A PARTY was held in Edinburgh in 2015 to celebrate the remarkable gains made by the SNP in the UK election. Less than a year after the first indyref, the main party of independence had secured 56 out of Westminster’s 59 Scottish seats. It seemed then that we could almost reach out and touch independence.

Labour’s dismal performance showed many of their supporters had been sickened by the sight of their politicians popping champagne corks with people who rejected everything the party held dear.

I’ll never forget though, a conversation I had with a leading SNP strategist that evening when we discussed the possibilities brought by having such a large cohort of Scottish nationalists at Westminster. This person’s thoughts were already moving on to an unforeseen issue: just who were some of these people who had been elected?

The SNP’s selection procedures were the most stringent in the UK, yet even the most optimistic party executives could never have envisioned that so many seats – especially in Labour’s heartlands – would fall so quickly.

READ MORE: Prolific Alba blogger slates party for its 'destroy Nicola Sturgeon' approach

The SNP insider informed me that over the next 72 hours their team would be sifting through the CVs and histories of the new kids in town with fresh vigour. Would any of them prove problematic? Did they possess genuine political acumen? How many of them might turn out to be self-serving narcissists? How intelligent were they?

I felt one question remained unaddressed by the party chiefs: How many of them were piggy-backing on the renewed fervour for independence? This, after all, was an opportunity to access a level of pay and conditions – and accompanying lifestyle – that would have been beyond them in civilian life. Eight years later we know the answer: quite a few.

During this period, the SNP’s improbably large Westminster contingent has been largely indolent in advancing the primary cause for which they were all elected. And thus the opportunities that may have opened up have been squandered.

The most glaring examples of this have been the deliberate marginalisation and ostracism of some genuinely smart and capable individuals suspected of not being entirely loyal to Nicola Sturgeon.

In truth, it wasn’t actually a question of personal loyalty; it was their refusal to remain silent in the face of bullying within the Westminster group.

Joanna Cherry had helped orchestrate the humiliation of Boris Johnson over his attempts to subvert Westminster but received scant support for her efforts by the party leadership north and south of the Border.

Yet she had won admiration on all sides of the House, both for her acuity in repelling Johnson’s attacks on parliamentary democracy and for the intelligence and diligence she brought to her brief on home affairs and justice.

It was around this time that there were some opportunities for soft diplomacy with the Tories over the question of a second referendum. Similar opportunities existed in making overtures to Brussels about recognising the legitimacy of a second referendum. Before you can negotiate with your opponents meaningfully they need to respect you. And it was clear to Westminster watchers that Europe and the UK Government respected some more than others.

Sadly for the Yes movement, some of the most capable SNP MPs were sidelined or, in the case of Cherry, demoted. In their places, a cadre of less-talented individuals have emerged whose whole-hearted commitment to independence is questionable. The appointment of some barely-literate, but deeply unpleasant individuals as staffers didn’t help matters.

One MP, Pete “Slippers” Wishart, sought desperately to become Speaker of the House, an ancient and berobed position which would have effectively neutered him as a voice for independence. Others, such as the Nato twins, Alyn Smith and Stewart McDonald, seem more committed to Ukrainian nationhood than Scottish independence.

SEVERAL others were in the vanguard of attacks on Chris McEleny and their own colleague, Angus MacNeil, when they proposed breaking through the groundhog sense of ennui that had lately begun to cloak the overall strategy for securing a second referendum.

This comprised fighting an election on the promise of a referendum; seeking a Section 30 order from the Tories and then weeping and wailing when, inevitably, it was refused.

There was a creeping dread that voters would finally see through the chimera. All that was required was an issue where the self-indulgent whims of the SNP’s professional elite ran up against the public’s common wisdom.

The chaotic delivery and brutal tactics of the leadership during the Gender Recognition Reform Bill debate have proven to be the turning point long foretold by several inside the party. The recent drastic dip in support for independence has brought home the folly of the leadership’s arrogance.

Yet if it hadn’t been that issue, it would have been something else. The SNP have been juggling with several issues and it was always probable that one of them would drop: the ferries fiasco; the grossly undervalued coastal sell-off to Big Energy; the questions about the whereabouts of the £600,000 in referendum donations, and the subsequent revelation of the party chief executive’s six-figure loan in its wake.

Yet amid this there is hope of recovering the lost ground – but only if some ruthless pruning takes place.

Ivan McKee’s suggestion in the Sunday National that the pro-independence parties unite to put a Yes option on the ballot papers in a de facto referendum is a welcome and grown-up intervention.

It’s in stark contrast to Wishart and others verbally abusing Alba in a pathetic attempt to conceal their own shortcomings.

McKee, the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, also favours setting up a new Yes party for these purposes.

READ MORE: SNP reject report 30,000 have quit party over Nicola Sturgeon gender reforms

As he rightly points out, there is “no option but to win” and he has already discussed his ideas with colleagues ahead of next month’s SNP Special Democracy Conference.

His intervention came as Stephen Flynn, the party’s new Westminster leader, is overseeing a much more positive and grown-up approach in the group. This has included batting away the suggestions of Alyn Smith and Shirley-Anne Somerville that party colleagues who failed to support the GRR legislation consider their positions.

If all of the Yes parties are to fight a de facto referendum then it’s vital that this sort of childish bullying stops and that the chief aggressors are kept well out of the way. They’ve caused enough damage as it is.

As has become obvious in recent days, the voters have had more than enough of this self-indulgent posturing.