ASH Regan has said waiting for support for Scottish independence to reach 60% is “mental”, as she admitted having concerns about the party’s direction.
The former SNP leadership candidate was speaking to the Through A Scottish Prism podcast – hosted by pro-independence blogger and senior Alba Party member Roddy MacLeod, who goes by the name Barrhead Boy.
She said: “This idea that they (the SNP) were putting forward last week that we just keep working away and playing by the rules and we just try to get support up to 60% and they (the UK Government) will just do what we want.
“I fundamentally think that’s mental, and that is not going to work.”
It is unclear which comments made last week were being referenced by Regan.
During the leadership campaign, First Minister Humza Yousaf pledged to drive up support for independence, conceding the “settled will” was not yet there, but he shied away from putting a figure on the level of support he wanted to see.
Edinburgh Eastern MSP Regan went on to say the SNP should become more “belligerent” and “aggressive” in its campaigning for independence.
Asked if the party is close to “getting back on track” as it relates to independence, Regan said: “I’m quite concerned about where we are right now.
“It doesn’t have to be terminal, I think we need to change the way we’re doing things in certain areas.
“I believe we can look, we should look, at the last eight years and learn from what’s gone before.
“That doesn’t mean you do everything totally different, but you have to look at it, analyse it and think ‘what worked and what didn’t work?’ “Doing things the same just because we did them the same before isn’t going to work.”
Regan added she is “sensing” anger and frustration from current party members and those who have recently left the party.
The independence convention the SNP is staging next month, Regan added, must be an event which allows members to speak freely and decide on a way forward for the movement.
“I think it’s right that we have a conference, and it is a conference, it isn’t anything else… to discuss the independence strategy,” she said.
“But at that conference we should be talking about everything, and everyone should be entitled to speak and we should be able to debate different ideas and then see what comes out of that.
“I’m concerned that it looks like we’re only going to be allowed to talk about one strategy, which is the referendum strategy, which I think has run out of road now and we should be moving on from that.”
