From independence strategy to trans rights, NEC factionalism to Alex Salmond, the SNP gives every impression of being a party threatening to tear itself apart on the eve of a crucial election.
People will point to the SNP still polling very strongly (and perhaps more to the point, opposition parties very poorly) but there’s an old saying about divided parties not being winners for good reason...and about there only being one poll that matters
In order to turn a majority in the polls into an *actual* majority - particularly in the Holyrood system, which actively discourages them - you need to turn out your base, to get those who say they’d vote for you to actually do it. Infighting *really* doesn’t help with that.
To start with, parties need a united effort in the “ground war” to help turn out their vote; they also need to avoid at all costs the impression they’re more interested in fighting among themselves than fighting for the interests of their constituents
This is also a particularly bad moment in history to be navel-gazing, in the midst of a global pandemic crisis and with intense scrutiny on the rollout of the vaccine programme - the electorate will surely be unforgiving of anything other than a laser focus on getting that right
It feels like we are still some way from the final chapter of any of the particular rows currently ongoing within the SNP - but that election looms a bit larger every day
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