Ahead of the SNP conference in Aberdeen this weekend, Andy Maciver argues the party - and the cause of independence - might be saved by an unlikely ally

If we accept, as Harold Wilson said, that a week is a long time in politics, then a year feels like an eternity. It must certainly feel like a long year for both the SNP and its opponents. When the party gathered for its 2024 annual conference in Edinburgh, it was more of a wake than a celebration of a party in government. Timed for August as a pre-election rally ahead of an anticipated November election, it instead fell just a month after the SNP was practically wiped out by a resurgent Labour.

As First Minister John Swinney gathers his members together in Aberdeen tomorrow, very little in the way of doom and gloom will be observed. The SNP once again has a commanding lead in the opinion polls, with support roughly double that of Labour. Reform is the party on the rise in Scotland, but not in such a way as to challenge the SNP for victory. Indeed, Reform’s rise looks likely to give the SNP a leg-up, at least in the Scottish Parliament’s 73 constituencies, where it may fracture the vote in some Conservative constituencies and allow the SNP to........

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