Dear John
Have you heard the expression third time lucky?
In 2008 at the Glasgow East by-election, you won by 365 votes.
Your record at Westminster was pretty decent, you attended the debates, you spoke well and did what I expected.
After your election you stood down as a councillor and I caught up with you at a by-election, during our chat I said to you that you needed to do more to make the residents of Glasgow East know what you were up too.
You didn't do enough on that front.
Fast forward 2009, European election, we met again, at that election I told you again, that you need to do more to get people behind you in the area, the result of the election in your area showed a 60/40 split to Labour.
The tide had turned and I told you ahead of time, by months and months.
Then came 2010, your attempt to hold the seat, because you hadn't done enough to build yourself up in the community as a credible Westminster MP alternative to the Labour Party, it all came crashed down around your ears.
Margaret Curran won by circa 13,000 votes.
So, perhaps you are up for third time lucky on advice.
Don’t vote against NATO!
Take the 5% and cast it in favour, if you don’t, then you are effectively killing off the independence campaign stone dead.
The public aren’t going to vote for independence if the party is seen as a bunch of cranks that can’t defend us from attack.
And attack comes in many forms in warfare, not just the traditional approach.
If you join the number of SNP MSPs preparing to vote against leadership proposals to stay in NATO, you should speak at conference about winding down the independence campaign also.
Because it is another nail in the coffin!
NATO is too important, too strategic to ignore.
Voting against is also a slap in the face to Scottish service personnel because it sends out a strong message that the SNP don’t care enough about their safety.
Then there is military intelligence; where is that going to come from? Do you have an answer because unless you are part of the grid and therefore plugged in, you are getting nothing!
You never took onboard my advice before and lost an election when something could have been done to turn it around.
And of course my record of callings election is pretty good in the party.
Recently I yet again got it right on the Glasgow council Election saying it would be a Labour win.
And it was a Labour win and a majority.
In 2011 on the stage at the SECC, Frank McAveety lost his seat to you, while on stage he talked about the ‘resurrection’.
Your area, Bill Kidd and James Dornan’s are key targets for Labour, and they haven’t forgotten about you or the others.
In Sturgeon’s seat, she has the benefit as Deputy Leader of getting extra help from councillors to help her campaign and a healthy majority.
And of course the safety of the list, you don’t.
I predicted that the SNP would lose the Glasgow City Council Election, and are predicting you will lose independence and the Westminster election.
This is the SNP’s 1,2,3!
Come 2016, you are going to be under pressure, you have a grade one opponent, he is also building up his profile as a councillor and he has a brand name.
And the tide is turning against the SNP.
So, here is my advice, take your 5% and vote NATO.
The sudden change from the leadership is seen by many as opportunist, Scotland is keeping NATO; it is keeping Faslane and is squarely behind our Scottish soldiers.
The public won’t be breaking that covenant, not for Alex Salmond, not for Nicola Sturgeon and not for you, Jamie Hepburn, John Finnie, Sandra White, Jean Urquhart, Dave Thompson, Bob Doris, Marco Biagi, John Wilson.
And if you don’t want to see a ‘resurrection’ fable happening in Glasgow Shettleston then wise up pretty fast.
You are sowing the seeds of your own exit; remember how it felt getting kicked out onto the street in 2010 by the public.
They can do it again in 2016.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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