What caused the SNP CRISIS? The removal of accountability throughout the entire Party!

What caused the SNP CRISIS? The removal of accountability throughout the entire Party!

Yes this was always going to happen. It was obvious to anyone with a background in politics and business.

Now this is not being clever after the event I have been forecasting the SNP were cruising for a bruising for some years. The only surprise is that it took so long to explode.

The leadership got away with it far longer than they should. All the signs were there, the fiddling of the NEC membership, creating a whole series of appointed posts and handing places to minority groups, some with as few as under a hundred paper members. The control of agendas at Conference ensuring no topic not favoured by the leadership ever saw the light of day. The control and centralisation of the candidate selection process eliminating talented people unwilling to bend to the Woke agenda. The favoured status and fast approval of the woke. The delay and rejection of potential rivals who stood in their way. The suspension of committees when Conference elected non favoured members to these posts. The ridiculous use of the Conduct Committee to penalise people like Tim Rideout while ignoring much more serious breaches by many of the terror tots.

Ruthless discipline punishing through demotion any dissent. Think Joanna Cheery being replaced by Anne McLaughlin. Appointing a pals cabinet that resulted in many being “promoted” way above their capability. The result? The complete loss of the hard won reputation for competency that the SNP had earned in the pre Sturgeon period, to be replaced with a catalogue of poor decisions, incompetent management and a back door cosying up with the wrong advisors. That cosy relationship ensured issues like land reform, annual ground rent that could have revolutionised the tax revenues were sidelined.

Every base was covered, the removal of National Council effectively removed anybody being accountable to the ordinary membership. By restricting communication through the Party email system any attempt for branches to work together to promote a motion to Conference was severely restricted. Membership information and office bearer information were kept top secret.

All this centralisation had a purpose. It made it much easier for a tiny clique at the top of the Party to control everything. Soon after it was implemented Angus Robertson’s plan removed all accountability to members in its entirety and the leadership were free to do as they wished.

While  Nicola ruled Supreme at Holyrood her husband Peter was building up the HQ operation. The number of staff was increased, jobs were created for political allies, gradually as the NEC was stuffed with lightweight appointments, Peter’s full time “professional” staff took on more and more of the NEC responsibilities. This came to a head when the freshly elected National Treasurer who had just been elected by Conference on a promise to uncover what had happened to the £600k Indyref2 fund, sought access to the accounts to get this information. Despite being elected by Conference the Party Chief Executive refused him access to the accounts! In my day on the NEC if that had happened the Chief Executive would have been heading to the cloakroom to pick up his coat as he headed out to find a new job. I accept that it is a bit more difficult when he is married to the Party Leader.Surely that was the time to end the bizarre arrangement that would not have been acceptable in virtually every other business or political environment. The potential conflict was surely obvious to everyone. He should have stood down the minute she became leader.

However this resulted in the National Treasurer and three members of his audit committee resigning. When one of that audit team, who was also an elected NEC member reported to the NEC what had happened  and the reason they had resigned she was verbally assaulted by many of those who were appointed, rather than elected, to the NEC. The Party Leader also made comments on the link supporting those leading the attacks.

Yet the NEC is the body directly responsible for the management of the Party. Who else could they report this to? The NEC personal liability on this in unclear. I know when some members enquired into what personal liability they might face in the event of any financial crisis no answer was forthcoming and no assurance could be given that they might not be personally liable. That must be concentrating minds these days. Or at least amongst those who have any assets.

What is needed is a radical clear out. If the current NEC, the failed NEC, WHO PRESIDED OVER THIS CATASTROPHE DONT RESIGN EN MASSE, THEN THEY MUST BE REMOVED.

How do you do that? Branches must get together and agree a constitutional amendment recreating a meaningful National Council and a fully elected NATIONAL Executive Committee. They must insist it being the first item on the agenda of the next National Conference with the threat of severing from the Party if any attempt is made to keep it off the agenda.Note it may require a two thirds majority to be passed but frankly if it isn’t passed then it’s a Party not worth the saving. 

The next step is to reverse the centralisation of candidate selections and have fewer committees. It is a political party not a police force. There should be no place for the thought police. Free and open debate is the way forward.

The Governance Report of which there is much talk makes this worse not better. How do I know that? Because I have a copy of the entire document. I am sure in light of recent events it is now facing wholesale change BUT it needs scrapped in its entirety, in its original form it planned to REDUCE 50% of the elected NEC places for each region. It planned to ADD more places from the Woke affiliates including senior office bearer positions. It would solve nothing indeed it would make things a lot worse, if that is even possible these days.

The SNP is in the hands of the wrong people, the wrong leadership, the wrong cabinet, the wrong NEC.

UNLESS the many good people in the SNP care enough to kick them all out, as suggested above then they are finished as a political force for at least the next decade, probably longer. They have lost Scotland and the cause of Independence the best opportunity we ever had, they were handed a Party with solid finances, a growing and United membership, and the best political options we ever imagined.

The SNP today is skint, the membership is shrinking, support in the polls is on the wane, meanwhile the YES movement has been split asunder,mandate after mandate has been ignored and squandered, all against pathetically poor opposition. A leadership that had not a competent strategic brain amongst them and full to the brim with arrogance and self privilege.

The really sad thing is some either can’t see it, or as so blindly loyal to the point of absurdity that they seek to blame others for these disasters. Oh I am sure the security services, the Unionists are all happy and will do whatever they can to make it worse BUT these problems were homegrown. It was an untalented NEC that recklessly lost control of the Party and its finances. It was elected political pygmies at both Holyrood and Westminster so easily controlled by love for their salaries that they sat quiet

Yet the nonsense continues. When in a crisis it is paramount to speak clearly, openly and with purpose. There is an overwhelming need for credibility.

So how are the SNP doing on the credibility front? We have John Nicholson boasting membership was increasing since the crisis started. We have Ian Blackford assuring everyone the finances are in robust health!

Do they think people’s heads zip up the back? We all know people who have left the SNP in recent weeks. I know Salvo Liberation have welcomed many and I am told Alba is also enjoying many applications. Now maybe I am being unfair to John Nicholson but a member of his constituency messaged me disputing what he had said and I quote “How would he know we rarely see him?”

Now I am hoping Ian Blackford was referring to the Westminster SNP Group finances, which are kept separately from the main SNP Account and may indeed be in decent shape because if he is talking about the main SNP account I frankly don’t believe him. These were in deficit by many hundreds of thousands of pounds in the last published accounts and we know at least 30,000 members have left, taking their subscriptions with them, a review of donations over the last couple of years ( there is a legal requirement to report larger donations each quarter) reveals these have all but dried up and there is a police investigation into the absence of the £600 k “ring fenced” money. Does not sound at all “robust” to me!

Worse the SNP have form on dodgy announcements. I recall when The former FM was being quizzed in her role in the attempted fit up of Alex Salmond and put in the “I cannot recall”, “ I would have to check that” routine, SNP headquarters issued a claim that tens of thousands of Scots were joining the SNP so impressed by Nicola’s great performance (faulty memory).

The problem with the above is of course the discovery that the SNP membership ( previously 125,000) had tumbled to 72,000 at best. So not only had 50,000 of the original members left but tens of thousands of new recruits had also disappeared or had only replaced a further 30,000 of the original 125,000 members. You see the problem with this type of invention? Credibility goes out the window and that is where the SNP is today.

So great change is required. The only people that bring about that change is the branches and ordinary members of the SNP. DO THEY CARE ENOUGH? ARE THEY BRAVE ENOUGH? We will find out in the weeks ahead.

If they don’t then the SNP is finished, they will lose a host of seats next year and apart from the political disaster will also lose much of the London Short Money they have apparently become addicted too. Worse, in dire financial straits, they will lose control of Holyrood and unionists will take steps to weaken the devolved “executive” even further.

The above is what is at stake. I await signs anyone in the SNP has the determination to fight back. If they do they will have my support to rebuild. Why? Because I support all the forces and routes to Independence. I despair it has been allowed to come to this!

I am, as always

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