analysis

SNP supporters are used to being thrown a bit of red meat on the independence road map during Nicola Sturgeon’s conference speech.

There was no cote de boeuf yesterday, though – barely a morsel of brisket.

Sure, there was some lively rhetoric from the SNP leader’s warm-up acts.

Angus Robertson, her deputy who lost his seat in June, deployed cute wording to seemingly declare an independence referendum would be held before 2021.

That was not the intention, political aides maintained. But that was not how the party faithful took it. His Indyref2 assurance got a bigger cheer than anything Ms Sturgeon could muster from the audience.

Earlier, Mhairi Black, the youthful star of the SNP’S Westminster group, pulled no punches in her attack on Britain. She rubbished the notion independence should be on the back burner, achieving a rapturous ovation that was on a par with the one given to the FM. Ms Sturgeon then set out why they must not plough on with another secession poll.

The public was not ready, she explained, amid the uncertainty of Brexit. She averted a total mood killer by insisting they must keep talking up independence.

But there was not the same rallying cry for mobilisation that we have seen in her previous addresses. It made for a rather muted affair by her standards.

There was an assortment of offerings on domestic policy, not least her plans to found a publicly-owned energy company to drive down bills. That may give those voters put off by the Indyref2 talk something to chew over.

For the SNP faithful, the lack of progress to Indyref2 will be harder to swallow.

gareth mcpherson political editor