In my professional career negotiation was an everyday occurrence for me. In my time I have negotiated deals in the £100s to deals in the £ multi-millions. I have negotiated takeovers and sell offs. Nowadays, retired, I have to negotiate with my biggest ever adversary, my good lady wife. That said, maybe submit is a better word than negotiate when it comes to adult human female Mrs MacLeod!

Throughout all these negotiations there are certain cardinal rules. Never, ever let your subject know your final position/price. Never offer any concession without securing one in return. Eg. If you offer a discount, you want an immediate deal. The most important rule is Never try and negotiate through a third party or through the media. Most importantly always have an alternative.

Most of these skills were either taught to me during my career or learned on the job. When an important negotiation is looming, “winging it” is never the answer. The best negotiators engage in thorough negotiation preparation. That is why watching and listening to Humza Yousaf and Stephen Flynn these past few weeks has been painful to anyone with a modicum of strategic and negotiating skills.

One thing is for certain, neither of these two has ever had any formal negotiating training. It is also why neither is fit for the positions they hold. The same can be said for anyone within the SNP that agreed to the idiotic self-harming Bute House Agreement.

Both have made huge errors when trying to negotiate with the British Labour Party through the media. Let us set aside that no Scottish Independence Party should be trying to form alliances with any party registered, based and loyal to our imperial oppressors in England!

Flynn was first up he said, his party would help make Sir Keir Starmer prime minster in exchange for greater devolution. “We’re not here to be in government. We are here to secure concessions in relation to devolution.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-65637728

Really Stephen? We all thought when we voted for your party you were there to get us independence, nothing else!

Within hours of making this statement on the SNP negotiating position Labour quickly fired back.

Labour would effectively dare the SNP to vote down a Labour Queen’s speech and bear responsibility for bringing down a Labour prime minister and enabling another Tory administration.

The next day Flynn was forced to retreat from his original position. The party’s Westminster leader had refused to rule out working with Labour if the SNP are not guaranteed a second referendum, but called for more powers for the Scottish Parliament.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/stephen-flynn-suggests-snp-could-30020312

Flynn had shown his hand 18 months out from the election that the SNP hoped to use as leverage to increase devolution mind you, not negotiate independence! Absolute idiocy on steroids!

Labour 1 SNP 0.

If this had been in my business career and one of my staff had acted so stupidly I would have fired them on the spot! That said, I would never have promoted anyone into a position where they could so damage my organisation.

Stephen, of course, had nothing to fear. His boss is an even worse negotiator and operator than him! The Laurel & Hardy of Scottish politics!

On Sunday in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Humza exposed his stupidity for all to see and hear. “We would never prop up a Conservative government, ever. he declared!

Great Humza, now Sir Keir Starmer knows he has to make no concessions to you! Why would he need to, there is only ever likely to be either a Tory or Labour as the largest party at Westminster. If you have ruled out working with one of the two, guess what you have just driven yourself into a negotiating cul de sac while wearing a blacked out hood and your hands tied behind your back!!

To compound this madness, he also ruled out working with any other of the Scottish Independence Parties. In so doing he has endangered more than 50% of his seats. They will become extremely vulnerable with two or three independence parties vying for YES votes instead of just one Scotland United candidate per seat!

Let us remember, the last few polls have shown a growing dissatisfaction with the SNP. The last Survation Poll showed that while 53% of Scottish voters support independence only 41% support the SNP!

To make matters even worse Mr Yousaf told Laura Kuenssberg his preference was a “legally binding referendum! Again giving away his position before a vote has been cast. It does not take a genius (which Mr Yousaf certainly is not) to work out that backed by a Supreme Court decision every single UK Prime Minister forever more can simply just refuse to accede to any such referendum request.

Worse still, for those still remaining in the SNP that support independence Humza has told you that his upcoming Special Conference is a farce. A waste of your time. A waste of Scotland’s time. They are telling everyone, not just the British based parties that enhancing devolution is their aim, not independence!

The SNP are telling the YES Movement they will never work with you. He is saying the SNP now functions solely to win power inside the British Union, not destroy it! Their main focus is devolution and gender issues, not independence.

They have made their position crystal clear, now it is up to those MSPs, MPs and SNP Councillors to declare if they are independinistas or devolutionists! The same for ordinary members and supporters. They must decide if continuing to give elected SNP troughers more wealth is more important than freeing our country from the grip of Westminster.

There is no longer any doubt. If you believe in independence then you belong in the Alba or ISP parties! To the elected SNP members, I say this, do not leave it much longer before making your move. Thinking you can wait to see if they deselect you or not, then jump ship is just not on! Move over now or go down with the SS Humza Nicola Titanic called the SNP.

We independinistas need to take over the fight. The SNP have shown themselves not to be fit for purpose! We need a Constitutional Convention and a Plan A to Z without the present SNP gravy slurpers!

Scotland’s situation is perilous we cannot afford to wait any longer. The SNP carpetbaggers need replaced with real independence warriors, not pension pot fillers! This lot as the title suggests, could not negotiate or navigate themselves out of a wet paper bag!

Either the good guys take over the SNP and set it back on course or they must join the independence cause elsewhere. Time for a reality check guys!