Out of Love with Nicola, SNP insiders “There’s a feeling her Government is a bit of an old pal’s act”, in ancient Rome, the people got ‘bread and circuses’, in Scotland 2018, Nicola Sturgeon gives us ‘Tampons and Babyboxes’ to distract from her failed tired government, Health Secretary Shona Robison failures are too much of a deadweight that even senior SNP see the need to remove her

Dear All

It seems that there is cross party agreement between people in Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservatives and even the SNP!

What has brought everyone together?

It is the pressing need for Nicola Sturgeon to sack Scotland’s most famous "struggling" Health Secretary Shona Robison. Those in the SNP are waking up to the fact that Sturgeon, their golden ticket isn’t producing the goods. Support is falling, a second independence bid is looking increasingly distant, and the SNP in Government has no real direction to what represents a better Scotland.

SNP….. Strong on Slogans, Strong on Failure.

What Shona Robison represents is cronyism, back in the day; the only real threat to Nicola Sturgeon was the ‘Golden couple’ from Dundee, Robison and her husband Stewart Hosie. At SNP Conferences, the Golden couple’ had everything to propel them to the leadership, top jobs, brand names and family. Then came the dark times, Stewart Hosie goes an ploughs into another woman, a younger woman, a better looking woman, and the wheels came off the ‘Golden couple’. Hosie resigns as from his leadership position, and the SNP summer offensive for campaigning for indy hits the ‘brickwall’.

The problems with Shona Robison as Health Secretary started long before the public became aware of the Hosie situation, in fact, they started immediately on day one of Robison being made the health minister. The SNP treat ministerial offices as big pay days. What everyone knew was missing from those ministerial posts was time, time and solving problems. Years ago, I stated the SNP leadership had a habit of dumping problems onto others to fix and wash their hands of it. The same mentality is still present in the SNP. Insiders say that Robison needs to go and there has to be wide-ranging Government reshuffle.

And this is where the real problems lie, Robison is a dud.

One SNP MSP described the Sturgeon administration as “tired” and added:

“There’s a feeling her Government is a bit of an old pal’s act.”

Tired is an understatement, this SNP Government is a one trick pony which is why in 2017, 56 SNP MPs went down to 35 SNP MPs, and other’s seats were hanging by a thread. Now the senior SNP are waking up to the fact that their ‘bread and butter’ isn’t secure under Nicola Sturgeon. There is a possibility that the minority administration is heading towards being a minority administration without being able to have the Scottish Greens onboard to get an overall majority. The SNP insiders fear is real, minority government is the best placed scenario at the moment, the situation could turn drastically worse.

Nicola Sturgeon has failed to demonstrate leadership since taking up the post following the departure of Alex Salmond, Salmond built a legacy of support which has been eroded steadily by Sturgeon.

In the SNP, if you speak out you can be punished, so insiders speaking on condition of anonymity said the SNP Government lacks an overarching vision on domestic policy. Like a rabbit in headlines, everything revolves around Scottish independence, as if the next time they will win. 

2014 told a story in Scotland, it showed how deceitful the SNP were and willing to stoop to achieve their goal, they painted a picture, all built on lies.

People don’t like being lied too!

Robison has been Health Secretary for over three years but has faced repeated calls to resign, she lurches from crisis to crisis, in her local area Dundee, there is a health crisis, there is a wider GP recruitment problem, and she can’t get the overstretched ambulances to respond any better.

Nicola Sturgeon ran the health service into the ground, then she bailed just before the cracks showed, everyone who came into post after her was hit with a stack of problems which swamped them. One funny part to this story is that SNP insiders believe that MSP Jeane Freeman would be better at health, talk about grasping at straws. Freeman’s fame is that she is an ex Labour hack who worked for Jack McConnell, a member of the dreadful ‘Women for Independence’ and a former ‘quango queen’. Freeman was a former board member at the Scottish Police Authority and her experience of the NHS is chairing the board of the Golden Jubilee Foundation.

What the SNP insiders fail to grasp is there is a huge difference chairing a board to day to day running of a department! When it came to accepting new Social Security powers for Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon had to tell Westminster to hold back on them because the SNP Government couldn’t cope yet. All that Jeane Freeman has done is to help new Social Security (Scotland) Bill through Holyrood last week.

Finally, it was said by an SNP MSP:

“Alex Salmond’s Cabinet had more talent because he brought people in on ability. With Nicola, there’s a feeling her Government is a bit of an old pal’s act. She’s a cautious politician, but we are getting to the stage where caution looks like inertia.”

That appraisal is debatable, Kenny MacAskill was a dud as Justice Sec, Sturgeon herself used smoke and mirrors to fool everyone she was capable at health, and wasn’t. The fact remains changing deckchairs isn’t what the people of Scotland need; they need a new ship, that isn’t the SNP to take Scotland forward. One thing which I found particularly funny is Humza Yousaf is believed to be in the running for a promotion. During the recent bad weather, Humza Yousaf was exposed for being unable to guarantee food security by keeping the roads open.

He reacted too late, in line with an SNP Government who react post events, instead of being ahead of the curve.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University