The SNP essentially had two options in responding to the creation of the Alba Party yesterday. They could have more or less ignored it and just carried on serenely towards their own electoral objectives. Or they could have flapped around, tried to strangle the new party at birth, and thus sent a signal to the world and his uncle that they regard this as a crisis. They’ve taken the latter course, and I really do have to question the wisdom of that, both from their own point of view and that of the movement.
However, the paradox is that by trying to kill the Alba Party, they’re already demonstrating the value of the Alba Party, because they’re having to put themselves in the mind of a potential Alba voter and work out what could deter that person – and of course the answer to that will always be bound up with prioritising independence and making an independence referendum happen. The SNP having to compete for votes with a credible party that is actually stronger on independence than they are themselves changes the dynamic completely. It’s sometimes said that Labour turned itself into the SDP to defeat the SDP, and if the same effect happens in this case, the SNP will have recovered its soul and its core purpose.
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I was quoted about the new party yesterday in an article for Al Jazeera by Alasdair Soussi – you can read it HERE. I’ve also written two more constituency previews for today’s edition of The National – Edinburgh Northern & Leith and Edinburgh Pentlands. (I can’t find an online link for the latter, but it’s in the print/digital edition.)
