Humza Yousaf’s rallying cry is a sign of weakness, not strength - Euan McColm

My chum explained he was rather an outlier among his fellow activists. Every Yes voter close to him was convinced Scottish independence was inevitable. He’d just spent the past half hour trying to persuade his partner that things weren’t so straightforward.

The reason for his friends’ belief that the Yes campaign had victory in the bag was that, a day earlier, nationalists had marched through Edinburgh. They saw thousands of flag-waving activists and chose to take this as a sign that their campaign’s momentum was simply unstoppable.

“They’re so excited to see a few thousand people on Calton Hill,” he told me, “They don’t want to hear me telling them that millions of people weren’t marching for independence. They were at home or in the pub.”

No serious SNP politician believes street-clogging pro-independence marches do anything to attract people to their cause. There is no constituency of No voters out there which might be persuaded to support the break-up of the UK if only a few more angry nationalists would wave a few more flags.

Humza Yousaf is currently pretending the opposite is true.

The First Minister has issued a rallying cry, urging fellow nationalists to join him on a march through the capital on Saturday.

“Mobilising the power of the people,” he says, “is fundamental to achieving the cause of Scotland’s independence. We must - must - continue to build support.”

Saturday’s march is organised by an organisation called Believe in Scotland (as if there are some people out there who refuse to believe Scotland exists). The easily pleased might lap this rubbish up but I’m bound to say that if the Brexiteers “Believe in Britain” rhetoric was laughable in 2016 then this is equally so, today.

That Yousaf is reduced to drumming up support for a cranks’ parade tells us much about the current state of the Yes movement. Almost a decade after referendum, Scottish nationalists have still failed to answer straightforward questions on currency, borders, and the economy. The SNP - despite recognition from many senior figures that answers must be found - has done nothing to reach out to the persuadable.

Nationalism thrives when people see themselves as victims. Most Scots do not think like that. In fact, I’d venture that most of us think it odd that a substantial minority feel they are, somehow, oppressed.

Yousaf is not banging the gong for the Believe in Scotland march because he thinks increased attendance will strengthen the case for independence. He is doing it because he’s losing support among those who previously backed his party. The SNP leader is pandering to the core vote, and nothing more.

Humza Yousaf’s enthusiasm for this Saturday’s march is a sign of weakness, rather than strength. I rather pity him.