It’s obvious hope is only thing keeping SNP alive - John McLellan

First Minister Humza Yousaf speaking at the SNP independence convention at Caird Hall in Dundee

When it comes to obvious political declarations, saying that the only way for Scottish Independence to be achieved is with majority support surely takes the tartan shortbread.

For all the ballyhoo about the SNP’s independence convention, if that was the best it could produce then the faithful will have a long time to wait.

Of course, it’s not to be expected in these days of tight political messaging – or what the SNP used to think was their era of iron discipline – that parties would wash their dirty linen in public.

But what last weekend’s event did not address was why, if it’s so obviously the answer to all ills, do the majority of Scots resolutely fail to support it?

It is now statistically clear that the much-hoped for demographic time-bomb fizzles out somewhere in midlife. Because if it didn’t support for independence would be well into the 60s by now. Yet it has never got anywhere near over a sustained period.

I don’t believe for a minute that SNP strategists don’t know the answer. But I do know that admitting most people will not take such a massive gamble, particularly after seeing what a mess Brexit has become – either by opportunity not being grasped or it never being there in the first place – would be the end of the SNP as an electoral force.

They say in Scottish football that it’s the hope that kills you. But after last weekend’s convention, it’s becoming even more obvious it’s the only thing keeping the SNP alive.