Labour Party accuse Alex Salmond of being ‘First Rigger’ as Scottish Government consultation is outed as a sham, scrap it, start again, only solution!

Dear All

Without a doubt Alex Salmond is clever, I met him, talked to him and listened to him.

But below Alex Salmond many in the Scottish National party are not clever.

Alex Salmond has unjustly been accused of "rigging" the Scottish Government's consultation on the independence referendum.

The idea he would do this is frankly bizarre, but it isn’t beyond the clique that surrounds Salmond, Sturgeon and some others.

The SNP Government's consultation is open to abuse because it allows the process to be used by anonymous people who are said to allegedly be making multiple submissions.

The idea of multiple submissions is clear, to have the appearance of massive public support that gets other members of the public to think that a bandwagon effect is taking place.

The three main opposition parties at Holyrood said they suspect the so-called "Cyber-Nats."

Cyber-Nats are the militant wing of nationalism that regularly poisons the independence debate beyond acceptable standards.

As I say, many of the SNP cyber-nat community think they are clever, by using the cloak of anonymity to send in thousands of submissions favourable to the First Minister's position and also bolstering the call for a devo-max question on the ballot paper.

The SNP leadership say they prefer a straight question on independence but they are ‘listening’ to others, the reality is that many in the SNP see devo–max as a second bite at the cherry.

Something to show their members to claim a victory and that the SNP are moving forward!

The SNP leadership has swiftly retorted by insisting the allegation of rigging was "disgusting" and "absolutely false".

Do they have proof?

No!

But, it was quick to start smearing by raising suspicions that half of the 3000 submissions to the UK Government's independence consultation were from the Labour Party.

That is the level of SNP debate.

In the UK Government consultation it has been revealed that 70% of respondents want the independence referendum to be held in 2013.

For the SNP that isn’t practical for them due to the lack of members willing to become activists.

The SNP leadership doesn’t command the respect of all its members, the reason is simple; the SNP is run not as a political party but as a middle class clique.

As well as the clique smearing political opponents outside the party, this nasty operation is also rife within the SNP itself.

Ordinary working class people are turning their back on working for the party which has descended into a party within a party.

Membership apartheid operates in the Scottish National Party, right from the very top.

The rigging allegation has come from Scottish Labour, which urged the SNP Government to "rip up its referendum consultation and start again".

The SNP consultation is an odd little beastie, it was set up and effectively abandoned, little wonder that the thing was seen by many as a sham consultation, like a lifeboat it was cut adrift in the North Atlantic.

Will the consultation be ripped up and started again?

Probably not, the cyber-nat community won’t want to set up multiple emails accounts, elections are happening, the good weather’s coming in etc etc.

Anas Sarwar, deputy leader of Scottish Labour, said:

"Everyone knows that Alex Salmond desperately wants a second question on the ballot and now he has left the door open for his army of cyber-Nats to deliver the response he wants. By essentially inviting people to send multiple responses, Alex Salmond has done nothing to dispel the notion that he is trying to rig the referendum."

I met Anas Sarwar at Glasgow University when I was a coach in the Boxing Club; he did like talking about how rich his daddy was.

On a roll, the Glasgow MP has claimed the SNP Government's process was not only "open to abuse, but designed for abuse".

Made in Scotland, abused in Scotland?

He says:

"The idea that people can put in anonymous responses as many times as they like is an unprecedented distortion of democracy. This flawed consultation should be abandoned now."

Stewart Hosie, SNP MP:

"This is absurd in the extreme from the British Labour Party. The rules being used are exactly the same rules as have been used in every single consultation ever. If there are questions over the efficacy of any consultation, it should be over the UK one if we find it was so self-selecting that perhaps half the response came from members of one particular party."

Nice to see Stewart drop down to their level, call a spade a spade.

Stewart insisted Scots could have confidence in the Scottish Government's consultation, as it would be independently verified.

Eh??

And eh?

When pressed; Stewart Hosie did not say by whom the Scottish Government's consultation would be verified by.

However the Dundee MP was quick to brand the charge of rigging as a "absolutely false and an appalling accusation."

Powerful condemnation from that boy, pity about no sign of an investigation to back it up!

Stewart added:

"I find it disgusting that the good people of Scotland who are entering honestly and openly into this consultation are being put down, talked down and having their entries minimised and diminished in such a crass way by the Labour Party."

Labour aren’t talking about the good people, they are talking about the bad ones, the ones that rig elections in the SNP.

Alex Salmond said the SNP Government consultation, which runs until May 11, has attracted more than 10,000 submissions which is an incredibly poor response to it.

It seems that despite having a 20,000 membership, vast numbers of its own members didn’t feel the process was valuable enough to respond.

Jackson Carlaw, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said claims that thousands had participated in the SNP Government's consultation were "risible".

Carlaw added:

"Nothing the SNP now assert on the basis of a rigged consultation, to which SNP members can contribute anonymously and as many times as they like, will command confidence."

Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said:

"The Scottish Government needs to publish how many anonymous submissions have been made so we know the scale of the problem."

So, the Scottish Government Consultation is mired in sleaze and doubt, the consultation was a sham anyway but it will still be used to form the basis for the devo-max.

Devo-max is the SNP second cherry bite if independence fails to be achieved; it is their parachute, the face saver for the SNP leadership to fall back on to convince people that the party is still worth fighting for, with a Westminster election looming straight after.

An election which will see them shut out as a minority party, left on the Westminster sidelines.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University