I do not write as many blogs as I used to these days. I find that a lot of the topics that peak my interest are best left to discussion on Through A Scottish Prism. This article I have been trying to write for a few days now. My anger is such that I have had to stop numerous times and restart the piece.
I have spent my entire adult life working and campaigning for Scottish independence. From the age of 16, I decided that was the best road for my nation of birth. I also decided that the SNP was the best vehicle to take us down that independence road. Recent events have made me change my opinion on the SNP, not on independence. It is not anything like the party I first joined in 1968.
I have now come to the following conclusion. Independence is still the best thing for my nation of birth. The vehicle though needs scrapped and replaced. It cannot get out of first gear and when it is stationary, which is most of the time it is spewing out toxic fumes into the atmosphere.
When it does go, the wonky steering always takes it into cul-de-sacs. It has no reverse gears, and the mirrors are so bad it cannot even see other vehicles getting ready to overtake it. It spends more time in the garage than on the independence road.
First cars are like first girlfriends they have a special place in your heart and memory but they are rarely the ‘one.’ Sadly, this is also the case of the SNP. They should be called the Moses Party they started the journey and showed us the way but they are not getting us or themselves to the promised land!
There is a phrase political spads or company marketing gurus love to use when trying to outdo their opponents, clear blue water. For example there is clear blue water between The Alba/ISP Scottish independence parties, YES Movement and the British Unionists.
It is also true to say now that clear blue water sadly exists between the SNP and the Independence Yes Movement. The movement has been promoting Scotland United, meanwhile, The SNP are promoting gravy!
I have often said that I do not believe in coincidences in politics. That the SNP decided that their Special Conference that they had kicked into the long grass in March this year, suddenly needed calling and coincidentally on the same weekend as the AUOB Bannockburn march and rally on 24th June was an act of pure sabotage and malice.
It has since transpired that after much pressure from the membership the SNP National Council is to hold its first meeting in 5 years. Again we are to believe it is purely coincidental that it is to be held on the same weekend as the next AUOB gathering on Skye.
Jamie Hepburn, MSP, the SNP Minister for independence dismissed the 20,000 + Glasgow AUOB marchers in a most disparaging way imaginable.
“I’ve nothing against going to marches and nothing against going to rallies, that can be an important part of demonstrating that we’re not going anywhere.
“But we’re not going to win independence by marching and rallying alone.”
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23536837.jamie-hepburn-addresses-not-attend-auob-glasgow-march/
No SNP leader has ever marched at the head of an AUOB march. No SNP leader has ever addressed the millions that have marched through the streets of countless Scottish cities and towns! How bizarre is that?
When Humza Yousaf was campaigning to be SNP leader and First Minister he told us he would be our first activist. He promised to be at the Glasgow March and not the coronation. It came though as no surprise when he reversed that decision as soon as his victory was announced.
He could have lessened that slap in the face to the movement by explaining he was obliged as First Minister to attend the English monarch’s London jamboree. He might have got away with that if he had said, ‘ I personally cannot make it, however, I have told Shona Robison my deputy and all my elected MPs and MSPs to attend in my place to send the strongest possible message to Westminster and the wider world, Scotland is on the march for independence.’
If he had done that he would have won praise from all sides of the independence groupings. He would have cut the legs away from Alba, ISP and the Greens. By such action the SNP would have reclaimed the affections of the movement.
I would also suggest that the SNP poll numbers would be greater if he had done this. Instead, we have polls telling us that SNP is in line to lose 20 odd seats next year at Westminster. What should be more worrying for them is that the latest polling shows that while 53% of Scottish voters support independence only 41% of them support the SNP! At present most of that 12% are going to sit at home on polling day just like 2017 when a disastrous SNP campaign cost them seats.
What could be even more devastating for the SNP is that the 12% move to Alba. However, as has become the norm for the SNP they are as dismissive of the 12% as they are of the Yes Movement, the Alba and ISP parties. The SNP faithful spends the majority of their time attacking independence supporters and then suggest it is them being attacked by the movement. This is their justification to not unite the movement. They attack and treat any independence supporter that is not a SNP fanatic drone as the enemy. It seems they dislike independence supporters more than they dislike unionists. Party before nation. They forget that was the same reason why Scottish voters removed Labour!
The Alba Party at its inception in 2021 advocated that independence supporters should all vote SNP in the constituency and Alba on the list to produce a Super Majority. This would have resulted in Scotland being in charge of its own destiny with no possibility of Westminster interference in a Plebiscite election for Holyrood. We would have begun immediate independence negotiations the day after the election in May 2021!
Instead, Sturgeon attacked Alba and the idea. She insisted upon SNP 1-2 thereby enabling 30 Unionist MSPs to be elected. Anyone that tries to tell you she didn’t realise what her actions would cause is lying! She put herself and her party before nation!
In 2022 at the Local Authority elections, both Alba and ISP asked the voters to vote for all independence parties to ensure the unionists could not control many indeed perhaps even any councils in Scotland. The two independence parties even managed accommodations with each other so as not to divide or waste a vote anywhere. Again Sturgeon and the SNP rejected the overtures of the independence movement. This has resulted in the unionists controlling councils throughout Scotland that could have been independence councils! Party before nation!
Those like the MP for Perth and North Perthshire that suggest it is the other parties that are full of hate is lying. It is the SNP that it seems hates all independence supporters that do not blindly and unquestioningly vote SNP and nothing else. You are meant to keep giving them your votes, support and most importantly money without asking any questions on funds, independence or unity.
For sometime now Alex Salmond and the Alba Party have been advocating a Scotland United strategy for UKGE next year. This simply put means that as Westminster is a FPTP contest we should not split our independence votes. Indeed, we should maximise them by having a single independence candidate in each constituency. It makes absolute sense and like the Super Majority it is the most sensible approach for our cause. Unity will win our independence, division will not!
This week Toni Giugliano told us that the SNP reject this concept of unity. He went further when he told the Yes Movement to butt out until after the UKGE and that the SNP should get a free run at Westminster. This for sure is what is best for the SNP. It is however, not what is best for Scotland or independence!
In other words give our SNP MPs another 5 years of gravy and pension contributions and to hell with advancing the independence cause! Party before the nation!
Stephen Flynn the SNP leader has told us that the party will fight the next election on ‘domestic issues’ not independence. In other words just one more mandate and Westminster will roll over! Oh really?
We replaced Labour in Scotland with the SNP because we wanted independence, not promises of jam tomorrow. We were sickened by Labour MPs sitting in Westminster voting along with English MPs to Scotland’s detriment. We realised that sending Labour MPs to London was not ever going to improve our situation.
The realisation now is that sending SNP MPs to London is the exact same as sending Labour or Tory MPs there! Neither does a thing to advance Scotland’s cause. Party before the nation!
It has been aptly shown by Neale Hanvey’s attempt to introduce an early day motion Scotland ( Self-Determination) Bill this would have transferred oversight of referendums to Holyrood. Only 3 SNP MPs signed the motion! Party before the nation!
Fife MP launches Westminster bid for independence referendum powers
In October last year Kenny MacasKill rose to speak about the atrocity of Scottish fuel poverty amid the energy riches of Scotland. As he got to his feet to speak up for Scots the SNP MPs walked out the chamber! They put the SNP party before the nation once again.
We elected them to replace the Labour feeble fifty. Instead, all we have done is substitute feeble Labour MPs with feeble SNP MPs.
Scotland still remains firmly in the grip of English imperialism. The SNP has against Winnie Ewing’s advice settled down they do not settle up for Scotland. It breaks my heart to see the party I spent over half a century supporting in every way I could turning into a Labour Party with kilts.
I never thought the day would come when I would advocate this. If independence is your raison d’etre, unless there is radical change in the SNP behaviour do not waste your vote! They have become everything we set out to destroy. So to Mr Giugliano and others that are telling us we need to wait, I say No! We have waited long enough.
Either you unite with the Yes Movement, or we will replace you with others that will do our bidding. You have one job and one job only INDEPENDENCE NOTHING LESS! If you do not understand that or oppose that then go or we will remove you ourselves! We are the many. You are the few. Understand that or pay the price!
You say what many of us who have left the SNP say and see.
The SNP party will diminish like Labour did.
It starts next GE, hopefully Alba rising with at least 5 MPs.
I got zero pleasure writing this. They have broken my heart. I feel like a jilted teenager!
Aye, I think I’m even more depressed now than I was after the first indyref result. At least after that result we were given hope that we might get another go. SNP aren’t even trying any longer and I’ve given up ever seeing inddependence in my lifetime. Lost my older brother last week – another Yes voter gone.
sorry for your loss Wee Chid and the loss of an Independence supporter. Sincere condolences
The painful truth as far as Hepburn is concerned he has been around my constituency for years now and at one time supported by a councilor who was jailed for several years for child sexual abuse I campaigned to expose this guy many of us did which was ignored by Hepburn ”I don’t listen to rumours” Hepburn. And I will campaign to remove this idiot also!
I think that this piece will turn out to be a wee bit of a milestone for me.
I hung on as an SNP member until last August when the control freakery and shenanigans of the Sturgeon leadership finally became too much. I then hoped for change but didn’t believe that it could be member driven because all of the doors had been slammed on us.
I was deeply disappointed by the leadership election – it’s outcome and miserable, ‘continuity’ ministerial appointments. I was then reduced to, ‘maybe events will force reality on these mediocre troughers’.
Well, it hasn’t and their politically sectarian attitude towards AUOB, Alba and the rest of the movement, plus political incompetence on GRR and bottle returns, has brought me to the same conclusions as the blog piece – independence – OF COURSE – via the SNP ? – NO !
Presently I just plug away in the local YES group – street stall this morning !
Conclusion, the SNP is going nowhere in terms of independence and has completely the wrong attitudes to both how to achieve our national self determination and how to relate to the rest of the independence movement.
Time for renewal !
The truth is Sturgeon spent over 8 years lobotomizing the SNP representatives and members. Some were willing patients, others pressed onto the operating table.
If the party were a physical body it would be a cadaver whose corpse is part of a hideous experiment in social engineering by some mad scientists and doctors.
SNP: RIP.
I’m laughing at this imagery, but only because the monstrous absurdity rings so true
I too am disillusioned by the snp policies and personally have repeatedly requested information from my local snp mp which has yet to be forwarded to me .. Next GE I will be voting for Alba who have made all the correct noises and favourable reasons to become independent again .K.McAskill speech on Scotlands energy was exemplary and this alone would be a good reason to become independent..For these reasons I have become an Alba supporter …
Great to hear, welcome.
While I understand your anger and sense of loss Roddy, it was ever thus! Everything changes, it’s just how and when. The independence movement doesn’t need the SNP. We shouldn’t be dependent on them because the trust and respect has gone. This lot, since Sturgeon, have sabotaged the Party and time will reveal the truth. It’s on its knees as a result and will require the help of God and 3 policemen (so to speak) to resuscitate it now.
It’s time to get a head of steam by promoting Salvo. Sarah Salyers et al are doing sterling work in the background, unearthing the documents, overturning stones of time and making a powerful case to take to the International Court of justice. It’s quite apparent that our Scandinavian and European neighbours are sympathetic to Scotland. With Salvo, Alba and the Yes Movement together, what else do we need? I’m 77 and I don’t intend to die till the Scotland is independent and I know many others who say the same thing, so keep going Roddy. You’re among freens.
I suspect the SNP collapse may be even more rapid than that of ‘Scottish’ Labour branch, if that is possible, given the level of national/cultural deceit here is even more abhorrent; any slight delay in its demise might be explained by the usual twisted msm perspective still portraying the SNP as the enemy of unionism/colonialism when all the time it behaves as its good and loyal friend. This deceit, once realised, is what has ‘sickened the people’ and has ‘created the rupture’ in the independence movement, and the exodus of SNP members, much as Roddy implies.
Uncoupling the compromised dominant national party (https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-conscious-uncoupling/) and now colonial administration which the people had put their faith in, forms a key part of the decolonization template, as is the parallel shift from an independence movement to a liberation movement (https://salvo.scot/), the latter reflecting improved understanding of the people as to their real (i.e. colonial) ‘condition’ and the meaning of independence (i.e. liberation from oppression),
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/07/18/determinants-of-independence-colonialism/
I think the SNP decline will be more rapid than Labour in Scotland, for the simple reason that they don’t have such deep roots. The Labour Party had connections in every working family in Scotland through trade unions, councillors, social clubs. By the 1990s, they had reached a stage of being all figureheads and no footsoldiers, but it was only in 2015 that the full extent of the hollowing out process was shown. The SNP have gone from being led by activists to having tea and biscuits with MI5 in eight years. The roots simply aren’t there, and, as you say, once people feel betrayed there’s no going back. GE2017 was their warning shot that indy voters will stay at home if they aren’t giving a reason for voting SNP. Clearly they’re ignoring it.
What we have to accept is that the SNP is now irrelevant to our cause. No-one cares about their stupid “convention”, since Toni Giugliano has told us its outcome is already decided – “no plebiscite election, just give us your vote to maintain our lifestyles.”
That a political party can go so long without even having an annual conference is a kick in the face of its activists. There are still good people there, but their energy will now be used to try to rescue the party, in much the way that socialists in the Labour Party expend their energy trying to save the Labour Party instead of changing society. The SNP is a blind alley, and it did it to itself.
They have replaced the Labour Party in Scotland. In the worst possible way. And they’ve developed this sense of entitlement in less than a decade. It really is a remarkable thing to see.
Never mind, Roddy, angry voters will achieve our goal. And surely the nine worthwhile SNP politicians (if they are truly sincere) will jump ship and join those of us who recognise that independence is imperative.
PS I still haven’t found a way to “like” your posts. Any ideas?
I have no idea except to like on fwitter
Yep, yep, yep, yep… every thought you wrote, every view you expressed, I heard myself saying “Yep!”. You’ve summed it up exactly BB. There is NO POINT TO SNP now. They’re just money-grabbing (salaries & pension pots) politicians that are more concerned about how to keep their lifestyles in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed, rather than to Scots or Scotland.
I often read people saying ‘There are good people in the SNP’… really? Where are they? All I see are politicians that want to stay on the gravy train – and others who are standing by, allowing them to continue doing that. These others are called ‘enablers’. And contrary to popular belief, that’s not a ‘good’ thing. If there are some good SNP people, why are they not standing up for what’s right? If they’re not, if they’re ignoring corruption & and bad practice & bad policy, then they are NOT ‘good people’.
Having said that, there are always exceptions, ie Ash Regan. Not afraid to put her head above the parapet. She knows she’s considered ‘personna non-grata’ and that it’s likely she will be shoved under the next bus when it comes chuntering into the station. Though I tend to think SNP just let her do what she does, as it makes them look like they allow ‘dissent’. They don’t, but it suits them at the moment to let us think they do. The moment that ‘think’ is no longer needed, she’ll get the push that will finish her political life in that party. I think she knows it too from the things she didn’t really say, on your mid-week TASP (which I thoroughly enjoyed, let me say!). Good people like her are not allowing bad people to do what they want without her making it clear that she objects to it.
I really believe Alex Salmond is one of the most astute politicians Scotland has had. But I had great difficulty in following his advice last election (SNP1, ALBA 2) and I couldn’t make myself do it. I won’t do it next time either. Alex has to accept at some point that voting SNP is now beyond many, MANY of the Independence activists that want to work for Independence, NOT gravy slurping. And I get a sense of that, if his article I read in the National today is anything to go by – ‘Join the ‘Independence Party’ to put forward only one candidate in each constituency – to stay employed.’ I think he may finally see we can’t vote SNP UNLESS that party makes SOME MOVE to prove they are worthy of a vote. This would be the ONLY way some ex-SNP members MIGHT give them one last chance. I don’t know if I could do that. There would have to be absolute, beyond doubt, guaranteed PROOF that SNP wouldn’t use it for other, nefarious reasons like suggesting I backed GRR Bill by doing so. Perhaps Alex’s suggestion to them that this is the only way they’ll retain their seats, will be the almighty kick in the pants they need! I’m not hopeful… perhaps… but we’ll see. :-/
A well written piece by Roddy that explains how I and many others feel about the SNP now, Labours Feeble Fifty morphed into SNP Fumbling Forty, a joke of a once great party, settled down, never settled up and must now be removed like Labour and Tory before them were consigned to the scrap heap for thinking that we had no one else to replace them, Alba and the ISP might be smaller parties, but the indy movement is far bigger than the SNP and have long memories
I’m afraid the SNP will pay the price, rather than head the warning. In the SNP’s case you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. There’s one point I disagree with in your article, they aren’t putting party before nation, its themselves before party and nation.
Like yourself I’ve been a supporter and member of the SNP since I turned 18, I’m now 53, but the SNP left me, I didn’t leave the SNP.
When Sturgeon took over I would have defended her to the hilt. Standing by her on every issue and defending her against the Unionists. It then became apparent to me I was aiding Sturgeon’s actions by defending her and I was helping create a monster who had become more interested in her own self interests and had completely lost sight of Independence for Scotland. I became disparaging of Nicola Sturgeon, trying to point out exactly what and how she was doing this. and ultimately do more harm than good to the SNP and the independence movement. She was even rubbing our faces in the mud by showing us she was more interested in preserving the Union than she was in actively removing Scotland from it.
I realized (although I had been a supporter of the SNP for many years) that my loyalty lies with Scotland (I had to be Scotland’s defender against the SNP). It was a very easy choice for me to leave the SNP because Scotland is my love and the goal is Independence, and that is more important to me than any party on this planet.
When it comes to defending Scotland’s corner, I have nothing to be ashamed of, but can the same be said of those that remain in the SNP?
There is only one reason why Scotland isn’t Independent today Nicola Sturgeon we have nothing to be grateful or thankful to her for, she a cold fish.
We will be watching you from Fauldhouse tomorrow, looking forward to it.
Thank you for commenting I can relate completely to your comment it mirrors my own feelings
The very first blog I wrote was in November 2015. It was titled “ The SNP Must Provide A Roadmap To Independence Or They Will Pay The Price”
They didn’t and they are now paying the price. Unfortunately, so are we
The AUOB contingent, and other factions of the Yes movement, are grass roots and working class. The SNP are not, they’re very middie class. They think they deserve Scotland as their own cash cow to milk because of their sniffy, self-righteous, America-inspired ‘superiority’ over people without useless politics and sociology degrees, and who have done real, hard work in their lives. The SNP’s rejection of AUOB is partly class war driven, clearly. Disgusting. And coming to an end. People have had more than enough.
Yes, the divide in a colonial society is rather more than merely a class divide. Here the native bourgeoisie and elites assume and prioritise the culture and language of the colonizer to create as much social distance between them and their privileges and the mass of the native population/culture. Which explains why an independence movement depends on the solidarity of the oppressed ethnic group, and why peoples in self-determination conflict tend to be linguistically divided. Estaiblishment Scotlan’s a joub mankit cesspit.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2023/01/04/doun-hauden-poem/
Interesting. Thank you for your reply.
It is all so disheartening – maybe that’s what they are aiming for , the total disconnect of ordinary folk from politics in a great sigh of apathy.
To those who say they will not vote in the next election , please rethink and spoil your ballot paper rather than let the powers that be brush it aside as ‘voter apathy’.
Like many others I am knocking on and it looks like I will not see my country free from Westminster and all that that entails.
As my Twitter avatar says, the dream will never die!