The SNP are a Unionist Party now

I am sorry to be banging on about a monarchy theme again on the blog, but this is maybe important in the long run-in future elections. It is certainly not the blow that the Express think it might be to any republican elements in the SNP and wider YES Community. Blackford has allegedly “made clear the SNP policy is for King Charles III to remain head of state if Scotland were to leave the UK despite strong republican roots within the party.

He also claimed that praising the “good” works of the royal family would not undermine the push for Scottish independence”.

Blackford might be right; it really is not the pressing issue in the larger case for Scottish independence, the SNP becoming a unionist party is. The more that people in the SNP open their mouths the more they show that they have apparently been bought and sold as Burns would say. At best this party is a devolution party now, but I doubt even that in many ways I really do.

For myself the more the SNP are seen to embrace the trappings of Britishness the damage this does to the cause of independence is even worse than their poor governance and non-existent strategy to get us there.

“I’m lucky enough to have met the new King on a number of occasions and have to say I think that there are many strong and positive attributes that he has, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he is going to conduct himself and the role that he has. (Ian Blackford SNP Westminster Leader)

Neil MacKay wrote in the Herald last year that “The truth is, the SNP has brought all this misery upon itself – and much as it sounds counter-intuitive, the party itself is now the biggest threat to Scottish independence”. He wrote this in relation to the reported internal divisions within the party with an unnamed source, but very well placed, saying “I wonder how much of its orchestrated by plants throughout the branches with the sole purpose to cause disruption and division,” they said. “Speaking to friends around the country there’s too much of it happening in very similar ways for it to be purely coincidental.” I know who I suspect the plants might be now, the leadership, If Nicola Sturgeon is this brilliant politician and leader, a so-called threat to the United Kingdom, then she is doing a bloody good job at hiding it with the total lack of movement towards independence, inept.

For independence supporters this is a uniquely Scottish dilemma. How often as a country have we thrown away sporting victory at the last minute?

We are now in conference season, what will the SNP be debating? Will they even debate independence and the strategy, we know that the STUC motion on using tax raising powers to help with the cost of loving crisis was rejected but then the leadership just ignore what gets passed either way.

I just have no faith in the SNP any longer, and haven’t for a long long time, I wish I did but it is not there anymore. I find them an embarrassment to Scotland now to be honest, the last 12 days have shown that. There is playing the game, but unlike Mary Lou McDonald leader of Sinn Fein who acted with dignity and never lost sight of the larger picture, the SNP leadership and our First Minister came across like they were trying to out union the Tories, no mean feat and they achieved it. People will need to have a serious think where they cast their vote in the next General Election in 2024, we will be taking part, because a vote for the SNP is a vote for the union.