Stuart Cosgrove: Kate Forbes can shape a morally inspired Yes cause

Only a month after the death of his seven-year-old son, Vanichka, the great Russian novelist, by then 67 years old, was given a bicycle from the Moscow Society of Velocipede-Lovers. It came with a guide to the garden paths on his estate and guaranteed to help him with the grieving process.

You do not have to have ploughed through the Napoleonic invasion of Russia or grappled with Tolstoy’s epic War And Peace to feel some pity for the ageing writer and the emotional impact of his young son’s death. It’s an experience that would shatter most people.

The story of Tolstoy’s bike tells us three life lessons: You are never too old to learn; you can achieve new things in life for as long as you want; and for those that have suffered loss, you can soften your pain by staying active in later life.

Despite the fog of division, litigation and a broadly hostile media, there may be a fourth lesson, one that is profoundly relevant to Scotland and the independence movement. You are never too old to adapt and to change your mind.

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The jazz legend Miles Davis was so bewitched by the idea of change later in life, he swaggered into Gleason’s Gym in Harlem and announced his plans to become a championship fighter. Davis believed that age was an illusion, but try telling that to the psephologists of Scottish politics.

Reassuringly, all of Scotland’s younger communities, from 16 years old upwards, have thus far shown a majority for independence. It is only the older generations who remain stubbornly attached to the Union, and to the ways of the past. Some might say it’s the way of wisdom, others that it’s a petrifying fear of change.

Although I have heard it espoused a thousand times, I have never subscribed to the ghoulish idea that time was on Scotland’s side and that all we needed to do was to wait until a generation died away. It is a horribly cynical and uncaring prospectus on which to build a new nation.

There have been numerous theories about why the electorate of over-60s rejected independence. Clearly, a familiarity with the institutions of the post-war consensus, the Union, the monarchy and even shared pastimes like having a flutter on the Grand National were among them.

Another major reason, and the one that has passed into the unforgiving folklore, was the impact of Project Fear, where older voters were targeted with scare stories of how Scotland would fail to cope as an independent nation if deprived of the “broad shoulders” of the British state.

The pinnacle of that thesis was the notorious sight of canvassers from Better Together, including Labour Party members, knocking on doors telling older voters that their pensions were at risk.

It has subsequently been admitted that the No campaign could not have won without fear – what a sad and compromising admission that has turned out to be.

The demonology of fear was given unquestioned visibility by traditional sources of news and information. Older groups relied more on news outlets such as television and daily newspapers while younger generations were finding their own versions of the truth online. But even that certainty is changing.

Social networking use among internet users aged 50 and older has nearly doubled – from 22% to 42% over the past year.

It now appears that the metaphor of Leo Tolstoy’s bike is no longer some distant anomaly. The term “active ageing” was adopted by the World Health Organisation in the late 1990s and is now one of the most powerful social trends in everyday behaviour – a greater willingness to travel independently, a rise in new relationships later in life and a boom in the fitness industries aimed at active retirement are among some of the most obvious outcomes.

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Although the opponents of independence struggle to understand currency and the concept of a Scottish pound, consumer capitalism seems entirely at ease with the much more arcane concept of the grey pound. Older people are now not only more active, they are more economically valued too.

Another hugely relevant change in demographic behaviour is the unprecedented rise in volunteerism and renewed commitment to charity and social enterprise.

We do not need to look too far to see these trends in action. Look at any food bank collection, charity fundraisers or photographs of local Yes canvassing groups, and at least half of the participants will be older.

While the Yes movement can rely on the glorious impatience of youth, most local branches remain reliant on an older constituency of supporters. The myth of a young movement is precisely that – a myth.

There is another very good reason for dwelling on Leo Tolstoy’s bike. It was gifted to him not only in times of bereavement but as he circulated his thinking on the so-called “laws of love”, a body of ideas that resonated through the 20th century influencing both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, thus fortifying the Indian independence movement and the battle for civil rights in America.

Tolstoy’s “law of love” was a set of ideas that mobilised many hundreds from Scottish churches in the 1950s to oppose Polaris and challenge America’s nuclear presence on the Clyde.

If another independence referendum is blocked or delayed until some intangible future, it may be that Scottish civic society needs to revisit non-violent social protest as part of putting constitutional pressure on Westminster. The time has come for new strategies to take our democratic rights to the world.

Although she lost out to Humza Yousaf, an obvious candidate to shape a morally inspired social resistance is Kate Forbes. On the first days of her leadership challenge, Forbes’s Christianity was used to trap her into comments that all but undermined her broad appeal – now is the time to flip that coin and foreground religion’s force for good.

In a febrile and divisive moment, Forbes was left exposed on issues like gender reform legislation and abortion. I know several people in my own social circle that were thinking of voting for her and abandoned ship when they were unable to reconcile her views with their own progressive beliefs. But what they saw initially – a sparky, hard-working intelligence – has not evaporated.

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To dwell on that moment would be deeply prejudicial and to assume that Christianity and multi-faith Scotland cannot be mobilised as a truly progressive force is profoundly mistaken too.

Far be it from me to load more work on Kate Forbes, but Tolstoy once said that “Spring is the time of plans and projects”.

There is already momentum behind a new independence convention, and whatever the outcomes, fresh ideas are needed to shape the next chapter in Scotland’s restless story. What role should non-violent and extra-parliamentary protest play in our democracy and how do we release our inner Tolstoy?

Forbes has a young family and a geographically diverse constituency to contend with, but she also has the charisma to get on Tolstoy’s bike and shape a new pacifist movement within the Yes campaign by confronting the roadblocks currently impeding Scottish democracy.

If I have one lingering concern, it is a question of fashion and decorum. Will Kate Forbes’s trademark floral dresses be enhanced by a pair of bike clips or not? You decide.