Alyn Smith: Look again at independence

THREE years into the SNP government, it is easy to forget just how remarkable an achievement its very existence is. Plenty of pundits and commentators were only too quick to predict the demise of the Scandinavian style minority government.

They have been proven not just wrong, but out of touch with the aspirations of Scotland and our European democracy, while Westminster politics have by contrast collapsed even further in the esteem of the people than even I thought possible.

The SNP has never been a more credible political party. At a time when the people of Scotland are looking for hope, for leadership, for ideas and inspiration about the better Scotland, the better economy, the better services they want, for a notion that politics is about more than soundbites and management speak, the SNP can capitalise on what makes us unique in a world of grey managerialism, petty rivalry and bile.

That uniqueness of ambition is our independence, and our campaign for independence for Scotland, Scotland's communities and Scotland's people. The other parties set a limit to their ambition, we don't. But some parties, and some people are unpersuaded about independence. They are not wrong, nor necessarily against us or hostile to independence, but simply as yet unpersuaded. As yet. We have the inspiring ideas and the inspiring people to change their minds. We need to talk about independence not as an abstract, but about the better Scotland independence could bring.

Not just the better Scotland, but a different Scotland. 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. 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.

We need to link the constitutional argument for more powers to a demonstration that we actually need them to put actual ideas into practice to achieve the better outcomes our people deserve and are not getting, despite the solid efforts we are making. We need to talk about "independence for a purpose".

And the need to talk about Scotland's ambition and aspiration looks all the more urgent when compared with Westminster's economic incompetence, collective venality and a vacuity to the political day-to-day that is turning people off politics; and an economic reality brought about by Westminster rule that is crushing any spirit of adventure still further.

In my current role, with the entire output of the EU to keep an eye on, I'm more conscious than most just how much effort can go into just standing still. I know how hard my friends are working, and not just in the national government but umpteen council chambers too. And that is why, for us in the party, next weekend's conference in Aviemore is important. Conference is a giant sounding board for folk to bring proposed experiments in human progress. It is where we road test ideas, debate our aspirations and let those that seem worth a shot go forward. We are brimming with ideas, and we need to talk more about that, more about our plans, more about independence for a purpose.

Because if politics is not about ideas it is, by default, about process, and few people (myself included) are interested in that. Or worse still, in the absence of substantive debate the body politic, like a massive stomach without real red meat ideas to digest, will simply produce bile. Without a real debate about real reform and real ideas to enthuse people, then the political classes will instead become an echo chamber for a succession of trivia-gates, be it Henry McLeish's office-gate, David McLetchie's taxi-gate, or new lows with Alex Salmond's lunch-gate. Despite this, I'm sure there are plenty of people in other parties who are keen to engage in the battle of ideas. Surely?

I have not written this article out of frustration or despair, but to build upon our success because we have the policies, we have the ideas and we have the people to enthuse others about them. There have been successes. The farmers and growers of Scotland are, I believe, more content with their government than ever before, and are more and more enthusiastic about the case for further extension of Holyrood powers to include, for example, animal health and the animal health budget. Richard Lochhead has used the powers he has to reform things, telegraph what he would like to do and thereby demonstrate the limits of the current powers. Issue by issue, the industry is often leading calls for further constitutional reform, so that we can together better safeguard our food, our farmers and our landscape and our environment. Likewise Mike Russell has lately started a real substantive debate about schools policy, giving people the security and space to discuss ideas on how to make things better, not descend into a slanging match over why things are rubbish.

It was the commentator Murray Ritchie who coined the most damning criticism of the previous administration when he lamented "the day-to-day business of government being trumpeted as achievement". We are doing better than that, but we could do better still. The people of Scotland know fine that Scotland needs change, I think they're up for a discussion about how that change could make the things they care about improve. I think that's a national conversation they'd be up for and a national conversation we will win.

Alyn Smith is an SNP Member of the European Parliament