The Slow Painful Political Death of Nicola Sturgeon, in a desperate attempt to shore up her ebbing support in and out of the SNP, Sturgeon banks on a go-it-alone Indyref2 idea, the SNP think stalling for time will save Sturgeon, but for her and them, there is no tomorrow

Dear All 

The "state" of this country is appalling!

We have a failing economy in Scotland, we have a failed Parliament in Scotland, we have a failing National Health Service in Scotland, we have Scottish councils denied proper funding, in which we pay more, and they deliver less. In the streets of Glasgow, the second city of the empire, it is blighted by filth and rubbish. The incompetence of the Scottish National Party is aptly summed up in a nutshell by the spectacular fall of Humza Yousaf misusing a mobility aid. Yousaf in every job he was appointed as Minister has been a disaster, it is so obvious that the calls for him to resign now echo as mainstream news in the quality papers. To find someone who was known as talentless, you only have to look at Keith Brown, who took over the job that Yousaf failed at. One thing which did amuse me was the Sunday, open air music festival in George Square, which speakers called for independence, woefully under attended because people aren't interested. Up at the Donald Dewar statue in Buchanan Street, an indy crowd were vocally denouncing SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon. Oh how the world has turned, in many ways Nicola Sturgeon is like Tony Blair of New Labour, promising much but failing to deliver. 

In Sturgeon's desperate attempt to stave off dissent within her crumbling party, she needs to be seen to have delivered on a second independence referendum. She has enemies within her party, enemies in the Yes Movement, and enemies in wider Scotland. Indyref 2 for her is a lifeboat to keep her afloat in power. Nicola Sturgeon is keenly aware that once she steps down as leader of the SNP, she wouldn't be moving on to bigger and brighter things. Historically once an SNP leader steps down, they don't progress in life, there is no UN job, there is EU job, there is no World Health Organisation job waiting in the wings. There is nothing but the pension. Gordon Brown has been appointed as ambassador at World Health Organisation, such a position wouldn't be offered to Nicola Sturgeon. In the global world, Sturgeon isn't a key player, she also doesn't rank as a person of interest. But the real objection to people like her is the undeniable fact that she isn't a team player in global UK. 

The Scottish National Party is a nasty vicious little gang which has wrestled control of power in Scotland and instead of using that power for good, it has abused utterly that trust it has been given. There is no better Scotland under the SNP, every area they control has been degraded, some areas more than others. The CV of Nicola Sturgeon is a CV of decimating a country, dividing a country, fostering division and destroying democratic accountability. As the pressure turns up on Sturgeon, the open fracture in the Yes Movement can't be repaired by a few stooges like Keith Brown and Mhairi Black turning up to a few indy marches. And of course, there is the issue of women's rights which is another pressure cooker waiting to explode hence her buying the Scottish Green Party as an extension of the SNP. 

Bought cheap! 

In the storm that is coming, we see sporadic threats of a wildcat independence referendum banded about. Nicola Sturgeon’s threat to hold a second independence referendum without Westminster consent is a symptom of desperation. It is so unattractive as a proposition that is opposed by the majority of Scottish people, according to new polling. Regardless of polling, the legal reality is in order to hold a referendum, you need legal consent via a Section 30 order from Westminster. And under Boris Johnson, such a requested by Nicola Sturgeon has been refused, and will always be refused during his tenure as Prime Minister. With the road ahead blocked, the road behind blocked, where does Nicola Sturgeon go, the obvious answer is out! The problem is no one wants her in her post FM world, maybe she had dreams of an EU career in Brussels as a placeman on a big salary from the Commission, but that is gone. If you check out the recent busted up between the French and the US, UK and Australia over a £90 billion submarine contract, you can see a French veto to anyone working overtime in the EU to anyone like Sturgeon trying to get her feet under the table. Sturgeon will never be a world leader, you can see this as the unwelcome sign has been flagged up for the big COP26 conference in Glasgow by Boris and Co. Personally, I would deem her a security risk and bar her from the official sites. As the grim news hits Sturgeon and the SNP, over new polling, excluding don't knows, 53% said any new indyref polling should be up to Westminster. There will be no Indyref 2 by the end of 2023, on Nicola Sturgeon's timetable, because her timetable is about saving her career, so why should Boris agree to that. There is no advantage to him, nor any advantage to the Scottish Conservatives, they need her decline to continue, they need to let her own side push her out. 

The pandemic is coming to an end, and then the real focus will be global UK and recovery from the pandemic. If Sturgeon wants to pass a meaningless Referendum Bill regardless with her SNP-Green majority at Holyrood, it will be unlawful. And it will be challenged in the UK Supreme Court, that is assuming that the Holyrood Presiding Officer is spineless enough to let this incompetent bill pass without striking it down. The SNP Government track record at the UK Supreme Court is exceptionally poor. The only value this Bill would have to Nicola Sturgeon would seem to lie in buying her breathing space and trying to 'unite the clans'. Of course, tactically Alba would back her on the indyref 2 in principle, but when it comes crashing down, they will swiftly distance themselves, this failure will be pinned on the SNP-Green coalition. Salmond is playing the long game, he is trying to hive off various elements such as the Asians for Independence and CND, and also the women's vote, and Sturgeon gave him the ideal stick to beat her with. 

In order to get a hearing, Nicola Sturgeon needs to get over the consistent support for Indyref 2 set at 60%. There is no way she can do this legally which is why a minor plan of trying to wrestle immigration control from Westminster has been ongoing for years. The idea is to import certain minorities who would be friendly to the SNP. In return for their votes and a passport, they would use Scotland as a super highway into England and the rest of the UK. Sturgeon would hand out Scottish passports like confetti under an immoral scheme to gerrymander an indyref 2 win. She and the SNP would change the rules to simple steal people of Scotland's country out from under them. She would then join the EU, destroying the country with cuts and high taxes to the deficit of 20% down to the EU requirement of 3% for membership. Sturgeon would then sell off all our assets, oil, fishing etc and turn the country into a basket case, probably worse than Greece. She would have to do it quickly because if she wants a Brussels job, then time and age would be against her. 

Finally, the real fight in Scotland is to get rid of the SNP, they think that the worse they make Scotland the easier it will be to win an indy vote. But, people will wake up to the fact that to save themselves and their communities, they need to change their mindset on voting. This may mean voting for new parties who are committed to working constructively with the rest of the UK, or centre right parties such as the Scottish Conservatives, who will have to soften their edges to be more socially conservative. The Labour Party has abandoned the working class totally, in Scotland, their polling is around 17% give or take, but that leaves an opportunity for somebody to nip in and seize that opportunity. Not just promising better services, but delivering in better services, and securing extra funding from Westminster. Nicola Sturgeon doesn't have a future, and when she goes that creates the vacuum because she burnt all the bridges to ensure there wasn't an heir in waiting, and done so deliberately.

Yours sincerely 

George Laird                                                                                                                                The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University