Last night a very old and dear friend got in touch with me. For the sake of this article and to prevent the SNP Praetorian guard attacking them, I shall refer to him as Tom and his wife as Mary. We hadn’t spoken in a while, so it was a nice surprise to hear from them again. Like myself Tom has been a long time loyal member of the SNP. Back in 2020 when I decided I could no longer in all good conscience, remain in the party he was the first to contact me. He tried everything in his power to dissuade me from leaving. Much as I respect and value his friendship, there was nothing he could say that would make me change my mind. Unlike so many of those left in the SNP he did not let my decision affect our friendship. Not a shred of spite or malice in that family.
This is a person and his family too that I have the utmost respect and affection towards. If you are or ever have been an active member of a political party, you might just be lucky enough one day to meet a family like this one. I certainly thank my lucky stars I got to know them. We have always lived in different Constituencies. We had met many years ago in the 1990s at SNP Conference in Inverness. I had the pleasure of sitting beside Tom and Mary at the famous or should it be the infamous conference ceilidh. A great night was had by one and all and a lifetime friendship was forged.
I never attended an SNP National Council, Assembly or Conference without seeing Tom and Mary. Social functions like St Andrews Night gatherings, Burns Suppers, Folk nights all those things we used to do to raise funds for the party and cause. He was the only person I know that always managed to sell the Spring Draw tickets and still be on the lookout for more. He used these draw tickets as a recruiting tool for SNP members. Goodness knows how many members he has actually recruited over the decades.
Like myself he never had any personal political ambitions and again like myself he did though allow himself to be a paper candidate a few times. Election agent, poll agent, fundraiser, leafleter, canvasser, climber of lamposts, you name it Tom and Mary were there. The type of members that actually are taken advantage of, not maliciously just because they are such avid activists. If their branch or constituency wanted a street stall or a car cavalcade or a venue for a fundraiser they would turn to Tom and Mary. If there were leaflets left over that nobody else volunteered to deliver, Tom was your man. ‘It might just get us the one vote that we need’ was a standard phrase!
You get the picture. Some of you might just be lucky enough to know somebody like Tom. A bastion of the branch/constituency/party. More to the point just an all round good guy. Therefore, I was as always delighted to hear from him. We last spoke just before the May Elections. I sensed then that all was not well. ‘Time for others to step up’ he said. However, not a bad word to say about the party though he did indicate his MP was somewhat detached and distant and a few of the council candidates were not to his particular liking.
Last night, I felt very sad and angry for my longtime friend. He had reached his final moment in the SNP. He was in the first stages of grief. Many of us have been there already. We know and understand the hurt it causes when you finally realise the party you have trusted and campaigned for your entire adult life is now nothing but a hollowed out former shadow of itself.
His first comment after the pleasantries and housekeeping had been dispensed with were an indication of where the conversation was going. ‘They are no better than the Labour Party we removed.’ Tom had watched PMQ as the events unfolded yesterday. He told me how he felt excited when Kenny and Neale made their stance for Scotland’s democracy. He opined that it should though have been SNP MPs making this gesture. ‘It is our SNP policy, our referendum we have the six mandates! It is not even Alba policy but there they stood speaking out for Scotland!’
He, the same as many of us felt enraged when Lindsay Hoyle, face beetroot red had his outburst. The loathing of Scotland and Scots was there for all to see. His typical Anglo superiority spewing out of his contorted mouth. I honestly thought he might give himself a stroke such was his anger at these uppity Scots!
This is our Imperial rulers biggest fear, that Scotland stands up and speaks out. Scotland finally exerting its legal and constitutional rights is the Anglo nightmare. This action by the two Alba MPs sent alarm bells off all over the chamber, well almost all over, but not quite all. Stu Campbell our ever vigilant gatekeeper of the truth, facts and the rules wrote an excellent article yesterday. In it he explained that Hoyle had broken standing orders such was his haste and fury at foreigners from the colony of Jockistan disrupting the English PMs weekly piss take!
Tom waited in hope that his beloved Party’s representatives would grasp this moment that the two Alba MPs had created. Here was the moment when the wounds could be salved and unity reinvigorated. This was a time for all Scotland’s representatives at Westminster to join forces and declare the sovereignty of the Scottish people. Sadly, for Tom and so many of us another open goal was missed by the SNP.
As the Tory and Labour English MPs seethed and brayed at these two Alba heroes the SNP benches remained inert. Rising for Scotland and the two brave MPs was beyond their capabilities. Some even joined in the Tory cat calling and hysteria but not one of them was man or woman enough to stand up and walk out with their fellow Scots. As Tom watched, he felt betrayed by the people he had given decades of loyalty and service to.
When they failed to show solidarity with Kenny and Neale they also failed to stand with Tom and Mary. He told me he was on his feet cheering the two Alba patriots. He had not felt this proud since that time in 2018 when Iain Blackford marched out the SNP contingent from the very same chamber. In the following two weeks Scots responded to that one action. Over 5,000 new members joined the SNP. Last night it would not surprise me if 5,000 Scots resigned from the SNP.
As the English MPs brayed Tom noted that some of the SNP contingent were joining in aiding and abetting Tories is something long standing independence supporters like myself and Tom find unforgivable. Siding with Tories against independence supporters, really?
It cannot be stressed enough the Alba Party does not believe an independence referendum is the best route to our ultimate goal. When Neale and Kenny rose they were supporting an SNP policy and mandate. They stood up for democracy, for the voice of the Scottish people to be heard.That was why they stood up and made their point. It was not for party points it was for Scotland’s democracy.
The Scottish voters gave the SNP a democratic mandate to deliver an independence referendum in 2023. Boris Johnsons refusal to recognise that democratic mandate was the reason for the protest yesterday. That is what makes the inaction of the SNP MPs yesterday doubly disheartening for Tom and Mary and thousands of other Scots.
In November 1967 the wonderful Winnie Ewing won the SNP’s second seat in the famous Hamilton bye election. Her words resonate to so many. Not long after her arrival at Westminster, she was asked by a Labour MP if she was settling in alright? ” Oh, I am not here to settle in. I am here to settle up for Scotland.” Sadly, it is not an attitude that prevails in many of the present day SNP MPs. Indeed, for me none of the present incumbents even deserve to be mentioned in a blog that has Winnie Ewing’s name in it.
Tom and I spoke at great length, and he told me, he Mary and many other members of his extended family all resigned last night from the SNP. He said it wasn’t just the cowardice and lack of self-awareness by the SNP MPs. It was the aftermath that disgusted Tom so much. Within minutes the grifter that is John Nicolson, MP, you know him that forgot the name of the constituency he wanted to represent, that John! He went on to Twitter to attack the same two men that had been fighting for his Party’s policy, and for Scotland’s democracy!
He cannot even get it right when he is smearing fellow independence MPs. Neale Hanvey stood as an independent. You would think as an MP himself he would know details like that, then again when he didn’t even remember the name of his own constituency we shouldn’t be too surprised.
This was the final straw for Tom and family. He told me he had met Nicolson backstage at the Nicola coronation in 2014. ‘Never an indy man!’ Rumour has it that he was recruited at that gig to be one of the many glory hunters that arrived post referendum. So many lifetime SNP stalwarts were cast aside to let the newcomers get seats. Many of those people unlike myself and Tom did have political ambitions. Many had stood several times in the full knowledge saving their deposit was a victory.
Then come 2015 people that hadn’t even been members long enough to get a nomination had the time barrier waived. It was a shameful action and it should have been a warning to us back then. That SNP Party loyalists of many years standing were pushed aside for recent ‘celebrity ‘converts. That is why grifters like Nicolson are today able to backstab true independence people like Kenny and Neale.
Tom and Mary are not yet ready to join another political party. They are still hurting at the betrayal of the past few years. The pain is raw and until you have experienced it you cannot understand how it feels. I do know this, when a real Independence campaign begins Tom and Mary and thousands like them will heed the call. They will campaign shoulder to shoulder with any independence supporter irrespective of their political party, sexual orientation, religion or football team.That is what true Scottish patriots do, we unite and stand together for Scotland! Careerists and carpetbaggers talk the talk, they don’t ever walk the walk!
The grifters? Well, they will always find a new grift!
I joined Alba yesterday —no one who believes in Scotland can remotely put up with the SNP response to what happened in WM yesterday—they are just a disgrace actively sabotaging independence—no more for me .
Welcome Kenny, from what I am hearing you were not alone so don’t be surprised if your membership card takes a while to get to you.
I did notice in the comments btl in very pro-SNP The National that the posts were overwhelmingly in favour of the actions taken by Kenny and Neale. Even the bulk, though not all of course, of the usual “SNP only” suspects were supportive and were even questioning why their party had not joined in and taken such similar ballsy action.
Many well remember a young Alex Salmond disrupting Chancellor Nigel Lawson’s budget speech in 1988 to protest the poll tax being introduced a year early in Scotland. The protest of Neale and Kenny is representative of similar tactics, this time highlighting the denial of democracy for this country in that cesspit called the Palace of Westminster.
I wonder how many in the party recall Salmond being chucked out of the HoC all these years ago and remember how it invigorated the party and Scotland’s Cause, ultimately leading to the cancellation of that British implemented policy and finally to the removal of Thatcher from Downing Street?
There is little expectation that some of the fuckw!t SNP MPs like Nicholson at Westminster will mend their ways but I do hope that the this is a eureka! moment for the ordinary SNP membership.
I remember it well and Alex being removed, it still fills my heart with pride.
I wonder how many more Tom and Marys there will be after yesterday’s performance. Absolutely disgraceful. Unfortunately, there are still too many who can’t see it yet but I do hope many of them had their eyes opened by the latest in a long line of SNP betrayals.
They truly have morphed into New Labour. Just hope it doesn’t take as long to get them out.
From what I am hearing lots.
Hopefully the 5000 that joined after Blackford pretended to be standing up for Scotland, will now see that there is a TRUE Indy party in fact TWO of them including the ISP who were actually the first party to say a vote for them would be a vote for INDY..And those 5000 will be resigning their memberships to fight Scotlands corner by back the REAL Indy parties. As Tom has recognised after all his loyal hard working years for the SNP. They are no better than Labour was for Scotland, in fact they are the real NU-Labour Party..
Have only been here for 5 months having moved up from London but the hallmarks of ‘new’ Labour careerism are too blatant to ignore. V sad. We need to start calling Dross ‘viceroy’ as penny mor’dumb referred to Scotland, Wales and NI as ‘territories’
I left the SNP in 2021 , more than disgusted at their behaviour. I understand that many had done the same .
After yesterdays performance or lack of it , I hope many more have pulled the plug on their membership.
I know that it leaves one feeling bereft but only for a while , rage fills the gap at least in my case.
An utterly disgusting effort from the SNP. By the way, if ALBA is not an irritant, why do they need to snipe and refuse to co-operate? Isn’t independence bigger than all of them? Apparently not. Quite simply, they will never do anything about independence until their ‘woke’ policies are through and passed first – and, even then, the lure of the pension pot will prove too great. This trajectory is very similar to that of Sinn Fein and the Irish Party. The SNP will be eclipsed, and I hope that no one will vote for those cowardly MPs if they try to muscle in on ALBA. They are a blot on the landscape of Scotland.
Terrific article.
Hopefully it won’t be long before the nuLabour/nuSNP grifters are gone. And the transcult.
A warm welcome to Kenneth Macaulay from this ALBA member (and I’m sure all the others). No matter how much nuLabour mud the nuSNP are throwing ; people can see by our actions that ALBA are the party of independence. What a great pair of MPs in Kenny and Neale.
YESterday was a proper aye defining moment indeed, thanks ALBA.
Great to have you with us Kenneth 🙂
Tonight, it’s We Are NOT Devo in the West End.
Scotland really does love you.
The people are beginning to wake up again. Yes! S’been a lang time a cumin.
It’s a bonnie thing.
Let’s just let the water be shed.
Let’s walk on it wae two feet.
Cheers Team-Aye.
Bonjour Vendredi maintenant!
Cheers Kenny, cheers Neale, cheers Roddy, it’s so refreshing to have you guid guys with us.
Come tomorrow, come today.
Come now.
Nite x.
Someone has been overdoing the sherry.
Just a wee bit aye, hiccup 🙂 Wednesday’s verbal and physical actions by the guys got us into the spirit of all things Scottish.
Feeling re-energised for Scotland, feeling braw.
The guys did good.
Afternoon, I would imagine many lately now previous SNP voters are thinking the same like:
It must be like a political no-mans-land being in this position, though it’s a useful time for reflection. Like you say, as soon as a proper campaign for indy kicks off again, people will need a real party committed to get behind Scotland. So it’s all aboard the Alba express! Yes means Yes!
Have a smashin’ start to this week Scotland… taps aff!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
We in Argyll have an SNP MP in that place also apparently! Under normal circumstances a missing person alert would already been issued but the wee sleekit cow’rin, tim’rous beastie is staying in his cosy nest with the rest o them.
Brendan O’Hara I think is the name you are looking for.
Settled in and settled up he is an absolute non doer.
A genuine display of uncompromising, hard intent—well done the Alba disruptors! Can anybody explain to me why Kenny and Neale weren’t joined by the likes of the hugely over-lauded Ms Cherry? If, indeed, she was there at all.
Didn’t Hoyle, with his contemptible display of arrogance and entitlement, sum up beautifully the metropolitan attitude towards the northern colony that prevails in that place. An attitude that the bloodless SNP parliamentary party seem hell-bent on the maintenance of. It is no exaggeration to claim that he two Alba Party representatives did more, amongst their fellow Scots for the cause of Scottish independence in a few minutes, than the SNP PP has been able to achieve in years.
Betrayal always comes fae somebody yie thought yie knew.
Country before party. Someone should tell the SNP. Or more accurately, because many have already said it, the SNP must start listening. The SNP still says it’s their way or no way. It’s no surprise many members in the SNP are saying “no way!” to the SNP’s attitude.
We rightly condemn britnats like Hoyle for their arrogant attitude towards Scotland; it’s right to condemn the SNP for similar arrogance towards others in the Yes movement who rightly question the SNP’s approach to independence.
Glad to hear more are realising what SNP now are. Once the sense of betrayal and anger subsides they may choose not to join any other party but do what many others, myself included do, which is to campaign on a daily basis of our own volition for the full reinstatement of Scotland’s statehood. Scotland already is a sovereign nation state. Now it just needs to terminate the international Agreement that was ratified in 1707. The assertion of Scotland’s sovereignty and rights by Alba MPs McAskill and Hanvey was a proud moment. Doubly so the Letter of Notice sent to England’s PM and its government.
It seems the irony of standing under a false banner is lost on John Nicholson.
The SNP have one job and that is to get Scotland out of this one sided Union.
It’s Scotland’s banner he’s supposed to be working under not England’s.
Hopefully more of the NewSNP members will see them for what they are, a parcel of rogues.
I don’t think there’s any way back for the SNP now, that has to be the final betrayal in a long list of betrayals, Imagine what it would have meant if at least 1 Scottish MP stood up and walk out alongside their fellow Scots just 1.
This was their time to stand up for Scotland and be counted, this was their time to walk the walk, in my view they are a disgrace and a shame on their country every last one of them without exception
Agreed, Graeme. I wish I believed that they believe that doing things their way is the right way, but I think they know it isn’t. You are right. It was the opportunity to stand up and be counted. They bottled it. All of them. They actually thought for some time that they were the stars and would not fall. Sturgeon runs a tight ship, and fear of loss of position, favour kept them on their bahookies. Labour incarnate. The same fate awaits these cowardhearts whose sole interest appears to be a sex-driven agenda.
Sorry to hear about your friends – they do indeed seem the nicest, well meaning couple – typical Scots looking for the best for their Country and its people.
With recent shenanigans from all sides of the Establishment in Scotland & England, I feel momentous events are around the corner and ALL those of an Independence mind MUST work together, despite relatively petty differences (in the scheme of things) to achieve the tantalisingly close goal of realising an Independent Scotland re-entering the World stage.
Action speaks louder than words we need more of this, I joined Alba shortly it was formed I was so proud of Neale & Kenny yesterday
Good article Ruddy. Yesterday was a bad day for the SNP. Their parliamentarians were caught flat footed. The natural instinct of supporters of independence you’d think would be to fully support fellow Indy supporters. The inaction of the SNPmps tells its own story and the tweets afterwards from Nicholson and Wishart were a spit in the face to the Scottish people. We put them there to get independence done and they’ve done nothing with the mandates they were given . Excuse makers and so comfortably off they dont think we’re noticing that they’ve lost their nerve and raison d etre. If they ever had it in the first place.
Kenny and Neale also ripped the mask of the house of commons as the so called parliament of the UK and showed us all the reality that is the de facto English parliament. It brought it home why on earth are we sitting in that place . Its crystal clear we will never break free playing by their rules. As the British will waive the rules when it suits their cause. Sturgeon and the SNP confirmed yesterday they don’t do unity when push comes to shove. What a bunch of sell outs . Glad I cancelled my membership in 2019. Can see right through them and her. Yesterday ensured a fair few more also saw through them. Better late than never! Thanks to Kenny Neale and the Alba party for at least taking the fight to the heart of the establishment.
You want to read the reviews on the Rag (National) total hatred for the Alba MP was truely shocking to read. I am suprised anyone who wants Independence by theis paper.
SNP are now finished and like Labour in their arrogance they will not know this till they are all wiped out and given the P45s at the next Election.
We have had enough of capitulation, betrayal, self gain, destration politics, false starts, always one more madate of nothingness and inaction . Strugeon has sold her soul to the Devil for a promise of a nice UN job. Watch this space her time is coming to an end. I personally would like a AUOB, Scotland United party to end the Union standing against the SNP Unionists if need be.
100%Yes says:
14 July 2022 at 1:41 pm
“You want to read the reviews on the Rag (National) total hatred for the Alba MP was truely shocking to read. I am suprised anyone who wants Independence by theis paper.”
They’re rattled because Neale & Kenny showed them up for what they are spineless cowards & traitors a latter day parcel of rogues
I will just say it as it is.
The Sovereign Scottish Peoples Constitutional Assembly.
No Snp, No Devolved parliament.
Yes, yesterday was a bit like an alternative ending to dead poets society.
Oh captain, my captain..
My captain I’ve Crapped on more like
And on watching Kenny MacAskill and Neil Hanvey being ejected from the Commons they’re cannot be anyone who watched failing to notice the absolute hate contorted face of the speaker.
Hate just oozed out of him. An ugly ugly scene of vicious English nationalist whilst the rabid chamber brayed and bawled as a rabid mob.
Not putting to fine a point on it but with the hate oozing contortions from the Speaker it would not be difficult to image the carnage were he to meet others of the same hate oozing ilk at a street rally.
Faces smashed, bones broken is what this guy and his English thugs oozed.
Shocking that the SNP would behave in such a way, but not surprising. They’re worse than the Feeble Fifty.
Nicholson doesn’t seem too bright to me. I remember his appearance on Question Time, shortly after the 2015 election. He was asked a question by a man who stated that he was a Yes voter. Nicholson, for some reason, lost his composure and he called the audience member a Unionist. I think Dimbleby corrected him, but I could be wrong. So, definitely someone who isn’t in command of the facts and who is all too happy to jump to the wrong conclusion. Make of that what you will, folks!
Great to read this blog and all the excellent comments. I’ll never understand anyone who can’t see through Sturgeon and her cohorts. But at least the numbers are diminishing, which is certainly something to celebrate. Have to say I watched Hoyle several times – loved his uncontrolled fury!
Thanks to Kenny and Neale, I’m convinced we’re about to grasp our hard won independence and soon!
2015 did it for me , So many people I know joined in 2014 to be in a popular club a long list ,loads of councillors a couple msps and a few MPs they only wanted a job and a wee bit of limelight but not very bright ,some seriously nasty , Nicola turned up at a night in Glasgow dressed like Nancy Reagan after signing agenda 21 /30 in NYC i knew then it had gone bad , fruit flies coming to feast in rotting fruit , I resigned my 30 year membership 2016 . If someone wants total power they choose dafties and give them sweeties she is a bad manager with the imagination and vision of a poke of chips . This went from bad to worse it’s time she was overthrown politely and for fraud before she sells all Scotlands assets off . I knew some great candidates but they were all bypassed for loudmouth empty vessels waiting to be filled with nothing .it’s so sad I could strangle Alex for trusting a charlatan . My close close friend Craig Munro and myself started campaigning when we were at drama school 1981 , physically not with us , glad he won’t see this
Tomorrow is Friday, today is like now.
Pekabooo is cool likes. We got guess pass for tomorrow and beyond, guid band, the guys are cool..
Hey Sunak… a guy that walks like Mr Bean and talks like Tony fuckin Blair. Yah har!
Penny Morbid for yer thoughts now baby… not really, looks like the way’s gonna…
Hey Scotland!
Laugh people… that’s funny.
Hey B.
If aye may say some more… Scotland has reached a pinnacle point.
That influential point has been reached thanks to ALBA.
Scotland loves you… mwah x
YESterday was indeed a watershed moment, so what are we going to do about it?
Hey Scotland.
We have our own individualistic ways…
Back to you Boss.
What should we do?
Time is of the time.
Thanks Roddy, not only for the fine observations, but also for being a link between ALBA and the SNP.
The SNP were really something before Nicola Sturgeon. There’s no way I am giving up on that, or allowing one management style of the SNP to taint everything. The SNP were a phenomenon. They will be again, when the Nicola Sturgeon/Peter Murell tenure is over.
Still very pleased from Kenny and Neale speaking up for Scotland’s Sovereignty in Westminster.
“Neale Hanvey stood as an independent”
Ok I’ll try again. Whilst this is loosely, technically true, it doesn’t tell the full story. He appeared as the SNP candidate on the ballot and had the whip reinstated to him after a short while. He was always going to get elected firstly due to having been the SNP candidate in his consituency and secondly due to the alternative being the usual WM party’s.
I get why you are saying it, he was independent for a few days before the election, but to suggest he stood as an independent implying he beat the SNP and all the other partys to win his seat is just wrong.
He was elected as an independent you might not like that and try pedantry and bend the truth it was several weeks and Sneaky Sturgeon and her nauseating woke warriors removed everything they could from his csmpaign not just funding.They tried to gift the seat to Labourmsuch is their venom. Fortunately the grassroots activists refused to obey Sturgeon and Neale was elected. Most of them are now Alba members.