SNP ‘Civic Nationalism’ exposed: 'Get the Pakis out of the party': SNP councillor Julie McAnulty at the centre of second race row, the SNP infighting resurfaces again proving the party has become a ‘rat ship’ under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon, playing the ‘race card’ is becoming rather common in the ‘civic nationalist’ movement

Dear All

SNP member Sheena McCulloch has made a complaint it appears about Julie McAnulty who represents the Coatbridge North and Glenboig ward at North Lanarkshire Council. The allegation is that the SNP councillor she used racist language in a conversation with her.

Julie McAnulty has been selected by the Scottish National Party to be an SNP candidate for the Scottish Parliament elections in 2006.

One of the ways that the SNP like to get rid of people is to smear them and label, a favourite tactic in the party is to simply call someone a racist, or use the race card. In 2014, Alex Salmond and Tasmina Ahmed-Shiekh both played the race card during the European elections when it became clear that Ukip stood a chance of winning a seat.

Tasmina Ahmed-Shiekh, an English woman has a habit of playing the race card, she was a former Conservative candidate in Govan, but as she left the party on the way out the door decided to throw the charge of racist at the Scottish Conservatives.

As I have remarked before, I don’t see the Scottish Conservatives as racist and the ‘label’ by Tasmina Ahmed-Shiekh didn’t stick.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1343298/Defector-to-SNP-is-political-butterfly.html

Tasmina Ahmed-Shiekh is close to Nicola Sturgeon.

Other people in the SNP have used the racist tag beyond Salmond and Ahmed-Shiehk, the wife of Muslim list SNP MSP Humza Yousaf used it in objecting to be stopped and questioned at Glasgow Airport.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/muslim-msp-humza-yousafs-fury-1109338#aiKYkqVRus1bhlJH.97

Gail Lythgoe, an English woman claimed the security checks were a ‘tad racist’, it seems that if you do your job, Lythgoe feels it is acceptable to smear people, and as we know Lythgoe has a history of smearing, she tried to organise a hate mob against the former Labour MP Ian Davidson, lucky for her, she was caught when the email surfaced in the press.

Gail Lythgoe is close to Nicola Sturgeon.

Things got so bad that a Herald blogger called Hamira Khan accused those "playing the race card" of deliberately creating fear and tension between communities.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13033003.Muslims_quizzed_15_times_at_airport__says_MSP/

In the story above, it seems that Muslim List MSP Humza Yousaf and Aamer Anwar set up a new Independent Advisory Group, that group managed to rope in Kenny MacAskill to an effectively Asians only meeting in Glasgow to discuss the ‘problem’. Of course Asians aren’t the only people being stopped and questioned when coming to or leaving the UK, it happens to every one of all races and religions.

The question to Muslim list MSP Humza Yousaf who allegedly claims to stand for equality, fairness and social justice is why were there so few people from other ethnic communities at this event?

It isn’t any surprise to me that the practice of calling people ‘racist’ has filtered down to the rank and file members.

It almost seems like there is a ‘playbook’ used by the SNP to twist people‘s words, smear them and attempt to destroy a person’s reputation.

And the SNP leadership has a habit of doing nothing about it, and we are talking about Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon.

The SNP has been described as the Scottish Nasty Party in the press, but it is much more than that, it is a cult, a party within a party.

Sheena McCulloch allegedly said:

“On the journey back Julie was asking me about the trouble and in fighting in the Bellshill branch and asked for my view on the trouble in Coatbridge. During this discussion Julie made a comment which I found to be unacceptable. She asked if I agreed with her that it was in her words the ‘Pakis’ that were causing the problems locally and that we needed to get rid of them out of the party”.

She added:

“I outlined immediately that I was not happy with her comment as I know and respect many Muslim members locally. I informed her that what she said was unacceptable and that I considered many of the people she was referring to as friends. For the remainder of the journey she did not speak to me. Ever since this day Julie has ignored me and refused to speak to me.”

I look forward to Sheena McCulloch producing concrete evidence of her claim such as an audio recording or other tangible proof like a third party witness. If she is unable to provide such evidence then she will leave herself open to a defamation suit.

Given that Julie McAnulty has been selected by the Scottish National Party to be an SNP candidate for the Scottish Parliament elections in 2006, one would assume that she has now been suspended from the party and has lost her candidacy.

If Julie McAnulty isn’t suspended, I assume she is within her rights to ask for an SNP investigation into SNP member Sheena McCulloch who would have to provide evidence of her claims to a party hearing, if she didn’t have any proof, then the SNP would have to discipline her, and I would expect that to mean expelled. If she isn’t expelled then that would suggest to some that smearing members is a party approved function of the Scottish National Party and supported by the SNP leadership.

In other words, you can’t have it both ways, someone has to be expelled; either it is SNP Councillor Julie McAnulty or 40 year membership holder Sheena McCulloch. 

The SNP said:

“The SNP takes a zero tolerance approach to racism in any form. We have received Ms McCulloch’s complaint and are examining the claims she makes.”

During my time as an SNP member, I watched as Humza Yousaf’s SNP Office Manager Shona McAlpine who wasn’t a member of the Pollok SNP branch smeared an Asian man at a selection meeting, the other candidates for Ward 4 were all white. What is also interesting about this event was the now SNP MP Chris Stephens and four people who went on to be SNP Council Candidates in 2012 all sat there and said nothing to stop McAlpine smearing the man.

I have covered this event on my blog in previous posts.

The Asian man has since left the SNP, this incident was reported to SNP HQ and there was no investigation, not even the now Pakistani born Asian Councillor Shab Jaffri spoke up to defend the Asian man.

The SNP say that they take a ‘zero tolerance approach to racism in any form’, during the Scottish independence of 2014, the SNP were said by some to have conducted an ‘anti English’ campaign.

Perhaps the SNP don’t know what racism actually is but they do know what smearing innocent people is all about, and they have had a massive history of doing it to draw on.

I don’t know SNP Councillor Julie McAnulty but allegation doesn’t equal guilt, and unless there is concrete evidence to back up Sheena McCulloch’s complaint then McAnulty should continue on her candidacy for Holyrood. However, she doesn’t have to just watch her political opponents; she also has to watch the SNP members from stabbing her in the back.

You can expect more ‘racism’ rows to appear in the Scottish National Party, this is my predication.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University