SNP urged to sell the break-up of Britain

Published on Saturday 13 March 2010 23:18

ONE of the SNP's senior figures is calling for the party leadership to do more to sell the vision of independence, warning that a fear of "scaring the horses" might hold it back in winning public support.

Writing in Scotland on Sunday today, SNP MEP Alyn Smith calls on the leadership to renew its focus on an independent Scotland, saying the party needs to do more to explain why breaking from the UK would make voters' lives better.

Next week, the SNP's spring conference in Aviemore will hear calls for a "vigorous review" of current party policy so that the electorate is clear about what a post-independence Scotland would look like.

It comes amid fears among activists that, three years after taking over at Holyrood, the party has been sidetracked from pushing for independence by the day-to-day task of running the Scottish Government.

Activists are likely to use the conference to urge the ruling national body to refocus attention on to selling independence to the public.

In his article today, Smith praises the work of the SNP-led Scottish Government. But he says that more work needs to be done to sell independence "not as an abstract, but about the better Scotland independence could bring".

He writes: "Surely the point to independence has to be that Scotland will be radically different, and we need to show how good we could be, not play that down to avoid scaring the horses in the establishment."

He goes on: "The better health service, the better education service, the better transport infrastructure, the better economy, the better public health, the better common weal, needs to be sketched out community by community, demonstrating not only that we're more competent; but that we're better, and our ideas to build the nation are better still."