The Ruination of Scotland, former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars ‘flags up’ that Nicola Sturgeon is misleading independence supporters by “pretending” there will be a second referendum in 2020, so what’s the plan Nicola, keep supporters waving flags and deflection to get to Holyrood 2021 election, but the seeds of SNP dissent are already planted, they are spouting fresh green shoots towards ending her leadership, Sturgeon has destroyed Scotland

Dear All

What is worse being conned or people knowing you have been conned? I suppose it depends on the degree of the first, affects the whether the second is more relevant. The average Nat is a brain washed stooge who blindly follows in Nicola Sturgeon’s wake. Why do they do this, it is because they have ‘found’ a cause, something that they think will solve injustices in Scotland. The painful truth, the actuality is the SNP are responsible for the ruination of Scotland by deliberate neglect. So, while Nicola plays her deceitful little petty games to hang onto power, wealth and influence, the neglect is ignored because of a mistaken belief, everything will get solved by independence.

It won’t!

Scottish independence makes everything worse; especially for the very people who have the most to lose, the poor; they are the people who have been abused politically because they live in poverty. No endless smoke and mirrors or baby hugging can paper over the chasm that Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t care. 

Now, the former deputy leader of the SNP, Jim Sillars has accused Nicola Sturgeon of misleading independence supporters by “pretending” there will be a second referendum on Scotland leaving the UK this year. He has effectively called Nicola Sturgeon out; there won’t be a second independence referendum this year or any other year while Boris Johnson is Prime Minister.

If anyone thinks that even if the SNP win a majority in Holyrood 2021 that is the Golden Ticket to an indy vote, they will be getting disappointed twice, no indy vote 2020, no indy vote 2021. In the SNP at present, there is a division within the party, the Sturgeon cult who has got the majority to swallow nonsense, and the minority who aren’t buying what Sturgeon is punting. It doesn’t matter how many street marches the SNP or the AUOB do because these events are politically worthless and don't cause support to rise, in fact you could say the marches are a kind of therapy. But deep down the marchers must know that there is something wrong, in fact I suspect when they hear the couched language of Nicola Sturgeon, they know all is lost.

One thing however is certain, when SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon leaves the political battle field; she will do so with a shed load of money and pension contributions, that is her truth, I doubt she will hang around and attempt the post leader statesman route. She will be gone, any campaigning materials at home will be put in the bin, and she will be looking for someone to take a chance on her outside the SNP bubble. After seeing how Alex Salmond fared, I doubt anyone will come a calling, no big city of London jobs; no UN or EU jobs, basically it’s the financial lifeboat for her!

Sturgeon is due to give a speech on Friday how she intends to secure Indyref2 despite Boris Johnson’s flat refusal to give Holyrood the powers to hold it. This is an event to buy time, it is one in a series of stunts to run down the clock before campaigning starts for Holyrood 2021. Then the final stunt of this strategy is of course her telling people that she and the SNP need a majority to secure indyref 2.

You could call it her last major lie before that vote!

As the clock runs down for Brexit and our exit on the 31^st January, Senior SNP figures will attend events and vigils to mark what they call “Scotland’s unwanted exit” from the European Union. The truth is this is SNP’s unwanted exit for the EU. A million Scots voted to leave the EU in a UK wide vote in 2016.

Recently Jim Sillars, who served as deputy leader of the party between 1991 and 1992, criticised those joining marches and rallies in support of independence.

He wrote:

"That 45% can march every weekend, while the Unionist majority goes shopping and remains unpersuaded.  We in the minority know it is those shoppers we need to discuss things with, in a civilised manner, and convert. A longer process than a few months; and one that cannot have any worth until we know the final details of the Brexit negotiations."

Brexit makes Scottish independence even less likely, once the global UK trading kicks in and the UK gets back on its feet and proves to be a success, the likelihood of them forming a coherent argument becomes more distant. Salmond tried to bounce us into independence poverty with a jolly fat man act and a big smile; that failed. Sturgeon can’t even fake being likeable even with her industrial child hugging act. A horrible person like her hugging children comes off as rather odd and plain weird. In a dig at Sturgeon’s SNP, Jim Sillars also questioned if there was enough "intellectual rigour" in the arguments for another referendum.

He said:

"In my political apprentice years, I was taught by old school socialists that the application of intellectual rigour was an essential mental tool when considering policies. That quality is sadly missing, if it ever was there, in today's SNP leadership. Just a few minutes' study of the idea of an illegal referendum that scrapes past the courts (most unlikely) shows what a nonsense it is. The Unionist majority will take no part, so the SNP ends up with a majority of a minority. What happens then? I have yet to learn of plan B."

He is right, if the idea of an illegal referendum coming from the SNP fringe is Plan B; there is a wide mental gulf in the party. Sturgeon will not be putting her wealth, position and pension on the line. She is a woman look for time extensions, short term gimmicks to distract all the way to the short campaign for Holyrood 2021.

An SNP spokeswoman said:

“Scotland is due to be dragged out of Europe against its will in a matter of days – in those circumstances we are determined to give the people of Scotland a choice on the country’s future in an independence referendum. There is a resounding democratic mandate for a referendum, and the longer that Boris Johnson tries to block it the more that support for a referendum, and for independence, will continue to grow across Scotland.”

Today, Holyrood is to debate whether the EU flag should be kept flying at Parliament. The country is in crisis but Nicola Sturgeon can’t even pretend to care. For Sturgeon it is all about flags and keeping the gullible waving them whether at rallies or in the streets. All the while her Cult and herself pocket the UK’s cash and build up their nest egg while at the same time, our education services suffer, our health services suffer and our vulnerable desperately need help. Nicola Sturgeon is all about meaningless gestures like her commitment to take in a refugee and never did. She talks about making Scotland better but her and her Cult has only made it worse. Scotland is a country in crisis but until we get rid of the SNP and its identity politics, things will only get worse.

Finally, you have to wonder whether the ruination of Scotland was due to deliberate acts or rank stupidity on the part of the SNP. Increasingly we are seeing the start of a groundswell of public opinion regarding the failures of Nicola Sturgeon to deliver for Scotland. But we as a country need more than groundswell, we need a tsunami to wash over our country and return it back to the people. At present this country is being run for the benefit of the few at the expense of our social fabric. Jim Sillars is spot on when he talks about how Nicola Sturgeon is misleading independence supporters by “pretending” there will be a second referendum on Scotland leaving the UK this year. Eventually her own wider party will turn on her as well that the Yes Movement, the seeds of dissent aren’t just already planted, they are spouting fresh green shoots.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University