Why should independence voters like me have to support the SNP?

Scotland would be an independent country today if only the SNP had made one simple promise. Back in 2014, as the referendum approached, it was clear that the party could win only at the price of its demise. Alex Salmond should have promised to disband the SNP if ‘Yes’ won the day. For those of us who disliked the SNP and Alex Salmond, but who favoured an independent Scotland, it would have been enough to bring us on board. Now, his successor, Nicola Sturgeon, is making the same mistake as she attempts to win a second referendum vote.

The SNP, of course, doesn’t see things this way. Its supporters fail to understand why those who want independence wouldn’t support the party. Of course, there are plenty such reasons, not least the dire state of the country’s education system and the various debacles the SNP has found itself embroiled in.

But there’s another, bigger question that the SNP refuses to pose: why would a newly independent Scotland country need a Scottish National Party any more than we need a United Kingdom National Party? Nigel Farage, for all his faults, saw this logic when he disbanded the Brexit party.