IT was a nationalist friend, a socialist and trade union activist, raised in Labours Lanarkshire heartlands, who asked me the nuclear question: are there any circumstances in which you might not now vote for Scottish independence?

Like me, shed lately come to resent the influence of neo-liberal managerialism which currently holds sway at the top of the SNP. We both considered the beguiling possibility of how we might have felt had Jeremy Corbyn ever become prime minister of the UK.

Here was an authentic Labour leader whose entire adult life had been dedicated to fighting inequality and class-driven social injustice and who was committed to restoring some balance in the economy in favour of our poorest communities. As soon as the English political establishment realised he was serious they destroyed him. They then sent in the multi-millionaire Sir Keir Starmer to preserve their interests and to hang the false charge of antisemitism around Corbyns neck to ensure the threat of a genuinely radical UK Labour Party would be neutralised.

Yet, Corbyn would likely only have been a one-term prime minister and thus Scotland would always remain tied to the whims of the English electorate.

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My journey towards Yes began seven years ago after it became clear that England was about to journey into a long journey into darkness. The Tories had committed themselves to a hard-right suite of social policies. At the heart of this lay a commitment to a programme of austerity which discriminated against communities just recovering from the iniquities of Thatcherism while providing tax breaks for its most affluent supporters.

Later, they would come to be influenced by the racist agenda of Nigel Farages support base. In truth though, the Tories had already signalled their intent to promote racism with its creation of a hostile environment for those deemed to be the wrong type of immigrants and the Windrush scandal.

I could never have predicted though, how inequality and the celebration of it would become embedded in present-day Tory policy. The chaos of Brexit has left us with a political class whose justification for a No-Deal divorce is that well get through it because we always do. What they mean of course is that it doesnt really matter because they and their supporters have the finances to absorb the consequences. All reasonable criticism of the EU and its neo-liberal instincts was swamped by the sewage of British superiority and hostility to foreigners.

Here I must admit that some sections of the SNP, the main vehicle for independence, drive me nuts. Each time I vote for this party I must fortify myself with a stiff drink and be reminded that its for the greater good. I reassure myself that immediately following a Yes vote there will be a Scottish General Election and that perhaps the Labour Party in Scotland will have rediscovered its socialism. Hell, maybe the radical independence movement might stop dancing on pinheads and produce a broad-based political party capable of fighting a Scottish election with a reasonable chance of success.

In every sector of SNP governance, the influence of big business and global corporations is clear. From its agricultural and fisheries policies to its failure to unstitch the feudal patterns of land ownership its easy to detect the influence of multi-nationals. Those investments in lobbying fees and a willingness to meet the astronomical asking price for a berth at SNP conferences has paid off handsomely.

Yet, while eager to protect the interests of a powerful few they are happy to abandon working-class communities on the pretext that their hands are tied by EU state aid rules. The real reason of course is that the leadership has an obsession with cosying up to Brussels even though there is virtually no chance of an early entry into the EU.

I have grown dismayed at how the party has permitted a large number of fakes and opportunists to hitch their careers and finances to the only political show in town. In lieu of undertaking the painstaking task of finding long-term solutions to multi-deprivation they have contrived a culture war around the proposed Gender Recognition Act reforms. This and the proposed hate crime legislation are counterfeit radicalism which, instead of helping the poor, are actually a means of gaslighting them.

More than 13 years of SNP rule has seen the party lapse into complacency with too many of its senior figures, especially at Westminster, living a superannuated idyll while contributing nothing of any note to the movement. Im reminded of this each time Pete Wishart rises to speak. And its yet to be explained to me why a party that seeks the break-up of the UK chooses still to legitimise the Union by sitting in its main chamber of power and drawing six-figure salaries and expenses from it while taking an oath of loyalty to a toy-town royal house.

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If they had the courage of their purported convictions theyd refuse to take their seats at Westminster and make a serious declaration of intent about Scottish independence. Theyd also seriously undermine the authority of Westminster to act as the pre-eminent UK legislature. Instead, they choose to denigrate the wider Yes movement for daring to do what the party refuses to: engage in an intellectual debate about what an independent Scotland might look like.

Yet I have to conclude that independence is indeed everything, not least because gaining it would land a massive blow on an increasingly corrupt and elitist British state, whos cheating and duplicity is made flesh in the person of the UK Prime Minister.

Following the 16th consecutive poll indicating majority support for independence, those of us whose hearts desire is an independent, socialist republic of Scotland must start preparing for the battle which immediately follows independence.

This will be to drive back the forces of capitalism and neo-liberalism who currently wield disproportionate influence on Scottish life. Their main strategists, even now, are seeking ways to ensure their writ runs unhindered in an independent Scotland as it does in the rest of the UK.

In public, these people profess hostility towards independence.

In truth though, it matters not a jot to them; just so long as their bank accounts and property portfolios remain healthy. What do you think the Growth Commission was all about?

They will start the second referendum campaign three goals up and its about time the SNP and its loyalists stopped sleep-walking and woke up to the fact.

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Kevin McKenna: SNP neo-liberalism must be fought, but we cannot while in the UK - The National