Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP Bad Week: SNP Westminister Ian Blackford says he isn’t a Salmond stooge and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon casts doubt on meeting President Donald Trump in Scotland, SNP display lack of statesmanship, lack of class and lack of substance, how long can this inept leadership continue before a changing of the guard?

Dear All

Deary deary me, after Alex Salmond said that he suggested the Commons walkout to SNP Sheep leader at Westminster Ian Blackford, this has caused a stir. In a recent post earlier in the week I asked a question.

‘If people like Blackford are following advice from the likes of Salmond, then one wonders what the role of Nicola Sturgeon actually is now’. 

Now, it seems that less than a few days later, the SNP feel the need to declare that Salmond is not pulling the SNP’s strings at Westminster. Alex Salmond likes to claim credit for stuff, so here we have a mystery?

Salmond says he suggested the protest, so did Blackford clear it with SNP HQ?

Did Nicola Sturgeon approve it before it happened?

Why was Blackford talking to Salmond about this in the first place when he isn’t an MP?

It seems here we have more heat and less clarity from Ian Blackford who is merely a mouthpiece, his cringe worthy Westminster performances don’t inspire any faith that he has a handle on anything.

In order to lay the ghost of Salmond to rest, Blackford has decided that he wants to double down on his bitter personal attack against David Mundell over Brexit. There are times when you kept your mouth shut when you put your foot in it, Blackford hasn’t learned that trick yet. He also denounced the Scottish Secretary as “yellow” for not speaking in a debate but as the Speaker John Bercow said, it is for the Right honourable member to decide if he wants to speak, not anyone else. Blackford’s cry of ‘get up’ was a lowering of the tone of the House of Commons.

Prior to the rise in SNP numbers in 2015, the SNP were a joke, disliked by many, the increase in numbers hasn’t brought maturity only more idiots. It is clear that the SNP has a leadership crisis; its ranks are full of people who have no substance or vision. These people are not ‘stronger for Scotland’ as Nicola Sturgeon would have you believe but just the opposite. Of course, you can’t expect people to be perfect as an MP straight off the bat, that would be unreasonable, but the SNP haven’t mastered even commonsense. They look like a bunch of people who are on a day out to Westminster who made a wrong turning and found themselves in the Chamber and decided to play MP for a day.

So, here is a question has David Mundell been a “dismal failure” in his role at the Scotland Office?

Well, the answer is no, and you could say the sign of that is the fact he isn’t in a series of disasters and his ship is sailing happily along, wee visits here, wee visits there and a few receptions thrown in with a picture or two. So, what does Blackford mean when he says dismal failure, could it be that Mundell isn’t dancing to their tune? Maybe they should check their records because they may think he is a member.

As well as being called ‘yellow’, David Mundell has been accused of  “stabbing Scotland in the back” by the Nationalists, it seems that they are rolling out all the usual rubbish you would expect to find on a children’s playground, primary naturally!

Blackford said:

“He fails to stand up for Scotland as a country, fails to stand up for our Parliament, he sees us as subservient. That's why the Secretary of State needs to go. He is quite simply unfit for the office he holds.”

One wonders why Blackford hasn’t been public about SNP Health Sec Shona Robison, if there is a pressing need in Scotland for someone to go from ministerial office, Robison needs to be at the front of that queue. But alas not a peep from him about his own party’s ministers failings.

One thing which I have said before is the SNP using cut and paste ideas; it seems that the latest SNP walkout is a retread of Alex Salmond’s idea of protest; he walked out of the Commons during Chancellor Nigel Lawson’s 1988 Budget statement. What did that walkout achieve…… nothing, nothing then, nothing now.

Salmond said on the walkout:

"Certainly, that was my advice to Ian Blackford when he phoned me last Tuesday night and I was delighted to see him carry it through.”

So, what weight can we put on Blackford’s statement that Salmond wasn’t pulling the party leadership’s strings at Westminster?

And as I mentioned during the week, what is the role of Nicola Sturgeon now?

In the past, I blogged on the Court of King Alex and the Court of Nicola Sturgeon, Salmond was moved out of Holyrood so as not to overshadow Sturgeon, that plan didn’t work out as Salmond got pumped from the Commons by the snap election. The recent McDonald saga hasn’t provide him a route back, McDonald wants his three years salary despite the pressure put on him to leave. Salmond may have his RT show, but time is against him, Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, they are heading towards a major political crash.

You can smell it in the air!

Finally, one thing I find amusing is that unpopular Nicola Sturgeon has said President Trump shouldn’t be given the ‘red carpet’ treatment when he comes to the UK, and that she has no plans to meet Trump if he comes to visit Scotland. It seems that Sturgeon is continuing the SNP feud started by Salmond when they tried to get Trump to sign a pre-written letter supporting the release of Al Megrahi. If Trump had done this, he wouldn’t be President of the United States, and he did the right thing.

The latest reason by Sturgeon, Trump’s “appalling” child migrant policy, actually this was the policy of the Obama Administration. 

But here is some interesting news apparently it is being kept 'under review', somehow I doubt Trump has Nicola Sturgeon on his radar. Robert Wood Johnson, the US Ambassador to the UK, said this week that Mr Trump would meet the Queen, nice woman, someone with class unlike Nicola Sturgeon.

Mind you has the President any pictures of him and a woman with a 'pot belly', could be Nicola's ticket!!!!!!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University