It is no accident that the bigger dynamics that flowed from 2014 beyond independence have been so conspicuously not taken up or championed by the SNP and Scottish Government. They barely understood some of the forces at work which produced the 2014 indyref beyond the SNP’s 2011 victory.
We are ten years on from a watershed moment in Scotland’s history, part of a longer story of a society and nation going through dramatic change in how it sees, conducts and organises itself – and the collective stories it tells. Simplistic interpretations of 2014 and its aftermath – either overly pessimistic and doom-laden, or believing that it will inevitably happen – need to be rejected. These attitudes, as much as Nicola Sturgeon’s control politics, have contributed to the current situation.
Two final thoughts. This longer story of Scotland needs to be more fully understood as do the consequences flowing from it. Authority, power and legitimacy are changing in Scotland and politics, government and independence have to reflect this. If independence does not champion autonomy, self-organisation and wider self-government, the forces of the populist right will attempt to seize and claim this ground, as they have done in England with Farage and Reform. No one should be under the illusion that Scotland is completely immune from such a politics.
Lastly, the strategic choices and work that independence needs to do requires an investigation of the road not travelled from 2014. Namely, a politics which goes beyond party and a movement of marches and banners. Instead, it should involve institution building and undertaking some of the heavy lifting and deep digging independence as a nation-building project has not so far undertaken. This will require a different SNP from the past ten years: one prepared to let go and see itself as one critical element of a wider movement; that change can realistically only begin seriously after the 2026 Scottish elections and another SNP reverse. But the necessary initial steps can be identified and taken in the here and now.