YESTERDAY, this newspaper reported on the anger within the SNP following Keith Brown’s announcement that the convention due to happen later this month won’t decide the party’s official independence strategy.

Senior unnamed sources were harsh in their criticism. I was not one of them. Firstly because I prefer to put my name to my views but also because I don’t know why anyone was surprised.

A “convention” has no status in the party’s constitution. Only conference can make policy decisions.

In my opinion, what the SNP should be doing this month is holding the special conference originally scheduled for March of this year to finalise our independence strategy and then focusing on campaigning on the bread-and-butter issues.

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We need to move away from talking about process and on to explaining to people why we need independence.

Finalising our strategy won’t now happen until October, which is a pity, but it’s nonetheless vital that we utilise the talking shop on June 24 to explore all options on the table so that the proposals – between which delegates will decide in October – are as well-informed as possible.

That is why I think the party should be considering the option put forward in a letter from Alex Salmond to SNP MPs earlier this week.

The idea of having a single independence mandate candidate in each parliamentary constituency would offer us a strong opportunity to defeat the Unionist parties by moving them off the ground upon which they will want to fight – SNP difficulties, policy issues at Holyrood – onto the ground on which we want to fight – the argument that things will only change in Scotland with independence.

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Such a platform would unite all those who support independence under one banner and given that support for independence now outstrips support for the SNP that can only be a good thing for my party.

In fact, I don’t see what the SNP would have to lose from Alex Salmond’s proposal. Effectively, our sitting MPs (or our replacements for those standing down) would be the candidates in all 45 seats that we currently hold, badged as “SNP, Scotland United for Independence”.

The Alba members would fight the two seats they currently represent. After all, one of them was won by an independence candidate in the first place and as regards to the second, frankly all forecasts show the SNP losing it.

The remaining 10 seats would be distributed among SNP, Scottish Greens, Alba and perhaps some independent candidates from the Yes movement, with most of them going to the SNP in recognition of our dominance.

As Alex says in his letter “in the lee of the ill-starred venture to the Supreme Court, the referendum route to independence is closed off, for the time being at least”. He was the person who devised the referendum strategy and I agree with him that while it might re-emerge as the way to proceed in the future, recent experience shows that a referendum is unlikely to be achieved by campaigning for it in a General Election.

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As MP Angus Brendan MacNeil put it, the SNP need to move away from being the referendum request party back to being the independence party.

I know some of my colleagues will find it very hard to swallow their pride, having participated in attempts to trash Alex’s reputation for the last few years. We saw that in the knee-jerk reaction of at least one to his proposal.

However, others will be more thoughtful and acknowledge that in taking the SNP into government and to the brink of success in the independence referendum, Alex has proved himself a master strategist and therefore his proposal is worthy of consideration.

Indeed, recent statesmanlike performances on Question Time and Debate Night have been a salutary reminder of what he has to offer to the movement.

THAT said, I do sympathise with SNP MP colleagues who are sick to the back teeth of being slagged off by some Alba members on Twitter simply for doing the job of representing their constituents at Westminster despite that being the very thing they were elected to do. I know how they feel.

I don’t usually get the same stick from Alba members, but I am very weary of being slagged off by SNP members and fellow parliamentarians for daring to stick up for the rights of women and lesbians and having some independent minded thoughts on the way forward for the party.

It really is time for the nastiness within the independence movement to stop. MPs and MSPs have a responsibility to take the lead on this and show a good example, but truth be told many of the activists are there already.

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When I was out campaigning in my constituency last Saturday and signing up people for postal votes, I was doing so under the Yes banner. Often when we do this Alba and SNP members work side by side as comrades and with no problem.

There is some congruence between Alex’s plan and what Gerry Hassan called for in his column in this newspaper earlier this week. Now, I think it is fair to say that Gerry is no fan of Alex or indeed of my good self. I understand he thinks I am “not a team player” which is the phrase of choice for those in the movement who don’t believe parliamentarians should think for themselves.

I believe the copyright belongs to Ian Blackford. But putting this to one side, I like what Gerry has said on this occasion. He argues that we need to tackle the “lack of progress, detail and momentum” in the independence campaign with genuine cross-party cooperation that transcends the “poisonous divides and spats” to a “new vision”.

His idea is a little different in that he advocates setting up a campaign for self-determination that nurtures collaboration across and beyond parties, like the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly did in the 1980s and 1990s rather than focusing on the immediate opportunity afforded by the General Election.

However, I think his idea also has a lot to commend it and while I am not for a moment saying it is the same as Alex Salmond’s idea, what it has in common is a recognition that the SNP alone cannot rejuvenate the cause of independence.

I hope that both of these proposals will be on the table at the SNP convention later this month. I want to hear more about both, and I think they should be given very serious consideration. In his letter to SNP MPs Alex says that that idea of the independence parties working together has the support of the movement. I think he is right.

He also says there is currently research in the field to establish whether the public would show similar enthusiasm. He has offered to share that data with SNP MPs, and I would be keen to see it before the convention discussions.

After I had finished writing this column, I read that the leadership of the Scottish Greens have rejected working with Alba in any cross-party arrangement. I think this is misguided and out of step with the wider independence movement. I hope they will consult their membership and reconsider.