A KEY figure in the SNP’s independence strategy debate has hit back at critics who branded his faction’s plans “vanilla”.
Tommy Kelly, convener of the party’s youth wing, Young Scots for Independence (YSI), told the Sunday National the SNP must address voters’ “unanswered questions” if they hoped to win the constitutional debate.
Speaking ahead of the SNP’s conference in Aberdeen later this month, he addressed the controversy around the party’s approach to its guiding mission – which internal critics have derided as “the weakest” motion put forward on the topic.
Kelly said: “I wouldn’t say that giving people the economic reasons for independence is vanilla. I mean, if we look back at 2014, I would say one of the reasons we lost that is because people had so many unanswered questions about what independence would mean for them.”
There has been significant controversy around the selection of the motion on independence strateg,y and The National has previously revealed how numerous alternative motions were knocked back.
A push by more than 50 branches calling for “a national campaign to build a broad and sustained majority for independence” and which would have committed the SNP to using the next General Election as “a defining moment for Scotland to express its will on independence” has been put forward as a potential amendment to the selected motion.
SNP members previously told The National the motion's selection was evidence of party high command treating “members with utter contempt” and using independence as a vote-winner.
But Kelly rejected this. “Party leadership didn’t have a role in selecting the motion, nor did they have a role in selecting any motion; it was delegates’ choice,” he said.
“And even before that, it’s dealt with by the conferences committee, so if their [motions] are not competent enough, then they don’t get selected. So it’s no fault of the YSI nor party leadership that these other motions didn’t get selected.”
He added: “If members are unhappy that ours was picked and theirs wasn’t, it’s not the fault of ours and it’s not the fault of party leadership.
“They were democratically chosen by party members. And I’d say if people were unhappy with that then the only way around it would be try and change the way in which they’re voted on.”
He said he had sympathy, though disagreed, with frustrated members who believed the SNP were using independence to shore up their core vote.
“I definitely understand where people are coming from when they say it seems like we’re just using it [independence] as a tactic to win elections now,” he said.
“I don’t really think we are; I think there’s lots of ways to try and convince people of independence, and it’s hard to do when you’ve got pretty much every other party in Scotland against it, constantly filling social media with their views on what independence would mean for them.
“I feel like we just need to clearly outline to people, not even just undecided voters, to people that would vote No as well, that this is the better option.”
The YSI motion, which, if approved, will commit the SNP to creating “clear, accessible, evidence-based resources addressing the economic and practical questions undecided voters most commonly ask”, is about winning voters round to the cause, said Kelly.
He added: “It’s about winning over the people who aren’t yet convinced. We’re 12 years on from the referendum, and we still have a lot of undecided voters; polling consistently shows that Scotland’s quite split on this issue.
“We have to de-risk independence for those voters and answer their concerns clearly and honestly. Anyone who’s been out on a doorstep or seen comments posted on social media knows that these questions are ones that come up again and again. And how are we supposed to answer them?”
He said that the motion, if successful, could revitalise Yes activism.
“Activism is not what it was,” said Kelly.
“I think with fewer people being involved, it’s harder to apply that pressure because you’ve not got marches, you’ve not got 150,000 members of the SNP, you’ve not got a lot of the factors that were involved in the years up to the referendum.
“I think it is about, to go back to the motion, engaging people about what interests them about the prospects of independence. Once people find out that they can benefit from this, it can work for them, and decisions for Scotland could be made in Scotland, then I think it becomes more appealing to get involved. I feel like that would help with the pressure of demanding a referendum.”
Elsewhere, he dismissed claims that the YSI had called for a “pamphlet” to give to voters.
He said this had been a rejected draft motion put forward by a Glasgow branch and confused with the youth wing’s motion.
Kelly added: “Our motion doesn’t call for a booklet at all. It’s hard to take criticism entirely at face value when it’s aimed at the wrong motion. Not that we’re saying that this motion couldn’t lead into something like that, but that’s not the premise of our motion at all.”
He said the tone of the debate around the conference agenda had become “divisive” and was making the party look bad ahead of the gathering in Aberdeen later this month.
“I feel like when members are coming out and attacking affiliates because our motion got accepted and theirs didn’t, it doesn’t exactly make the party look exceptionally good,” Kelly said.
More broadly, the SNP youth activist praised the party’s current strategy, which has seen First Minister John Swinney hammer a “Scotland’s right to decide” message.
Kelly said: “During the election, the party really took the stance of, instead of full-on independence, it was Scotland’s right to decide. And I think that strategy is working really well and it’s helped us get to this point.”
Pointing to a recent Holyrood vote where Scottish Labour backed Scotland’s right to self-determination, he added: “It’s easier for people to accept the democratic right of people to choose, especially for parties like Labour, than to come out and support independence.”
A march on Westminster could bring home the significance of the issue to the London establishment, Kelly added.
“We should be making an impact on their doorstep, too,” he said. “When have we ever had an independence protest outside Westminster?
“Not only does that help with pressure, it actually shows to the MPs in Westminster that people are angry enough to go all that way and demand that the people of Scotland get to democratically choose their own future.”
