapers and was founding editor of The National in 2014. In the days that followed the first issue, several in our industry (I hesitate to call all of them journalists) were invited to comment on the advisability of setting up a new paper when print seemed to be on the decline.

Included in their ranks were a few who, in journalistic terms, were unfit to lace Richard’s drinks.

READ MORE: Richard Walker: What is the issue with a pledge of respect for the Yes movement?

Some were happy to mock the concept of an independence-supporting newspaper, suggesting that being openly biased in favour of independence would undermine any claims to objectivity. This, of course, overlooked the fact that, until the launch of The National, every one of the dozen or so national titles operating in Scotland was pro-Union. And that, in the run-up to the 2014 referendum on independence, all vestiges of objectivity were cast aside by a handful as they became nothing more than screeching propaganda sheets for the Union.

Richard Walker was the founding editor of The National

In the eight years since The National has been operating, the paper is the only national Scottish title to have enjoyed a sales growth in the last three years. Part of this is due to the way in which the paper has sought to include a wide variety of voices reflecting all shades of opinion within the gnarly and often pugnacious Yes movement.

By their very nature, all newspapers and all grassroots political movements ought to be cantankerous and fractious. I’m always a bit suspicious when political leaders or professional actors from within the political bubble call for respectful and mature debate. This usually translates as: “only we know what’s good for you and you should just accept what we say in good faith”. Irascibility and feistiness are signs of good health and dynamism.

READ MORE: Indyref2 campaign set to have 'Yes pledge' code of conduct at heart

Nevertheless, Richard’s call for a degree of mutual respect in the wider Yes movement is timely and probably needed. It built on a request by the SNP MP Stewart Hosie during the Aberdeen event for us all to sign up to a code of conduct, committing activists to show respect in the campaign for Scottish independence.

I’m told by some who attended the Progress to Yes conference that it was conducted in a cordial atmosphere of fellowship and bonhomie. I’m happy to take their word for this, although the inclusion of some pro-independence faces in the pictures suggested that good fellowship and mutual respect might be stretching the concepts somewhat.

And I say that in the full acknowledgment that several of my own recent interventions about the conduct of the SNP have been – how can I put this – “obstreperous”. But we’re all the fraternal offspring of the fecund Jock Tamson, are we not?

And besides, apart from any other considerations, it was surely good simply to have an in-person event of any description under the Yes banner. The SNP remains the only UK political party to have avoided a real conference since Covid restrictions began to ease. You and I know that the real reason for this hesitancy is that any SNP national conference conducted in-person in the last year would probably have required the services of UN Peacekeepers.

The glacial progress towards an independence referendum and the toxicity of the gender reform debate have ruptured what was once an optimistic movement at ease with itself. The continuing success in national elections has masked a poison in the well of the SNP and the bigger movement.

You might adopt the view that those electoral successes are proof of unity and that any analysis highlighting these divisions are exaggerated and made in bad faith. Well … perhaps, but prevailing in a short, five-week campaign when none of your main political opponents are fit for the purpose of authentic opposition is not a stiff test of the SNP’s mettle.

In a six-month campaign (at least) when the future of the UK is at stake, the British establishment, as it did in 2014, will throw everything at its disposal to stop the Union being dismantled. This will include the civil service; the diplomatic corps; big business; the banking establishment; the entire British Army command; the Church of England; the press and BBC and every political party committed to preserving the Union. The truth will be getting chibbed all over the shop.

Thus, the appeals by Stewart Hosie and Richard Walker for a code of conduct to preserve even a semblance of unity is probably wise in these circumstances.

A protocol based on respect should be a two-way street though, and should bind both the grassroots and the SNP leadership.

And so, in a spirit of fraternal goodwill I offer my own code of conduct.

• 1. The SNP leadership must produce an authentic and detailed timeline for the next independence referendum. The dozen or so pledges and vows over the last few years are an insult to the wider movement.
• 2. Professional SNP politicians and their staffers must pledge to avoid the bullying and intimidation of women members who are deemed to be on the wrong side of the gender reform debate. As a starting point, Nicola Sturgeon should make a public apology for past instances of this and make it a disciplinary offence in future.
• 3. The SNP NEC should reflect all shades of opinion in the party. Those who have been co-opted on simply to abuse women defending sex-based rights in a bid to get a decent list placing should be chivvied out.
• 4. Tell us truthfully the whereabouts of the missing £600k earmarked for fighting a referendum.
• 5. The recent and alarming shift in the party’s policy on nuclear weapons should be clarified. If this really is being considered there must be an open debate and free vote on the issue. It shouldn’t be at the whim of a handful of politicians seeking a lucrative sinecure in the western military sector post-politics. And while you’re at it, let’s re-visit the Nato question.
• 6. Stop the incessant and childish bating of Alba on social media by SNP politicians seeking nothing more than hugs and kisses from the party leadership.
• 7. Publish all the legal counsel on preparing a blueprint for independence. Why is this a problem anyway?
• 8. (To Nicola Sturgeon) Stop pulling faces whenever a journalist asks you to provide details about your latest 2023 referendum pledge.