You might not have thought John Swinney, of all people, needed to be reminded he’s in the business of breaking up the United Kingdom.
uncertain
he → think → Kingdom
The First Minister has waxed tedious for years on the subject, talking of how he became persuaded of the case for Scottish independence as a child and simply never changed his mind.
asserted
he → wax → mind
For more than 50 years, he has spoken of little else.
asserted
he → speak → little
To the naked eye, Mr Swinney is the very definition of the fanatical Scottish nationalist, relentlessly scheming to cause grievance and division.
But some people are never pleased, are they?
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they → scheme → grievance
As the First Minister prepares for next month’s SNP conference, a new faction has emerged within his party, urging him to refocus his attention on building the case for Scotland’s secession from the UK.
Named ‘Independence’, the group argues the SNP has ‘wasted the past decade’ concentrating its efforts on winning elections while doing little to build the public case for independence.
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SNP → prepare → independence
A spokesman for the new group says it wants to work with John Swinney’s leadership team, not against it but adds ‘we want to be clear that any attempt to deprioritise our party’s core mission will be fiercely opposed’.
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attempt → say → mission
Who needs enemies when you’ve got supporters?
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you → need → supporters
Mr Swinney is being held to ransom by fundamentalist ‘independence, nothing less’ activists.
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Swinney → hold → activists
During Mr Swinney’s first spell as SNP leader, between 2000-04, the party grew bitterly divided over its independence strategy.
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party → grow → strategy
On one side of what became an entertainingly brutal civil war were the gradualists, loyal to Mr Swinney, who believed that independence would best be achieved by taking things slow and steady.
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independence → become → things
On the other were the fundamentalists – the fundies – who favoured radical action.
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who → favour → action
Mr Swinney’s leadership swiftly turned into a battle for survival.
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leadership → turn → survival
Colleagues briefed against him, relentlessly, and he faced the humiliation of a leadership challenge from former academic Dr Bill Wilson.
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he → brief → Wilson
The truth is that, while John Swinney wasn’t much of a leader back then, the demands being made of him by impatient fellow nationalists were entirely unreasonable.
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demands → make → nationalists
The fundies demanded independence, immediately, without caring to provide any coherent strategy for how that might be achieved.
uncertain
that → demand → strategy
Should there be any doubt about how unsophisticated the thinking among Mr Swinney’s enemies was, here were those among them who reckoned the SNP should simply declare Scotland independent and be done with it.
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Scotland → reckon → it
Eventually, after a grim showing in the 2004 European parliamentary election, Mr Swinney fell on his Claymore, opening the door for Alex Salmond’s return as nationalist leader.
asserted
Swinney → fall → leader
We need hardly rehearse what happened next.
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what → rehearse → ?
The late Mr Salmond’s place in the history books as a politician of substance is assured.
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place → assure → substance
On returning for his second spell as party leader, he was brutally clear with colleagues: if they wanted the SNP to succeed and for independence to become, at the very least, a possibility then they should do what they were damned well told.
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they → return → what
Miraculously, the gradualists and the fundamentalists downed weapons, beginning the most extraordinary period of party discipline.
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gradualists → down → discipline
Former leadership rivals, who’d done all they could to damage each others careers, swanked around together like the greatest of chums.
uncertain
they → do → chums
From this groundswell of career-preserving hypocrisy grew a new SNP, a successful party focused on winning elections rather than one bogged down in arguments over the hows and whens of independence.
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SNP → preserve → independence
And it was that electoral success – Holyrood wins in, first, 2007 and then 2011 – that allowed the SNP to get the independence referendum over which it had campaigned for decades.
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it → allow → decades
But 2014 is a foreign country and the rules that applied there are no longer recognised by a growing number of nationalists.
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that → apply → nationalists
A new wave of fundamentalists, personified by the members of the Independence faction, has no time for the niceties of constitutional politics.
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wave → personify → politics
Dr Bill Wilson launched a bid to topple Mr Swinney in 2003
If Westminster will not grant Scots the independence referendum they yearn for then the break-up of the Union must be achieved in some other way.
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up → launch → way
That the majority of Scots do not, in fact, yearn for another divisive independence referendum campaign is a matter of complete irrelevance to the nationalist fanatic.
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yearn → yearn → fanatic
Just like the fundies who made John Swinney’s life a misery at the start of the century, this new breed of Bravehearts has no clear plan for how to achieve their political objective.
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breed → make → objective
Rather, they are driven by the assumption that the only reason there has not been a second referendum already is down to a lack of will on the part of the SNP’s leadership.
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reason → drive → leadership
These enthusiastic nationalists can hardly be blamed for their scepticism.
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nationalists → blame → scepticism
After all, for the best part of the decade following defeat in 2014’s referendum, then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon repeatedly promised nationalists that a second vote was within reach.
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vote → follow → reach
Time and again, Ms Sturgeon marched her troops halfway up the hill only to march them straight back down again.
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Sturgeon → march → them
Proving themselves the cheapest dates in Scottish politics, SNP members put up with this nonsense for nine years.
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members → prove → years
If the day had a Y in it, then it was time to get ready for one last heave.
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it → have → heave
It’s hardly surprising, having heard Ms Sturgeon and her successors tell them Indyref2 was nigh so often, that members of this new faction believe there to be a clearer route to independence than that seen by the leadership.
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members → ’ → leadership
But the truth, of course, is that these dissenting voices within a rapidly fracturing SNP have no way forward beyond the long, slow business of trying to persuade a majority of Scots to support the end of the Union and the uncertainty of independence.
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voices → dissent → independence
More than 20 years ago, John Swinney’s uncertain leadership of the SNP was brought to an end by civil war in his party.
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leadership → bring → party
Without the trust or respect of SNP members, his position became untenable.
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position → become → members
Who knows – maybe Mr Swinney has changed.
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Swinney → know → ?
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
