Causes are eternal. Change is coming and Alba is on the rise - Kenny MacAskill

Humza Yousaf should be careful in his airy response to the defection of Ash Regan to Alba, writes Kenny MacAskill.

Ash Regan’s defection was a major boost for Alba and another blow to a beleaguered SNP. It was met with a churlish response from the First Minister, who can be cut some slack given pressures he is under with family in the Gaza hell. But he’ll need to be careful that his image of bonhomie on the defection isn’t seen as just a cover for a far nastier side.

After all, Ash Regan once served as a Minister alongside him but resigned on principle over women’s rights and the Gender Recognition Bill in a move that sharply contrasted to Mr Yousaf’s past contortions over same sex marriage.

Others - both councillors and rank and file members - are joining Ash Regan in making the move. Meanwhile in Westminster, myself and my party colleague Neale Hanvey will be working under a Scotland United banner along with the former SNP and now Independent nationalist MP Angus McNeil. That is something that may well be replicated in other forums.

The SNP leadership will continue to mock and sneer but they have been doing that routinely to not just to Alba but the wider Independence movement. The offer of a Scotland United front to drive forward the constitutional issue was rejected out of hand by SNP leadership. Ironically, it was the one thing that could have saved many of them from a coming rout. But it’s been this way for recent years under New SNP.

It’s why Alba was formed as an alternative to a party where internal democracy has been stifled and probity was increasingly being questioned and not just by police and prosecution authorities. Just as importantly, independence was increasingly sidelined, even damaged by the SNP, through strategic failures never mind increasing incompetence in office.

Early portends weren’t good for Alba with no breakthrough in 2021 and it’s been a long hard slog since then but the idea was right and remains so. The timing though just wasn’t right with the backdrop of Covid overshadowing everything. Added to that, the SNP leadership openly conspired against it.

Yet, Scotland and the independence movement would be in a better position in a Scottish Parliament with an Independence super-majority rather than an SNP/Green administration. Recent comments by a Green minister show they are more interested in ministerial office than Scotland’s plight. The Bute House deal brokered by Nicola Sturgeon was all to do with her predilection for gender ID policies and nothing to do with delivering constitutional change. SNP members were conned by her and now many of them realise it. She’s gone but there’s a continuation of the same policies.

I was persuaded to join the SNP in the early 1980’s by Alex Salmond at a time when Old SNP then had just 2 MPs, a handful of councillors and a small but committed activist base. Even a Scottish Parliament was but a distant dream. Labour in Scotland seemed omnipotent but I was persuaded it could be changed and it was. In 2014 the dream was nearly realised.

Alba’s in a stronger position than SNP was then. Political parties are transitory, causes are eternal. Change is coming and Alba is on the rise.