MY MESSAGE TO THE SNP CONFERENCE

We have very different ideas about Conferences

I have always thought political conferences should, or should I say, ought to be of great benefit to the Party.

By using the term Party, I don’t mean just the leadership, although it is to be hoped they will enjoy and benefit from the experience as well, but the main benefit is to be found if the Party membership have been engaged in a positive experience where they return to their constituencies feeling enthused, feeling they have played a constructive role in the future direction and activities of the Party and feeling a direct bond with their leaders.

Now let’s discuss the SNP CONFERENCE which commences this week. It is being held at the Conference Centre in Aberdeen. It is a top class Conference centre but it is quite expensive and is poorly located, a good taxi ride(£10) from the city. This adds considerable additional costs for delegates and that is before we discuss the costs of accommodation in this oil city. So for those not on Parliamentary salaries significant costs are involved in attending. Particularly during this cost of living crisis.

When we turn to the agenda more problems emerge. For a Party whose key objective is delivering Scottish Independence once again, indeed as has become standard practice, no mention of the route to that objective merits a mention. A quite extraordinary omission! Indeed any evaluation of the agenda suggests little or no ordinary member involvement in selecting the motions for debate. No space for considering key issues such as currency but plenty of space to pursue a quite unnecessary Code of Conduct for the “entire” Yes Movement which indicates complete contempt for the very large, and growing, part of that movement that is not part of the SNP. The 2014 Referendum, minus any bogus Code of Conduct, was the most harmonious and united experience any of us had ever enjoyed.

I have to say I was quite surprised  when days ago a number of SNP members sent me copies of “ free invites” to fill the hall for the Leaders Speech this coming Monday. I mean this is a Party that claims 119,000 members, has well over one hundred Parliamentary elected members, literally hundreds of paid staff. It does not seem so long ago that the Hydro in Glasgow was full to overflowing to hear from Nicola Sturgeon. What has changed when long before the Conference starts such efforts are having to be made to put bums on seats? 

This all suggests members are not feeling the warmth and comradeship they felt in the past. The SNP leadership should worry about this. Members are motivated by their love of Scotland and their desire to see Scotland free and prosperous in the future. It takes a lot to demotivate people like that. If it is happening, and I firmly believe it is in ever increasing numbers, the SNP Leadership should be concerned and asking what they can do to reverse that drift as a matter of urgency. 

Many of those in the YES movement are increasingly viewing the SNP, as the supposed main vehicle to Independence, as a busted flush that has lost focus on its primary role as a pathfinder to Independence and now representing an obstacle to that success.

What is certain, and I think unarguable, is that Nicola Sturgeon’s period of leadership of the SNP has been by far the most divisive in the Party’s history. Until this period it had never been felt there was any need for other Independence parties to be formed in Scotland. There was a trust and belief that the SNP could be relied on as the sole spearhead for the cause. There are many, many thousands who now no longer believe that. It is a serious blot on her leadership to be the first SNP leader to see other pro Indy parties created in Scotland to rival and compete for the pro Indy vote.

I know the level of concern within many SNP branches that exists, I know many do not support the internal changes that have removed power from the ordinary membership. Members resent many of the woke inspired policies that have been created without any debate or agreement from the ordinary membership. They hate how the candidate selection process has been abused, no more so than the fixing of the No1 spots on the list elections for the Scottish Parliament. A situation that allowed candidates who came last in the ordinary member voting to leapfrog to the number one spot in every region in the country. Where the most important qualification to being a MSP suddenly became the ability to self ID or being in a minority. You know the “minorities” that now control the SNP. What Democratic Party operates an internal election system that is not allowed to tell the members who had voted the results? That is an outrage!

I think many in the SNP are being complacent about Alba. They continue to grow and are active throughout the country. They are still hampered by the media blackout they face but instead of being downhearted many are enthused at this recognition that is they, rather than the SNP, who represent the longer term threat to the Union, ready to take over when the public eventually rumble the SNP never never strategy. THE WEE ALBA BOOK IS BY FAR THE BEST PUBLICATION SUPPORTING INDEPENDENCE AVAILABLE IN SCOTLAND TODAY.

In conclusion, my favourite, the quite amazing growth of SALVO and the Claim of Right movement full of people who recognise the failure of all politicians and who are building a people’s movement capable of dragging the politicians along behind them. They have set up Liberation.Scot and intend to build its membership to more than the SNP in the immediate future. Thousands have signed up already and this will accelerate as new activities get underway. Under Sara Salyers they have many people of talent and ideas and alongside the SSRG are introducing real initiative and drive to the Independence campaign.

So while I genuinely hope ordinary SNP members use the Conference to start the process of reclaiming their Party and that the Alba Party enjoy their Conference the following week I personally will be looking to the next Salvo event as the main driver for Independence in the near future. I have had enough of Party politics for a lifetime. I am entirely confident the big news on the Independence front in the months ahead will arrive via Salvo.

I am, as always

Yours for Scotland 

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