Humza Yousaf's SNP conference was a success but giddy days are over

A new independence strategy was debated passionately but respectfully and a compromise stance adopted.

Humza Yousaf accepted four amendments – swinging possible dissenters behind his own main motion, including Joanna Cherry MP, and let former Labour man Tommy Sheppard MP do the heavy lifting – a man whose former party credentials will become more useful as Labour proceeds (almost inevitably) to become the next UK government.

Top economist Richard Murphy applauded Yousaf’s announcement that the Scottish Government will issue its first-ever bonds on the world market.

READ MORE: Richard Murphy applauds Humza Yousaf's 'brave' bond plans

The arts community was pleased with news of more funding after years of real cuts. And try as Unionist naysayers might to portray the conference as small, empty and downbeat, party members left Aberdeen with an unexpected spring in their steps and fresh confidence in their new leader.

Amid predictions of a post-Rutherglen SNP meltdown … that’s a big success.

But not an unmitigated triumph.

The pledge to freeze council tax was not the FM’s to make and according to Cosla – the council umbrella body – not discussed with it beforehand. That may be shrugged off as typical conference behaviour – show me another party leader who hasn’t made hard-to-deliver pledges in a hurry this conference season. But even if fully funded, the announcement appears to breach the Verity House Agreement signed by ministers and councillors in June, which includes a commitment to “mutual trust and respect”.

The profile Yousaf has been carefully building doesn’t allow for typical political grubbiness. He is rightly proud the Scottish Government has negotiated pay settlements with every health union here while Westminster plays macho hardball in England, squandering more money through lost productivity, cancelled operations and terrible staff morale than they will ever recoup.

That reputation for good-faith negotiation sets a much higher bar for Yousaf than other national leaders. But it’s the path and the bar he chose the minute he leapt off the Dundee convention stage in June to talk to a woman interrupting his keynote speech.

READ MORE: Kelly Given: FM’s basic humanity is a lesson for other leaders

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a massive relief to have a political leader who talks readily and convincingly about the need for compassion and dialogue. But he needs to walk the walk or that reputation will rapidly tarnish.

And it has been a very strong start.

Yousaf’s humane, dignified and empathetic stance on the Israel/Gaza situation has given people across Scotland and Britain a civilised alternative to the war-mongering positions taken by Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. Yousaf was calling for a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor when LBC’s Nick Ferrari asked Starmer if a siege was appropriate if it cut off power and water. The Labour leader answered: “I think Israel does have that right.”

Starmer – whatever he now says – has put himself on the wrong side of history, while Yousaf’s call for the medical evacuation of Palestinians in Gaza hospitals, and his offer of hospital treatment and refugee rehousing in Scotland, was timely and right.

Just as Nicola Sturgeon offered a contrast to the errant, blustering, contradictory Boris Johnson during the pandemic – “the calmest of voices and coolest of heads,” as Yousaf described her – so Yousaf himself has created a contrast during this current global crisis. His stance is powerful in its sincerity, empathy and emphasis on humanitarian aid and contrasts starkly with Westminster’s hard-line support for one terribly wronged side, whose instinct for revenge should surely be tempered, not encouraged by other world leaders.

Who knew international solidarity would become a defining feature of the next General Election in Scotland and the next independence campaign?

Well, perhaps the thousands who turned out to protect New Scots from arrest by the Home Office in Kenmure Street (below) and Edinburgh’s Nicolson Square in recent years. Or the tens of thousands who shared images of relief and delight after the peaceful release of the detainees. Or the three in five Scots who agreed migration is broadly positive in a recent poll for the Herald newspaper.

Scots have slowly shifted their views on citizenship and inclusion – Yousaf both personifies and articulates that shift.

But that new leadership style has to play out in the way the next SNP conference is run.

The Aberdeen venue is about as welcoming as an empty airport hangar. Veggie food ran out at midday on Sunday and coffee outlets were closed by 4pm. Breakout rooms seemed too small for the massive demand among delegates. Hotels beside the out-of-town venue cost a packet and parking is £20 a day.

That may seem like a trivial set of quibbles.

But continuing with a relatively unpopular venue limits the number of delegates and undermines claims that the SNP are under “new management”.

Does the party accept that the giddy days are over – days when Aberdeen’s TECA was one of only a few Scottish venues large enough to accommodate Britain’s third-largest party? Is it willing to “downsize” to Perth or Inverness – whose smaller conference halls are walkable from bus and train stations and surrounded by hotels, pubs, cafes and eateries?

In short, is the SNP conference still about the choreography of power or the importance of connection?

HUMZA Yousaf’s impressive address suggests his leadership is all about connection. His standing is on the rise because it isn’t grandstanding. And don’t be fooled. The appearance of Sturgeon on Monday – flanked by a party press officer and cabinet ministers – was clearly orchestrated by the SNP. Why facilitate a “crowning glory” moment for a past leader some still adore but others blame for stalling independence and the spectre of criminal charges that still hangs over the party?

Fa kens.

But did Sturgeon’s brief appearance overshadow the conference?

No, it didn’t.

The talk of the steamie was Nadia El-Nakla – Yousaf’s wife – and her talk about Gaza; the calm but passionate independence strategy debate, and Yousaf’s rousing leader’s speech _ which included a generous tribute to his predecessor. Giving Sturgeon that moment in the sun was the mark of a confident leader, possessed of real emotional intelligence.

No good ever comes from petty rivalry, feuds, personal enmity or airbrushing past leaders from history.

When Operation Branchform finally ends, Sturgeon’s role and status will change again. But meantime, there’s nothing to be gained from trying to shut down a former leader who might yet become a political adversary. The mention of Nicola and the short video of her achievements was all by way of a fitting farewell.

It’s now clear who’s in charge – and when the former first minister agreed with her own indy strategy being ditched, it evidently wasn’t her. Humza’s conference tribute to the last leader wasn’t Nicola resurgent – it was the equivalent of her gold clock and a source of disunity averted.

Clearly, when Yousaf talks about party unity, he means it and works hard behind the scenes to achieve it.

Cherry – a prominent supporter of leadership rival Ash Regan – paid tribute to Yousaf for accepting her amendment about a Constitutional Convention and being generally approachable.

Another party heavyweight said he’d had more “quality time” with Humza in the past few months than with his predecessor over almost 10 years.

Still, let’s not be naive.

Talk of internal rebellion and another leadership contest might have been stilled by Yousaf’s quiet authority this week. But it won’t disappear.

The party is still in troubled waters and has now made big promises it needs to keep.

And it will take some time for the mainstream media to revise its favourite narrative – that the SNP are mortally wounded.

And yet, after this week, it’s obviously not true. What a difference a conference makes.