Independence needs to be about INDEPENDENCE!

A GUEST POST FROM BILL CLARK.

If you refuse to take on board beliefs you don’t adhere to, or could ever hold.   Or if you refuse to look the other way when confronted by the abuse dished out to individuals like Joanna Cherry MP or the gerrymandering which is so prevalent within the leadership of the SNP, then you run the risk of being ostracised. 

At 58%, the First Minister’s personal ratings have dropped nationally.  The closest to her in the SNP is Kate Forbes with 6% while a few others fall below that percentage figure the rest do not even register one percent.  They are not rated at all.  The natural order of accession would have seen a number of potential leaders like Kate Forbes to the fore and in close proximity to the FM.  The lack of a suitable replacement would never have happened without the FM holding on firmly to the reins of power.

 Time and again efforts have been made to remove Joanna Cherry and Alex Salmond whom the FM most certainly saw as a threat to her hold on power.   Failing on both counts, the FM has continued to plough on regardless with her obsessions, irrespective of how it will damage the independence movement.  If the FM asked her cabal to stop their abusive behaviour it would stop.  The situation has become unhealthy.

  I joined the SNP when I was 16 years old for one reason, Scottish independence.   At that time everything within the SNP revolved around independence.  Now people are joining the SNP for various reasons; many see it as a career opportunity or a way to indoctrinate people into changing the way they think and behave,while others genuinely enjoy being elected representatives.   There is nothing wrong with the latter view just so long as those elected representatives realise why they were elected and why the party came into existence in the first place and that should be their priority.

  Not many political leaders become more important than the party they lead but the FM has achieved that accolade by refusing to delegate or allow debate within the SNP or even to entertain other independence supporters who hold an alternative opinion on the way forward.   She is preoccupied by promoting herself at every opportunity to the elation of her support.   That has enabled the FM’s promotion to become the priority rather than independence.

  Maybe the cabal should take on board the words of philosopher Herbert Spencer that “hero-worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom”.  The idea that everyone should work together sounds good but who is stopping it?   We know the answer.

 The Scottish electorate and in particular those within the independence movement deserve to hear both sides in any political debate.   For the SNP to deny them that opportunity is nothing less than voter persecution.  The answer to resolving any political differences is by debate.  A televised debate between the FM and Alex Salmond would be TV gold.  I know who would back out. Maybe someone from the FM Twitter team could stand in?        

The bile that is dished out by Pete Wishart MP on Twitter against ex-SNP members is palpable yet he complains vociferously when his targets respond in kind.   Other close associates of the FM also use Twitter to besmirch Alba Party members without any condemnation from those who are in a position to act as mediators.  It is quite reprehensible.  Now we have silence from the SNP on the most awful Tweets from SNP parliamentarians.    Some of whom should have been asked to resign by any standard of integrity, failing which they should have been sacked.   

Unless we get rid of the bile emanating, in the main from the SNP, or reduce the numbers of people who are providing and encouraging such behaviour, it will not matter one jot when we hold a referendum.  

Bill Clark

BEAT THE CENSORS

Sadly some sites had given up on being pro Indy sites and have decided to become merely pro SNP sites where any criticism of the Party Leader or opposition to the latest policy extremes, results in censorship being applied. This, in the rather over optimistic belief that this will suppress public discussion on such topics. My regular readers have expertly worked out that by regularly sharing articles on this site defeats that censorship and makes it all rather pointless. I really do appreciate such support and free speech in Scotland is remaining unaffected by their juvenile censorship. Indeed it is has become a symptom of weakness and guilt. Quite encouraging really.

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