Crossing the Rubicon is a metaphor similar to “Burning one’s bridges” and “The point of no return.” It means passing a decisive point, where one cannot turn back. It comes from a genuine historical incident. It refers to Julius Caesar crossing the river in North East Italy in 49 BC. It was viewed as treason for any Roman General to bring a standing army into Italy proper.Caesar deemed it necessary to save Rome and the Empire.
Nowadays the metaphor is used to describe modern-day situations. I am suggesting the time has come for the SNP membership to cross the metaphoric political rubicon!
Yesterday, I posted a tweet questioning the suitability of Peter Murrell to be overseeing the election process of a new SNP leader. The SNP Spads were quick to point out that an outside company, MI Voice are to count the votes. That was to appease those members voicing concerns. Like so many things with the SNP it only half answers the criticism. MI Voice will indeed count the votes however, Peter Murrell still runs the election. He is in sole charge of the SNP Electoral Roll. He is in charge of press releases, the Activate and email system. He controls who, what, when and how members receive information. Crucially he also controls who can and who cannot get access to the entire membership.
Who do you think deemed how many Hustings and where and when? Who do you think decided no press, no streaming, no public oversight? Who do you think excluded all the pro independence media? One candidate has already stated that Mr Murrell is compromised and needs to go. Who do you think HQ doesn’t want to win?
For several years now the SNP has been very coy over their membership numbers. Unlike the day when Sturgeon took over the party to show how it had grown from just 25,000 members pre referendum to 115,000 on the day of her coronation on November 2014. Indeed, when it reached 126,000 the SNP rightly were banging the drum of self-congratulations and of course, putting it all down to Nicola Sturgeon. The brand building had begun!
Since those heady days they have not been so willing to divulge their numbers. Some have tried extrapolating the membership numbers from the famous interwoven annual accounts. Others have used anecdotal evidence to suggest that the membership could be as low as 30,000.The party itself suggests 100,000. The reality is nobody knows, except the Murrells! The same with the ring fenced £633,000 donations, nobody except Murrell and their hand picked Treasurer Colin Beattie seem to know where that lump of money resides! This was my point yesterday hence my tweet.
As neither the elected treasurer, Douglas Chapman or the elected Audit Committee members were given access to the SNP accounts they all felt it necessary to resign. Now we have Police Scotland investigating possible fraud.
That very fact and the equally mysterious £107,000 donation that Murrell made to the SNP which we are led to believe his micro managing wife was oblivious too, heaps further controversy on to the SNP CEO incumbent. These matters alone should have resulted in Murrells removal while the police carried out their investigation. As we know he still sits in HQ running the show.
His wife’s intervention into the election process despite her promise to remain out of the contest should also have resulted in her husband’s removal from any involvement in the election of a new leader. She made one in her resignation Gettysburg address when she indicated in the strongest terms that whoever succeeded her should keep the governing arrangement with the Greens. This has so far proved disastrous for the SNP and Scotland, the GRRB and DRS attest to that! However, Sturgeon wants it to continue and reminded everyone she would be watching from the backbenches for any sliding away from her policies!
She then compounded it when asked directly about Kate Forbes views on SSM and opposition to the GRRB. “Scotland is a socially progressive country, and I believe that is majority opinion,’ she told reporters, when asked about the Finance Secretary’s views.” . This was a direct intervention and a signal to her cabal and loyal followers of her disapproval of Kate! A deplorable act of sabotage by a bitter and selfish woman obsessed with Gender issues and not sadly independence issues. Again, this alone should have been enough to ensure Mr Sturgeon aka Peter Murrell had no say in anything to do with the picking of his wife’s successor.
Since then the situation has become even more sinister and less and less democratic or transparent. When the much despised Tories replace their leaders never does the resigning incumbent speak out. When Cameron, May and even liar in chief Johnson all demitted office they stayed silent as the party chose their next sociopath leader.
They were also very transparent in their electoral process and while only 130,000 Tory members got to pick the next UK Prime Minister the entire nation was able to watch televised leader debates between the candidates. The entire Unionist press was invited to every Hustings and to every press conference. Individual MPs and MSPs were allowed to openly support whichever candidate they preferred. Not at any time was any MP allowed access to the members database to plug one candidate or another! Even for the Tories that was a step too far. That kind of corruption was beyond even them!
Not so our friends in the SNP. Yesterday Craig Murray published a guest article by SNP stalwart Stephen Norris, an SNP Branch Convener in Galloway. It was a damning critique of SNP HQ skullduggery in this SNP leadership contest. I would encourage you all to read and share this article bravely written by Stephen. He is to be commended for this selfless act.
To quickly, summarise the article, Emma Harper, a Sturgeon loyalist even before nominations closed, sent an email from an SNP.org account to all SNP members in the South of Scotland a not unsubstantial number. She encouraged the members to follow her lead and to support Humza Yousaf. Emma is quite entitled to support whomever she chooses. However, as pointed out in the article, she is not allowed or entitled to use the members database and snp.org to express her preference. It breaches several rules of the party. It breaches impartiality. In fact it stinks!
I want to quote a few passages from Craig’s blog of yesterday.
On Friday, February 24, 2023, two hours and 26 minutes before nominations for the leadership contest closed at noon, I received an email. It was from Emma Harper, the sole list MSP for the region, and time-stamped 9.34am. On investigation I discovered the same email had been sent to SNP members across the South of Scotland, whose numbers run into thousands, at exactly the same time.
It transpires that Ms Harper, with the consent of party HQ, has been granted access to the South Scotland membership database, auspiciously to broadcast her work as an MSP. The email was not issued via Ms Harper’s personal account but from “Scottish National Party” with the delivery email of my@snp.org.
These two paragraphs should be enough to inform the most loyal SNP members that HQ has colluded in favour of one candidate, Humza Yousaf. He is the continuity candidate and the favoured option of the wife and husband team that still run the SNP. We do not yet know if this has happened throughout Scotland by other Sturgeon loyalists with HQ assistance, of course! We will need to await and see if there are any other whistle-blowers as brave as Stephen throughout the country.
To further compound this intervention by HQ and by association the CEO Murrell only a very few SNP members will have access to the Hustings preventing the two female candidates from reaching the entire membership. It is to say the least, regrettable that HQ is limiting the members that can hear and see all the candidates.
If the anti- independence, anti-Scottish media are to be allowed one reporter and one camera to attend these hustings why is the same offer not being made to the pro independence media? It is sickening that a party that still holds a place in my heart has become less democratic and more autocratic than the disgusting Tories and prefers the British media over the independence media!
All that can save the SNP now is for the ordinary SNP members to rise up and cross that Rubicon if they do not, then I fear the party is lost. Ever since Conference 2018 the Sturgeon cabal have eroded the very tenets of the SNP Constitution that made it that special party. It was unique in UK political terms. It was the only one driven by, and controlled by its members, branches and conference. The only way to be on the NEC was via election by the members. Now it is by appointment of the leader! Bit by bit Nicola Sturgeon dismantled that accountability and internal democracy. Only by outright rejection of this chicanery by HQ and the immediate removal of Murrell can we expect a free and fair leadership election.
You may say, but you are not a member it is nothing to do with you! However, although many hate to admit to it, the facts are these. The leader of the SNP is the defacto leader of the entire independence movement. You might not like it, I certainly don’t like it! That though is the reality. Should the SNP implode or elect Humza Yousaf under these circumstances then it is my opinion that our independence will be delayed for at least two decades as we deal with the fallout from this Murrell/coup de tat aided and abetted by bad actors within the SNP.
I will end this article with some more of Stephen’s own words.
As an ordinary SNP member and branch convenor, I therefore call on Humza Yousaf, as a matter of honour and integrity, to immediately resile himself from the leadership contest and withdraw his candidature, for the reasons I have outlined above.
I believe in honour and integrity do you?
Aye, the cheat Emma Harpie. The woman who insists that sheep need protection from predatory dogs but thinks it’s ok for women to be hounded by wolves in frocks. Thanks for standing up to her Stephen Norris – I hope you don’t get too much pushback from the local SNP wokeraty.
The biggest problem for Scotland right now is the best of the membership of the SNP have already abandoned the sinking ship, if Humza becomes FM then surely it’s time for all independence supporters to get behind a new vehicle, I and many others have already done just this, yes it’s like starting all over again but I see no other option.
Actually I see England and Wales facing the same problem, the two main parties that people have to choose from are just two cheeks of the same arse, we had the same problem in Scotland with Labour and Tories until we got the SNP and hope for the first time in our lifetime only to end up with three parties all cut from the same cloth.
There is no more time to waste in trying to save something which can’t be saved, the forces within are too powerful and only a new vehicle being elected is imo our only choice, although what we must not have is another party in power which decides to take time to convince people of the benefits of independence, we don’t have that time anymore, the next election must be used as the voice of the people as Ash Regan backs, if we don’t take this chance then the dream will indeed be dead at least for this generation.
Having said all that I’ll be glad to be proved wrong.
It may all depend on how many members are able and willing to dig deeper into the questionable activities of some of those surrounding Sturgeon. According to scotgoespop even the bookies are resetting their odds. So if they can be bothered to dig there’s no excuse for the membership not to. It has to be either Forbes or Regan. Yousaf will be a disaster in so many ways.
According to Scotsgopop ? Seriously no wonder the Yes Movement is in such a mess , try thinking for yourself instead of allowing others to manipulate you
Scotgoespop is quoting the odds not making them. The bookies think for themselves.
It appears Ash has already crossed the Rubicon with SNP members Herself , how much of this is true ?https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/scotsman-letters-regan-s-dream-of-independence-is-deluded/ar-AA180i2X?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=ae1264c0dfbe48139cf4fe755532d815&ei=9
You are asking how true is a unionist readers letter in the uber Unionist loyal Scotsman, really?
I am firmly of the opinion that Nicola Sturgeon’s ego is what is behind this. The endorsement of Humza Useless is designed to have the SNP crash and burn. She wants to destroy the party completely so she can say – “Look what happened when I resigned. I was the reason the SNP was so great. Me and me alone.”
She doesn’t care about independence, Scotland or anything else. She was pushed to leave (perhaps the reasons will come to light fully, perhaps not) and this is her vindictiveness out for all to see. Taking the UK gov to court over GRR, maintaining the awful coalition with the Greens, pushing the Deposit Return scheme and HY, the secrecy and corruption around the leadership election, stoking divisions within the membership. All aimed at turning the voters away from the SNP. I hate her in a way I never even hated Maggie Thatcher – at least she was honest aboutwhat she believed in and planned.
, stoking di
crosding-the-rubicorn/ couple of typos in there on the page link..
Just how bad are the current SNP Leadership, totally corrupt and they just don’t seem to give a damn. I hope the remaining SNP members wake up soon and vote for Regan or I fear they are doomed, and us along with them. We need our own cunning plan now, plan b or whatever letter we have gotten to.
The count itself can be squeaky clean. The REAL worry is about the numbers who may be able to vote, or to have their votes cast by the cabal (not just the Murrells) at the head of the SNP. If you look at the SNP’s revenue from member subscriptions as reported to the Electoral Commission, about £532,000, this translates into a maximum membership of about 64,000. Arriving at a number as high as 64,000 requires us to assume that all individual members pay the lowest possible amount (£12 per year) and that concessionary rates of £5 or £2 per year are taken up by about half the membership. So that 64,000 is a VERY generous estimate, which will have reduced since these figures were reported. Maybe the number is below 50,000 by now, maybe as low as 25,000 but 64,000 will serve to illustrate the point. For internal electoral purposes I think the membership of the SNP is declared at 81,000. Lets imagine that all 64,000 “members” vote and the result looks like going for either KF or AD. 81,000 minus 64,000 = 17,000 members who count for internal electoral purposes. Who is going to cast these “surplus” votes ? and who are they going to cast them for ? The cabal have “form” in rigging the vote in internal elections, who would be surprised if this happened again ?
Ah the highly educated Emma Harper ..mmm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SMChCsnEWY&t=
The fact that the SNP even tried to hold secret Hustings and has now changed its mind demonstrates its nothing but a cargo ship becalmed by engine failure now just awaiting the final Torpedo to arrive and sink it for good.
Just because someone is able to or attempts to speak our unique and braw indigenous ‘Scots’ language does not necessarily mean they are uneducated. Scots remain deprived o lairnin oor ain langage i the schuils, which means we are subject to ‘linguistic imperialism’, the latter a common feature in colonial rule. Wi anely Englis garred doon oor thrapples this is why we have a ‘rusted tongue’ as well as a ‘moribund culture’ and hence a confused ‘dual’ or ‘false’ persona.
https://scotlandspeaks.com/paper-two-the-determinants-of-independence
The SNP membership MUST stop this chicanary its their party not Murrells, Murrell should be nowhere near this election or have anything to do with it, with the revelation that Mi-Voice gives the client what they want, its in my opinion a foregone conclusion that Yousaf will win, unless the membership takes back their party.
Christ the SNPs raison d’etre is to obtain independence by any and all means possible yet the membership are going to standby and let Peter Murrell smash our independence dream by making sure the only candidate who really wants independence Ash Regan doesn’t win.
All Murrell cares about is making sure the continuity candidate Yousaf wins so that both his and his wife’s dirty little secrets remain exactly that secret. This is the memberships one chance to make a real difference the last eight years have been wasted, lets not waste anymore the membership MUST stop Murrell from rigging the outcome.
If Stephen Norris can do something then so can the membership, its up to you, do nothing and the SNP are finished, act and you could save an entire country from more heartache as part of this union, you decide.
Well said!
And the rest of them no better https://www.scotsman.com/news/msp-colin-beattie-faces-flat-lets-conduct-hearing-1580038
Well that’s got to be Kate the winner now Ash’s words on currency today just laughable, its what you get when advised by a map maker from the Isle of Man with no actual experience in finance or currency transactions.
You little House Jocks are terrified of Ash aren’t you? Everywhere the unionists are going after her it shows how much they fear her. Thanks I think I will write a blog in support of her now.
Dr. Timothy Rideout was born on the Isle of Man and brought up in Cape Town where he studied Geography, Economics and Economic History at the University of Cape Town. In 1984, he moved to Edinburgh and completed a PhD in Economic Geography.
The mere fact that Regan is prepared to talk about independence and doesn’t shrink away from it is something to applaud. The more folk talk about it the more it will be in the public’s consciousness. Unionists remain desperate to stifle any discussion on it and up until now the SNP have been obliging.
O/T
The king of winning VONC’s John Swinney is standing down, Swinney did his utmost to aid and abet Sturgeon in everything that’s wrong with the current SNP.
“After almost 16 years as a Minister, I have today written to the First Minister to say that when her successor is appointed I will leave Government. Serving Scotland has been the privilege of my life. Thank you.”
https://twitter.com/JohnSwinney
As Yousaf represents himself as the ‘lesser-Sturgeon continuity candidate’, whereas Ash Regan has declared as the genuine ‘independence candidate’, now might be a good time for current SNP members to re-evaluate their thoughts for their intended leader (notwithstanding any ahem potential electoral fraud.)
For the good of Yes, I wonder if any independent film-makers out there would be interested in bringing a promotional video together for preferred indy candidate Ash, similar to the format of the “Journey to Yes” ones, with an alternative title along the lines of “SNP for Ash / We’re for Ash / I’m for Ash”. All you would need are SNP members to talk with in support of Ash Regan, with excerpts from the Queensferry launch used as the sampled video for backdrop.
People have agreed that the many sides of Scotland’s Yes movement need to restore unity. With this in mind and to both receive and exchange that genuine extended hand of unity, it’s going to take a leader with the passion and will to engage fully with the Scottish people and I believe that that declaration of unity will be demonstrated soon by whichever candidate(s) chooses to come on here for a chat 🙂
She’s sorry so that makes it alright then, sorry doesn’t cut it, she should resign with immediate effect.
https://archive.ph/2023.03.02-151137/https://www.thenational.scot/news/23355237.snp-msp-accused-breaking-rules-mass-email-backing-humza-yousaf/