THE SNP’s autumn conference could be held online this year as coronavirus forces party bosses’ hands, The National can reveal.
The summit has become the biggest party political event held in Scotland.
Now it may become one of the country’s biggest live web events as party bosses consider computers as an alternative to cancellation.
The party took the decision to call off its spring conference – which had been set to take place in Aviemore in just under a fortnight’s time – in March. Around 600 people had been expected to attend.
At the time, the party said: “All large SNP events have been postponed until the end of June as a result of the spread of Covid-19 in Scotland.”
That included smaller National Assembly dates.
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Further dates are scheduled for Motherwell, Dunblane, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow beginning early next month and ending in late November.
The party has now confirmed that these may too move online as coronavirus control measures continue.
A spokesperson said: “We are looking at all the options so that conference and assemblies can go ahead, albeit possibly using digital technologies.”
Yesterday this newspaper revealed how the party had judged it too dangerous to go ahead with its biggest annual social event, the Independence Magazine St Andrew’s Awards Dinner, in November, saying such large-scale events will not be feasible “until such time as a vaccine is available”.
Under Scottish Government rules, mass gatherings will not be allowed until we enter phase four of lockdown, something which may be triggered by the emergence of a vaccine or “an effective treatment available across Scotland that essentially removed the health risk from the virus”.
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Alternatively, it could come if the transmission rate is “so low we are confident that the virus can be controlled without the restrictions of phase three”.
Today’s news that SNP events may move online comes amidst increasing calls for the use of tech to create more flexible politics. The party’s MPs are amongst those to resist the mass return of MPs to Westminster, as sought by the Tories. A vote on that matter will be held today after weeks of holding business on the web.
Writing in The National in March, Edinburgh South West MP Joanna Cherry called for SNP forums to take place using tech, adding: “The SNP has a record of digital innovation and now would be the perfect opportunity to use this know-how to improve internal party democracy by facilitating participation in discussion and decision making through digital democracy platforms.”
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