Attack On Sturgeon From The SNP Mouse That Roared; Nationalist MP Pete Wishart criticises Nicola Sturgeon's, are the SNP waking up to the fact that Sturgeon’s support for a second Brexit vote is another example of her clumsy and ill-judged politics, Sturgeon missed the opportunity to talk about substance yet again, how long before the SNP elected MPs and MSPs tell her it is time to step aside?

Dear All

Many in the SNP hold their position because of one man, Alex Salmond, he gave them the opportunity to be MPs and MSPs, they certainly don’t have loyalty towards Nicola Sturgeon and the new regime.

Pete Wishart is a relic of the Salmond era, so in a sense he is a senior SNP MP, but despite being a complete banger who can go off on one from time to time, he has managed to understand Brexit, and the stupidity of putting your face against it.

As a senior SNP MP he is now openly criticising Nicola Sturgeon's support for a second Brexit vote, there will be no second, the die is cast on that, and for those interested in elections, don’t hold your breath for an early Westminster election. The budget by the government wasn’t an election budget. It was a run of the mill affair to calm the waters, splash some cash and tell everyone that everything is rosy in the garden.

However there are still a few thorns in the garden so careful where you step!

Nicola Sturgeon is hyped, like Salmond was to be seen as a ‘see all know all’ politician, the hype however doesn’t match the reality, wrong on indy, wrong on Trump, wrong on Brexit. Sturgeon was hopeless as Health Sec, had no impact taking over Alex Neil’s position, other than a few pictures standing beside a shovel or spade. Sturgeon’s constant trips out of Scotland to other countries were to try and build up her persona as a ‘statesman’ but she might as well have saved the airfares. 

Nicola Sturgeon is a fringe politician as seen by her agenda for government. If you had a blank piece of paper, could you remember the ‘big’ bills she has steered through Holyrood?

Probably not!

Sturgeon tinkers with policies, she doesn’t alter structures, not in any meaningful sense of how people would think or imagine change. Nicola Sturgeon cannot affect Brexit, in fact her antics coupled with that of her MPs effectively barred them having any meaningful contribution or input in the talks. When Pete Wishart condemns Sturgeon’s position as “little more than an open invitation to have our national view ignored and disrespected all over again”; he must realise that Sturgeon closed the door, the people on the other side can’t waste time opening to hear a meaningless rhetoric being spewed out.

  

Nicola Sturgeon was wrong to say that she and her MPs would back a so-called “People’s Vote” on the final Brexit deal. A serious point was downgraded by her into a pathetic attention seeking PR for publicity. Such was her ‘support;, she didn’t even go to the anti Brexit march, but instead sent a video message.

So, the question for Pete Wishart is he after all his talk and being the SNP’s longest-serving representative in Westminster going to follow the other sheep into the lobby to vote against the Brexit deal or will he vote with the UK government or abstain.

Is Pete Wishart too old to be a rebel or too old to be doing the right thing?

One thing that Wishart wrote in the pro-independence National newspaper was that , Scotland’s overwhelming vote to remain in the European Union was “totally ignored” in 2016.

The truth is that Scotland didn’t vote as a country to remain in the EU, this was a UK wide vote, why the Nationalists keep using this falsehood is easy to understand, they want people to think that the countries in the UK have each one vote. The reality is that the people of the UK in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales voted to leave the European Union.

A million Scots voted to leave!

Wishart said:

“To say that we will sign up to a referendum without any guarantee that our Scottish national voice will be at least acknowledged is little more than an open invitation to have our national view ignored and disrespected all over again. We are simply inviting all the indignities we are currently enduring to be replicated and refreshed.”

Wishart confuses the ‘national view’ as the SNP view.

One thing that Nicola Sturgeon’s stupidity did was weaken the SNP’s hand in that now they would have to say that there would be two votes on independence, if they ever won and that is highly unlikely, they would have to say that a second deal on the terms would be held.

Brexit gave the SNP an opportunity to be on the winning side, they chose the wrong side, they set themselves up for a fall; and on the night of the Euro count in Glasgow; their cheers were rather short lived. They were cocky that they had won, but later in the evening as I predicted the UK referendum was won by the Leave Campaign.

Leave won the people, 23^rd June 2016 was the true people’s vote!

What Pete Wishart’s public intervention means in reality is that the SNP MPs and presumably others are looking forward towards a post Sturgeon exit; she isn’t delivering a second Scottish independence referendum. The recent poll of a pro UK Holyrood in 2021 is a turning point in nationalist politics, back to the drawing board.

The first thing on the board will no doubt be a change of leader!

Finally, although some people might think that there is a load of talent in the nationalist ranks, you should take the story of Ian Blackford to heart, he stands up and says he is a ‘simple crofter’ then is publicly humiliated in the House of Commons as a Conservative MP tells him, the House and the TV audience that his ‘simple’ croft is valued at £500,000.

Clearly; these people are too stupid to run anything never mind a country.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University