The National Council of the Scottish National Party is meeting in Perth this weekend. Are members enthused and enthralled? Other than conference, it is the party’s policy-making body, its discursive forum. Enthused? In order to heighten its appeal, this weekend’s event is being billed as a Campaign Council with an eye to the forthcoming UK General Election. Enthralled?

At Holyrood this week, I sounded out a range of SNP contacts as to whether they were eager for a weekend of discourse and rhetoric. Those who were going seemed, mostly, a fraction less than thrilled. Why? The UK economy, although showing signs of recovery, is still discernibly struggling under a Conservative Party commonly sidestepped by much of Scotland. Folk are discontented. Is this not an opportunity for a party seeking to advance the option of Scottish independence?

Yes and also no. Firstly, for decades, the SNP offer has been predicated not upon flight but upon Scotland having the confidence to take charge of her own affairs. Such confidence is thinly spread. Many Scots, beset by a blighted economy and global tension, fret anxiously that they might be left to solve their own problems, alone and palely loitering, rather than boldly stopping the world to get on.

Yet, despite that uncertainty, there is still potential support for the concept of independence. It remains relatively popular, backed by perhaps half the electorate. It is by no means disowned.

So why can the SNP not build upon that potential, dispel fear and regroup? Two reasons. The SNP and Labour.

The SNP will argue a vote for Labour is as much an endorsement of the Union as a vote........

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