THE SNP continue to fight, as they say, “for Scotland” and for “Scottish interests” as a Scotland-only party. This provides a clear point of external ideological differentiation in its battles with the other mainstream, British-based political parties. Here, one of the most evident strains is, therefore, that of Scottish nationalism versus British nationalism.

But other than the departure of Alex Salmond and his allies to form Alba in 2021, partly over independence, the SNP do not appear to have had much in the way of internal ideological battles for many years. Why is this? And, is it a good or a bad thing?

It has long been held that from 1934 when the SNP was founded, it did not have a clear ideological position until the 1960s and 1970s when it began to present itself as social democratic.

This initial stance was often put down to the SNP being a fusion of the centre-left National Party of Scotland, and the centre-right Scottish Party, where unity was to be found over the issue of national self-determination. Consequently, internal policy debate focused mostly on making the SNP distinct in having an all-Scotland national orientation.

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As a result of the ongoing crisis of the British economy in the 1960s, leading to a particularly sharp series of crises for the Wilson-Callaghan Labour governments of 1974-1979 and then the arrival of Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street in May 1979, the move by the SNP to the left began to develop further. This was because the crisis of the British economy was clearly felt in Scotland, where popular grievances over de-industrialisation easily coalesced around injustice being seen to be done to Scots from London.

But even then, political opponents on the left still called the SNP “Tartan Tories”, with the party allegedly being an alliance of farmers and fisherman in Salmond’s Westminster Banff and Buchan seat and citing the actions of the SNP-controlled Angus Council. This was before the SNP’s breakthrough in the Central Belt.

The extent of the move to the left was blunted by the expulsion of the 79 Group in the early 1980s. But the work of party leader William Wolfe in developing a more social democratic agenda was still present but always within the character of Scottish nationalism and then in a two-steps-forward-one-step-back way under new leader Gordon Wilson.

For example, the It’s Scotland’s Oil campaign envisaged using the capital accrued for social betterment albeit not on the scale of what Norway did with its state-owned oil funds. Thereafter and unlike Labour, the SNP do not seem to have had any great internal ideological battles. Those battles that have existed have taken place over political strategy and not ideology itself.

One example was whether the SNP should participate in the Scottish Constitutional Convention set up in 1989 primarily by the Labour and Liberal parties in Scotland. The Convention’s unwillingness to contemplate independence as a constitutional option was the main reason for the SNP withdrawing early on.

Fast forward a few years, and a much bigger strategic schism became more evident. Though opened up in the 1980s, the battle between “gradualists” and “fundamentalists” became much sharper given the approaching return of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. The former sought to advance to independence through a series of further acts of devolution in a step-by-step strategy. Here, independence was to be gained as a strategy of encroachment upon the powers of Westminster, showing that while devolution worked, it did not work well enough.

“Gradualists” tended to be on the moderate left. Meantime, “fundamentalists” argued the SNP should emphasise independence much more widely to achieve it because if the party was not prepared to argue for its central policy, then it was unlikely ever to persuade the public of it.

With the announcement of the October 19, 2023 referendum date, there now appears to be something of a meeting of minds between “gradualists” and the remaining “fundamentalists” who did not depart to Alba. This is because with the pandemic now not being an obstacle, a route map of consecutive options has finally been announced.

What does this say more widely about the conflict between the “gradualists” and “fundamentalists”? It suggests that while they might have disagreed over the means of how to achieve independence, they differed little over the ends for independence. There was already some evidence of this over the issue of membership of the European Union. SNP Brexiteers were few and far between.

This means “gradualists” and “fundamentalists” have coalesced around not social democracy but social liberalism in a party clearly dominated by the Sturgeon-Swinney leadership. Those few from the left that openly disagreed with Sturgeon and Swinney left to form Alba.

There remain fissures over the issues of Nato membership and the location of nuclear weapons on Scottish soil as well as gender recognition but despite their importance, they’re not quite of the stature of an ideological schism. These are major policy differences but evidence of only a very few.

So, it would be wrong to infer, as many Labour left-wingers do, the SNP is an ideological free zone, with it only coming close to having an ideology over independence.

The SNP’s social liberal ideology is identifiable. It fundamentally means having a productive capitalist economy that is capable of paying for a limited welfare state. State intervention to right the wrongs of the market is not a key part of this as it would be under social democracy. The Sustainable Growth Commission report of 2018 still remains the key document to showing this to be the case.

And what does this all mean for political debate? Hats off to the Sturgeon-Swinney leadership, as it has won the battle for political domination in the SNP and appears to be capable of getting the Scottish Greens to fall into line.

The independence-supporting left outside of the SNP is unable to mount any effective challenge to this. Unfortunately, this does mean we are worse off for intellectual, ideological and policy debates about the issues of independence and what the other available independence options are. This trajectory is only likely to deepen as the Tories become even more reactionary as people rally behind Sturgeon.

Professor Gregor Gall is editor of A New Scotland: Building an Equal, Fair and Sustainable Society (Pluto Press, 2022, priced £14.99)