I am starting to get a bit bored with the whole cultists thing from both sides, although I will admit to having had a bit of fun with it, but I did feel really sorry for trade unionist Elaine who started appearing on my time line yesterday. Elaine was having a real melt down yesterday, one of the worst I have seen on Twitter to be honest, but what I did take from it was that some people really don’t get it at all. The unionists definitely want to see Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP fall, they want to see some hope via a collapse in the SNP vote for this Mays election, hope for their broken and dysfunctional union. I accept that because not many people are going to vote for unionists and especially the toxic Tories in Scotland so anything that helps they will grasp with both hands.
I would like to applaud Elaine’s devotion to Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP but I can’t, as I wouldn’t applaud the people devoted to Alex Salmond, because that kind of devotion to a politician is a very dangerous thing for our democracy, the people who do it, and the politician themselves. When we get to that stage we bring about the conditions for the issues we are seeing today to grow and then we have to find ways to fix it and that takes away from the issues that we should all be focussed on. However, what Elaine doesn’t get is that this is not about bringing down Nicola Sturgeon or the SNP in any shape or form for many of us.
This whole situation is about poor policy making, poor governance, nothing done about moving forward towards a referendum let alone independence, this is about broken institutions, the abuse of power, power itself, personalities, blind devotion. The issue of a broken parliament that was supposed to be different, better. A broken political party infected by minority interest entryists, by a leader who has embraced the MeToo agenda with her heart and soul to the extent that she appears ignorant to or supports the things that are going on around her, mostly caused by her husband and her inner circle, to forward an agenda that many of us don’t agree with and have been driven to the stage where we cannot support it. That is what people like Elaine don’t get, we didn’t do this, Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP did. They maybe never intended for their agenda to get out of control but it has and they don’t know how to stop or are unwilling to change tact and focus on what the majority of the yes community want and that is independence.
I never wanted to see Nicola Sturgeon in this place where I feel we would be better off if she resigned. I never asked for the SNP to decide to reform the 2004 Gender Reform Act to the point that it impinges on women’s rights and makes a mockery of the parliament by basically trying to bring it in quietly and using the Hate Bill as a way to stifle free speech and any criticism of it. I never asked the MPs we elected to Westminster to get comfortable and adopt the language of Westminster, to embrace it’s institutions, it’s titles. I never agreed that the only way we can even have a say on our future is with the permission of Westminster, a Government elected by the voters in another country, I never did any of that.
The simple fact is the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon are no longer fit to govern and to lead the fight for independence, I wish that were not the case and that they would come to their senses but it is what it is and it is what we have to deal with. Nicola Sturgeon, most of her MSPs, and supporters are determined to ignore our opinions and battle ahead with an agenda that many of us just cannot except. That is not a good place to be, it probably delays the fight for independence and sets us back, but I didn’t do this and I don’t have to accept it, so I can be critical of it and I can remove my vote from them as it is all I have, I will not wheesht for indy in any shape or form if it means accepting the agenda of Nicola Sturgeon and her out of control government and I don’t suspect I am alone in that, that is what people like Elaine don’t get.
I wish I could move on like Tris at Munquin’s New Republic and take the fight to the unionists but I am bloody angry at what the SNP Government are doing to my country and to everything I believe in, how can I be expected to support that, that doesn’t make me a cultist, it makes me someone who has a line that I won’t cross and if that means I do not support Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP until it is resolved one way or the other I am fine with that.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
I have to say that for me it IS about bringing down Nicola Sturgeon. Every problem the SNP and the wider Yes movement face is because of this out-of-control, power-crazed egomaniac. She has no interest in independence other than as something to mention whenever an election is coming up. It’s her version of “the oil is running out”.
What I don’t get is her utter obsession with all this self-id nonsense. Everything else I can just about understand as a standing room only Hydro cheering you to the rafters could get seriously addictive for the wrong personality type (which she obviously is). But THIS claptrap?
The sooner she’s out on her arse the better.
David
I think it is about that now but it wasn’t for me a few months ago. I had hoped that common sense would prevail and we could get through this and build some bridges, but that needed Nicola Sturgeon and her inner circle to just accept that they had failed in their attempts to remove Alex Salmond from the political scene, to accept that they needed to put certain policies on hold and speak to the wider Scotland about them, they needed to abandon the section 30 nonsense and speak to the wider yes movement and come to an agreed way forward but we are beyond all of that now. I didn’t do any of this, we didn’t do any of this, Alex Salmond didn’t do this, Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP, and her Government did, and we need to find a solution to it or independence is delayed for the next 10 years at best. The best I can so is hope that she resigns, and many others too, but as that is not going to happen I can only blog my opinion that I know annoys a few SNP members even though it is just a small blog, and I can remove my vote from them, and that is what I will do in May if Nicola Sturgeon remains in place and the agenda stays the same, doesn’t make me a cultist, makes me a realist and honest.
Thanks for commenting. Bruce
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People have very short memory’s for starters Mr Salmond is the only person in 300yrs who’s delivered a referendum on Scottish Independence and with the agreement of Westminster to abide by the result, this is something that Sturgeon has tried to achieved since 2016 and has failed. Mr Salmond has put country and party before his own personal interest every single day of his life there isn’t many including the Murrell’s who can say that. And I will ague with anyone who tries to state that Mr Salmond is the cause of the SNP present problems that entirely lays with the infiltrators who are representing the British state and who have denied our right to be Independent and have used every single excuse not to hold a referendum even to the extent of sabotaging Martin Keatings case. The SNP owe a lot more to Mr Salmond than they do to Nicola Sturgeon and the success after the 2014 referendum was due to Mr Salmond and the present chaos is entirely down to Nicola Sturgeon it is entirely of her own making and the quicker she goes the better for our country.
100%YES
Alex Salmond is the only innocent person in all of this as far as I can see. He didn’t bring in a policy to retrospectively bring accusations against ex ministers but really it was about accusations against him. He didn’t decide to mess around with policies around gender and attack freedom of speach, he didn’t do little to move the campaign for independence forward. That is all down to Nicola Sturgeon and the people around her in both government and the party, and I will not accept any claim that this is about some unionist agenda to bring down Nicola Sturgeon and that I am a part of it, that I am a cultist. I did not abandon the SNP they abandoned me to paraphrase Jimmy Reid. The simple reality is that I can no longer vote for the SNP and endorse Nicola Sturgeon and her government because I no longer agree with them on important issues and I also don’t believe they will deliver another independence referendum, as well as, not being convinced that is the number priority for the SNP any longer. I am at the point now where the only way this can be sorted for me is for Nicola Sturgeon to go and take her ministers/inner circle with her if they want my vote, that won’t happen so I will support someone else as is my right. I do still think the SNP will win in May, not by the landslide they think, but they will win and we will be no closer to independence than we are now while having ill thought out and authoritarian policies forced on us, we will just have to hope that the rest of the SNP will see them for what they are but either way independence is on the back burner for the next few years for sure and that is not my fault that is purely down to Nicola Sturgeon and her management and leadership.
Thanks for commenting. Bruce
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On WGD a poster said much the same – that they could no vote for the SNP because of GRA and Hate Crime bill. WGD responded that meant the poster cared more for those issues than indy. I nearly broke my self imposed ban here and replied to him – “no, it’s the SNP that care more for these issues than indy!”. However those who still trust Sturgeon won’t listen or at least not yet.
I thought she’d lead us to indy, Now I can’t wait for her to go and hope it is before she destroys the Yes movement.
Yes then, Yes now, Yes always
Panda Paws
None of this is our doing, it really is the case that the SNP are leaving us we have not left them. Reading Ian Lawson today as well and it sounds like Sturgeon and Murrell have financially broke the party, the more that comes out the more it doesn’t sound good at all and that is all down to Nicola Sturgeon, she leads the party and the government. I just want her to go now before it really makes it a long long road back. I still think they will in May at the moment but a lot can happen before then either way and they can still save themselves by making May a plebiscite but they won’t will they. Wee Ginger Dug is not a site that I go on all that often to be honest, Paul is an excellent writer and thinker, that is clear but I just don’t always agree with him on a few things and I think he gives the Murrells too much credit. I have thought Sturgeon has been a mistake since 2016 and have been blogging to that effect, just a sorry state of affairs now sadly.
Thanks for commenting. Bruce
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Neither the GRA nor the HCB were debated properly at SNP conference.
It was hidden in the 2016 manifesto in this fashion
Page 21 – “We will review and reform gender recognition law, so it’s in line with international best practice for people who are transgender or intersex”
Haven’t been able to find out if there is a best practice only a European papaer that did not come to a clear conclusion.
Brenda
I remember it, I think I left the party just before the manifesto came out as I had had enough at that point of the Murrells and the power grab. It is all so sad and I have said in the blog the SNP have left many of us we have not left them, Scottish Labour all the way, and so sad at such an important time in our history and if Ian Lawson is correct the party is now broke and that is under the Murrells watch, if Salmond knew all of this and was planning a comeback that many suspect it could explain some things I suppose. I think some countries have competed their Gender Reform Acts as it was a part of an EU agenda but I am not so sure how far they went; I will have to look into it when I get the time. Either way though it is all a bit depressing, it does make me more determined and invigorated in many ways as I did feel like giving up a few weeks ago but decided no I’ll keep going and will see what happens with ISP in May and I might get back in a party and a little more involved rather than just the blog.
Thanks for commenting. Bruce
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Bruce I have stated openly on all blogs that I am not nor have I ever been a member of ANY political party BUT I am a voter and have voted SNP for the last 30 years or so . At 70 years old I desperately desire independence and I get angry and disgusted at SNP members who think they are the only ones who want indy and are the only ones to have any say on the matter
A big part of the problem as you say is this misrepresented personality cult shit , this is NOT about personalities this is about independence for Scotland and the people of Scotland , the fact is that Sturgeon has been worse than useless when it comes to moving indy forward she has NEVER produced ANYTHING to educate , inform or convince undecideds or no voters to vote for indy never mind challenge WM on THEIR lies, all the promises of rebuttal units ,funding for the referendum , repeated promises of dates for an indy ref have all been LIES
Sturgeon has created ALL the division by ignoring cries for shelving the GRA and HCB, ignoring calls for a plebiscite election, I could go on but enough to say I won’t vote for the SNP until Sturgeon and clique go and a judge led inquiry jails the corrupt LIARS
Twathater
I agree with you 100%. I am 52 now and have supported independence since I was around 13 years old and have voted SNP in every election all bar 1 a few years ago. Nicola Sturgeon has done little since she became leader to move Scotland closer to that goal, the so called fact checking service nothing, the fiscal commission a Tory document rejected by most members but pretty much refused conference to debate, Scotland won’t be taken out of the EU against its will embarrassing beyond belief and the list goes on to present day policy that they have kept as quiet as they can because they know that when people learn about them they are against. That doesn’t even touch on the Alex Salmond issue which has more to it than meets the eye for sure. The undemocratic nature of the party is a huge issue which resulted in myself resigning from the party in 2016 and many thousands allegedly to have resigned this year alone and if Iain Lawson is correct the party is pretty much broke now due to incompetence, settling legal cases for the likes of Alyn Smith and paying huge salaries to the likes of Murrell who has taken the party backwards, the overall incompetence is unreal.
I used to have some time for Nicola Sturgeon as FM but never leader, now I just want her to go. Her handling of Covid has been poor at best, she is more interested in retaining her power and protecting her incompetent and vengeful friends than doing what is right. I don’t believe she is telling the truth about Alex Salmond personally, I think they tried to stop him making a come back and it got out of control to the mess that they are in now and rather than accept the decision of the courts and just move on they have continued to try an innocent man in public, protecting alleged liars and just making the whole situation worse, all because of power, ego and greed. I actually find NS disgusting now and I will not be voting SNP for the first time in a long time because I just don’t believe in them anymore and don’t believe they will deliver anything for independence and the referendum act 2020 makes it clear that there won’t be one without a section 30 order, you can’t make up the incompetence, cowards.
Thanks for commenting. Bruce
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