A bruising defeat in a by-election is not the backdrop to SNP conference that anyone in the party would want. In years to come there will be time for reflection on why some people pushed so hard for a by-election the party was unlikely to win and why former colleagues and supporters turned quite so viciously on an MP who, prior to her covid wrongdoing, had such an impressive track record as a hard-working constituency representative and was the most loyal, enthusiastic, and tireless of activists. But for now, as others have remarked, we must not let a good crisis go to waste. Conference must mark a change in direction for our party.

After debate about the party’s independence strategy being discouraged for a long time, SNP members have been promised a debate at this year’s conference. At the time of writing the conference’s final agenda – which was supposed to be published on September 22 – has yet to appear despite the conference being only two weeks away. Members who have expended a lot of time and energy discussing and drafting motions and seeking support for them from across the country are still in the dark as to whether the fruits of their labour will be debated at conference and how much time will be afforded to the debate.

THE ninth anniversary of the 2014 independence referendum left me feeling a little sad. I suspect many Yessers felt the same way. However, while it is tempting to look back and dwell on that time of optimism and unity in the Yes movement with nostalgia, what we need to do is look to the future. I intend to do that in my column next week once I have sight of the amendments to the motion on independence strategy put forward by Humza Yousaf and Stephen Flynn for SNP conference and, I hope, confirmation of the nature and extent of the debate which will take place.

There was plenty to welcome in this week’s Programme for Government. I applaud the recognition of the need for state support to boost green industries and create new jobs as has been done in the USA. It is also good to see land reform back on the agenda. And I particularly welcome the commitments to continuing action on disability rights and drug deaths and increasing the pay of social care workers in direct care roles. I have seen at first-hand how hard these people work and how important their contribution is to our society.  We must work towards giving them a wage which recognises their increasingly vital contribution to caring for our ageing population.