Rona Mackay is an ardent supporter of an independent Scotland. She has to be, it’s part of her job as the chief whip for the Scottish National Party government in Holyrood.
But she seems to be fighting a losing battle, where loyal supporters fight on in the face of what seem to be immovable odds.
So, in the face of a stagnation in polling numbers and waning support for the SNP, where does the case for independence sit? And why does Mackay still believe in it?
“Independence is normal for any nation,” Mackay says over a phone call to discuss the state of Scottish independence ten years after the country held a referendum on it.
“An independent Scotland would mean that the people of Scotland could get the governments that they vote for and make their own decisions to create the society that they want,” Mackay says. “I think it’s absolutely fundamental that a country has the right to determine and make its own decisions.”
In 2014 the Scottish public voted on the question of independence; the result was close but decisive. Just over 55 per cent voted to stay in the United Kingdom, 45 per cent did not.
In the ten years since, nothing has really changed. In fact, support for independence has dropped slightly. The latest YouGov poll numbers sit at 44 per cent supporting leave and 56 per cent supporting stay.
“It was never going to be a huge shift in the other way,” says Mackay. “We have to keep persuading people to just keep going, to let that support climb slowly and eventually the people will have their say through the ballot box.”
In 2022 the Supreme Court struck down a request by the Scottish government to grant a section 30 order, the framework that allowed the SNP to hold an independence referendum. This leaves very few options for the Scottish government to pursue another vote on the future of the nation.
“When the overwhelming will of the people Scottish people says that we want to be independent then we will have to enter into negotiations,” says Mackay. “You’re denying democracy if this doesn’t happen. But it has to be done so that we are recognized as an independent country throughout the world, we don’t want to be in a sort of Catalonian situation.”
Mackay is one of 62 SNP MSPs in Holyrood, enough to form a party of government and control Scotland’s affairs until the next Scottish election in 2026. These MSPs were elected in 2021, before a raft of scandals and resignations hit the party. In the most recent UK general election, the SNP won only nine seats in parliament. A loss of 39 seats and the party’s long held majority in Scotland.
Despite the major defeat, Mackay still believes that some of the public are supportive of an independent Scotland and the SNP. She cites the new Labour government’s cuts to winter fuel payments and the lack of priority Scotland is given in UK wide affairs as examples of issues that resonate with her constituents.
“I think people know it was never going to be quick and it was never going to be easy,” says Mackay. “But I think people now are beginning to wake up to the fact that there must be a different way forward for us. The idea that we are too wee, too poor and too stupid is just nonsense.”
