This week’s Behind the Headlines comes from content editor Xander Elliards. To receive the newsletter direct to your inbox every week for free, click here.
USUALLY if a journalist wants some time with a Cabinet Secretary or even an MSP, there are hoops you have to jump through.
Press officers have to be negotiated with, journeys made, events attended. Often, entire ceremonies have to be sat through before every member of the “press pack” gets one question each. A follow-up if you’re lucky.
Not so at the SNP conference.
Here, the atmosphere is much more informal, and parliamentarians are literally all around. It’s something of a journalists’ dream.
If you want to hear reaction to a development, get guidance on a policy, or just to stand at the water cooler and engage in all the talk that goes with it, there are plenty of opportunities to do so.
Sure, the usual “press pack” is always lurking – waiting as they did on Friday morning in the hope that John Swinney might allow himself to be cornered on his way out of the General Election review. But the atmosphere is different.
MPs and ministers are up for a quick chat in the corridor as you all head to where you’re going. It’s not unusual to see a Cabinet Secretary stop and genuinely engage with party members, truly lending an ear to the grassroots’ concerns.
That, ultimately, seems to be what the SNP’s conference is about. The SNP has a history of being member-led, and this annual event is members’ best chance to influence party policy.
Unfortunately, what some of us had expected to be an extension of that engagement with members has not quite turned out that way.
This year, the SNP conference agenda includes several policy discussions.
One, on Friday, was to focus on net zero and the economy and be led by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes. Another, on Sunday and on external affairs, will be led by Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson.
However, what could have been a frank conversation between the Cabinet Secretary in charge of a policy area and party members was instead a stage-managed talk between the party’s top brass.
Instead of fielding what could be tough questions from SNP delegates, ministers asked each other softball questions about their own policy priorities.
There is also the question of whether ministers will actually take on board any of the policy decided by the party at conference.
Previously, passing a resolution has been enough to change party stance in theory, but not enough to change government action in practice.
As the SNP reels from an unexpectedly large General Election defeat, it has been making all the right noises about listening to members and learning from the experience.
This conference is a chance for it to put that theory into action.Will the SNP leadership do so? Or will they repeat the mistakes of the past?
