The great unknown in the SNP leadership contest is an extremely significant one: who are the voters? Nobody but Peter Murrell really knows how many members the party has, but almost nobody believes the claimed number of over 100,000. (Our guess, based on pretty much nothing but a gut feeling, is 75,000 plus or minus 5000.)
But more to the point, nobody knows who they are. The average member age in most political parties is over 50, and according to figures published in 2019, more than 80% of SNP members are over 40, with half of those being over 60. There’s also an almost 3:2 bias in favour of men.
Humza Yousaf will not be the next First Minister of Scotland. We’re calling it now. His trainwreck of a performance on last night’s leadership election debate on STV dealt a blow to his chances that we can’t see him recovering from, and the SNP establishment is now under such intense scrutiny over the electoral process that the chances of a fix being orchestrated by Peter Murrell are receding fast.
In the debate Yousaf declared that Nicola Sturgeon was the best politician in the UK, that he wasn’t as good as her, and that she’d failed to find a successful strategy for independence and therefore he couldn’t either.
If you’re talking about “transwomen”, you’re almost always talking about people with a fully intact and functional penis. More than 95% of people who identify as trans have NOT undergone any genital surgery, and that’s a fact that’s still not widely understood.
We must admit it’s a shock – we were expecting the SNP President to remain neutral in the leadership election – but it’s hard to reasonably interpret this any other way.
(We’re not aware of Russell giving any media interviews last night so we assume from the timing that these comments were made at the regular meeting of the SNP Westminster Parliamentary group.)
Because both Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes couldn’t have been any clearer that their indy strategies centre on getting Westminster to agree to another Section 30 order, and by pointing out that that’s never going to happen (which we all knew anyway), Mike Russell is admitting that a vote for anyone but Ash Regan is a vote to surrender any hope of independence for the foreseeable future.
We don’t often agree with him these days, but on this one he couldn’t be more right. For the sake of the SNP (and the Yes movement) we hope its members heed the sage, albeit coded, advice of their President.
Last month this site ran an article entitled “All The Nice Greens Love A Rapist”, and two days ago the Scottish version of the party officially confirmed it.
Let’s take a moment off, folks. In our latest Panelbase poll, we also threw in a question just for fun, with genuinely no agenda at all, simply because we were curious to know what the answer was. Here it is:
By now many of you will have seen last night’s article on Craig Murray’s site, in which a current SNP branch convener revealed how the party machine is setting fire to all its own rules in a desperate attempt to secure the succession of Humza Yousaf.
Yousaf is the party establishment’s last hope of keeping all of its misdeeds in the last few years under wraps, and realising the magnitude of what’s at stake if he loses to Ash Regan or Kate Forbes, they’re abandoning all pretence of neutrality or integrity and throwing everything they’ve got at getting him elected.
Last month Wings broke a story about a “survey” being conducted by dozens of primary schools in the Aberdeen area in which children as young as nine were being asked about their sexual orientation and “gender identity”.
The charity LGBT Youth Scotland is currently the subject of a live police investigation over its involvement in a second major child-abuse scandal in little over a decade.
So you’d expect Police Scotland to be taking that pretty seriously, right?
Alf Baird on The Interests Of The Many: ““Tell us what happens next” There are only two possible outcomes with colonialism, Hatey, as stated at the end of…” Jul 9, 12:40
Marie on The Interests Of The Many: “I agree Turabdin. It’s not normal to have another country’s achievements thrown in your face via media. I’m thankful that…” Jul 9, 12:29
Captain Caveman on The Interests Of The Many: ““Ye wad shuirly fund gey mair ‘morons’ tae the poleetical richt, gied the condeetion o the Western libeal-imperial pouers!” Try…” Jul 9, 12:28
Hatey McHateface on The Interests Of The Many: ““finally, once the people figure out they have been duped, ‘the national party disintegrates’” “Finally”, Alf? No way can that…” Jul 9, 12:17
Hatey McHateface on The Interests Of The Many: “Can’t say I’ve noticed, TURABDIN, no. And then I also have little to compare it against. Although the scenes coming…” Jul 9, 12:14
Hatey McHateface on The Interests Of The Many: “@ Dick Wall says: 8 July, 2026 at 9:52 pm “I wonder what examples you might point out that show…” Jul 9, 12:05
Alf Baird on The Interests Of The Many: “““moron”” Ye wad shuirly fund gey mair ‘morons’ tae the poleetical richt, gied the condeetion o the Western libeal-imperial pouers!” Jul 9, 11:58
TURABDIN on The Interests Of The Many: “Anyone noticed how giddily nationalist the english media have become? You’d think they’d already won the world cup, wimbledon and…” Jul 9, 11:52
Captain Caveman on The Interests Of The Many: ““intellectuals on the left” Oxymoron. (The Left certainly does put the “moron” into oxymoron….)” Jul 9, 11:08
James on Search And Replace: “Still biting, then? lol Ah hear nothing but English accents round here as it is, Petal.” Jul 9, 10:56
Alf Baird on The Interests Of The Many: ““Why are SNP figures not making a compelling case for independence?” It seems as if intellectuals on the left, including…” Jul 9, 10:48
diabloandco on The Interests Of The Many: “Wheesht PB – dinna gie them plausible alternatives!Though that said it is a tad late to offer such an excuse.” Jul 9, 09:13
robertkknight on The Interests Of The Many: “I didn’t read the comments to be fair but I’ll sometimes pop over to Wee Ginger Fud and see what…” Jul 9, 08:06
100%Yes on The Interests Of The Many: “Then you read the comments and think what planet are these people on? Your being told the truth and the…” Jul 9, 07:37
Aidan on Search And Replace: “LOL – as if I or anyone else would bother. It’s just a bit of a sad state of affairs…” Jul 9, 06:58
Captain Caveman on Search And Replace: ““Weapons grade halitosis for certain.” Yup, no doubt. Enough to strip the fur from a badger.” Jul 9, 06:12
PB on The Interests Of The Many: “I was very confused when, in 2022, the Scottish Government announced that there WOULD be a referendum, and even announced…” Jul 8, 23:42
George Ferguson on Search And Replace: “@Hatey McHateface Duty I have been doing my duty all of my life. Of course it’s people like me that…” Jul 8, 23:09
James on Search And Replace: “Snowflake Adrian threatening handbags at dawn. LOLZ Better get some of the hard stuff doon ee first, petal. Try a…” Jul 8, 23:04
Dick Wall on The Interests Of The Many: “alf, Here’s what I found was decolonisation online. Beyond political independence, decolonisation also involves undoing the cultural, social, and psychological…” Jul 8, 21:52
robertkknight on The Interests Of The Many: “I’d like to think so, but as will all forms of the press they are guided by sales. It’d be…” Jul 8, 21:49
sarah on The Interests Of The Many: “@ robertknight: yes, amazing that The National should publish such an honest appraisal of the SNP’s failings on independence. Is…” Jul 8, 21:28
agentx on The Interests Of The Many: “The Clacton by-election is a farce – yes maybe the SNP should be involved!” Jul 8, 21:21
Hatey McHateface on Search And Replace: “Ah, c’moan noo, Aidan. Weapons grade halitosis for certain.” Jul 8, 21:10
100%Yes on The Interests Of The Many: “John Swinney has been totally played by Nicola Sturgeon she left the scene with no Interest to return to Scotland.…” Jul 8, 21:02
Aidan on Search And Replace: “At the end of the day James, you’re just some sad little keyboard warrior getting a pathetic thrill by mouthing…” Jul 8, 21:01
Hatey McHateface on Search And Replace: “Aw, Wally, I can see you’re suffering. Hope it’s something that will involve root canal work. Hope you have to…” Jul 8, 20:56
100%Yes on The Interests Of The Many: “Some of us have been saying on here since 2015 about the SNP and Sturgeon its a pity most not…” Jul 8, 20:28
John McGregor on Search And Replace: “I hope wee Pete in his cushy jail cell write’s a book n sets out everything he’s got on (ex…” Jul 8, 19:55