The party hierarchy decided members should not be allowed to vote on routes to Independence that do not depend on the permission of Boris Johnson. To give party members a chance to register their concern, I have decided to go forward as a candidate for President. I do so not in the hope of winning (I won’t beat longstanding party servant Mike Russell), but because the ordinary members need to be able to show that they are not happy with the lack of focus on Independence and the closed nature of the party establishment – which two things are related.
Every vote for me is a vote for early Independence and no veto for Boris Johnson. Independence must be obtained within two years. It will not be given, we must take it.
The party appears to have no plan that could deliver Independence before 2026 at the earliest. Instead of conference being allowed to debate Plan B, there will be a “discussion” on “Independence in the Future”. It is plain that for many of the party’s very well paid elected officials and functionaries, that future is some far off optional destination, not an immediate arrival.
Obviously I shall be writing more on this in the next month. My opening shot is here, as an advert in the National newspaper.
My announcement has brought a great deal of twitter vituperation from the pillars of the political class – mainstream media journalists and SNP paid staff and leadership acolytes. Plainly democratic choice is not high on their agenda. Some are absolutely astonished that a candidate not approved by the leadership should have the temerity to stand, and not only that, but actually have the nerve to ask people to vote for them.
Mostly though it is just intellect free vituperation, on quite a wide scale:
That was just the first little period. There are huge amounts more of this stuff, much of it from paid SNP staffers. For those of a morbid mind with plenty of free time, the linkages between SNP staffers and unionist journos on twitter are really quite interesting to trace.
I should point out that I have said nothing in the least critical of Mike Russell or Corri Wilson. This is all entirely unprovoked.
A party where the Chief Executive is married to the leader and has a secret salary kept from members is not a healthy party. Particularly when he is then seeking to pressurise police into taking action against the last leader. This is not good.
I leave you with a last thought. Only rebels from the Establishment have ever won Independence, anywhere. We will never be given Independence, we will have to take it. Who is the most likely to play a useful role in that?
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Craig Murray for President of the SNP. Craig Murray for President of the Republic of Scotland.
Craig, SNP members that do care about the restoration of Scotland’s national sovereignty need a voting guide. A list of SNP nominees can be found on http://www.WingsoverScotland.com for 31/10/2020 at 12.50pm.
You and Joanna Cherry obviously are obvious choices to nominate. Who else should be nominated? Who NOT to nominate apart from Alyn Smith?
I am standing for the Lothian seat on Policy Committee I can recommend Chis Hanlon for Convener of Policy Committee and a member of Conference Committee.
Good to hear Tim – is this a new role for you which would mean you have more influence on policy? Or are you standing to retain a seat? Whichever it is, more people like yourself in any position of influence within the SNP is a good thing, and I’m glad you are sticking with it.
I would also encourage anyone else to seriously consider any of your recommendations. (I personally know nothing about SNP internal structure or who is who, but I’d trust your judgement on anyone).
Good luck with your campaign!
Good luck and perseverance in this new endeavor!
A party, or any organisation where the top two posts are held by a married couple, however squeaky clean, is not a healthy organisation. Everything flows down from them, with the result that staff are going to conclude that to be ‘in’ with either of them guarantees their job and status, and worse, that the prevailing ideas and policies are under lock and key with a joint leadership, with absolutely no checks, balances or internal opposition – which of course would be a normal, healthy situation. It leaves no room for dissent, alternatives or policy which is the result of open debate. It also means you have a leadership which, because of the personal nature of their control, is not inclined, or afraid, to allow legitimate challenges to their fiefdom. They are prisoners of their own duopoly. You can see the result in their determination to exclude debates, candidates and branch independence. It should never have been allowed, and there ought to be a structure which guarantees challenge and fresh thinking, however inconvenient it is to the executive, who have come to believe, in that despotic way, that they are not just the party, but the country too. The reaction to Craig’s challenge only proves not just the hegemony of the court, but the desperately supplicant nature of their courtiers. If anything, if Craig tears that up, and opens up the party to legitimate scrutiny and accountability, he will have done them and us a vital service. But of course, he will get showered with shit for his boldness and independence. Prepare to have everything he has ever said trolled for crimes against the thought police. And plenty he hasn’t.
I expect they are trawling their rulebook to find a way to exclude Craig or shut him up. I mean, they even do that to their own heavyweight successes (Joanna Cherry).
Two of the derisory tweets above call Craig a “zoomer”. What does that mean? (A DuckDuckGo search comes up with “born in the 1990s”, so I’m guessing it’s something else.)
A Scottish west coast working class originated humourous description of someone off their rocker, similar to other descriptions like, rocket, weapon & pellet.
May the force be with you Craig Murray.
Thanks
There was a discussion about the meaning a few years ago, when somebody called Craig a “massive zoomer”: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/05/laura-kuenssberg-meet-barbara-streisand/comment-page-1/#comment-596804
KoWN: OK, I give up. What’s a ‘massive zoomer’?
James: It’s a big zoomer.
Shatnersrug: Nah it’s bigger than a big zoomer but smaller than a gigantic zoomer
Fred: It’s a Scottish term, originally describing youths who take magic mushrooms; it got used to describe the more fanatical and irrational on both sides of the independence debate.
not sure abt ‘zoomers’, but dogs can have the zoomies: “….When you dog runs around the house like crazy jumping on the couch, running up and down the stairs, and all over the house. It usually ends with them falling to the floor, panting like crazy and taking a nap….” – https://www.urbandictionary.com
I don’t know. Someone who moves around very fast?
I’m beginning to doubt that any of those comments are from real people. Their comments demonstrate complete cluelessness, and a real lack of understanding what the priorities are.
But perhaps that’s what happens to those who get sucked into politics so completely. They become one-track minds that have forgotten why they are there, and so just attack anything and everyone that is not oneself.
“before Gen Z was established, zoomer was used to refer to especially active baby boomers”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/words-were-watching-zoomer-gen-z
All the best Craig.
It is pathetic that the clowns highlighted and others are so against anyone but the clique.
When I mention Craig Murray to those on the SNP payroll, one of the standard responses is to question his sanity. I have no doubts that he is sane and that he is right in much of his analysis. Since I left the SNP earlier this year, disappointed at the authoritarian and anti-democratic practices, I too have been targeted with ” Oh him ? He’s crazy.” A prophet is a man without honour in his own land
Help rolling in the wooden horse, EVERYBODY knows that Cassandra is crazy.
It’s because they fear his truth that they denigrate him. Despicable childlike fools that they are.
If I was to join the SNP now would I get a vote?
More power to you Craig Murray
“Only rebels from the Establishment have ever won Independence, anywhere. We will never be given Independence, we will have to take it.”
Indeed. The odds on any of those ultra-establishment shills being remembered as a hero of Scotrish independence would be stratospheric. Probably in the 10,000s to 1 bracket.
I haven’t followed the Plan B debate too closely. But assuming the SNP win big next year, and assuming Johnson, as predicted, rejects granting an S30, then the best way to proceed would surely be for the SNP to call a one-off special conference to democratically decide the way forward from a range of options.
This would silence critics, and one person, i.e., Sturgeon, couldn’t be accused of some ego-driven crusade pushing through of a referendum for selfish reasons / aggrandisement. A transparent, democratic decision can be defended much more robustly in any campaign too. Also the UK govt will be more wary, knowing the party’s full weight is behind any decision.
Well done Craig! That’ll teach them. I hope you get a helluva lot of votes. If nothing else you’ve brought out the 77th brigade for us all to see. I’ll see how many I can stalk and try to get banned from Twitter.
Good luck Craig I hope you win as General Macarther said though the battalions of evil are mighty the battalions of good are mightier still
The SNP have become like the big two establishment Westminster parties – only interested in us when they want to be elected, then the shutters come down and their functioning become a complete mystery. The UK’s ‘secrecy first’ mindset, officialdom and preference for inner circle decision making, are why so many things are handled so very badly in the UK; the lack of transparency and objectively poor decision making actually do real damage. The secrecy, apparatchiks and internal scheming are the one thing Craig could help end.
Ooh Craig, you are awful….but I like you.
Good luck to you!
Good luck with your campaign Craig!!
Plan B in action. I hope you win Craig but if not at least it is in the public domain now that Plan B has started.
I have a feeling that we are not ever going to get our independence through the SNP. The party seems only to be in love with the idea of independence but lack the will or the balls to actually go out and make it happen. I fear the SNP is a lost cause even with Craig involved. An alternative independence party with a bit of passion and fight in them is the way forward.
BRILLIANT PLAN, GO FOR IT!! at the same time so glad I follow and receive your messages through email, far fewer twitterari & twats. be well sir!
One cannot as a democrat do anything but wish Mr Murray well in what is an entirely legitimate course of action.
In a democracy, if there is a rule book describing the procedures for electing a President, then anyone qualified to stand is entirely justified in making a decision so to do.
I have no skin in the game, but I will say this. The greatest dominatrix in UK politics in the 20th century, Margaret Thatcher, was gone within 12 months of facing a challenge from a ‘No hoper’ Baronet named Sir Anthony Meyer. I had the pleasure of having Sir Anthony and his wife as my clients in a Swiss Ski Resort in February 1990 and he was an admirably humane person. I didn’t agree with all his views, but his courtesy, respect for others and respect for what Thatcher had achieved in the past were exemplary for a Conservative MP (I didn’t have to agree with all his views, but I was absolutely prepared to respect them in such a thoughtful and courteous individual).
Sir Anthony didn’t get that far in his formal challenge, but her impregnability never returned, particularly as she had made her classic error of testing out her most unpopular policy amongst precisely those who had refused to vote for her.
I see what you mean and understand your frustration. The question I ask myself is ‘what would and SNP look like if the leadership were infiltrated by the security services’ I then look at the current state of the party and try to see differences.
However, how can any party wishing to be seen as a mainstream, legal party offer UDI as an alternative to a referendum? How can it seek to have the levers of control necessary to push for such a referendum if it is not such a mainstream party. The point of being mainstream is to normalise the idea of independence for Scotland, so far this has worked. Support for independence has more than doubled in my lifetime and much of that in the last ten years. 2026 is six years away – I can hear that many say SIX YEARS? But it is ONLY six years and the result, independence, will be permanent.
With good mainstream governance, excellent handling of the COVID situation and progressive policies that people can really get behind SNP has built support from people like me who were lifelong, dyed in the wool Labour supporters. I would NEVER have considered voting for another party until just a few years ago. With support nearing 60% now, how long until support for independence is so embarrassingly high that the UK government will no longer be able to ignore it?
Craig,
I see you as a highly effective advocate – not in anyway a potentially good politician ( you are far too honest for that).
I BELIEVE THAT I TOLD YOU THAT ONCE BEFORE WHEN YOU RAN.
Anyway – each to his own.
Cheers.
Courtenay
Courtenay Barnett. Craig, I and many of your supporters are concerned for you. You are the first to stand up for the truth and have repeatedly had to pay a heavy price. I agree with Courtenay, you going into politics will add even more stress than you have already been subjected to by these dangerous Cretins. The SNP like the Labour Party has been captured by the Security State. Why should you keep sacrificing yourself? We, your supporters know what you have already suffered.
Yes. Sadly, those who tell the truth are generally seen as poor candidates for political office.
Good luck:)
(One of those racists from deepest East Kent)
You’re spending too much time on Twitter.
But if you want some mud to throw at Nicola Sturgeon, consider that a second clampdown will soon occur in Scotland on more or less the same basis as in England. (All the differences so far have been minor, in effect just for the sake of a bit of localist grandstanding and brand-assistance.) The question is why schools are being left open. The New York Times asks this question but they don’t give a reasonable answer. All they do is quote European politician twats who talk about the “need for education”. Yeah right. The line is also being put out that it’s a pain in the neck for parents to have to spend so much time with their children. (Were there no contraceptives or something?) The assault on the working class family continues.
Psyops groundwork has already been done to link “schools” with “food for the chavs” in people’s minds.
With universities, there is the additional reason that the banks consider 18-year-olds to be their property. If people don’t get into debt at 18, how will the banks get them into debt that’s big enough for them to stay mired in until their 40s? Closing the universities in October would have meant basically the banks writing off a large chunk of their expected assets and then going insolvent.
Does any candidate for the SNP presidency have a view on the above, or is independence (i.e. fighting foreigners without and within) by far and away the most important “issue” “for Scotland”?
The schools are remaining open otherwise the parents would have to take time off work to look after the kids. That’s what it’s really about, the ‘economy’, nothing to do with education.
So long as schools remain open, so lockdowns every few months will continue to happen.
Every single one of these ‘politicians’ know this but they continue to lie to the public by insisting that schools are safe.
They’s so safe in fact, that kids are being forced to wear masks in class now.
And yet, nobody challenges Sturgeon or Johnson.
There ought to be riots on the street over this.
Craig I profess myself surprised that you are still a member of the party the high levels of which are more than happy for you and Mark Hirst to be prosecuted for non crimes.
News today that a high level party committee has agreed no Indy before 2031. The SNP has very clearly stopped being the party of independence but continuing dependence. With Johnson at No10, independence support at at least 56% and rising and the spectre of a hard Brexit looming the time has never been better to strike for independence.
The longer we wait the more people will become used to the new normality of Brexit, our EU citizen Scots will drift away due to the Home Office Hostile Environment. Labour might get elected at WM (albeit thoroughly Blairite New Labour) while kids who have never known anything but SNP govt desire change.
Come join us in the ISP, I have little doubt you will be made most welcome. Abandon this no hoper, Woke infested party of dependence. Come join a genuine Yes party opposed to Self ID and Wokeism as part of our founding DNA.
I’ll rejoin and vote for you. Change doesn’t happen by sitting on yer arse doing nothing. Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.
If they all need to herd together like that for comfort, then you must be onto something.
Good luck! Am sure there will be much more weak bullying like this, but stay the course and drag them out of their comfortable status quo.
I wonder if being labelled a conspiracy theorist, when you are a supporter of the truth, is the secular equivalent of being labelled anti-semite in this day and age, and worth action for libel and / or a complaint to the EHRC on the grounds of being discriminated against for speaking the truth.
As far as I understand, these things aren’t libellous because they are “a matter of opinion”.
Any Indyref2 win would make it a draw. There would then have to be Indyref3 once the terms of departure were agreed. The confirmatory referendum. And that referendum would arrive when it was plain and clear that the moon on a stick drivel the Indie crowd had spent years peddling was a far cry from the reality.
Alternatively, a binding referendum could be arranged once it was established what the terms would be. This would take some years to arrange and once again, would have very little in common with the pipedream peddled by the Indie side.
Either way, Scotland will not vote for Independence.
Every sensible Scot should vote for you, Mr. Murray, Baron would if it were possible, ignore the to$$ers, their obsequiousness to the rotten top of the party stinks, malodorously, far beyond the borders of Scotland.
Good luck.
Long, detailed articles = conspiracy peddler. That’s about the intellectual level of the left these days. If the topic isn’t about gay stuff, immigration (pro of course), diversity, or whatever dull nonsense is currently in the newspapers, their pitiful NPC minds can’t compute. It’s a sad indictment of the education system to be honest, where is the intellectual curiosity? Craig would be a good SNP President, which is of course precisely the reason he won’t win.
Over here in Oz, I’ve been genuinely troubled by some of the policies recently being floated by the SNP. Sargon was calling them National Socialists, though I’m sure he was partially trolling. They are terribly authoritarian though, and Nicola will do basically anything to stay in power – including, of course, staying in the union. Hopefully the Salmond scandal will bring her down, but I guess we have to wait for Covid to end. Covid will, if they have their way, never end.
Anyway, good luck to Craig. I’d bet he gets a much larger share than the above Twitter clowns would like.