As election day approaches, Youth member Christopher Adam looks back on Spring Conference and looks forward to the Summer's renewed independence initiative.
From the get-go I must confess that I have never watched Stur-Wars (ha!) or Star-Trek or whatever glittering franchise the title is based. I’m very much hated for it and I am sorry, but it does make for one killer title, doesn’t it?
To begin, after several assured and eloquent speeches delivered by gifted orators at the SNP Spring Conference on Resolution 12: ‘Inclusive Sex and Relationship Education’, Conference welcomed to the podium Gaela, a Gender-Fluid student and first-time speaker. They was visibly nervous but, after a timid introduction – well my God, I was floored! Their speech was felt with great intensity and they delved into brave topics so often side-stepped concerning LGBT rights – such as the massive lack of education on LGBT issues in our education system and the harrowing suicide rate in LGBT youth which needs to be addressed.
They were absolutely inspirational, and I never got a chance to thank them for their words, such was the busyness of the day.
I was in a sparkling other-worldly adventure in a sea of lanyards three-thousand strong, bumping into faces I vaguely recognised off (dare I mention it) Question Time or people in the Scottish Parliament. I’m certain Nicola waved at me, but that’s a story for another time. I felt like I was part of something, something bigger, more than a conference or a political party. Part of a movement or a struggle – the good guys against the bad guys and it was one hell of a feeling.
And I still feel it because it is us against the bad guys; Westminster see Scotland as a problem to be solved, their hippie cousins to the north who don’t want nuclear weapons (peace, man) and are too hopelessly left-wing to save. At the SNP conference however, it felt like I was sticking two fingers up to them, up to the system and right-wing politicians who underestimate us and override our collective and humanitarian voice.
I was over the moon when I heard of the new upcoming initiative to grow support for independence in the summer, because that is the fresh solution to this stagnant marriage. And at Conference, that was made startlingly clear: the dream of an independent Scotland, where we fashion our own goals and our means of achieving them; where we take our rightful place on the world stage and be wedded not to fear but to hope; where our progressive voice of humanity is not drowned out – this beautiful dream will be tirelessly fought for, no matter the odds.
So, climb aboard – Nicola’s at the helm, and we’re off to a parliament not so far away to battle it out for the SNP, and for independence.
The good guys tend to win in the end-up, don’t they?
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