The decline and fall
…of the SNP has been in the post for quite some time.
Because no party can prosper for long when it’s stuffed full of complete dum-dums.
In Adam and Tweed’s defence, their audaciously creative approach to arithmetic was also backed up by a cough cough cough cough cough “pro-indy” newspaper columnist:
But these are uncomplicated lies.
Nicola Sturgeon took over as leader of the SNP on 14 November 2014. And we know what the party’s membership was on her first full day in office, because the party’s CEO, who was (and is) also her husband, told us.
It wasn’t in fact 25,000 but 85,000 – more than 13,000 higher than the figure the party announced yesterday. (Which in itself is very likely a significant overstatement. The party is also currently losing over 100 members a day and Sturgeon will still be in power for another couple of weeks.) To have tripled the membership Sturgeon would have had to increase it to over 250,000 rather than reducing it to 72,000.
In fact the membership had already tripled SIX WEEKS before Sturgeon took over. (The page below can of course no longer be found on the SNP website.)
When Alex Salmond was elected SNP leader in 2004, membership stood at just over 8,200. By the time he left he’d increased it more than TENFOLD.
Adam and Tweed have both only been MSPs since 2021. Readers will at least be slightly familiar with Adam, who is, let’s say, a somewhat complex character.
Wikipedia lists her main political achievements as receiving a death threat on Twitter and making a clumsy comment about paedophiles. Despite this lack of experience she sits on TWO Parliamentary committees – Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice, and Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment.
Evelyn Tweed’s track record is somewhat less impressive (which is, we suppose, sort of impressive in itself, having somehow managed to limbo under a bar that would have challenged an anorexic tapeworm). This is the entirety of the Wikipedia entry for what it rather generously calls her “political career”, consisting primarily of an apology.
She also backed Alyn Smith’s tin-eared but tell-tale attempt to secure Stirling’s status as “UK City Of Culture 2025”, at a time when the SNP was still strenuously insisting there was going to be an indyref in 2023.
(Trivia note: Tweed’s husband last night lost a by-election in Stirling to the Tories, making them now the largest group on the council. We’re sure there’s an elected SNP politician SOMEWHERE in Scotland whose spouse/daughter/father/granny/milkman hasn’t also secured selection as a candidate, and if we find them we’ll let you know.)
But being a novice is no barrier to progress in Nicola Sturgeon’s modern SNP. The party’s Head Of Policy Development – which is obviously a serious and important role traditionally occupied by a wise head who’s been around the block a few times – is currently someone whose only prior experience was as a dogsbody and tea-maker.
If you haven’t heard of these people, don’t feel bad about it – we’ve monitored Scottish politics for a living for 11 years and nor had we. (Though having not the slightest clue who she was didn’t stop us being pre-emptively blocked by Tweed on Twitter.)
Humza Yousaf is the continuity candidate for the SNP. Any Wings readers who remain members of the party (or who’ve left but have been given a vote anyway) will have to decide whether its current condition is one that ought to be continued.
Because the way things stand, counting up the number of members in future – even for a party that’s now too plagued by incompetence to carry out a census successfully – is an exercise that will require less and less time.
The SNP is a party of home rule, not independence.
[Home rule: the government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens, in particular as advocated for Ireland 1870–1914]
You couldn’t make it up, but somehow the SNP have!
It’s become a job creation club for family and suitably inept juniors who wont question hierarchy.
That says it all.
The thing is that even if Sturgeon was responsible for the 60,000 additional members up until the point where she took over, and that would include a timespan where AS was still the leader, it’s essential to point out how she would have gained them and what the perception of her at the time would have been. Did it have anything to do with campaigning for independence rather than gender woo woo?
The other point has to be Thatcher and her rise to prominence and subsequent binning when she became a liability. Sturgeon may not have had a riot in London due to a stubborn refusal to listen to how unpopular the Poll Tax was but unless PM was hiding the figures from her she must have seen the writing on the wall as far as how the GRR Bill, amongst others, was going.
So, playing the game that doesn’t fit the timeline, Sturgeon might have pulled members to the SNP when she was advocating independence but if that’s so she must also have driven them away. Especially in the last few months.
These grade A1+ grifters need yanked off the gravy train ASAP.
Delusional arseholes believing every crock of shit that HQ tells them to churn out in defence of the indefensible.
Their arrogance is only surpassed by their incompetence.
Scotland deserves better… SNP OUT!
Sigh. How do all these dopes manage to fail their way to the top? Oh I forgot, that’s what dictators do – surround themselves with useless nobodies that won’t become a serious threat to their grip on power. Certainly all the stops were pulled to prevent real talent rising (or making a comeback) in the party. Political lives destroyed. Been done before. History shows it never ends well.
Quite scary that Neil Mackay got that figure so wrong. Journalists, eh?
Wonder who will head the Scottish colonial contingent at that Great Patriotic AngloFest in May?
19th century imperialism returns.
Often wonder whether the SNP doesn’t have too soft a spot for the baubles and trinkets of power, anybody’s power.
Ms Adam might try her hand at writing soap scripts when her 772 majority inevitably collapses.
Oh god help us if these replicate most of the voting members.
We need a new vibrant independence movement now.
My son has asked to rejoin to vote for Ash Regan. Just hope many recent resigning members do the same.
This perhaps was what Ash Regan was referring to when she stated that if she became First Minister she would bring into the party the best people available.(Instead of these young woke, useless, Nicola fan boys and girls who were no threat to Der Fuhrer, no threat to the union and would do as they’re told. Also Nicola could bask in their love, adoration and praise).
Ash didn’t say the part in brackets.
Brilliant again Stu. Party membership 85 000 the day Sturgeon moved into Bute House, and confirmed by a contemporary tweet by Murrell. What a bunch of chronic deceivers the Sturgeonites are.
The SNP losing the Dunblane and Bridge of Allan council seat to the Tories today – with the Tory vote going up a ba’hair away from 11% – and the Green vote collapsing by almost half to falling behind the FibDems again should be the ‘smell the coffee’ moment for even the most blinkered Sturgeonista.
It also means the Tories now overtake the SNP in seats in Stirling.
There was no ‘vote splitting’ Alba or another of the other 57 Varieties of Ma Wee Party candidates, but there was David Robertson’s Monster Raving Ego Party aka the Family Party there to potentially cut into the Tory vote.
No excuses SNP, you got well humped – and boundary changes still can’t explain away a whole 11% telling you GYTF and voting for, of all parties, the morons messing up the entire country, not just Scotland!
Did they really expect in Dunblane of all places that locals were going to stay with the SNP and especially Greens after the last few months of revelations about the company they now keep?
Adam isnt as safe as she would like to think, her CA do not like her and word is that moves are happening to have her deselected before 26, between her attacks on fishing, farming or the oil industry, the constituencies biggest employment areas, while cosying up to the likes of speshull needs BOY Josh Mennie and AIM while not doing any towards furthering independence
I wonder how we as a country can attract the smart, capable effective people that we produce (and who I meet all over the world doing pretty cool things) into Scottish politics. Does not seem to be a very attractive prospect for them currently. Can’t think why.
Are there no young people living in Scotland?
Apparently not.
link to news.sky.com
On the basis of the above «reportage» Scotland, a statistical region of the UK, might as well be Albania.
If only there was some other instance of a party’s decline in Scotland the SNP could have reference to?
Maybe a party that took the electorate for granted, introduced loony policies and was so full of neptosim it was incredible.
I dunno, maybe if there had been such an instance by way of warning…
Humza is no longer receiving live updates from HQ.He had been getting these fed to his team by Chris Jones the IT manager via Ian McCann. Online voting has slowed tight down and very few more are expected. They are now awaiting on postal votes, but even those will not be enough for Humza. The rumour that Humza had secured most votes and is having a celebration tonight are completely false. Humza is going to be in Inverness at the final husting. he was gong to pull out of the rest of the hustings, but has been told to stay in as his change of behaviour and dropped social media output was noted and he had to maintain the impression that he was unaware of the live results.
HQ staff and SPAds are all concerned about their jobs as a Forbes administration will likely be sacking most. SPAds are employed directly by Sturgeon and they are redundant from the day she ceases to be FM. None are expecting to be retained.
One insider says that Todd, MacCallan and MacPherson are the favourites to be demoted from their jobs to the backbenches with another saying that this three amongst others will be asked not to stand again. Michael Mathieson is the only cabinet secretary expected to survive the cull. If a minister or cabinet secretary resigns, then they get their ministerial top up tapered down over 6 months. If they get sacked then they get nothing. So a mass of resignations are expected. there are rumours that Emma Rodrick is to resign from the party and go as an independent with a possible move to the Greens at a later stage.
Humza’s team are now going through the motions with many now parting away from the campaign in an effort to rescue their own careers, with none of them saying anything and their social media output no longer putting out any more campaign messaging. It is very hard to get any information now as they have pretty much locked down to their core.
I see Evelyn Tweed’s husband, Ahsan Khan, just lost out to the Tories in the Bridge of Allan by election. Tory vote share increased 11%, it was a gain from the SNP.
Looks like the good folks of Stirlingshire are sick of the woke nepotism from the SNP. It,’s a tragedy what these troughers have done to a once great party.
Then there are so many of the Westminster lot whose most obvious talent is producing hot air and making everyone else cringe. And they are the ‘A’ team!
The SNP members in each constituency used to choose their own candidates for the office. Murrell took that power from them and now HQ do it. Which is why the SNP is now full of people who would have been happily joining the Labour Party years gone by. All they want is a career in politics. And, of course, careerists are much easier for the party machinery to manage because they have no political principles. What really angers me is the folk in the party I knew before this all started, who DID have political principles and worked for the SNP when there was no career. They can’t all claim they were hiding in the hills. My MP is Joanna Cherry, and she is the only reason I would consider voting SNP in the next General Election. Naturally, the NEC and SNP HQ hate her.
To get a job in the SNP, do you put your name in a tombola and hope for the best?
Interesting to see the “Yeah but still a big figure!” wagons being circled a sfolk try to downplay the sinking ship scenario.
In Kübler-Ross progression, I believe folk out there are bouncing between Denial and Bargaining. Acceptance is always the hardest step after all.
I’m just wondering if Nicola pushed Peter/SNP itself off her door panel raft ala Kate and Leonardo in Titanic
So if you worked in a clothes warehouse and then worked in an MSP’s constituency office in Airdrie for a bit, and then you were a researcher for a wee while you can then be Head of Policy Development in the SNP.
Should be amusing but it isnae really.
Ooooft Emma Roddick has barely enough sense to be a Coonciler, a complete divy.
I was at an event, she got so blootered she was falling all over the place, major cringe.
Yes, been blootered masel an woke up in a ditch, but am not a public figure representing anyone but myself & immediate family.
If the existing calibre of SNP people is so low
Where does a future leader like Forbes or Regan find competent replacements?
@ Tackety Beets at 12.56 “Emma Roddick..blootered”
Is that the cause of her “fainting” in Holyrood?
Seems to me it is high time for Regan and/or Forbes to be trying for an interdict to put the election on hold until an independent auditor has reviewed the process in detail, and is monitoring it. Arguments can easily be made that HQ has been acting in bad faith, lying about membership numbers, refusing reasonable requests for information, process is controlled by HQ with no oversight, Murrell being investigated by police for possible fraud.
If the auditor turns out to be happy then SNP will win from it because no one will be able to claim it was rigged. Surely all candidates ought to wish for that. Regan probably has nothing to lose anyway so should go for it.
It has been the agenda of the snp leadership, who are owned by MI5 to discredit, divide and destroy the snp from within!
Haven’t they done a successful job?!
Heart breaking!!!
God! It’s just become the Labour Party I remember – and fled- from the 70s.
A total Numptocracy!
This is what happens when a party is captured by mediocrities (at best) who would have no careers at all – never mind highly lucrative careers outside politics.
The are chosen by their sponsors precisely because they owe everything to their sponsors.
It’s done. The SNP is over.
@ barelybare
Also, the original plan to bar everyone from the hustings. The fact that tickets went immediately and the observation by Regan and Forbes that a number of people turned up at successive hustings throughout Scotland.
Eddie Munster says:
17 March, 2023 at 12:47 pm
To get a job in the SNP, do you put your name in a tombola and hope for the best?
Ridiculous suggestion. You just sell your soul.
@Smitty
“there are rumours that Emma Rodrick is to resign from the party and go as an independent”
That would be the only thing independent about her!
Thanks for the update.
I thought if Emma Roddick left the SNP, then the next on the SNP list would replace her as list is party and not candidate
«There is a species of person called a ‘Modern Churchman’ who draws the full salary of a beneficed clergyman and need not commit himself to any religious belief»
from Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Might equally apply to many among contemporary politicians.
If Emma Roddick left the SNP and joined the Greens, the average IQ of the former would rise subtsantially, whereas for the Greens it would either fall or stay the same.
But it would not make one ounce of difference to either her constituents – or to poor, ill-served Scotland.
I’d like to think that somewhere Morticia and Festus Murrell were playing out the scene from The Producers where Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder are sat with Leo stroking his blanket going ‘There’s no way out, there’s no way out.’
” We’re sure there’s an elected SNP politician SOMEWHERE in Scotland whose spouse/daughter/father/granny/milkman hasn’t also secured selection as a candidate, and if we find them we’ll let you know.)”
Are US citizens allowed to stand for local council or Holyrood?
Your rivals are so far behind you, so as not to matter at all, Ed. Excellent, excellent stuff!
Neil Mackay is one those people who actually looks as much of a greasy lying sack of shite as he actually is.
And by ‘sack’ I do mean the 5lbs one with 10lbs of shite stuffed in it.
If you gene spliced a used car salesman, a pimp and a baboon’s arse you’d end up with Neil Mackay, probably.
Alex Salmond is a hero of mine. He took us as close as we’ll ever get to Independence. He made me proud to be Scottish. He is the greatest. I will tell my kids and grandkids what a wonderful inspirational leader he was. The best politician I will ever know.
The opposite is true for Sturgeon the betrayer. The destoyer of the SNP. The sabateur of Independence. Now is not the time. Time on her side. To me, she’s worse than Theresa May. She’s worse than Boris Johnson and she’s worse than every Tory politician I will ever recall in my life. As she’s betrayed us all.
Forever in big Ecks shaddow. The dream shall never die. Thank you Alex Salmond for the dream and the cause.
” Wullie B says:
17 March, 2023 at 1:26 pm
I thought if Emma Roddick left the SNP, then the next on the SNP list would replace her as list is party and not candidate”
You would think so, but in last Parliament Michelle Ballantyne left the Torys and remained an MSP. I didn’t understand why that was allowed at the time as I thought same as you have said.
Karen Adam is a full on zoomer.
Every cult must have a specific, outlandish, core tenet. Something that sets it aside from the general populace. Something to differentiate them from the “unbelievers”.
A spacecraft hiding in the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet (Heaven’s Gate). A subterranean land of milk and honey under the Mojave desert (The Manson family). Control over a Chinese satellite death-ray (Workers’ Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought). Other reality defying examples are available.
Karen believes in the cult of St. Nicola the immaculate.
Karen would fight her way to the front of the line to the cleansing vat of KoolAid.
@ Wullie B at 1.26
She can resign from the SNP and remain an MSP (like Mark McDonald); it would only be if she resigned as an MSP that the next person on the list (ie the one who was really top of it) would replace her.
Thanks Smitty. Stay safe.
Hope you’re not just a very talented troll btw.
If Humza did become First Minister, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sturgeon still turned up at the coronation representing him because he was “too busy “.
I fear the main beneficiaries of the SNP’s (and the Greens) descent into identity politics, incompetence and corruption won’t be Labour but the Tories. If so then mark that as another failure of the Sturgeon era that people were so alienated by what the SNP have become they vote for a bunch of callous psychopaths.
Independence is over for a generation. The machine has been dismantled by Sturgeon and her acolytes, and the younger wave of activists infesting the SNP don’t care about indy at all. The Greens have moved from eco-socialism to neoliberalism along with the SNP while middle class privileged SNP members bleat on about ‘progressive policies’ as our public services fall apart and inequality rises but hey, men can be women and that’s all that matters to these people.
So until Queer Theory and those pushing it are gone and we’ve got enough distance from these insane times we might as a people go back to pushing for independence but we’re looking decades away.
And that’s another legacy for Sturgeon. She destroyed a movement that genuinely threatened the British state all for her own benefit and gain.
@Smitty, Emma R clearly hasnt thought that move through, it just proves how clever she is that a list MSP can resign and move to another party, who is advising her, Karen Adams wee boy Joshy Washy
Question: if either Ash or Kate are elected as Party Leader, how many SNP MSPs need to rebel in order to prevent them becoming FM? And if that happens, are we forced into a Holyrood Election?
@crazycat 2.02
Thanks for the clarification, pity, as that would have been karma
Five years from now they’ll be bad mouthing Nicola Sturgeon like they did Alex Salmond, its funny when Alex was FM I never heard Pete Wishart say a bad thing about him or any of these others.
Alex Salmond gave us a referendum that had the UKG backing and when asked by the MSM who they prefer Alex or Sturgeon and the reply is Sturgeon why?
Sturgeon has been or worst FM ever I wouldn’t be surprised if she hasn’t destroyed the SNP. She’s certainly put the SNP back ten years.
Sarah @ 1.10 pm
Maybe she just let some air oot o her heed.
David Hannah @1.58pm
I remember in the 80s discussing politics with my, now departed father.
I asked “what’s the hatred & obvious lack of respect by other politicians on AS?”
He replied “He is fit for them”
As we agree, he knew his brief & imparted it well.
Sadly the SNP now talk about the Democratic will of the Scottish parliament rather than the Democratic will of the Scottish people, who they now ignore.
Power went to their head eventually , but now we are taking it back from them.
David Hannah at 1:58 pm
Totally agree.
I voted SNP at every election from the age of 18 but I didn’t join the party until after the referendum. My reason for joining then was to show Westminster that their rigging of the result was not the end and it seems to me that lots of others did the same. If anything it was to show support for what Alex Salmond had achieved and to re-enforce his message that “the dream will never die” ie Nothing to do with Nicola Sturgeon. It was however the actions of Nicola Sturgeon that prompted my leaving the SNP and becoming a founder member of ALBA.
Mark MacDonald wasn’t a list MSP at time he was sacked by party, he was Aberdeen Donaide constituency MSP @ crazycat
Just noticed on Twitter that the SNP are now trying to explain away the decline in numbers with loads of people saying “my wife’s membership had lapsed, she didn’t realise and now she’s rejoined”.
It’s hilarious, there’s loads of people replying, “oh, that happened to my wife too and she’s blaming me, ha ha ha”, “oh, I’ve just checked and mine had lapsed, I thought it would renew, it must have been a mistake”.
Just waiting for the comms from the SNP that there was problem with their renewals and that explains everything.
They must think we button up the back.
link to twitter.com
This is all as a result of Sturgeon’s thin skin and Narcissism.
She made sure that all her cabinet members were dumber than her. Apart from Forbes and Regan of course. They must have slipped through the net! Anyone who was a threat to her megalomania was outed and shunned. Jo Cherry, Roseanna Cunningham, Fergus Ewing, Joanne McAlpine.
She surrounded herself with fools and boot lickers. The result being the gradual disintegration of government departments.
Weak and insecure managers tend to surround themselves with weak or insecure employees. Their goal is not the success of the organization or the development of employees. Instead, he or she strives to keep his or her weaknesses hidden.
@ dumb unicorn
They’re making themselves look stupid. Surely if all these folk thought they were still members they’d have noticed they didn’t get ballots?
link to archive.ph
Aye, there’ll be some structural problems to iron out.
I see Evelyn Tweed’s husband managed to ‘secure’ a £26,000 payout for racial discrimination back in 2008 when he wasn’t called for interview for a senior housing position with Angus Council.
Reading the Herald article, it seems a pal was appointed to the position rather than Mr Khan and it would seem the successful lawyer managed to engineer the payout on a technicality.
The tribunal judge deemed Mr Khan to be ‘black’ on account of his Bangladeshi ancestry. It’s interesting to see that such broad-brush racial definitions were successfully argued in ‘equality’ cases. However I think I’m right in saying he must have won his 2008 case under the 1976 Race Relations Act.
No idea why I’m writing this…general interest I suppose!
Emma Roddick famously mouthed off about the possibilities of a ‘sub’ before she took up her appointment.
If she goes independent, who’s going to provide her with a ‘sub’. Unless of course she has something put away for a rainy day. Who knows, she might even be writing her memoirs.
Re taking back power from them, it does not work like that, these people will continuously demand things which go against the public will and when there is pushback they will make a show of grudgingly ceding some territory whilst maintaining their other gains. Whilst people falsely believe that they have been checked it will roll on, it is multigenerational and part of a long game.
Re what led us all to withdraw support from the SNP, with myself it was being a resident of NS constituency and being labelled one of a basket of deplorables for complaining about the destruction of the area and parallel systems in health, housing and law etc. Through my sphere of work I witnessed blatant favouritism for the newcomers and anti white racism including unprovoked physical assaults going unpunished to keep the numbers down.
Nothing separates the SNP from Labour/Greens/Lib Dems and of course the Tories are going to take advantage of this. Re someone above calling the Tories “callous psychopaths”, I agree but would also apply it to SNP/Greens/Lib Dems/Labour.
Eddie Munster says:
17 March, 2023 at 12:47 pm
To get a job in the SNP, do you put your name in a tombola and hope for the best?
Why leave it to chance, when all ye have to do is act useless, wreck everything ye touch, and suck up to the dear leader (parroting every stupid comment she makes)? That’s the highway to success in the current SNP – ask Humza!
@ WUllie B at 2.30
You’re quite right; I chose a bad example. Michelle Ballantyne (Tory, South Scotland list) is a better one. She became an independent in late 2020, then joined Reform a few months later, but was not re-elected. Interestingly, if she had stood down entirely, the seat would have remained vacant till the 2021 election, because she was the last person on the Tory list in 2016. She became an MSP when Rachel Hamilton resigned her list seat to contest a constituency by-election (which she won), itself triggered when John Lamont left Holyrood altogether for Westminster in 2019.
My bad example notwithstanding, a person can change party without having to leave the parliament, whether they represent a constituency or a region.
Mike Small, link to bellacaledonia.org.uk reckons it’s over the SNP as well. In fact he’s so downbeat on the future it make the Rev look like a breathless optimist. Aside from the doctored photo of Kate Forbes in QAnon uniform it’s sort of worth a read.
In a bizarre twist of fate, maybe it’s not that bad. Sure the train is off the rails for a while but if it means we see the fortunes of several parties on the rise, at least we’ll avoid single points of failure in the future.
The notion that external reproductive organs ought not to be the decider of a person’s sex aka «gender» is circulating. Third rate politicians enjoy bashing that one.
Ovaries, uterus, prostate, cowpers gland in the new biology are now functionally «gender fluid».
With observation and reason now questioned, med.school anatomy classes must be like walking on egg shells. One crack and you’re vaporized.
Independence isn’t over for a generation.
It’s not as if the rest of the UK isn’t an even bigger shit show.
Once Nikla and her chums are gone, hopefully a deal with Alba can be done for the list vote and get shot of the green trumpets.
People need to get a grip.
Big Jock,
Recall that KF only got the job because a favoured incumbent blotted his copybook by – how do I pu this delicately- demonstrating a fatherly interest in a young chap.
Well not quite ‘fatherly’!
Where do they get these people?
Liz Lloyd resigns.
Ash Regan not get to be FM but she’s doing a cracking job of sorting out the party. Forbes should get her in as Deputy FM to start sorting out the rest of the mess.
The British political system and its establishments are self-serving and intrinsically corrupt.
The realization that the whole current structure is beyond repair is the beginning of wisdom.
Corruption brought Scotland into England’s grasp and corruption maintains that grasp.
Whoever gets that job will have to do rather more than just rearrange the deckchairs.
Stuart – I think it’s a bit more nuanced than Mike’s assessment.
It all depends on who is elected , and who they surround themselves with in cabinet. This is the most important election in their history , and it isn’t even an election!
The whole corrupt edifice is crashing. Maybe????? Police Scotland will wake up, complete what is a doddle of a Fraud enquiry, and apply coup de grace.
Excellent summing up by Robin McAlpine of what a shitshow this leadership election is.
link to robinmcalpine.org
She left with a smirk right across her face.
Big Jock
That was the surprise about Small’s article. It seems they are all worthless and he expects membership to fall even further regardless of who takes over. He’s no doubt looking through a progressive lens and sees the days of Scotland being the showcase for Europe are very much over.
If that’s the case we might see a general clearout of the woke and there might be a return to the SNP of yore before the influx or grifters and Labour supporters.
It was patently obvious, that after the referendum result, tens of thousands gravitated towards the SNP, simply because they desired a “political home”. I saw this happening in my local Yes hub, with many of the volunteers immediately joining the party in the aftermath of IndyRef. It had nothing to do with Sturgeon.
Thankfully I wasn’t one of them, because I had been able to see the blatant corruption by the local SNP branch, that saw a vibrant Yes hub destroyed from the inside, with a combination of old and new SNP members flooding the committee. The result saw the Yes hub organising fundraising events, but instead of the money being used to keep the hub open, the money went straight into the local SNP branch bank account! Any dissenting voices, mainly mine, were shouted down, and I was always outvoted by “the branch”. Thankfully I still have the emails and committee meeting minutes from the period to prove what was going on. Strangely enough, “the branch” members rounded on me as “toxic” and “poisonous”, simply for disagreeing with their corrupt decisions! That same pattern appears to have been replicated throughout the nation.
I left the group in early 2015, and the shop closed not long after.
I had lost trust in the party some years before that, but the actions of the branch in relation to the Yes hub was the final straw. Since then, I have despised the party as much as I do the Tories and Labour.
laukat @ 3.44 Lloyd resigns.
Another rat leaves the ship. There’s a lot more to follow.
@Georges
Thanks for the link. Quite a read!
@ Laukat: Liz Lloyd resigns.
Now can the truth about the leak to David Clegg be revealed?
laukat says:
17 March, 2023 at 3:44 pm
Liz Lloyd resigns.
Ash Regan not get to be FM but she’s doing a cracking job of sorting out the party. Forbes should get her in as Deputy FM to start sorting out the rest of the mess.
Ash Regan doing to the SNP what the SNP should have been doing to the Union these past eight years… Standing up for Scotland and rooting out the corruption.
Go Ash Regan. The tonic the SNP has for so long, been in such desperate need of.
Rev Stu, I can’t keep up with all the new articles! You are certainly earning your wage. SNP must really hate you! You have to be commended for exposing all that you have in such a short period of time.
Sarah.
Amongst other things.
Indeed, ‘the centre cannot hold’. It never could, nor can it, or ever will for that matter.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity…
WB Yeats
And so it goes…
Many, possibly most, people distrust politicians – justifiably given the numerous examples of the corruption and lack of democracy practised by all parties [I can’t think of an exception].
That is why restoration of the Scottish Constitution should be a popular move. The Constitution allows for the people to punish wrongdoing by politicians – including put them in jail. What’s not to like? So spread the word about the need to sign liberation.scot’s Edinburgh Proclamation, and support Salvo.scot in their campaign to inform the Scottish people about their constitutional rights.
Well which of the two lady’s get the job the first task has to be:
Vietnam group identified and handed to the police.
Perjury passed to the police
Anyone involved in the fit up to the police
Full enquiry into why the crown office and police failed in their duty
HO staff just sack the lot and start again
Review all MPs and MSPs standing and whittle out the dead wood. No point in shilly shallying they are unlikely to get reelected again
Lord advocate jotters
Revert to previous construction and reelection
Start national convention in indy and support auob
Any failure in this just creates a future problem
Should be a busy week but it is time to kick over the coffee table
The denouement of the SNP has been in the making for years. Nepotism has eroded the competence of the Governing party. Let’s take Humza as an example. His wife is now Nads. I was present at the election that nominated Chris Law and not Nads. Nads concentrated on Palestine and for me was a poor fourth. Jim Spence was at that election. And now if Humza becomes FM Nads will get a safe seat. 30 Sharia Law Councils operate in parallel with UK Law. Seeing as Humza rubbished the wee wee frees of Kate Forbes. What is Humzas view on Sharia Council and Palestine?.
Ottomanboi @ 3.29pm
In 2021, the academic journal Bioethics published a paper by an obstetrician-gynecologist and clinician scientist at McGill University which argued that trans-identifying men are entitled to womb transplants as a basic human right.
“There isn’t an ethical reason why they should be denied access to the procedure,” said Dr. Jacques Balayla.
It really beggars belief that people in the medical professions can be found on the wilder shores of transgender fantasy. Only an unscrupulous professional would encourage people (men) to believe this is possible. The amount of surgical research needed to try and bring this into being is the stuff of science fiction.
The repercussions to health for anyone willing to be the guinea pig in such a procedure are immense and incalculable. Millions of years of evolution have produced the adult human female body to procreate and give birth to another human being. It was a system of attrition which brought this about. For most of their evolutionary history, females were subject to the dangerous and onerous process of procreation. The survivors passed on the genes for the best body for survival of that process to their female descendants. Even today, pregnancy and childbirth can present danger to health to mothers. Modern medicine, though, has helped to enable a successful outcome for women even when unexpected problems occur, so evolutionary pressures have been muted if not eliminated from humans
However, for any professional to think that, or pretend that, this biological process can be replicated in an adult male with some tweaks from the pharmaceutical palette and the over-weening surgeon is shocking hubris. A woman is not just a man with a womb. This is part of the transhumanism madness that encourages such dangerous delusion.
In many ways I’m angered even more by these enablers and supporters of trans mythology than the transgender people themselves. They are often the victims of this belief system because so many people in professions have ducked their responsibility by not telling them the truth.
With possible court cases coming up, there are direct flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Minsk. BTW there is no extradition treaty between the UK and Belarus……..
Maureen says “theSNP must hate you” but oh how the Tories must love him.
Tammany Hall under Boss Tweed,
`It’s hard not to admire the skill behind Tweed’s system … The Tweed ring at its height was an engineering marvel, strong and solid, strategically deployed to control key power points: the courts, the legislature, the treasury and the ballot box. Its frauds had a grandeur of scale and an elegance of structure`
Boss Tweed was grandson of a Scottish immigrant.
David Hannah @ 1:58.
Spot on David Mr Salmond is the most effective politician in the UK.
Someone once said Salmond comes across a bit smug.
The other person replied he doesn’t come across as smug he is smug no one can come near him in any debate.
It is a true scandal what the evil ones tried to do to him.
sarah says:
17 March, 2023 at 4:29 pm
@ Laukat: Liz Lloyd resigns.
“Now can the truth about the leak to David Clegg be revealed?”
Well, the police know the truth; Craig Murray and this blog have gone as far as they can within the law to reveal the truth.
Whoever leaked to the Daily Rocket committed a criminal offence.
Murray was jailed for a civil wrong.
Criminal collect large salaries at public expense and are protected by COPS.
And this is not a banana kingdom?
Does anyone know how Murrell can be sacked?
Can the FM do it?
@Izzie.
Bitter much?.
Stu had the courage to fight for the true purpose and soul of the party we all voted for.
You? Not so much.
Another question is why is it that there is no list anyhwere online of who the 42 members of the SNP NEC are? You can find that information about the governing committee of other major parties in the UK. Why not the SNP? Something to hide?
Bute House closing for the summer, apparently. Deep clean incase the cadaver dogs are sent in?
If Ash Regan doesn’t win this contest, the SNP are finished, and the membership will continue to decline, I’m pretty sure Sturgeon and Murrell would rather burn the party to the ground that see Ash Regan lift it back up and drive us on to independence.
Murray Foote gone.
I hope Kate and Ash don’t try to stop the election. That would save Humza from defeat. It would probably also enable a “New Start” with Angus Robertson or AN Other stepping in for a fresh election.
The Murrells will try to wind up Ash and Kate in the hope they react and give them an out.
Murray Foote resigns.
Claims he believed what he’d been told.
And pigs can fly
rats all getting out, job done, but they will leave a trail and no doubt pop-up again when the dust settles and the shit has hardened. We see you.
I very much agreed with Vestas comments yesterday that the snp is FINISHED let’s move on BUT it appears many commenters are not willing to do that
I also wrote a comment asking with all that has been proven to be going on HTF are there still 78,000 members in the snp and as we are all aware MOST of them still support the betrayer and her morons, so would the entrenched good old days of the snp commenters and advocates like to explain how you are going to get rid of the scum currently infesting your once great party and how are you going to convince the brainwashed moronic remaining membership that your intentions are honourable bearing in mind most despise Alex Salmond and ALBA
AS for Liz Lloyd and Leslie Evans I would like to see any NEW FM instigate a DEEP ROOTED investigation into the Alex Salmond affair in ALL its parts and ALL the participants including the COPFS , Senior Police officers, members of the judiciary, Honest John the Redactor, Scotland has to have a serious DEEP CLEAN within the ESTABLISHMENT, we cannot create a positive future without learning from the mistakes of the past , and with respect to Alex Salmond POLITICIANS are not SOVEREIGN the people are and we DEMAND a people’s assembly where politicians WILL be HELD TO ACCOUNT
Ottomanboi says:
17 March, 2023 at 12:21 pm
“Wonder who will head the Scottish colonial contingent at that Great Patriotic AngloFest in May?”
Same weekend as the Moniaive Folk Festival if anyone wants to escape all the crap.
Murray Foote has resigned.
I was a long time defender of Nicola but the Murray Foote appointment was pretty cathartic to me to the point where I pretty much stopped contributing on indy on line.
As Mark Twain is oft, perhaps overgenerously, claimed to have coined:
‘It is much easier too fool someone than it is to convince them they have been fooled.’
56 years distributing leaflets, marching, attending meetings, organising marches, designing leaflets and pamphlets.
But then, as they say, there is no fool like an old fool.
Heavy heart.
sarah says:
17 March, 2023 at 4:50 pm
“Many, possibly most, people distrust politicians – justifiably given the numerous examples of the corruption and lack of democracy practised by all parties [I can’t think of an exception].”
Agreed – and that’s why I don’t think it matters one bit who wins. If not corrupt when they take over will be by the time the British State is done with them – whether through choice or under threat.
I think like many others I believe what is happening right now needed to happen in order to make Independence more likely to happen.
Ha! the Daily Record now have an answer.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Murray Foot resignation….looks like he was stitched up
link to twitter.com
JGedd says:
17 March, 2023 at 5:21 pm
Ottomanboi @ 3.29pm
“In 2021, the academic journal Bioethics published a paper by an obstetrician-gynecologist and clinician scientist at McGill University which argued that trans-identifying men are entitled to womb transplants as a basic human right.
“There isn’t an ethical reason why they should be denied access to the procedure,” said Dr. Jacques Balayla”
Which is why I, and many other women, are now opting out of the organ donor scheme.
Ian McCubbin says:
17 March, 2023 at 12:22 pm
Oh god help us if these replicate most of the voting members.
We need a new vibrant independence movement now.
My son has asked to rejoin to vote for Ash Regan. Just hope many recent resigning members do the same
——————————————
Don’t think rejoining will do your son any good as Voting is only open to members listed a few weeks ago now , otherwise there would be a pile in to rejoin for a short time to make sure the Murrell’s puppet didn’t get elected.
Liz Lloyd gone story below
link to archive.ph
Murray Foote has resigned as head of communications ( the RAT has done his job as did all the other RATS )
Murray Foote resigns.
The SNP told him porkies, which he put in the public domain. I wonder who in the SNP gave him his information and told him what to say.
Another tick on the list of grounds for a legal challenge of the election procedure if necessary.
Does anyone believe a word of what the SNP puts out now?
We should’ve known what Sturgeon was really like when she gave Murray Foote a job, especially after the lying vow, she also gave Sir Nicolas MacPherson a job, Is he still there? MacPherson the then head of the Civil Service during the 2014 indyref revealed years later that he and his department acted in a very biased fashion and that they couldn’t stand by and what the union break up.
Sturgeon undermined independence eat every turn when she became FM.
Wee Chid 6.40
Is Dr Mengle in charge of those transplant operations / No health service will take part in this shite .
Geoff Anderson says: 6:34 pm
“Murray Foot resignation….looks like he was stitched up”
Ach diddums for him, someone probably vowed they’d given him the right info…
His shit rag “newspaper” published the infamous Vow that helped stitch up an entire nation, so in the scheme of things, fucks given for him… zilch
When the raging inferno has died down and only smoldering embers remain, there you will stand Stu… VINDICATED.
There are a lot of people who shot the messenger that owe you a massive apology.
The way this is all panning out it certainly looks like the UK security services did a grand job. The UK committee will be holding a big party now.
But why did Nicola work with them was it blackmail bribery was she always working for them
Wonder if Ash should let the election run and call an interdict at the end or call it now?
Any guesses how much it will cost the NEC individually
Credit again to Ash Regan. She’s nae feart.
@RoS 6.59: and let’s not forget Benny Higgins, the Duke of Buccleuch’s wingman, who has been Special Advisor to the First Minister on the Scottish National Investment Bank and Member of the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland.
No wonder land reform ground to a halt in Scotland.
And everything else to do with independence, for that matter.
Did Sturgeon ever appoint a speechwriter before she resigned?
Did Stu. get an interview? If not, will he apply for Murray Foote’s job I wonder – subject to him being allowed to tell only the truth. All in the interests of transparency.
in the fillums, round about now, someone “takes a plea” and goes on the witness protection program
have the SNP been sold to Craig Whyte for £1
Bob Mack. I have been a member of the SNp since Winnie won the Hamilton by election. I have doorknocker canvassed leafleted and marched. I have telephone canvassed and done polling duty. I don’t know what has happened to the movement but we NEVER left ourselves open to Tory torpedoes until now.
Stuart 4.10. Bang on the money.
Mike Small is part of the obsessive leftie clique. I think most people are a bit left on some things, middle on others and maybe even right on small things. The point is. Scotland is at best centre left. Salmond always understood that.
When you veer off to the left, it becomes an ideology. Some voters don’t like it. If we want to win independence, we need a party for the majority, not a party trying too hard to appeal to minorities. The problem with that,is that you take the majority for granted. Namely us on here. We feel abandoned and we desert the party.
There has to be a balance. The SNP needs to be a broad church. Lately it has become a freakshow.
Re: Murray Foote ( The Scottish Joseph Goebbels ) This SNP leadership are making some dangerous enemies, remember John Majors bastards ? He always said you were better with them inside the tent pissing out as opposed to outside the tent pissing in. I think Mr Foote (with no NDA in sight) will now fall into the later category and I’m pretty sure he knows were a few of the rotten bodies are.
Izzie says:
17 March, 2023 at 7:29 pm
Bame Sturgeon. Her GRR policy has left the party wide open to just such torpedos. Some of us won’t wheesht for the sake of it.
Chic McGregor Sorry i didn’t reply to your last post / but in reply to 6.28 post don’t be disheartened we’re all in the same boat in trusting people .
@ Confused
Talking of films. Footage of the Gravy Bus…
link to youtube.com
The biggest story ever in Scottish politics is about to break and people are going to jail. I said a couple of weeks ago that people had done some bad things and were about to get found out. Well they have been.
The crimes that were committed by the Murrells are now under investigation by the police. This is not a lie and they will end up on serious charges. The resignations of Sturgeon, Foote, Swinney, Livingstone, Lloyd are all connected. This is not anything to do with the missing money. I repeat, this is why Sturgeon resigned.
Humza Yousaf is not involved but he knows about it. He knew of the allegations before he became candidate. He agreed to offer what protection he could for Sturgeon and Murrell. Lloyd and Foote have been involved in his campaign to make sure he wins, but this has failed. They don’t have the numbers and they know the game s up. It is a short campaign to be carried out before the Murrells are bundled into the back of a police van.
The house of cards is going to collapse imminently and all those arseholes who have backed who backed Humza and have eagerly joined in with his toxic campaign are going to find that there is a special place in hell reserved for them. The NEC, half of the MPs & MSPs, all the SPADs, all of the comms teams, HQ staff and every trougher have a bow wave of shit coming there way shortly and there will be no life raft for them. A total reset and a total clean out.
@Izzie,
Yes Izzie. That should tell you something.
At tonto
Benny higgins was known in RBS as bonking benny!!!!!!!
Izzie: we NEVER left ourselves open to Tory torpedoes until now.
Tory torpedos? Give me a break. All the Tories did was try and stand up for women’s rights whilst everyone else conspired to put them through a shredder.
No the SNP has comprehensively scuttled its own ship all by itself with no outside assistance from the tories.
twathater says:
17 March, 2023 at 6:20 pm
“AS for Liz Lloyd and Leslie Evans I would like to see any NEW FM instigate a DEEP ROOTED investigation into the Alex Salmond affair in ALL its parts and ALL the participants including the COPFS , Senior Police officers, members of the judiciary, Honest John the Redactor, Scotland has to have a serious DEEP CLEAN within the ESTABLISHMENT, we cannot create a positive future without learning from the mistakes of the past , and with respect to Alex Salmond POLITICIANS are not SOVEREIGN the people are and we DEMAND a people’s assembly where politicians WILL be HELD TO ACCOUNT”
I second that totally.
Smitty. If it’s not the money. Is it M15?
Republicofscotland says:
17 March, 2023 at 6:59 pm
“We should’ve known what Sturgeon was really like when she gave Murray Foote a job, especially after the lying vow”
Some of us had seen right through her way before that but W O S was then a stronghold of her supporters who hounded anyone who dared to say a word against her.
Same with The National. I had warned against it right from its first edition as being nothing more than a unionist way to milk gullible independence supporters.
OMG brick wall head bang. We are supposed to be on the same side (eye roll) Do you people really believe that the SNP are working against an independent Scotland.
Is Ash Regan the Phoenix from the flames.
Smitty says:
17 March, 2023 at 7:37 pm
“The biggest story ever in Scottish politics is about to break and people are going to jail. I said a couple of weeks ago that people had done some bad things and were about to get found out. Well they have been.
The crimes that were committed by the Murrells are now under investigation by the police. This is not a lie and they will end up on serious charges. The resignations of Sturgeon, Foote, Swinney, Livingstone, Lloyd are all connected. This is not anything to do with the missing money. I repeat, this is why Sturgeon resigned.”
I hope you are right.
I can’t wait for all the corrupt criminals to be given long sentences with hard labour.
Don’t care if they are sent to men’s prison or women’s prison.
Well we might not get independence anytime soon. But at least this daily karma fest is a must watch thriller.
We could open a book on who is first to have a holiday at HMP. Or who will be next to resign. Anyone expect Humza to withdraw?
@Izzie 7.52
Do you really believe that Alex Salmond is the devil incarnate?
Someone on facebook has just posted a claim as to who was one of the accusers of Alex Salmond.
Since it is on FB does that mean it is OK to C&P the claim here?
Sorry Stu no longer have your email address on this computer.
Izzie. I am afraid that’s what the evidence points to.
Shug says:
17 March, 2023 at 7:14 pm
“Wonder if Ash should let the election run and call an interdict at the end or call it now?”
Surely it would better to expose the rigged result after it has been announced and get the riggers punished.
If Regan wants to retain her credibility, she should start exposing everything the moment she has been defeated.
As the Rev. Stuart Campbell’s posts have revealed, Forbes has no credibility in the first place.
This election will have to be abandoned now. The independent auditors will need to come in and reset the rules. Either that or a general election.
nice one dan, the union jacks very appropriate – is that graham cambell at the wheel?
@ smitty I can only presume it is to do with the criminal conspiracy to convict and jail Alex Salmond. I hope that the alphabetties are shaking in their shoes.
Smitty = Deep Throat.
I hope that all of this is kosher.
Probably the wrong word to use. Potential hate crime.
But nothing surprises me. It aligns with my own personal story and some of the names listed.
Feliks of course not he is a flawed human being just like the rest of us.
“Do you people really believe that the SNP are working against an independent Scotland.”
@Izzie
Are you saying the current mob are working for the good of Scotland? I’m not seeing it myself.
Shug @7:08PM
I dunno. Right now we’re seeing the opening of the sluice gates that will cleanse the Yes Movement. I think we’re done with someone telling us what the future will be. We’ll decide.
Smitty @7.37pm.
Thanks for that I hope that comes to pass.
@Chic Mcgregor
I wouldn’t risk it.
Chic McGregor @ 7.57pm
Probably not.
So, all of a sudden, Bute House must close just as NS packs her irons away and a new FM enters.
VERY STRANGE.
Assume that the hotline to GCHQ and MI5 might be a bit of a giveaway.
@Izzie 8:13
An innocent human being.
The verdict of the jury was crystal clear.
Serious questions:
If the Murrells and/or any others (as listed by Smitty above) are arrested and charged, are they entitled to the services of Scotgov lawyers?
And what if those lawyers choose not to defend them?
And what if some of those arrested *are* Scotgov lawyers?!
LOL Wishart is calling for an “enquiry”.
let’s not forget Benny Higgins, the Duke of Buccleuch’s wingman, who has been Special Advisor to the First Minister on the Scottish National Investment Bank and Member of the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland.
Tinto Chiel.
Yes thanks for reminding me I’d forgotten about him, also there was Andrew Wilson the author of the very poor Growth Commission who was also a founding member of Charlotte Street Partners, along with Malcolm Robertson (son of George Robertson who said independence would lead to the Balkanisation of Western Europe) Malcolm Robertson is married to Sarah Smith’s sister.
Sturgeon appeared to love surrounding herself with unionists.
“So, all of a sudden, Bute House must close just as NS packs her irons away and a new FM enters”
You got to wonder what they have been hiding under the floorboards, or rather what they want to install now under the floorboards…
“Do you people really believe that the SNP are working against an independent Scotland.”
Yes
“Viscount Ennui says:
17 March, 2023 at 8:22 pm
So, all of a sudden, Bute House must close just as NS packs her irons away and a new FM enters.
VERY STRANGE.”
Like when Julian Assange was suffering arbitrary detention in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, it was soon bugged from top to bottom by the UK’s security services, Craig Murray often visited Assange and their conversations were recorded, so Bute House will be closed for “refurbishment” and will be bugged from top to bottom so Whitehall can preempt every action of the Scottish FM or just listen in, especially so if Ash Regan wins.
John. Apparently some people think the allegation of something is more important than the verdict. The damage was done. Everytime I mention Alex Salmond in conversation all I hear is the slurs. They aren’t interested in the verdict. That’s what our society does to people.
What people should really be asking. Is why the lying accusers were not charged with perjury!
As reported in the Daily Record today (article from Chris McCall), allegedly, Murray Foote said:
“Acting in good faith and as a courtesy to colleagues at party HQ, I issued agreed responses to media inquiries regarding membership”.
“It has subsequently become apparent there are serious issues with those responses.
“Consequently, I concluded this created a serious impediment to my role and I resigned my position with the SNP Group at Holyrood.”
My questions are:
1. Was the figure 72,186 also an agreed response with SNP HQ?
2. Are there also any serious issues with that figure? If yes, what are those?
@Izzie @Paul Davis
Yup the SNP strategy was to be sooooo progressive and woke, and paint the tories as the nasty party because they are English, apparently. Chucking tartan tories out of the big independence tent like this is just a stupid strategy, but it aligned with the SNP’s position to exploit nativism against the nasty English tories to win support for independence. But all this dog whistle stuff did was appeal to people who’d vote for independence anyway, while losing the support of moderate voters on the right. It is possible to be conservative politically and support independence.
And to Stu’s endless credit (credit where it’s due as I disagree with independence but visit this site to see Stu’s insightful reports and read the constructive debates in the comments), he has shown he is prepared to be aligned with the Tories on the gender bill and Women’s rights generally. Maybe one good thing to come out of this for supporters of independence is this catastrophic ‘nativist’ strategy will be abandoned in favour of achieving a broad church of support, even including those nasty tartan tories.
Aye Bute Hoose getting renovated / Upgrading the secret coms system
Broadsword calling DannyBoy …_____
Bonking benny was i think still with RBS when it went BUST
A sun reporter was told in late February there were over 100k members! This story just gets more and more sinister.
I hope the vote rigging gets found out. It really must be the reason for the lies.
Bear in mind the NS resignation was pre planned 2 weeks in advance. The numbers were fiddled!
Republicofscotland @ 08:41
When the original Director of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had his office redecorated it was riddled with bugs. The American IT guy disappeared without trace the same day.
The OPCW management was eventually forced out. The new Chef de mission was Bob Fairweather a former British “diplomat”. Douma, Salisbury et al followed.
@izzie,
We have nearly all been where you are. I have stood outside polling stations in the pissing rain with my hi vis SNP vest to influence voters.
All in the effort to obtain reps who would promote Indy.
Where have they been? Whilst we marched on the streets,many refused to even speak to us. We currently have SNP spokespeople talking about 2050 for a possible referendum.
So exactly who is betraying who ?.
The ideals of the party have not been compromised by us, but by those who doggedly fail to implement them and change arbitrarily the standing orders to prevent members having input.
The reality is the current SNP is light years away from that which you worked so hard for. I’m genuinely sorry to write that, and I commiserate with you and hope you see what Stu has been trying to tell us all for some time.
Its not pleasant but it is necessary.
John Main says:
17 March, 2023 at 8:28 pm
@Izzie 8:13
An innocent human being.
The verdict of the jury was crystal clear.
For once John Main, I totally agree with you. AS may be flawed as all people are but he has a damned sight more integrity, compassion and intelligence than most.
Chic Mcgregor, definitely not safe at all! The Establishment would love a chance to seriously disrupt or shut down Wings on any pretext. Let the commenter/poster on FB take their own risks.
Bute House repairs – perhaps a lot of weird iron-shaped dents in walls and doors, and who knows, maybe even bloodstains – “thurrrs been a muuuurderrrr!”
Yesterday seemed to end in anti-climax after the early excitement but cant complain at all about todays entertainment. I do hope Smittys comments are for real – the number and scope of resignations is becoming quite fascinating, a trickle turning to a steady stream, next a torrent?
Now confess! Who bought all the popcorn?
St Patrick’s Day Massacre?
[God bless the Irish]
Could any rats fleeing the sinking ship escape over the border, claim asylum in England, beg Braverman to refuse them their request, and volunteer to be repatriated to Rwanda? Could they even offer to use some of their stashed-away tens of thousands from their recent activities to charter the plane(s) required for the expatriation, so that poor Bankrupt Britain won’y have to pay to get rid of them?
Of course, in that case, the really big question that then arise could be this one: Will the Rwandese Government withdraw from the agreement, and annul it, once they realise what exactly is going to be heading their way? Will this lot wreck Braverman’s plans once and for always? Home Office, beware …
Thanks for that Vivian.
The OPCW, the body that fired some of its investigators because they proved without doubt that Assad didn’t use chemical weapons in Douma on the population.
The truth behind Sturgeon resigning is going to make the Salmond stitchup look very tame in comparison.
Serves them all right.
Smitty is such a tease. I wonder who (s)he really is. Murray Foote perhaps. Or Beth. Seeing events unfold, it’s like watching a car crash in slow motion.
Who will be the saviour of the SNP and come riding to the rescue?
Pete Wishart on his donkey; Ian Blackford on a goat.
If Smitty is right the TV crews will be lining up in Strichen tomorrow. No sleep tonight for me. And less for the Murrells & Co. but for different reasons
We have nearly all been where you are. I have stood outside polling stations in the pissing rain with my hi vis SNP vest to influence voters.
Err….is that not illegal?
I don’t know about anyone else. But why would one half of a married couple by a holiday home? Surely it would be a joint holiday home. Same for the loaned £107k, she knows nothing about.
link to scottishdailyexpress.co.uk
Hi Dan at 7:36 pm.
You posted,
“Talking of films. Footage of the Gravy Bus…
link to youtube.com “
Very apt!
@President Xiden,
Not if your not on the actual polling station property.
I’ve read all the comments on this thread with interest, and must thank Stu for resurrecting this site as I doubt if so many resignations would have taken place without his help! However, I must point out that I don’t think that The Greens should be absolved in not taking part in the downfall of the SNP. Thanks to them, Andy Wightman – a man who had done so much research into Land Reform – was forced to resign as he would not agree to the GRR Bill. Andy Wightman truly supported Independence for this country and had all the answers about Land Reform. He was an asset to the Scottish Parliament but he resigned because he realised that both the SNP and Greens had given up on fighting for Independence!
Twitter link on Wings folks. Wonder if he will go before Monday.
link to mobile.twitter.com
Well, there’s lots of things happening – thanks to RevStu and all the comments with the gossip.
I’d like closure on the Salmond scandal. I’ve got no skin in the game, but I can’t stand that all those injustices he was subjected to went unpunished and he’s never been socially vindicated. Is it too much to hope there will be opportunities for full disclosure soon? I think we are going to see more legal cases being brought after the Depp v Heard civil case and Depp winning – that was another me-too farce – against people making false allegations, and we are starting to see some now. Alex suffered whole series of injustices and had to battle against a government and copfs – unbelievable if it weren’t true. Anyone that can survive that has some amount of mettle.
I think I’ll continue with a statement analysis I started doing on a Sturgeon interview by Sophy Ridge, Wing’s published it in 2018. There was something that bothered me about it – apart from the stuttering, incessant avoidance of answering the questions (when did she first learn of,,,) etc. It took me ages, I wrote out a transcript of the first 5 mins, and eventually decided statement analysis – let them tell you what they really think – was the way to go. Didn’t seem much point keeping going with nothing likely to happen though. It’s not proof of anything, but it’s useful if any interrogator wants to know particular points to aim further questions on. Murrell being interviewed by the Fabiani committee might be interesting too, but I’m not sure how much you can pick up from a psychopath.
I feel sympathy for whoever picks up the reins of the shambles that the SNP is – public perception of the SNP is going to nosedive now I guess.
Just seen the Smitty update.
I cannot describe how much I want this to be true. It would explain the ingrained corruption in public life that I’ve been battling with for 10 years. If you think it’s just the five mentioned, I can tell you it cannot possibly be just five high heid yins. If they’re the apex, well underneath that apex all manner of wrong-doing has been going on and this has been enabled by everyone in that cabinet and in the civil service.
I would encourage anyone who’s ever been subject to this corruption to speak out now because there might never be a better chance of getting somewhere.
And folks…this has happened before…look at Italy during the Clean Hands investigations (Mani Pulite…type that into Wiki) in the early 90s when about half of the Italian parliament was under indictment. Political scandals of this magnitude ALWAYS involve money – bribes, kickbacks, accounting fraud – but the end of the Italian First Republic led to Berlusconi. We need to watch who emerges because our corrupt elites will change things so that everything stays the same.
Smitty is very similar to that Q-Anon thing. But it is like it is tailored (badly) for Scotland.
If Murrell has a 50% share of the holiday home, who has/have the other 50%?
Election fraud is a crime. As Smitty said. People will be heading to the clink if this is true.
Brian. His boyfriend?
The day after the vote this website saved my soul in ways it hard to describe. The articles soothed me and made the world bearable. Now it just make me lose hope. Perhaps it is time to turn the tap off.
Hi Big Jock at 10:11 pm.
You asked,
“Brian. His boyfriend?”
You may suggest that but I couldn’t possibly comment.
Rumour has it that this year’s Cheltenham Festival is continuing down the road in GCHQ
@RoS 8.35: “Sturgeon appeared to love surrounding herself with unionists.”
And get the Nicolaphiles still don’t see it and I can’t imagine what the Wee Gingers must be saying at the moment.
Strange thinking back to the election in December 2019 that the SNP forced an election which delivered an 80+ seat majority for Johnson instead of exerting maximum negotiating pressure on him while he had a pitiful majority and was barely surviving from day to day.
You’d almost think the SNP wanted to let him off the hook.
Stupidity or what?
PhilM says:
“Just seen the Smitty update.
I cannot describe how much I want this to be true.”
I think we all want it to be true. Which makes it instantly suspicious. It is very much like someone feeding you what you want to hear.
So I would say hold fast and judge Smitty on their predictions. If they start coming in… or if they don’t… then you will know.
The SNP shafted themselves and Scotland. Jail time, I hope!
Possible big time opportunity coming up for Salmond, Alba, the independence movement and Scotland as a whole?
And not necessarily in that order.
Wonder if Cairnstoon is working on a Wings‘special’ for tomorrow 🙂
Kinda what I thought folks. Just wondered if FB publishing categorised it as public Knowledge or something and made it OK.
There can only be one possible explanation for what has happened to the SNP.
Peter Murrell was the Trojan Horse for the British state. Was he always a double agent? Who knows, but he certainly became one. The remit was to turn the SNP into defacto unionist party. Under the very eyes of their own MPs and members. The boiled frog theory. Little by little, until it’s too late when they notice.
The SNP wanted to continue with this under Humza. But they were found out, possibly by a little lie about party members. It has created a ripple which is now a torrent.
Motives? Incentives? Who knows, but we will find out soon enough. When Sturgeon went after Salmond , that was the smoking gun. That gave the game away, that she wasn’t working on our side.
Re dirt being used on them, I always thought that was the leverage which took the Greens into coalition status.
Hold on folks. Smitty may just be taking us for a ride here. We’ll soon find out I guess, so no need to get excited yet. If nothing happens, Humza becomes FM and it’s a case of “Nothing to see here folks, move on!”, then screaming “Smitty!” won’t do much good. Believe it when ye see it. Just saying.
According to the cult below the line on Paul Kavanagh’s site, this is all my fault and Alba’s.
I am not a forensic accountant, but surely there is a link between the 600k and the falling membership.
The 600k was possibly a genuine funding exercise for a future referendum. However when the SNP started haemoriging members. Were the funds dipped into, to cover the shortfall. How else can they explain the falling members, but the steady income?
Instead of admitting the falling members under Sturgeon, they had to lie about it. To keep the lie bulletproof, they funded the party from the 600k. When that ran out Murrell had to use his own savings.
The lie snowballed to such an extent that they even lied to their own press officer. There may only be 2 or 3 people who actually know about this. Remember the auditor who resigned as he couldn’t get access to their books?
So is missapropriating earmarked funds to keep the party afloat the real crime here? I certainly think so.
Big jock, what if the recent resignations and Murrells to come , are not about Members numbers but they are using that story as a plausible reason to resign, knowing whats coming down the road re Smity
Think you are right about Murrell, another couple i suspect as well.
I don’t have any insider knowledge folks, just so you know, but lets reverse engineer this a little bit, and place some hard facts in amongs the rocks of ages.
Most of us thought Nikla’s resignation looked hasty, and smacked of something bigger, simmering out of sight.
We thought the ‘lets put a convicted rapist in the wimmens jile’ was the reason, closely followed up by the Galloway Butcher Child Abduction… then charges of rape, incident.
Doh!
But it turns out, 2 weeks prior to her resignation, our Humza had already been primed and prepped, banners an aw, fir the job vacancy. Doh!
So, that wizznait.
Then lots of folk speculating that mibba the Polis and the Fiscal had collectively got their fingers oot their arsis and decided to dae thir jobs. When for 18 months and a Crown Agent on side, they had no need to do so.
Doh!
But what if, oor Nikla and co, had committed a fraud, on the scale of billions (think cheap sell off of off wind energy) and done so across British boundaries, into the area of the ECJ?
At time when Europe is particularly keen to source energy.
Could it be? that maybe an international legal body, not kow towed to Westminster is suddenly well disposed to publishing incidents of wrong doing that the Brits and Nikla would rather were kept quiet. And even have the legal authority to pursue, in courts not ruled from Westminster?
Um…
Tom Walker (2019): What a Time to Be Alive: Dominoes:
“…The world’s too scared to change
Let the dominos fall, woah oh oh
Let the dominos fall, woah oh oh
Cause we’ve gone too far, no place to hide…
Watch it all crash, come tumbling down…”:
link to tinyurl.com
Corruption is a long established part of U.K. politics that makes those in the inner sanctum untouchable.
Remember Jeremy Thorpe the Liberal leader who was declared innocent in court for trying to have his gay lover killed.
Where is Lord Lucan and how does he live without an identity or funds.
Remember the government files about politicians who were suspected of abusing children.
Well the files disappeared and strangely the only government files that went missing.
Remember the Panama papers with the high profile names and all that laundered money.
Well nothing done about it.
Remember Labours First Minister McLeish who pocketed money from renting out an office the tax payer provided well we pay him £50K per annum for stepping down.
Remember Jack MacConnell giving all these excessive Holyrood construction jobs to his supporters who in turn employed his kids. They made millions on over spend and we still
Pay him an index linked pension.
How about Cameron trying to use contacts to give a dodgy bank massive loans and if successful £60 million for his own pocket.
Lady Moan PPE Swindle of £200 million.
Hancocks Landlord £1 million PPE contract.
Zahawi dodging millions on Tax fraud.
Churchill near bankrupt at the start of world war 2 and a multimillionaire at the end of it.
Stop me if any justice was placed on any of them.
I’m sure the Murrell can sleep softly on a very well feathered nest until judgement day.
Mac says:
17 March, 2023 at 10:30 pm
“So I would say hold fast and judge Smitty on their predictions. If they start coming in… or if they don’t… then you will know.”
What the Rev. Stuart Campbell wrote recently:
“At this point we’re ruling nothing out, up to and including Peter Murrell suddenly charging out of his house stark naked and painted green wielding a huge flamethrower and screaming “ALLAHU AKBAR!” before slipping on a banana skin and ending up with his head stuck in a bin.”
It seems to me that Smitty is really on to something.
Most of those commenting here would dearly like to see Smitty’s predictions come true in a matter of days if not hours.
Why do people assume they’ve been “gotten” by the British state? Just look at their record. Nicola and the cult are careerists who want to take little risk and ensure they look good (failed miserably). It was like what Shane Warne shouted from the rooftops. He’d rather lose trying to win than try to play or safe and or win. The SNP wouldn’t even take a low risk if they thought it would have any bad PR.
At no point have the Murrells been competent. People are seeing the real SNP and the lack of real talent. This has resulted in every scandal and every fuck up.
People promoted above their talent and slowly but surely ruin everything. Avoid making decisions and have quangos and reports till people forget about it.
Salmond nearly got indie because as much as i dislike him (not related to the allegations) it was a competent(ish) government. Proper discussion at cabinet level. Not everyone agrees or rubber stamped behind the scenes. It’s how government should be. Public back the party line. Behind the scenes debate and have talented people involved who listen.
What will everyone think of the money leads nowhere? (Legit without conspiracy theories that will no doubt exist.) there is a lot of guilt being thrown around without enough information. Just because they look dodgy doesn’t mean they are guilty. Innocent until proven guilty. However I’m glad the SNP is away to have a clear out or combust. We can move indie on and get back to a movement that isn’t just the SNP.
AFAIK Sturgeon (the SNP) is under 2 police investigations.
Besides the missing 600k Referendum Fund, there’s also the issue of possible misappropriation of public funds to support Sandstone, a publishing company that printed a book of FM Sturgeon’s speeches.
Or has this been settled?
link to insider.co.uk
Craig , well done 🙂
@Craig Murray
They’re obviously not very bright then, are they? (Or are you taking the credit?)
It’s down to the courage shown by Ash Regan and Kate Forbes in openly challenging the membership numbers issue and demanding the figures or else. Regan was set to have a press conference yesterday if the figures weren’t released. That took guts. Forbes has shown guts too as has her new campaign manager Michelle Thomson who clearly is afraid on no one. Their courage brought forth the figures and now the sky is falling in on the lies.
They also complained formally about Lloyd being part of Yousaf’s campaign. She’s announced today she’s stepping down. Murray Foote has gone tonight. That’s all down to Regan and Forbes. I take my hat off to them both because some of the people in the SNP these days, among their own colleagues in the Parliament, are seriously scary and vicious.
Daisy. Yes that is a possibility, that it isn’t about the 600k. Something bigger…procurement funding, uncompetitive tendering, bungs. Who knows.
I still think Livingstons resignation has something to do with it.
Alex
While the political class may be most accurately allogarised by the Monty Python, Upper classs twit’s race, the secret service is on an entirely different professional level.
In other news…
Bute House to close for 5 months for “essential repairs” and will be unavailable for new FM.
5 months to change a couple of dozen listening devices!
The Russians could do the same job in 5 days!
Where are all the East European tradesmen when you need them?
Brian Doonthetoon says:
17 March, 2023 at 10:02 pm
If Murrell has a 50% share of the holiday home, who has/have the other 50%?
His pet dog Wolfey
I’m a shareholder here. Not a massive amount but I give what I can. I upped my cont last month. I don’t do twitter as I think it’s a cesspit and I really don’t want my kids seeing me on it and getting involved.
But. FUCK ME. Here I go.
For for all the false dawns I’m sure a lot of us would agree we think we’ve had, something actually seems to be rising. The rats are all jumping ship and crucially are now chucking each under the bus. I, maybe because I didn’t contribute, ain’t too perturbed by the missing money. But I still think, and see, it stinks. What enrages me though is the AS stich up. I never had a hard and fast opinion on Alex, still don’t really. But how fucking dare a bunch of entitled twats think they can isolate an innocent man in the way they did, potentially ending his life (look that one up if you don’t believe it), because it didn’t suit their agenda?
Reading between the lines, this is what’s going to get them. In the words of John lydon ‘could be wrong, could be right’. Hope to fucking Buddha I’m right
Big Jock says:
17 March, 2023 at 11:57 pm
Daisy. Yes that is a possibility, that it isn’t about the 600k. Something bigger…procurement funding, uncompetitive tendering, bungs. Who knows.
I still think Livingstons resignation has
What about the Salmond complaint case, everyone of them from Blackford to LLloyd Murrell and Sturgeon, Foote are all balls deepin that stitch up
@ Alex 11.46pm
“Why do people assume they’ve been “gotten” by the British state?”
I agree. I really struggle with all that stuff. I think we’re dealing with plain dishonest folk, pure and simple.
@ Neil in Glasgow
It was the Salmond business that finished me. It was ghastly. Watching Sturgeon before that committee made my skin crawl. She was so full of herself afterwards. “I spent more than seven hours.” She omitted to say that for most of her testimony she said, “I can’t remember. I’d need to check. I’m not sure.” and little else. She’d also said she would accept that committee’s findings and yet, within hours of those findings being declared, she trashed them and sent the parliament into recess having declared herself “vindicated”. With Swinney, she had delayed that inquiry over and over by refusing to provide info requested and then providing some, not all, or by providing stuff that was heavily censored throughout.
She destroyed Salmond and it was deliberate. It was planned. The leaking of the full investigation paperwork to Clegg at the Record was deliberate too and was done with her approval.
The media cannot be excused either. It was clear the media wanted Salmond to go under and, even now, fails to cover much anything he says just as it failed to reveal the defence case at his trial. Our media assisted Sturgeon in her quest to destroy Salmond.
Salmond needs to use his time wisely now. He needs to work on getting himself looking physically able to take us forward. Right now, he looks ten years older than he is. He needs to lose three stones in weight. His mind is still sharp as ever but the picture he presents isn’t a good one. He needs to look after himself better and those around him should have been suggesting that a couple of years back because he’s looking like a candidate for a heart attack. I hope he is reading this. Scotland needs him at his best.
The SNP census hit their targets the figures they released state that. Interestingly I have still not had a response from the SNP about my ballot and I have also still neither received an e-ballot or a paper ballot. I am a lifetime member :/
When Alex Salmond quoted Burns t’other day…
“There’s nane ever fear’d that the truth should be heard,
But they whom the truth would indite.”
Many focussed on Alex’s words hinting about Sturgeon as the destroyer of the SNP but my ears pricked up on ‘the truth would indite’.
Was this a hint from one of Scotland’s best-connected folk that criminal charges were a-coming round the mountain?
PhilM says:
18 March, 2023 at 1:04 am
When Alex Salmond quoted Burns t’other day…
“There’s nane ever fear’d that the truth should be heard,
But they whom the truth would indite.”
Many focussed on Alex’s words hinting about Sturgeon as the destroyer of the SNP but my ears pricked up on ‘the truth would indite’.
Was this a hint from one of Scotland’s best-connected folk that criminal charges were a-coming round the mountain?
Nail on head, I think Blackford resigning as Westminster leader was the beginning of the end of this shitstorm, everything that follows makes sense if you think about it, and everyone of them have one thing in common, the stitch up of the best political mind in Scotland (After Rev Stu of course )
@ Chossy
Interesting. I hope you’ve raised this with the SNP. If you didn’t get a ballot paper there is something wrong.
sadscot says:
18 March, 2023 at 12:25 am
@ Alex 11.46pm
“Why do people assume they’ve been “gotten” by the British state?”
I agree. I really struggle with all that stuff. I think we’re dealing with plain dishonest folk, pure and simple.
I think the more incredible story would be of the British State not being involved in some way, but I agree, there are so many weak and dishonest characters that their job of destabilising the SNP would be a walk in the park, even for an amateur DIY subversive.
Evidence? Nothing concrete, but is there ever?
But circumstancial evidence? Hmmmm… It would explain an awful lot, especially surrounding the witch hunt on Alex Salmond and the apparent coordination of the Civil Service, COPFS, a special police team of 400, a rotten media outstripped in it’s apparent bias by Scotland’s judiciary in their determination to protect dishonest conspirators with lifelong anonymity while the Lord Advocate himself tries to invent crimes retrospectively to indict Craig Murray, and a trial judge goes a step further and actually jails him.
Let’s not forget the State’s Dr Who like capacity to jump back and forward through time whenever it suited, and alter circumstances retrospecively to better target and ensnare both Alex Salmond and Craig Murray; not so much innocent until proven guilty, but guilty of crimes which didn’t actually exist.
Throughout the whole rotten episode, the stench of corruption and a peculiarly aggresive and vindictive Establishment is there to be seen from every perspective, exemplified by the assymetry with which pro-Independence voices were silenced and threatened, while Unionist and pro-Sturgeon acolytes, not least Sturgeon herself, were free, nationwide platforms and exposure to defame Salmond and attempt to discredit a High Court Jury’s verdict with manifest impunity.
Subsequent enquiries are perceived by many as apparent stitch ups, with those players possibly indicted by evidence being left in total command of such evidence, and free to censor, redact or simply deny the existence of the evidence. Truly, truly, extraordinary, yet “official” disquiet came there none.
Do you think there is credible evidence of British State involvement? Wrong question to ask I think. These people are phantoms, they disappear like smoke.
Do you think such odious actions to destroy the reputation and political legacy of Alex Salmond would have been possible without the vindictive complicity of the State? That is where people become inclined, indeed entitled, to make their assumptions.
I also remain deeply, deeply, suspicious, even incredulous, of the way Alex Salmond lost his seat… but that’s another chapter of the same story.
.
Detective Inspector Taggart here, looking for chrome dome Dunderheid Penfold.
We’re looking for 30,000 missing votes and £600,000 missing cash.
You are not obliged to say anything… about the missing accounts or the hidden paperwork. But any votes you do highjack, or funds you do “weave” away, may come back to haunt you.
Remember ya pair oh haufwits… the internet NEVER forgets…
link to web.archive.org
Mr and Mrs Murrell, now you are having your claws removed from the levers of power, you’ll be happy to know that Chief Superintendent Stuart Campbell is on yer case.
Tick tock.
Surely if the 30,000 lost members had been public knowledge that would significantly have helped the two “change” candidates. It would be a bit daft to be emphasising continuity with membership numbers plummeting so drastically. This is no longer a fair and democratic contest.
Just heard of potential legal action to pause the election. I would assume from the Regan camp. I can’t see it continuing, as no-one will trust the result now.
“”Breeks @0339 am “ Very precisely put indeed sir . I am deeply suspicious of this “ digital/ computerised voting/counting system . A few thousand “ ghost votes “ would be sufficient to effect outcomes . It is quite conceivable that these companies involved have themselves been infiltrated by state operatives . So who is choosing our FM ? Is it the SNP membership or the Britnat establishment ? As you say there has been a British establishment vendetta against leading “ dissidents “ since 2014 and very probably long before then . Anyone not agreeing with your post has not been “ paying attention “ . The SNP has been infiltrated & compromised , and no doubt certain individuals have been “ bought& sold” .
Back in the day I was meandering around a cathedral down south (Exeter, from memory) and a plaque from around the 1700s caught my eye. ‘Here lies the body of……. who died of a rapid decline’
The words appear apt under the current circumstances.
Like Che Adam’s and Stuart Armstrongs Southampton it’s time to play the long game. Accept relegation and rebuild.
Whoever gets in won’t last too long so now is the time to join/rejoin the party so you are ready with your vote in a few months.
Evelyn’s latest twitter like is a parody post taking the piss out of the current situation. Not the brightest and flailing now that there’s no one to tell her what to post. Hard not to laugh.
Whoever gets the FM Job will have to concentrate 100% on fixing Scotland and only then, when Scotland’s house is in order after Sturgeon and her cult destroying it, then and only then consider Independence.
No point pushing for it until there is a concrete plan in place, vote for one now and it would be like Turkeys voting for Christmas or the Holidays in Humbawz case, forgot the word Christmas is a bit Un PC these days.
Until there is a solid roadmap to Independence, no point in even considering it. If we went for it now it would be on a wing and a prayer.
Why I left the SNP. Below my letter to party headquarters. Needless to say I never got a reply. And now I know why. The number of those who left the party was just too high.
I am not Scottish, nor am I a resident of Scotland. But I had hoped to make Scotland my home after retirement, which will be in a year or two. I have always considered Scotland my second home and would have been more than happy to make it my first – a logical step after having spent almost all of my holidays Scotland for more than thirty years. Brexit has made my plans so much more difficult, or even impossible. The UK embassy refuses to answer questions about immigration. A hostile environment indeed.
I became a member of the SNP because I support Scottish independence with all my heart, even more so after Brexit. As an outsider, but keen follower of the political situation in your country, I see that Scotland is more and more being side-lined by England in such a manner that it is no longer possible to speak of an union of equals. I am convinced that independence is the way to go. I am, however, not convinced that independence will be achieved any time soon, because the case for independence is not made with the necessary conviction. It is fine to have a 51% majority for yes in the polls; but this is not a figure which would ascertain a win for yes in a referendum.
Months ago, I had the opportunity to vote for or against the deal with the Greens. I have voted no.
First of all, the deal with the Greens gives this very insignificant party a power which, given its share of the vote, it would never have in normal circumstances. I am not sure if this is democratic; in my opinion, it is not. Scots rightly criticise the fact that they are governed by a Government they have not elected and which has only scant support in Scotland. But fewer Scots have voted for the Greens than for the Tories, and still Greens are members of the Government.
What some call the climate crisis has very much radicalised the Greens. Greens in my country have publicly stated that democracy is no longer fit for purpose. That the state must take stricter measures. That this is an emergency and thus the will of the people does no longer count. I don’t think the Scottish Greens are that much different.
If the aim justifies the means – and most Greens would subscribe to this – we are in danger of ending up in a totalitarian state. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as the saying goes. Almost every dictatorship in the past started out with good intentions, as they were perceived at that time. Today, we know better, but only because so many have suffered. If we have learned anything from history, it is that radical parties must under no circumstances have any power at all. You and I have never lived in a dictatorship, and we may tend to believe that such a thing would be impossible in our lifetime. This is mainly because we both live in a political system which allows debate. There is no debate with the Greens. Their world is black and white. He who wants to save the planet can’t be soft. It is ironic that “in order to save the planet” much of Scotland’s natural beauty is being destroyed by windfarms (to say nothing of the thousands of birds which are killed every year by the rotor blades). Scotland will come to regret destroying one of its most important assets in years to come. Judging from what I read in the “National”, there is money to be made with renewables, and some are hoping that this money will help the case for independence, the same way as Mr. Salmond pointed to the Scottish oil fields. But windfarms will destroy the environment much more than oil. I am reminded of the US officer in the Vietnam war who is reported to have said: we had to destroy the village in order to save it.
You may remember what even the French with their disdain for loan words called “Le waldsterben”. Scientists told us in the seventies of the last century that not a single tree would be left in a few years’ time. Le waldsterben and the panic in parliaments and governments (the population never panicked) are forgotten. In twenty years from now, barely anyone will remember the climate crisis. But whereas Le waldsterben has left no traces whatsoever, the wind turbines will still be there. Politicians need to panic, says Sir Humphrey Appelby: it’s their substitute for achievement.
Being “Green” is a hobby only the well-to-do can afford. Not everyone has the means to buy a Tesla. The rest of us have real problems to get to grips with – things like a mortgage, education for the children, heating bills. This green fad is a new version of the war of the rich against the poor – as a recent piece on the BBC website well shows Removal of open fires ‘not required to meet energy efficiency targets’ – BBC News. You won’t find many Greens in Niddrie. The Workplace Parking Levy will simply mean a tax hike for many who cannot chose between bicycle, bus, train or the private car. It is a scheme invented by people living in cities who have the next bus stop within easy reach. These people have no idea whatsoever how it is to be living outside the cities, and what is worse, they don’t care. Let them eat cake. Let them take the bus.
Like many other governments, the SNP government is trying to educate the population. Don’t drive. Don’t drink. Don’t eat sugar. Don’t eat fat. Take the bus. In so doing, it expresses the massive contempt of an elite for those whom Orwell called the proles. It is Morningside against Niddrie. It mirrors the contempt that such as Mr Rees-Mogg have for those whose purse is less well lined than their own. And it is by far not a Scottish phenomenon. It is probably worse in my native Switzerland, where, just to give an example, the city of Berne refuses to let council flats to people who own a car.
I picture myself standing on one of the outstandingly beautiful beaches near Durness and looking out to sea. And what I see is a windfarm. I was absolutely sure that, once retired, I would make Scotland my home. I am not so sure now. I have no wish to witness all this destruction, and I have no wish to live in a country where the Greens are part of the Government. I used to joke that the next dictatorship will be neither red, or black or brown, but green, and that it will be as bad as the others. I would hate to be right. Welcome to draconian laws and an end to many of our liberties. There are billions to be made with renewables. Exit the oil sheiks, enter the renewables barons. Some will get rich, but most will remain poor and many will be poorer. Follow the money. The beautiful new world, where happy vegan families bike through perennially sunny avenues is for the few, not for the many.
And then, on bbc.com, I read that the SNP government has pledged GBP 65m to the Ukraine war effort. Another headline on the same day was that many people in Britain don’t have enough money to buy themselves a square meal a day. Money for weapons, money for killing people, but no money for the hungry. That is not the SNP which I joined. If Scotland wants to help democracy, which is the reasoning behind the pledge, then the money could be better spent than using it for deadly weapons in order to help a regime which is about as democratic as Putin’s. The Germans call this “kitsch” – a word which I believe is even used in English.
Scotland was different. Today, thanks to the SNP, it is a country like any other.
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