Open letter to Nick, you asked, “Please tell us more about the cover up by Nippy's husband and the circumstances behind it”, this is my experience as a working class person regarding how I was treated in the Scottish National Party, don’t be taken in by the lie the SNP stand for fairness, equality and social justice

Dear Nick

The wonder of email is that it can be archived.

On 03 September 2011 14:07:15 an email was sent to alex.salmond@snp.org, I was copied into this email, when I opened it up I thought it was the usual buy a t shirt, mug, donate money stuff that is normally sent to members.

Until I started reading, and then saw my name mentioned, I was reading that I was a victim of a smear campaign.

On 30 January 2012 14:04:00, Peter Murrell was sent this forwarded email and I was asking him for an investigation.

If you wonder why the delay between getting the email and complaining to Murrell, I was told to try two other people to register the complaint with.

Anyway the forwarded email stated two SNP members were calling me a sexual pervert.

Previous to contacting Murrell, I had also contacted an SNP Cllr Grant Thoms, my messages to him are archived on Facebook; however his replies have been removed and replaced by this message.

“This message has been temporarily removed until we can verify the sender's account”.

He pointed me in the direction of the two people to seek help within the Party when they did nothing, I then decided to see help from Nicola Sturgeon's husband.

I asked Peter Murrell, SNP Chief Executive for an investigation, and told him that I had spoken to someone who confirmed to me a smear campaign had been run against me.

So what did Peter Murrell do?

Nothing, no investigation like the other two people I had contacted, one of whom was  a government minister Derek Mackay (05 September 2011 13:27:28), it seem clear to me that I was being treated as a second class member in the SNP.

Murrell’s reasoning for doing nothing was the person who sent the email to me wasn’t an SNP member so he couldn’t do anything about investigating which is utter rubbish.

During this period, I had decided to put myself forward as a candidate, I was failed, failed on a lie, when I asked for the evidence used to support this lie, I was ignored. So, I had to put in a data subject access request. Peter Murrell wrote to me that he was SNP data controller in an email which I also archived. DSAR have a 40 day limit, this was broken, I got the request about 120 days after I put the request in, and the information requested re evidence wasn’t contained within it.

So far, I had been the victim of an alleged smear campaign confirmed to me in writing by a current member plus the email, and the SNP then broke the law re my DSAR.

During this period, an incident happened which went public and the attitude changed towards me in the SNP.

Soon after that episode the SNP tried to brand me homophobic in the shape of National Sec William Henderson, you can read the story in the Daily Record, I gave them the story.

Here are the contents of another email which I kept.

“From:	George Laird (georgelaird@hotmail.com)
Sent:	20 March 2012 17:22:11
To:	Peter Murrell (peter.murrell@snp.org)

Dear Peter

I understand from press reports that (name deleted) is no longer a SNP member.

He has drawn to my attention an issue by alleging that current members of Pollok SNP are allegedly saying I am a racist.

That is within your locus so I would like a formal investigation as per the SNP rules.

I would also draw to your attention my complaint that I sent to Derek MacKay MSP and Ian McCann regarding allegations that at the Maryhill & Springburn SNP Branch there was an alleged smear campaign conducted against me by members of that branch who alleged I was a sexual pervert.

I submitted this complaint about six months ago.

Has this been investigated?

If so, by whom and when? I would like a copy of all material relating to that investigation held in any format.

If it hasn't been investigated and I would like to know why I have been discriminated against and on what basis?

I would also like to know what is the status of my DSAR that I sent in since you are the data controller for the SNP.

Did you recieve the DSAR?

If you haven't then I wish to know immediately so I can resubmit it.

In my youth I taught children and young people as a fitness instructor, so I regard this matter as extremely serious and I would expect the SNP to do so as well.

Finally, given the contents of the (name deleted) email which has been sent to you and Alex Salmond, I am now calling for the suspension of (names deleted) pending a formal investigation by the Scottish National Party.

Regards

George”

To recap how I was treated, I was smeared, third party witness to it plus the email sent to me and Alex Salmond, then forwarded to Peter Murrell, my complaints not investigation and ignored, SNP broke the law re my DSAR, and then the senior leadership tried to brand me homophobic.

So, when the SNP try and say they are the party of fairness, social justice and equality, I know they are liars and they are rotten to the core.

Don’t be conned by people like Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond that they are decent people and social justice campaigners; they can’t even bring fairness, social justice and equality to their own party.

Hope this helps, and for anyone who is interested, who is minded to threaten me with legal action from the SNP, I have kept all the emails archived from my time as a member of the SNP.

All of them.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University