It’s more than five years since Holyrood was last graced by any SSP MSPs, and Parliament is the worse for the absence of any representatives of the traditional left. A distinct if small section of the electorate isn’t represented nationally, and the terms of debate are narrower, despite the presence of other principled left voices: the Greens and a few others from the Labour and SNP benches.

The reasons for the SSP’s absence are well-understood, of course, with the saga of Tommy overwhelming all. Without wishing to rake over that in detail, the fact remains that one side of that dispute were broadly either perjurers or supporters of perjurers (trading as Solidarity) and the other side were essentially maligned and and innocent (the continuing SSP).

Of all the unfair things that happen in politics, being damned for your enemies’ shortcomings would have to rank pretty highly, despite the caveat that the party was forged in large part around Tommy’s ego, and many of those who did the right thing in the end did always know he was too flawed to be a stable foundation.

Before the split, they also did themselves no favours when the choice was between grandstanding or being parliamentarians. The Gleneagles farce and its consequences for Hep C campaigners is the most obvious example, where a photo op trumped both democracy and the needs of some very vulnerable people, and Rosie’s wee submarine did look a bit daft. And colleagues in Glasgow certainly found their campaigning style abrasive and beyond what parties should expect from each other.

But equally, Tommy’s achievement on warrants and poindings in the first session was a true left victory, and it would be hard to doubt their intention to speak up for Scotland’s working class. Even when they were wrong, it was sometimes useful. Their “free public transport for everyone” pledge was seductive, even though the reality would have been overburdened networks unable to expand without truly eyewatering additional expenditure from taxpayers. But extending free passes to the unemployed, to students and to those on low incomes: their campaign made that seem obvious even if you don’t see it as a step towards a truly free system.

And there were plenty of points of agreement with the Greens, over issues like bringing rail back into public ownership, opposition to vandalism like the M74 Northern Extension, protecting taxpayers’ interests by ending PFI and related schemes, and many more. Despite those points of overlap, the two parties brought largely different demographics to the ballot box, ensuring that the breadth of radical Scotland was properly represented at Holyrood, during the “rainbow Parliament” at least.

Good minds and good people were tied up in the disastrous split, too, people like Carolyn Leckie and Alan McCombes. Many more fiercely principled and intelligent campaigners were totally burnt out by that episode (or series of episodes), and have been lost to politics, some probably permanently. Whether or not you agree with them, that disengagement is surely to be regretted.

I don’t want to see an independent Scotland carrying on with business as usual, just a smaller nation still venerating egomaniac billionaires, cleaving to the House of Windsor, building endless uneconomic and unsustainable new motorways, or launching a damaging race to the bottom on corporation tax. To stop all that, radical Scotland will need all the strength it can muster, which probably includes the SSP getting its act back together and getting back into Parliament.