Nicola Sturgeon’s Bad SNP Conference Breakdown, obligatory sound bites, the haunting of Alex Salmond hanging over the hall, denial over Brexit, using the Conservatives as the bogeyman (again), fire fighting to play for time, and the elephant in the room, the SNP maybe sitting in a pro UK majority Holyrood parliament 2021, is this really what Kenny MacAskill thinks passes for ‘game on’?

Dear All

They say with age brings wisdom; you could make the case for that but what if someone goes the other way and starts babbling nonsense? How do you react to that scenario? You either put up with it, tell them to shut up or you bolt before they fry you brain with undue stress.

Kenny MacAskill has said the SNP ‘had a good conference with Nicola Sturgeon’s speech’; the truth is her speech was lacklustre, boring, devoid of excitement, and an exercise in managing the membership. 

If having a good conference equals Nicola Sturgeon parroting the obligatory sound bites then you can see why the SNP is in such dire straits. This is a party which doesn’t have a narrative for the future. Brexit left the SNP leadership high and dry as the UK moves forward into this new stage of global Britain.

Nicola Sturgeon urging SNP supporters to be patient is a face saving exercise to buy her time, because since she took over as leader from Alex Salmond, she has lead the party on a downward spiral.

The polls don’t lie; Nicola Sturgeon has failed as a leader.

To attempt to paint a picture that the SNP are close to their ultimate goal and it is in sight shows a lack of failure to grasp reality, and while this continues with Sturgeon at the helm, their problems in and out of government just increase. 

One funny little story going the rounds is that the Glasgow South SNP MP has said that the SNP would support a minority Labour government, in exchange for getting rid of nuclear weapons. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has rejected any possibility of a pact.

The UK isn’t going to get rid of nuclear weapons.

If you know anything about politics, the only good thing about the SNP Conference for Nicola Sturgeon is that it is over. MacAskill says that internal party discipline remains strong, well given the SNP operates like a cult, a party within a party, you would find this no surprise. The real problem for the SNP is not those who are in the cult but those members who are on the outside, the ‘worker bees’. Sturgeon’s problems have only been shunted down the line to the next trial by fire, the next SNP Conference. 

Although the Cult manages the agenda of the Conference, the dissent will spill over into the fringe events first; then will come protests outside. People will abandon the SNP and drift towards the Yes Movement which will want to keep the SNP at arms length.

The SNP Conference was the same as usual, the bogeyman was the Conservatives, with the SNP; the bogeyman is always going to be the Conservatives. In what must be hype, hope or delusion, the former justice minster said ‘Independence has to be won but the union’s no longer so safe and secure’.

What he fails to grasp is that there is a new UK emerging post Brexit!

There is a new UK emerging post Brexit which the SNP have no part in developing, they are bystanders as the Constitution evolves, this leaves the SNP unable to win independence because future changes will leave them more isolated politically. 

Having gone from 56 MPs to 35 MPs, in two years, the direction of travel doesn’t place them in the driving seat.

On the issue of the wee silly marches, Kenny MacAskill thinks that the recent Edinburgh march was somehow a success, in that it was a ‘huge and symbolic event’, no, it wasn’t huge and it wasn’t symbolic either. Saying this march galvanised the cause as well as the conference is laughable, this SNP Conference was haunted the spectre of one man who wasn’t there, Alex Salmond.

Alex Salmond, the ghost in the hall, the elephant not welcomed in the room, the man of roubles. At present, he has his own troubles to contend with;

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/25/alex-salmond-accused-touching-womans-bottom-breasts-leaked-sexual/

One thing which will have read from me is that the next Holyrood election is the most important since the parliament opened, which is why there is the major argument for an early independence date with the prospect that pro UK parties will hold the majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament post-2021.

How long have I been going on about the 2021 election and what is means?

Ages!!!!!!!!

Nicola Sturgeon cannot get a Section 30 order in this term of Holyrood, and if it all goes pear shaped, post 2021, she might have enough seats for minority government but at present not enough support in the parliament to get a referendum bill through.

Where does that leave the SNP post 2021?

How long will the SNP members listen to Nicola Sturgeon’s appeal for “Perseverance, Pragmatism and Patience” before they openly call for new leadership and her removal, Salmond fell on his rubber sword, but will a coup force Sturgeon out?

Finally, Kenny MacAskill highlights something which we all know, he says the SNP need to get a grip of problems in the public services, which the SNP effectively paid lip service to as they ran off to chase indy. The problem is that the SNP don’t have a vision for public services, just as they don’t have a vision for independence beyond hype.

The result of the next Holyrood election is becoming the new priority for Scotland as it is effectively ‘game over’ for Brexit, we are leaving. The fact the SNP is stuck fighting Brexit when they can’t change it shows this is a party out of steam, the SNP make no impact at Westminster beyond their foolish petty childish antics, amazingly they think this passes for strategy.

For the SNP, the challenge is how to deal with the post Sturgeon landscape.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University