The Silent Revolution
Robin McAlpine published a very important piece yesterday, detailing how the SNP is about to become even more of a leadership dictatorship than it already is.
You can read the article to see why this is a change of enormous importance, and a catastrophic one for the independence movement. It will make it just under 17 times harder for any sitting SNP leader to be challenged for the leadership – let alone defeated – and effectively turns the party into a private oligarchy every bit as total and unaccountable as that of Reform (which is not a member-directed political party in the conventional sense, but a limited company personally owned by Nigel Farage, who holds a majority of the voting shares and can do whatever he pleases with it).
We’re annoyed at ourselves, because we got sent the document revealing the change a month ago, but we missed it. And now we’re going to show you why.
Below we’ve highlighted the only mentions of the policy change.
The ironically-titled “Transparency Review” has two page 13s – certainly unlucky for anyone in the party still clinging to a belief in democracy, or as the paper calls it in a stark piece of cynical gaslighting, “the supreme mandate of the members” – and buried on the second page 13 are the two curt paragraphs detailing the proposal for anyone who has somehow managed to remain awake through the preceding dozen pages of tedious wonkspeak and tables of implementation progress reports.
It’s perhaps worth pointing out that the SNP has not suffered from an excessive churn of leaders. Since taking its recognisable modern form it’s had just seven in the last 56 years – William Wolfe, Gordon Wilson, Alex Salmond, John Swinney, Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf. The typical SNP leader holds the office for almost a decade, with Yousaf’s hapless 13-month misrule dragging that figure down considerably.
(Scottish Labour, by contrast, have burned through 10 different full-time leaders in just 26 years and the Scottish Tories 4 in 13 years. That means the average reign for an SNP leader, even including the Yousaf aberration, is 8 years against 3.25 for a Scottish Tory leader and just 2.6 for a Scottish Labour one. Whatever issues the SNP has, switching its leaders too often is not one of them.)
There was no problem to solve. The last time the party chose a leader there wasn’t even a nominal contest – only one person wanted the job. Nor have its leadership elections usually been close or bitterly fought. John Swinney won in 2004 with 84% of the vote, Alex Salmond succeeded him with 76% of the vote, and Nicola Sturgeon took over unopposed, as did Swinney for his second stint. Only Yousaf’s was a meaningful contest, and much good it did him.
But nevertheless even that microscopic prospect of possible future dissent has now been ruthlessly stamped on. As Robin notes, the new rule would make mounting a leadership challenge to all practical intents and purposes impossible. Once a leader is in place, nothing can realistically be done until they voluntarily step down or die.
(This seismic change has been seemingly brought about by just six people. We can safely assume that it’ll be duly rubber-stamped by the payroll vote at the withered and tightly-controlled conference in a few weeks’ time.)
John Swinney is now less of a leader, not even a President, but a King, ruling without election for life. And given that Swinney has never really been all that bothered about independence, that ought to worry anyone who cares about it.
We really don’t know how much clearer it needs to get.
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FOOTNOTE: As further evidence that internal democracy is dead in the SNP, at the same meeting in December it was also quietly determined that the “branch dividend” – the proportion of membership income allocated to branches to run the local parties – will be reduced in future from 25% to 15%.
In recent years that payment has been largely imaginary, as SNP HQ has raided it to plug gaping holes in the accounts, but nevertheless it’s a significant signal that the leadership wants to centralise power even more and eliminate whatever remaining tiny scraps of influence ordinary members might have.
Who really cares anyway? I doubt the SNP will even be a thing so any leader they bolt in for life will be of little importance.
Unless of course the yoons start voting for them & all interlopers came with the same set of instructions.
Holyrood is deid. It’s past the point of return just as predicted it would be in the event of a No vote. Said elsewhere the only sickner is that it was done supposedly by our own side.
I find it amusing that people still believe Humza Yousaf succeeded Sturgeon as the result of poll of SNP members at the time. And here we are today…
Would the 2.5% requirement be of then current membership or-as in the case of the ‘100 members constitutes just 0.15% of our membership at the most recently published figure’- be based on that last ‘published figure’ ? I suspect I know the answer.
As it says – it would be based on the membership at the time.
The membership is whatever the leadership claims it is, so how would anyone know if they cleared the 2.5% bar?
That is the thing, they will not. They are completely at the merci of whatever the dictator installed as “leader” chooses to disclose. And when the “leader” is Mr Redacting Black Pen himself, well, it will be absolutely nothing.
“John Swinney won in 2004…”
2000, no?
Not the point of the article and I am sorry for the pedantry.
There was a leadership election in 2004. Click the link.
I really can’t see why so many of the current members are still hanging in there. There is zero chance of any meaningful change to the constitution that will bring back a truly democratic NEC i.e. one without the gerrymandering additions of the “interest” groups with full voting powers.
What an effing shambles.
They are in fact reducing the size of the NEC, but retaining the number of seats for special-interest “affiliate” groups, so ordinary members will have still less of a say.
TBF this tightening of rules was probably a prescient or preemptive move by the cabal what with James Kelly rejoining the NuSNP…
Rudderless and heading into Corryvreckan. Ironic that 1984 was written nearby but nearly wasn’t because of it.
If I were to be cruel, I would suggest that it won’t take that long until 2.5% of members equals 100 members anyway.
The remaining members of the SNP will organised into the Volksstrum Schotland and sent to defend the river Order.
Battening doon the hatches for the storm to come (and I ain’t referring to Storm Eowyn). Party finances are circling the stank.
The once munificent £1.3 m pa in British State, Short money is a fond and distant memory. The 10% tithes they extracted from the £90k salaries of MPs is decimated as the feckless 56 elected in 2015 are now the nonentity 9. Tithes from MSPs will diminish (to a lesser extent) after next year’s Holyrood election. The £600k ringfenced, Indy fund vanished into a miasma (the Gartcosh Polis doggedly pursue the case in the face of Permanent State obstructionism). Other “creative” revenue streams are closed off. *
?
* The “donation” Anum Qaisar’s daddy (allegedly) made to Jackson’s Entry got the pint-sized bimbo three years as the MP for Airdrie & Shotts. Not much of a return on investment.
They’ll find the same dark slush fund as Ruth the tank commander found & they’ll chalk it down as the proceeds of an anonymous raffle lol…
They’re a permanent block in Holyrood & good little soldiers now. That no doubt rakes in the perks to keep it just ticking along…
Is this a precursor for Sturgeon’s return?
Jeez! Never thought of that…
That was the first thought that crossed my mind. Judging by the comments in her fanzine “The National”, it does look like her fan base is shrinking and fast. It is becoming quite obvious that the only way to instal her back in the position and keeping her there is by diktat.
If left untreated syphilis can affect parts of the brain.
The stage is now set for a brand new Popular Scottish Independence Party.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man or woman?
I’ll kick off by drafting the first rule of the PSIP’s constitution:
1.1.1 No person who has ever represented, been employed by, or held office for the SNP in any way, whether paid or unpaid, professionally or other, openly or clandestinely, may join, work for, represent, or exert control or influence in any way over the PSIP and/or its members.
1.1.2 Any person who is a member of the PSIP, or who is employed by them in any capacity whatsoever, who is subsequently found to be in contravention of 1.1.1 will be immediately expelled, sacked or otherwise dismissed from the PSIP.
OK, that’s a good start. I’ll leave it to others to build on this foundation.
1.1.3 Four legs good Two legs bad.
Look up to the sky and behold!!
Queen of the Baby Boxes descends from heaven in her Focke-Wulf FW 200 Condor.
“Only Yousaf’s was a meaningful contest, and much good it did him”
My recollection is that the contest was riven by procedural irregularities, with a threatened legal challenge from Ash Regan at one point.
Before she was put back in her box.
I prefer to see Yousaf’s brief tenure as the high-water mark for poorly-concealed DEI in Scottish Indy politics.
Maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part.
The creatures outside looked from man to pig and then from pig to man again….
I find myself agreeing with you, yet again. Wtf is wrong with me? Purely rhetorical, I don’t want to hear it 🙂
Full tinfoil hat here, but it’s almost as if the party is being reconstructed not to achieve independence, but to be a constitutional and political blocker and permanent ‘gish galloper’ of any political advance towards independence. Reminds me of how the British intelligence services ended up hollowing out and in fact running the IRA and to a lesser extent Sinn Fein. They really are very very good at what they do.
Force Research Unit. Fishers of Men.
The co-opted national party chooses ‘neutrality’, it depends on slogans and for the most part leaves the question of independence to future events. It takes the movement up a blind alley, delaying independence. The dominant national party elite becomes part of the colonial racket, it behaves like a gang, feathers its nest and builds up its pensions. Colonialism, which is always a co-operative venture with native elites, effectively draws the national party leaders under its wing. (Fanon)
It’s certainly behaving like a mafia. And that’s a few steps up the ‘control-freakery scale’ fae a gang.
This is really just further tinkering to stitch it up even further.
It was basically sewn up 7 years ago as this article from 2021 explains.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Folk will remember the attempts by the “good guys” to try to regain some control but that came to nothing because the cabal already had enough control and power to see off all challenges and continuing to dictate the Party’s trajectory.
Yip, internally-applied totalitarianism.
“This seismic change has been seemingly brought about by just six people.”
That’s a marked improvement from just three last time. Bolting in Sturgeon & her hubby & removing party democracy. All masterminded by Angus Robertson, allegedly.
OMG, rotten SNP (hierarchy) has ring-fenced itself.
#NoEscape
The public don’t care, they just want something they can vote for that will get Independence, most people don’t give a damn about internal squabbling, if anything it puts them off even more, I just want a party with a leader that shows leadership, get out of westminster as I won’t be voting for any party who sits in Westminster.
The key questions are, firstly, how is that “want” going to be achieved?
And secondly, are those who “want” this prepared to do anything whatsoever towards achieving that “want”?
Because doing nothing and expecting that “want” to appear by a process of spontaneous combustion (ie magic), whilst lamenting as squabbling the systemic and structural difficulties faced by the minority of the public who do attempt to do something towards achieving that “want”, has neither worked nor managed to move matters towards that “want” so far.
And that is unlikely to change no matter how long the public adopt that position of waiting for someone else to deliver that “want”.
Oh dear!!
Does this move mean the clique were anticipating a serious challenger from outwith the clique that they urgently needed to block? In that case, who? Flynn? Cherry?
Which of the two comedians will take the helm when Swinney decides to retire, would it be Mhairi Black or Sturgeon? Or will Gordon Brown give the position a shot? I mean, we already had the other half of the vow as CEO, didn’t we?
You can be incredibly cynical, of course, and think this move was not really to preserve Swinney’s unpopular leadership, but to ensure that once the political fraud returns to the driving seat that Yousaf and Swinney were simply keeping warm for her, she will not be taken down from the podium ever again.
In the short term, this may just be the ticket the establishment demanded to ensure the SNP fully tanks in 2026 to guarantee the “Scottish” Labour resurrection despite the serious bludgeoning that Sir Kid and Elderly Starver and Rachel from Accounts Mismanagement have taken to its credibility. I am sure we will not have to wait long until they wheel Curtice out again to give a “landslide” prediction for labour.
With every dirty move the SNP “leadership” makes, the prospect of not voting at all to accelerate the demolition of the whole rotten political edifice, becomes more and more attractive.
So, what does this dirty move mean for those who still are dreaming about “unity” and insisting in including the dirty SNP on any move for independence? Can they finally see what the rest of us has seen for years, that the SNP is nothing more than a Jupiter size lead balloon tied around its neck and strangling the independence movement?
It’s their own coffin they’re hammering nails into, I don’t actually have a problem with them fast tracking their own demise.
I think it is Salmond’s coffin they are still anxiously hammering nails into. They are very frightened people.
I’ve stated this since the she stood down that Sturgeon would return as leader of the SNP and FM again in 2026, this has been the SNP leadership game plan from day 1 of her resigning.
This is the reason Humza and then Swinney had to become leader it was to prevent anyone else from becoming leader and blocking the chances of Sturgeon returning when the dust had settled.
Everything that’s happened or happening is all at the behest of Sturgeon she in complete control and she has the full support of the UKG.
I hear people F*cking banging on and on about Westminster for F*ck sake Westminster isn’t the problem open you F*cking eyes its the SNP. We need a leader who has the voice of the WHOLE YES MOVEMENT to be able to challenge the SNP’s treasonous behavior.
In the coming Holyrood election we need to organize to prevent certain ("Tractor" - Ed)s in the SNP from being elected again, come up with a single plan in order to get the message out there about how these individuals have spent the last Ten Years stealing votes and ruining Scotland reputation in the world and that Independence will never happen with these Individuals in charge as these are the people preventing it and the reason why GREED.
The ripple effect among the woke and depraved following the Democrats defenestration across the pond..
Who’s to say that 2.5% will be more than 100 members, the way things are going . .