Is SNP now an acronym for See No Point?
As the biggest party in Scotland weathers the multiplying scandals engulfing it, many may wonder what the party now stands for – and whether there’s any point in continuing to support it.
Single-handedly Scotland’s previously unchallengeable political party, the SNP, may have destroyed the prospect of independence for generations to come.
There’s little point in listing the problems surrounding it, since freshly damaging allegations are being added every day.
But one thing’s for sure. The old tactic of simply blaming everything on Westminster and the Tories is no longer sufficient to unite a party riven by intense personal rivalries and schisms.
The internecine warfare tearing the party asunder is clear for all to see.
Angus MacNeil, the MP for the Western Isles, has called for the SNP leadership election to be re-run, believing the arrest of the Peter Murrell, the party CEO and husband of Nicola Sturgeon, has compromised its legitimacy.
His suggestion was met with a tweeted response from the SNP MSP James Dornan which began ‘I’m not sure the ‘Eejit fae the Isles’ has thought this through’
This, remember, is happening in a party where, until just weeks ago, no public dissent about the party or colleagues was tolerated.
And it indicates the collapse of the famed discipline which was summed up in the phrase ‘Wheesht for Indy’.
That slogan was an open admission, indeed a boast, that no criticism of anything or anyone which damaged the prospect of independence was to be brooked.
That fundamental SNP target of independence now seems far distant.
Have other issues overshadowed SNP independence goals?
The leadership election demolished the big tent approach which traditionally accommodated the wide spectrum of political views housed under the SNP roof.
More recently, last week’s pictures of a blue police canvas structure pegged on the lawn of the First Minister’s house made the party look like the circus of horrors.
No one was mistaking that grim sight for a summer gazebo. Instead it clearly indicated that the party is well and truly over.
And now, with a long hot summer looming, they face a struggle to stop their big top from collapsing completely.
A once sure-footed party is now commandeered by out-of-touch careerists and activists pursuing issues which the wider public regard as irrelevant to their daily lives.
And still they can’t read the room.
Leader Humza Yousaf seems intent on pursuing Sturgeon’s ill-fated strategy of challenging the UK Government’s Section 35 order which blocked the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, to allow people to change gender more quickly than at present.
With polls indicating that less than one in five Scots supports such a challenge the party seems determined to press the self destruct button.
SNP is to blame for the mess it’s in
Absolute power corrupts absolutely goes the old saying. And the SNP have been untrammelled, with the support of the Greens, in exercising their power.
Starmer and Labour are opening a huge lead over the Tories. And in Scotland too there are signs of a Labour party resurgence.
A summary of the past week for the SNP. During *recess*. pic.twitter.com/aR6JjcCROe
— Cat Headley (@Cat_Headley) April 11, 2023
The gap between the SNP and the party which once regarded Scotland as its fiefdom, has narrowed to around half a dozen points.
It’s hard to see what the wider independence movement can do, other than continue to fracture, given the deep antagonism between those independence supporters who aren’t in the SNP and those who remain.
Some tin foil hat conspiracy theorists will still suggest UK state involvement as the cause of their problems. But it’s the SNP which is responsible for the potential demise of its own cause.
Conversation