No other political party had to whip their MSPs

A guest post from Bill Clark from Fort William.

If you are a career politician wishing to climb a party-political ladder then you need to draw the line somewhere.  People who are ambitious to that extent have to play a political game and leave the door open just enough for those erstwhile opponents holding all the power on the other side of the door to know that you are ready to listen to their promises.   In other words, be prepared to jump from one commitment of loyalty to another

.   We are presently experiencing that from all our major political parties in Westminster and Holyrood.  We have just witnessed our own Iain Blackford MP playing petty politics in a pre-arranged action in the UK Parliament.  He rose from his seat along with his front bench of SNP MPs and led them out of the debating chamber as soon as Alba Party Deputy Leader Kenny MacAskill MP rose to his feet to debate the energy bounty being cabled south to power the equivalent of 2.8 million homes without Scotland receiving any financial benefit.   Rather than join with a fellow nationalist MP to support Scottish residents whose energy bills are going through the roof, and participate in the debate, they preferred a childish stunt against the Deputy Leader of the Alba Party.   Time after time the First Minister has made it clear that she will not work with members of the Alba Party.  

 The SNP have received such a backlash from other independence activists that they are now falling over themselves to dodge the flak. Footage of the incident went viral on social media and over half a million people have to-date witnessed this political theatre.   Iain Blackford and his cabal may have pleased the First Minister by their behaviour but they should have instead been putting Scotland’s interests first.   Independence is certainly not their first priority.   Retaining power for another five years in Westminster has long been their primary objective.  Such a parcel of rogues in a nation. 

On the other hand, we have Fergus Ewing MSP who is made of the same inbuilt courage and holds to the same principles that his mother, Winnie Ewing, showed over many years when he joined with eight other SNP MSPs in declining to follow the party whip and vote for the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.   Ash Regan was another stalwart who resigned as the SNP Community Safety Officer to vote against the proposal putting her concerns for the safety issues of women and children before any political self-interest.  At the same time, she made it clear she was not against reform but not at the expense of other groups. 

  No other political party had to whip their MSPs on this controversial bill and nor should they have.    This is only the start.  Those who have alternative views to the First Minister will be held to account.  According to Alyn Smith, SNP MP for Stirling, “Those who did not support our government will be getting a torrid time from their constituency parties and local members soon enough”.  In my view, the SNP are more likely to give free reign to Alyn Smith MP, Pete Wishart MP and some of their like-minded cabal members to verbally abuse, through their Twitter feed, those people who have shown courage in the face of overwhelming political pressure within the SNP.  Just check some of their past Twitter posts. 

 I joined the SNP as a 16-year-old and I have only ever voted for the SNP.  However, next time around I will be voting for the Alba Party.   The only reason that the SNP would refuse to fight a plebiscite election as one united independence movement is to give each of the present Westminster SNP MPs an opportunity for another five years in Westminster.  They have turned out to be political cannibals.          

MY COMMENTS

Like Bill I salute those SNP MSP’s who voted on their conscience and defied the whips. It was outrageous that MSP’s faced a whip on this issue but it indicates that the movers realised without it many more would have rebelled. Those that lacked the moral courage and bowed to the pressure have to live with their conscience. Strangely enough I strongly support Alyn Smith’s views that constituencies should get involved, just not in the direction he would like. I think SNP Constituencies should be questioning their MSP why they supported a bill that is opposed by over 80% of the electorate. That the SNP as a Party was never allowed to debate or vote on at any Conference. Yes I think ordinary members should get to the bottom of that. Then they should make sure it never happens again by threatening deselection. It’s not just Nicola Sturgeon or her whips that can threaten that.

I am, as always

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