The SNP keeps issuing a new clarion call for another independence referendum but John Swinney's demands are toothless, says feature writer and columnist Kevin McKenna, who believes there's no one left in the party with a plan to outflank Westminster.

Every once in a while, the SNP likes to remind its supporters that it still supports Scottish independence. Another of these moments arrived last week when John Swinney delivered a speech in Edinburgh that (all together now) urged the UK Government to agree to a second referendum on independence.

The First Minister then asked his fellow Scots to “come together and demand a say over our future”. Mr Swinney insisted that if the SNP wins a majority of seats at next year’s election it would constitute a mandate for another referendum.

There have been so many such clarion calls in the Sturgeon/Swinney era that they could have their own annual timetable. Each fresh call to action, of course has proven to be as worthless as the previous one. In recent years, the SNP has begun attaching independence White Papers to their defiant squeaks. They decided to call this one ‘Your Right to Decide’ and there have been a dozen of them.

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