Humza to Resign: Chaos to Continue

Oh FFS! If there was any hope for change for the SNP, it has just evaporated with the news that Neil Gray will likely be installed as FM. A product of the most toxic branch in Scotland, Airdrie & Shotts, he gained his Westminster nomination through a clearly manipulated candidacy, where Craig Murray failed vetting, an opponent was thrown out on the evening of the first hustings for “paperwork” issues, and Gray was then endorsed by everyone involved in running the branch, From Alex Neil to the Convenor -against the electoral rules of the SNP. Not to mention the breaches of the Data Protection Act where members were emailed from a gmail addresss to bypass the three email candidate limit!

This was my first introduction to the dark world of Scott Martin and Iain McCann, and the reason why I left the SNP in the first place. It was the selection of Neil Gray which led to the term McMafia being coined, and he has slithered up the greasy pole with the assistance of some of the most unsavoury characters the SNP has ever seen. The only thing which will keep him in a job come the election is the fact he will be top of the list, as he is highly likely to lose Airdrie & Shotts, as is his replacement at Westminster, Anum Invisible. The rot continues.

For the Good of the Yes Movement, Yousaf and Co Must Go – NOW.

To many of us, the idea of the SNP being given an electoral kicking is a welcome one. They’ve lost focus, they’ve lost direction and they’ve lost the faith of the wider Yes movement. The problem is that if they lose the next Scottish election they lose Holyrood, and by the presently tenuous extension, so does the Yes movement. Our own Parliament will revert to a pro-British Nationalist one.

The idea that a period out of office will allow them to clear out the dead wood and come back next time, better, fitter and more capable, is akin to the same delusion football supporters embrace when they are staring relegation in the face. Some teams, like Dundee United may bounce back at the first go, but for every Dundee United there’s an Airdrieonians, a Partick Thistle, a Raith Rovers or a Dunfermline, who suddenly find their season in the seaside leagues becomes their permanent residence. And sometimes, one bad season follows another, until you are but a distant memory.

The Independence movement needs the SNP to change the manager NOW, before the humiliation of relegation, before the infighting and bickering destroys them, and takes us with it in the process.

La Gazza Ladra

Campaigning on the doors for the SNP is about to get a whole lot more interesting. Peter Murrell has now been charged and I await his trial with interest.

Without commenting directly on whether he is guilty or not, or whether more charges will follow, I note from some of the of the more loyal SNP acolytes a distinct unwillingness to deal with reality. For far too long the membership was dominated by carrot-happy die-hards, unwilling to consider that there were problems in the party. They were happy to shout others down, driving more reasonable people away to rival parties or out of politics entirely.

To read some of the comments on (for example) Wee Ginger Dug, you can barely scroll a few inches without finding folk who are still willing to to try to pin this whole thing on MI5, who believe the arrest is being done to justify Police Scotland expenditure, and the timing is to deflect from a certain Tory who was caught in a particularly effective honeytrap. What’s worse, is that despite the SNP being unable to produce any of the ring-fenced cash, there are still people willing to contribute to defence funds.

What happened to the Yes campaigners of 2014? Where are the critical, grounded voices of a decade ago? Have they all taken some strange drugs which have forced them into a permanent state of denial and inability to reasonably and rationally assess Scottish politics anymore? The biggest obstacle to our independence is no longer the UK state. It is ourselves.