John Swinney's chat about independence is getting embarrassing now

The Herald Scotland

18-07-2025

It's all becoming a wee bit sad lately. John Swinney starts talking about independence and nobody cares.
Independence is supposed to be the SNP's flagship policy, the biggest topic of debate in Scotland – if you believe the nationalist faithful, of course. But when the First Minister opens his mouth on the constitution, most voters tune out.
Swinney is the inversion of The Great Gatsby. He keeps throwing independence parties but nobody turns up. He's alone in the ballroom waiting for guests who will never arrive.
Swinney has just unveiled his 'new plan for independence'. In truth, it's a nothing-burger, a big fat load of zilch.
There's basically no difference – nothing new – to what he said about independence a month ago at the Scotland 2050 summit. That too was the dampest of damp squibs. A squib so damp you'd shudder if you shook its hand.
In fact, Swinney isn't just repeating himself; he's repeating himself saying nothing. There's an existential horror to that: Swinney must wake up and feel like crying at the thought of having to spew out the same empty rhetoric over and over again.
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Let's check this plan out. It has 'three points', apparently. First, there will be a 'campaign designed to build the highest levels of support possible for independence'.
Isn't that the SNP's raison d'être? Isn't that what they're supposed to be doing every day?
What have they been doing until now? Campaigning to build the lowest levels of independence support? Although, to be fair, that is the opinion of some of the more daring naysayers in the Yes movement.
Second, the [[SNP]] will build 'public pressure around Scotland's fundamental national rights' and 'turn the heat up on Westminster' when it comes to Scotland's 'right to choose'.
Not to be too pedantic about this word salad, but once again: isn't this what the party is supposed to have been doing, since the last time it was supposed to have been doing it? There's an absurd circularity here that almost demands mockery.
Third, Swinney wants to 'persuade independence supporters that the way to deliver independence is only with an emphatic SNP win in 2026'.
You know what I'm going to say, right? Did he imagine that we actually thought he wanted to persuade independence supporters to vote Reform?
It's beyond zero. This takes the notion of the void, of the vacuum, and somehow manages to empty out even more meaning or sense.
Independence supporters were, as far as I could see, united in their frustration at this cypher of an announcement.
The problem for Swinney is that the Yes movement has had these games played on it before. For years, Nicola Sturgeon seemed to announce that 'indy was coming' once a month.
For a while, it worked. It kept the base fed and it provided column inches and debate. Eventually, though, everyone – even the most deluded McGlashan who would gleefully commit seppuku with their Claymore for 'Scottish freedom' – knew they were being conned.
It wasn't so much that the curtain was ripped away, like in The Wizard of Oz, and we all suddenly saw the trickster at work. Rather, Sturgeon droned on so much that the curtain simply withered away over time.
For Swinney to continue these tricks is lamentable. His indy chat is just embarrassing. He must know it won't work.
Yet, the tragedy for Swinney is that he's trapped in this farce. He must go through this rigmarole every few months lest he be seen by his fractious base as some unionist quisling.
The truth is nobody in the SNP has the slightest clue about how to achieve either another referendum or what independence means in any substantive form.
They all passionately support independence – that bit isn't a con. But they've run out of ideas on the logistics.
They're caught between the self-interested need to stay in power, which means they can't put independence front and centre on a daily basis for fear of deterring moderate voters; and the self-interested need to placate the base – for without the base, they're finished.
What one can say in fairness about Swinney and the current iteration of the SNP is that they've steadied the ship. They've at least made the theory of good governance their priority, even if that may be somewhat lacking in practice.
In this era, though, an insurgent political movement like Scottish independence needs helmed by someone with enough passion to fill Hampden. The Yes movement requires an authentically charismatic – even populist – leader.
Swinney is an authentically decent chap, but even his fans would admit he can be managerial and bloodless. The world may be better off without charisma-politics, but sadly that's what the times demand.
If the years could be rewound, the best strategy would be to hive the Yes movement off from the SNP and have it led by some non-political figurehead with bags of personality and the gift of the gab.
The SNP could then get on with governing as best they can in order to show what could be achieved under independence, while the celebrity face of the movement charmed the pants off the nation.
That ain't gonna happen, though. The SNP is in charge, and Swinney is the dude in the chair.
So prepare for regular – perhaps monthly – cries of 'indy is coming'. Just don't for a moment imagine that any of this empty rhetoric takes independence forward one inch.
Neil Mackay is The Herald's Writer-at-Large. He's a multi-award-winning investigative journalist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a filmmaker and broadcaster. He specialises in intelligence, security, crime, social affairs, cultural commentary, and foreign and domestic politics.