The SNP and the independence movement have been stuck in a strategic cul-de-sac since 2014, and the best metaphor to describe their efforts to break free during the latter part of Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership, and throughout Humza Yousaf’s, is of repeatedly banging their heads against one of the brick garden walls.

Brexit’s ‘material change’, appeals to the UK Supreme Court, de facto referendums, supermajorities, independence readiness thermometers, unilateral declarations of independence. Each more harebrained than the last, unmoored from the constitutional realities constraining the independence movement, the [[SNP]], and the Scottish Government. At the very least, John Swinney’s speech last week, setting out his independence ‘strategy’, cannot be accused of that.

He received a mixed response from his intended audience of pro-independence campaigners and commentators, with elements of praise balanced by aspects of his speech being characterised as “word soup”. For my part, as a student of secessionism and contentious politics, I can see the skeleton of the right strategy in what the First Minister laid out, but none of the muscle or connective tissue needed to get that strategy moving forward.

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In his study of secessionist movements and their strategies since 1945, Secession and the Sovereignty Game, Professor Ryan Griffiths laid out the broad strategic playing field on which independence movements contest sovereignty with their........

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