THE SNP will pitch itself as the party of competence and progress tomorrow, as it holds its first conference since its worst electoral setback in almost 40 years.
Party activists will gather for three days in Glasgow after the loss of 21 MPs and Nicola Sturgeon being forced to put a second independence referendum on the backburner.
However there will be no post-mortem into the party’s general election losses, or any main hall debate about independence.
Instead the party’s 83rd annual conference will debate Brexit, public sector pay, army recruitment of under-18s and reducing the money going to the Royal family.
The SNP said the event would be an important counterweight to the “incompetence and backstabbing” of the Tories and a Labour party “too scared” to debate Brexit.
The conference will also see the SNP stress its ability to continue to “deliver progressive government” after a decade in power.
SNP Business Convener Derek Mackay said: “The Tories are in chaos and Labour in Scotland are tearing themselves apart.
“Despite years of Tory cuts, we’re delivering the best public services anywhere in the UK and protecting the most vulnerable in society and supporting family budgets.
“We’re doing everything we can to protect the Scottish Parliament from a Westminster power grab, and we’re fighting an extreme Brexit, to keep Scotland as an outward looking, welcoming nation, ready to engage and make our contribution to building a better world.
“This week’s Conference gives us a chance to debate new ideas on how to keep moving Scotland forward.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel