Why Nicola Sturgeon's independence failures pose questions over SNP's future at Holyrood

Notwithstanding other matters that have muted the former first minister, it would be justifiable for the Glasgow Southside MSP to raise her head above the parapet and tell some of the SNP old guard who have thrown all manner of shade her way to pipe down.

But Ms Sturgeon has not bitten, other than to insist independence is still a goer, and could happen “sooner than might seem likely right now”.

She has stressed, unsurprisingly, that “Westminster’s determination to deny Scotland even the choice of independence exposes confidence in the pro-union case that is skin-deep at best”.

READ MORE: SNP pin hopes on 'independence generation' as poll shows 63% of young Scots back Yes

It is stating the bleeding obvious to point out Ms Sturgeon failed to deliver independence or even force a re-run of the 2014 referendum, but not through lack of trying. She gambled, arguably putting her political future on the line, by taking the case for Holyrood to hold its own poll to the Supreme Court, which ultimately ended in disaster.

The nonsensical and half-baked strategy for a general election to count as a “de-facto” referendum Ms Sturgeon drew up in an apparent panic exposed the lack of a route to independence without Westminster playing ball.

SNP old-timer Jim Sillars, very-much a yesterday’s man in a strong field, not for the first time laid into the former first minister over the weekend, claiming she “wasted” her more than eight years in Bute House.

There are questions for the SNP as to whether leading a government for almost two decade is seen as success. You would think that it certainly is. But if the ultimate aim is for Scotland to leave the UK, then does the party need to have a conversation about whether that is a worthwhile aim?

A lot of blame is being put on Ms Sturgeon for her role since 2014, when she led the referendum campaign - and where she took the SNP on the constitution in the following years.

We still haven’t got a real sense of what the former first minister thinks about her record on independence - it’s likely there will be regret in hindsight, but we just don’t know for sure.

The SNP and the Yes movement are stuck in a rut - there is no road open to independence without a dramatic shift at Westminster. 

Ms Sturgeon is arguably getting a raw deal from the SNP’s has-beens - given the strategy to separation now revolves around showing the party can govern and hold the support of the public. But that maybe says more about the state of the independence strategy than Ms Sturgeon’s record in government.

With the days of the SNP dominating the Scottish political landscape potentially ebbing away, Scotland’s party of independence can only dream of the dizzying heights it enjoyed under Ms Sturgeon’s leadership.

Governing for 17 years has not delivered independence - so questions remains as to what role the SNP wants to play at Holyrood in the years ahead.