Westminster is imploding, yet there is near radio silence from nationalists when it comes indy, our Writer at Large, Neil Mackay, argues.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.

History is littered with leaders who waited too long and lost, or folk who could have had it all but failed to seize the moment. 

Napoleon farted around on the day of the Battle of Waterloo, waiting until noon for the ground to dry after rain. He gave the Prussians time to enter the fray with the Duke of Wellington. 

And that was the end of Old Boney.

Nazi generals waited hours to send Panzers to the Normandy beaches as the Allies landed during D-Day, because their drug-addled Führer liked sleeping late and they didn’t want to wake him to ask permission. 

Bye-bye Nazi generals. Bye-bye Adolf.

At the Battle of Marathon in 490BC, Persians delayed attacking the Athenians as they were too cocky by half. They lost the initiative, lost their advantage and lost the war.

In the early 1970s, Kodak invented the first digital camera but hesitated pushing it to market, allowing others to capitalise on the technology.

In 2000, the founder of a struggling startup - called Netflix - offered to sell the company to Blockbuster. Blockbuster was too busy dominating the video market, though. It later went bankrupt.

Sometimes you’ve got to act; sometimes the circumstances are so ripe for action that failing to make a decisive move seems like self-defeating madness.

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Right now, you’d expect that the SNP would be pressing the case for independence on a daily basis. But that’s not happening.

Aside from a few fringe blood and soil nationalists, most Yes voters support independence because they’re sick to death of Westminster. 

They deem what happens in London as damaging to their interests and the interests of Scotland, and believe that independence provides the best chance of doing politics better.

Anyone disenchanted with Westminster is a possible indy convert. The same holds true in Wales, and to some degree among educated middle-class Protestants in Northern Ireland. 

Where once they unconditionally backed the union, some today are shifting towards a view that post-Brexit Irish unity is the best option.

Keir Starmer’s government has been chaotic since he took office. However, recent days have treated voters to a spectacle which Boris Johnson would have been proud to orchestrate for its sheer unadulterated mayhem and damage.

We’ve had the Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Mandelson relationship dripped across the state. Labour has suffered from three scandals in the last week alone. 

Aside from Mandelson’s connections to Epstein, former communications director Matthew Doyle reportedly campaigned for a sex offender, and Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy was suspended over her friendship with a convicted paedophile.

Then there were the resignations of Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, and his current communications director Tim Allan.

We also had the most absurd, pitiful attempted coup in the history of political cock-ups courtesy of the Private Pike of Scottish politics, Anas Sarwar. 

Sarwar’s call for Keir Starmer to step down was brushed aside by Downing Street and met with a swift show of support for the Prime Minister (Image: PA)

He looked swivel-eyed with fear during his press conference, aware - perhaps - that he’d been played for a sucker by others who said they’d join him.

Next came the ousting of cabinet secretary Chris Wormald, a move that’s enraged the civil service. One described the mood as “sulphurous”.

I believe the word for such a series of events is a ‘clusterf**k-mageddon’. Anyone who imagines that the work of government is getting done in London must be off their head.

Starmer, the man who promised to end the chaos of the Tory years - the insanity of the Liz Truss government, and the venality and failure of Boris Johnson - has proven himself to be just as bad, if not worse.

So why is the SNP not pressing their advantage? If support for independence is predicated on disgust at Westminster, this is their most opportune moment in years.

Yet it’s near radio silence from the SNP on independence. Indeed, we’ve heard more from Jeremy Corbyn on independence than Scottish nationalists. Corbyn’s Your Party voted to become pro-independence.

The SNP is clearly scared to speak too loudly about independence. They remain burned by the Sturgeon years when continual cries of ‘indy is coming’ reached the level of reductio ad absurdum.

Nationalists were then rightly accused of using independence as a shield to deflect from their failures in government. 

However, while John Swinney’s time in office may not have been stellar, compared to what’s happening down south he’s Marcus Aurelius. 

He won’t be accused of repeating Nicola Sturgeon’s tricks if he pushes independence more forcefully. 

Yes, the SNP must relentlessly prioritise bread-and-butter issues like the cost of living, health, policing and schools, particularly as May’s election approaches.

But even floating voters aren’t going to be put off by the party saying: ‘Look, independence gives us the chance to govern ourselves better than this rotten bloody bunch.’ 

Indeed, the SNP risks losing votes to other pro-Yes parties - like the Greens - if they keep downplaying indy.

In the current era, voters want conviction; they want parties up for a fight. If you believe in something, shout about it. 

That’s why Reform is succeeding; that’s why the English Greens are rising thanks to their new leader Zack Polanski gaining attention.

If the SNP don’t make a big deal about independence, then voters will start to think: what do they really stand for? 

If nationalists don’t care about their own big idea, then how can we believe that they care about anything at all?

Neil Mackay is the Herald’s Writer-at-Large. He’s a multi-award winning investigative journalist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a filmmaker and broadcaster. He specialises in intelligence, security, extremism, crime, social affairs, cultural commentary, and foreign and domestic politics

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