Nicola Sturgeon is discarded, having served her purpose for the British Establishment once she obtained the UK Supreme Court judgment that Scotland could not hold a referendum on Independence.
That fight was deliberately thrown by Sturgeon’s unionist Lord Advocate. After almost nine years of leading Independence supporters into a whole series of blind alleys, with promise after promise broken to deliver a referendum, and mandate after mandate squandered, she appears to have shattered the Independence movement.
Throughout this nine years, Sturgeon was sustained and promoted by the unionist media.
She pretended she wanted Independence, and they pretended to attack her for it.
Meanwhile Sturgeon was given an extraordinarily easy ride over the real failings of her government. The achievements of Alex Salmond in building an extremely efficient reputation for the SNP’s ability to manage the business of government, were all knocked back.
The collusion of the unionist media in hiding Sturgeon’s role in the attempt to frame Alex Salmond on false charges – a conspiracy orchestrated from her office and her husband’s office – showed the Sturgeon/Unionist axis in operation.
Salmond of course was rightly perceived by the unionists as a much more genuine threat to the union. They had a joint interest with Sturgeon in putting him away.
The main cause of bad government performance was Sturgeon’s compulsion to sideline all people of real talent in the SNP, and surround herself only with the extremely mediocre, who would never challenge her.
No leader genuinely concerned with the good of the country would ever appoint Shirley-Anne Somerville to be a minister.
Scotland has slid down the international tables, in healthcare, in education, in substance abuse, in almost every important area. The ferries debacle has been a disaster for the island communities.
Much of this has been a result of the SNP gradualists walking into the devolution trap. Devolution forces the government in Holyrood to try to mitigate the effects of Tory policies, with resources constrained by Tory austerity and hands tied by neo-con fiscal policy.
Devolution is a dead end filled with poison gas. Sturgeon’s lack of urgency to escape from it was inexplicable.
Sturgeon’s place in history will be as the woman who saved the Union in its hour of maximum danger – the moment the UK left the European Union, against the will of the large majority of Scottish people expressed in a referendum.
Having saved the Union then, Sturgeon went on to obtain the Supreme Court ruling against a referendum and subsequently shattered the Independence movement over identity politics.
She succeeded, by refusal to listen sympathetically to concerns of others, to unleash a wave of hatred towards trans people from those who had previously given the question not a moment of thought.
The contrast is astonishing between her softly softly attitude to Scotland’s Independence, where doubters were to be gently persuaded over decades, and her drastic attitude to gender reform, where doubters were to be condemned as misogynists and racists.
Sturgeon was a great boon to the unionists. Whether as useful idiot or as traitor is something history will decide. My money is on the latter.
But after the Supreme Court judgement, the UK Establishment did not need her any more. All that soft soap treatment disappeared. They started to seriously question her, on all points.
There has been a huge change in press tone towards Sturgeon since the Supreme Court judgment. The UK establishment believe they no longer need her to hold back the Independence movement.
I suspect much more tellingly, the Establishment has also finally taken off the gloves over the missing £600,000, that was donated to to a “ring-fenced” fund to campaign in the Indyref2 that Sturgeon did not deliver.
The money disappeared into the SNP’s accounts and where it went is not clear.
I could not understand why Sturgeon blatantly lied at the press conference last week, when asked by Tom Gordon of the Herald when she first knew that her husband had lent £107,000 to the SNP.
She replied she could not recall, and sought to distance herself from the loan, saying he used “his resources”.
Now it is a strange marriage where the husband lends £107,000 without telling the wife. But it is not impossible.
However it is impossible that the leader of the SNP was not told that the party was lent £107,000. Whoever it was from, let alone her own husband.
But I could see no reason that Peter Murrell should not lend the party the money. It was not illegal to do so and arguably a good thing to do. Why on earth would Nicola pretend she didn’t know?
This only started to make sense to me yesterday, when I learnt that Murrell made the loan the day after he was interviewed by the police about the missing £600,000.
No wonder she wanted to distance herself from it, and the timing.
Numerous sources have reported in the last few days that Police Scotland have now been given the go ahead by the Crown Office to pursue a criminal case over the missing money.
That seems the most likely explanation for the timing of her resignation today.
The good news is that, if my sources are correct, the £600,000 question is going to make the coronation of the Angus Robertson family collective as devolutionist party leaders somewhat difficult.
So farewell Nicola Sturgeon. You served the Union well. Now they don’t need you any more and you have been tossed away.
They won’t get you that UN job either (all UN posts need to be agreed with the candidate’s member state). The Establishment is both ruthless and ungrateful. I suspect the protection over the Salmond affair will disappear too.
————————————————
Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.
Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
Paypal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Subscriptions are still preferred to donations as I can’t run the blog without some certainty of future income, but I understand why some people prefer not to commit to that.
Looks like the following establishment plan to me:
1. Make sure that an independence referendum can only be done indirectly, via parliamentary elections.
2. Announce that the elections will be treated as a referendum.
3. Create a scandal in the main [nominally] pro-independence party.
4. Reaffirm that the elections will be treated as a referendum.
5. Appoint a front runner for the main pro-independence party who is likely to lose them a lot of votes.
Theoretically, pro-independence voters unhappy with the SNP should all move to other pro-independence parties. In practice, many will either not actually treat the elections as a referendum, or get cold feet if they are not sure which party is actually execute the referendum. Either way, many will move to pro-union parties or abstain. Moreover, even just splitting votes between two pro-independence parties can lead to an extra seat for a pro-union party.
The most likely result is a net loss of pro-independence MSPs, an openly pro-union Scottish government (inconvenient for the establishment, but probably a necessary evil in this case; maybe they can prevent it through in-fighting), and for the next 100 years another referendum can be prevented by pointing to TWO failed past referendums.
People always look to Quebec as an example of what not to do.
I disagree. They actually had two referendums. In the second one they got 49.5%. So a statistical tie and a recount. They lost on the recount. Basically because the state made sure they lost. We will never know what skullduggery went on in the recount. Personally I think they won and it was taken away from them.
But at least they actually had a second referendum. If Scotland votes no in a second referendum. Then unfortunately we will have to accept it’s over. That is due to a number of things. Migration from England and Wales, political interference and for some Scots believing Scotland can’t govern itself.
I will never give up on independence , but I at least want another chance to win it.
. Basically because the state made sure they lost.
A referendum on Québec organized and run by the separatist Government of Québec deliberately sabotaged its own referendum?
I guess I missed all the skulduggery.
Hilarious when she claimed she has spent her WHOLE life working for Indy.
‘My whole life – 28-53’
that is only 25 years Nic, you idiot wannabe snowflake!
‘Watch this space – I have challenges to look forward to’ – I’m after millions not puny hundreds of thousands, I’m much bigger than this puny little colony and I will go to the Coronation and collect my gong.
I made most of that last para up but that’s what it sounded like.
Biggest worry is that her replacement is to be elected within 28 days by POSTAL VOTES!
That’ll be free and fair then…NOT.
Quicker than I thought.
You don’t really sound like you’re done groanin
Here’s hoping she spends more time in jail than Craig.
By embracing the Great Man (Occasionally Woman) View of History perhaps our host indicates how he shares more in common with Foreign Office (indeed, British Establishment) values than those who view party politics as a conveyor belt to Corruption. Personally, I was more concerned with Iceland vs Scotland today, but I’m sure valuable lessons can be learned in both cases.
Sturgeon’s next career move?
JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs?
Place yer bets.
Many are not envious; they’re just frustrated, at this conveyor belt and its impact on ‘representative’ democracy.
I think they only hire people who are fiscally literate.
Maybe David Milliband’s job when he returns to become Foreign Secretary. They are cut of the same jib or vipers that share the same sack. After all £1m is a minimum the Murells need to exist. Especially if they adopt kids from the deserving poor
murrels are not even a thing…
Jack Irvine
Nope.
One example(from 2008) of many: US investment bank JP Morgan has signed up Tony Blair as a part-time senior adviser, on a salary said to exceed $1m. These banks seem to be the big post-election patrons.
They may have been pre election patrons- just doing a payback for services rendered.
We are talking billions, nay trillions of pounds, euros and dollars.
Do you seriously think those that control the vast bulk of wealth in our western societies, are going to sit back and let the hoi polloi elect those who favour vast redistribution?
Not redistribution, restitution.
It is the preferred, deferred benefits plan for politicians. No cash changes hands during office but go along with your handlers’ instructions and deliver then, bingo! You are made for life. A few appointments as supervisory directors to banks and defense companies, a few speaking engagements, get a huge advance for a book, nobody buys, form a charity and get the deductions for travel expenses. All perfectly legal corruption.
@Goose, ‘democracy’ seems a fancy word for a political system which periodically allows the bloodless replacement of an unpopular government with one not-as-yet-so unpopular. Actual democracy seems pretty hard and often unpleasant work, which seems why people appear often relieved to leave it to clowns, cliques and crooks.
A writing and commenting gig with the NYT and MSNBC doubtless awaits her, along with nice Manhattan apartment supplied by whichever billionaire hires her as mouthpiece. We can always find room for Brit Twit empty suits.
Welcome to Craig World where no conspiracy is too loonie to believe. And no smear is too dirty to applaud.
It really is like a visit to another planet. In what world has the right wing press been giving Nicola Sturgeon an easy ride?
The Mail, Express, Herald etc have been running daily anti-sturgeon blurbs throughout her entire term, a bit like the hatefests in CraigWorld.
The most striking thing is just how remote it is from the real world – you know – that one where Nicola has won every election for eight years and where the inhabitants continually rated her not just their most respected politician, but one who was often higher rated that all the other leaders added together. Nicola’s retirement speech today was typical of her character, articulate, rational, magnanimous and decent. A stark contrast to her gloating detractors.
Nicola has established SNP as the natural government of Scotland. I’m grateful for that as are most Scots who have seen Scotland become a better place within the constraints imposed on it. That is a necessary prereqisite to obtaining independence. Far from being a “traitor” (what a vicious slur). she has been cautious in choosing the right time or means of gaining independence. One that would WIN next time. But unlike all the CraigWorlders I don’t that answer either.
Nicola’s qualities were her evident intelligence combined with a rare down to earth likeability. A manner that let you believe that, unlike most other politicians, you could have a relaxed and fun informal chat with her. I have done that briefly and it is genuine.
She will be greatly missed and I doubt we will see her like again. Thanks NIcola.
I’ll now await the embittered old men faction winning us independence, as soon as this pub closes.
Well said, Tom.
Good luck making sense of this world. No conspiracy theory too outlandish to support and mull over endlessly! Better out of it. Preserve sanity!
If she was even half as how you describe her she would not be resigning today!
so, did she resign to spend more time with her family? to protect the image of kittens on the internet? why exactly do you think she resigned?
Here you go:
https://www.snp.org/nicola-sturgeon-to-the-people-of-scotland-thank-you-from-the-bottom-of-my-heart/
10 minute read apparently, but you could skim read in 30 seconds I expect.
Best to get it from the source rather than the Express, Mail, Telegraph – or the Tory breakfast TV!
and you believe her? nothing to do with missing money? the only thing I’ve seen is her wrapping up the questioning very quickly when asked whether she anticipated being interviewed by the police.
People, including an outgoing FM, mess with a Police investigation at their peril. Well, they do in Scotland, at least, maybe not so much in, e.g., London.
She maybe a lot of things, depending whose opinion is sought, but she’s no daft!
She’s about as likeable as her idols across the pond Hillary and McCain or her pal Alastair Campbell, and about as honest as that bunch. Why do you think she has had to resign so hurriedly? As for “Welcome to Craig World”, how is he to regard a figure who had him imprisoned for exposing her attempt to do the same to her predecessor? As “magnanimous and decent”? Unlike you I hope we never see her like again, but I know that hope is naive in the extreme.
HI Iain
I don’t deny that Craig has a justifed chip on his shoulder. I even contributed modestly to his defence fund.
But the chip runs all the way down to his ankles and that is not the usual state of mind I look to for objective judgements on an issue.
His contempt sentence was unjust, but having said that, I don’t accept his theory that the whole British state mobilised to use its SNP arm to corrupt the entire judicial system to put wee Craig in jail for a few months. That strikes me as a combination of the self importance and/or paranoia that seems to rules Craig’s life. OTOH supposedly we have Sturgeon the wicked spider pulling the strings manipulatiing all of this web, but OTOH she is accused of being a useless organiser.
What has Craig Murray achieved that would him make him worth the bother of rigging charges and trlalsl and sending people t Germany to steal his laptops etc?? Most people have never heard of him. That is not to sayt he has not supported good causes, he has, I compliment him on that. but what has he achieved? He calls Nicola a failure for failing to achieve Independence. I suppose that makes me a failed sociialist and Craig a failed Assange campaigner.
I understand Craig once applied to be an SNP candidate – in the days before he decided they were the spawn of Satan – but was rejected. No doubt that deepened his chip. In politics (and life) you never have a choice of the best possible. only of the best available. For me and most Scots the best available in the last 20 years has been an SNP rather than a Labour or Tory one. I’m grateful to NIcola for helping provide that. Of course, I would rather have an independent Scotland, But I recognise that Tyranny like Hell is not easily conquered and I have not yet seen any realistic point at which we could guarantee to break up the British state . I hope we can find one.. The nihilism in this blog is not encouraging. I expect Craig will be able to cause some mischief for the SNP from his stolen emails. Does anybody think it would help?
Lastly have a look at yourselves and the gutter press terms you use to describe NIcola witch, traitor, thief etc etc. Politcal debate can be better than that.
“Craig’s world, Craig’s world, party time, excellent,
Craig’s world, Craig’s world, party time….excellent!”
Party on, Craig. Party on, Squeeth!
Youre so naive Tom.
“gutter press terms you use to describe NIcola witch, traitor, thief etc etc. Politcal debate can be better than that.”
Trying to smear me with obvious lies Tom,. That grand centrist-liberal .tradition. Why do I suspect you are about as socialist as your Neocon heroine?
Iain,
“Why do I suspect you are about as socialist as your Neocon heroine?”
I didn’t say Nicola is a socialist nor is SNP socialist party..
I suppose one of my own qualifications is that I see the Tories and Capitalism and Westminster as the enemy.
Very unlike most here, who see the SNP and the Scottish GOvernment as the enemy. In fact most of the contributions in Craig World look like they could have come from the Express, Mail, Herald, Telegraph, GB News etc etc etc. Or even the less literate ones from Douglas Ross.
It is not a comfortable environment.
The extremes they went to in order to convict Murray were extraordinary and many. To argue that you may not include information from a court proceeding whereby anybody at all, even somebody deeply involved in the case, could theoretically combine it with hypothetical jigsaw pieces to take a wild guess at who they were. Even when their accusations turned out to be false.
They didn’t just bend the law, they snapped it backwards into many pieces. Go back in this blog and read the legal arguments again. It is so egregious as to be beyond belief that any self-respecting jurist could make such vindictive and unjust pronouncements.
Your argument is why bother but they DID and so you should perhaps consider why.
Craig Murray was one of them, a senior FCO official; he has respectability, is articulate, and he continually throws their crimes in their face. He could have risen in the SNP, maybe even become an MP with an even bigger platform. Not only is Murray pro-indy, and the deep state will always strongly resist people standing up for sovereignty, he is rabidly anti-Faslane where the Americans cuckold we Brits into basing Trident here, which we must even pay for.
A thorn in their side, a whistle-blower with Cred. They probably have a whole dept. dedicated to smearing people like Assange, Galloway, Corbyn, Salmond, and others for the same reasons (and I doubt if ‘they’ are exclusively UK).
They are probably growling in frustration that they didn’t get anything sexual on Murray (paedo-related being the jackpot for these pieces of propagandist slime).
I don’t agree with all his approaches but it is pretty obvious to me that because of his refusal to stay down, he takes body blows for us all. I send money when I can as my act of defiance to these shites and their obscenities against humanity.
Hi intp1, (is that an Interpol rank? 🙂
Thank you for the polite reply.
I understand your support for Craig. I share similar views and a not too dissimilar background, but I went off him when he started undermining confidence in the independence movement, particularly with his weird conspiracy theories.
You and Craig are free to believe that Nicola Sturgeon has spent a lifetime as a covert agent of the British state. I just think that is daft..
I am leaving now. I might come back if/when Craig gets his 10 mnutes of relevance with his stolen emails.
I wonder if they will really help independence, or just be revenge?
Poor reasoning again Tom.
History-and the present- is littered with spooks who are in the game for life,its exactly what they do and if you dont understand that basic fact then you need to do some serious reading and learning.
The game has gone on since time immemorial.
Why would Sturgeon-or any politician-be any different?
No JM You said …
” Poor reasoning again Tom.
The game has gone on since time immemorial.History-and the present- is littered with spooks who are in the game for
Why would Sturgeon-or any politician-be any different?”
Your’s is the poor logic,JM. In fact you’ve made a classic logical fallacy – a ‘hasty generalisaton.’
The fact that something is *posssible* does not mean that it is *probable* and particularly not when it is very improbable . However, I will concede that belief in the improbable is de rigueur in Craigs World. I’m the misfit. 🙂
So I’ll just repeat. You and Craig are free to believe that Nicola Sturgeon has spent a lifetime as a covert agent of the British state. I just think that is daft.
I don’t think it remotely likely she started out as an agent of the British state. That’s a pretty silly straw man to attack.
Tom – so you like her. Well, you might have a chance, because she clearly isn’t having any conversation at all with her husband these days – let alone these relaxed and fun informal chats. She didn’t even know that he had sent a bung of 100 thousand pounds in the general direction of the party – so there’s something not quite right there. Good luck!
Jimmy
LIke many other contributions on the blog that is sexist. Would you make that comment about Keir Stammer?
It really is the pits in here.
In what possible manner was that last post sexist? I’m genuinely curious to see this rationale.
After all I do recall heaps of scorn being poured on Rishi Sunak, for claiming ignorance of his wife & in-law’s massive tax-evasion. Additionally the “Blair(ite)-bungs” are as numerous as they are infamous.
You seem to be doing what you accuse others of doing. Throwing slurs that aren’t just inaccurate, they’re utterly irrelevant…
“In what possible manner was that last post sexist?”
It’s sexist because it refers to Nicola Sturgeon’s sex, something that we are not supposed to notice or refer to any more. The fact that the point made would have been just as valid if instead of “Nicola Sturgeon”, “she” and “her”, JR had written “the First Minister”, “they” and “their”, is, of course, neither here nor there.
” Well, you might have a chance, because she clearly isn’t having any conversation at all with her husband these days”
or You might have a chance (with Stammer) because he isn’t having any with his wife these days
Ah Tom you’ve found a “sexist” now have you? Another win. What an obviously decent fellow you are compared to anybody who criticises Sturgeon.
Thanks Tom.
There must have been something I completely missed. I could only see self service, dogma and didactic dictator-like devotion to controlling. Like you, I do find the feverishly jaundiced outpourings on here which appear personal and compromised really rather rancid.
Thanks Gary,
Leaders who have been in power that long do tend to dictate as power inevitably coalesces around them. Realising that was actually one of the points Nicola used to explain her resignation. Not that she’ll get any credit for it.
Rancid is a good description of the tone. It is one of the tragedies of the internet that a universal means of communications was so easily corrupted. It provides the same privacy as writing on a lavatory wall, so people adopt that standard.
Yes it’s so much better when you don’t actually know that people hate or despise you, isn’t it?
Well,I you might hate or despise me but I have no way of knowing How many others.
Nicola does though. She has a had a couple of decades of continuous, demonstrable, sometimes spectacular public support. I admit that Craig and the Tories hate her though.
How did I know you would firmly grasp the wrong end of the stick? Consider Nicolae Ceaușescu and then think whether it’s better that people hate you and prevented from expressing that hatred or that they hate you and are allowed to do so.
Tom,
I fully accept Sturgeon’s point that politics is becoming more toxic and rancid but cannot feel any sympathy or empathy because my broad understanding is that she and her acolytes were perfectly happy to put Alex Salmond in jail for a lengthy spell for being, essentially, a white older male who apparently has a libido. I fear that something similar may have happened with Carl Sergeant, who took his own life, in Wales.
Craig appeared, to me, to have been targeted similarly by her sisterhood.
What happened to him is, make no mistake, offensively totalitarian and really frightened the life out of people like me with notepads and pens sitting in public buildings.
I’ve shared on here before how my notepad was seized by court staff at Cardiff Crown Court years ago at the Ched Evans case when he was cleared of rape after having served a sentence. There was a frenzied atmosphere around identifying the complainant in that case on social media and I think they suspected me of being one of those Facebook warriors or stupidly ignorant actors and suspected/resented my right to take notes.
I know court reporting rules, broadly, and know that members of the public have identical status to media and must always have that in a free and democratic country, though my broad understanding is that in Scotland they have now abandoned this basic defence? Journalists are and always must be purely and simply ordinary people with no extra privileges.
It is crucial that this fundamental legal tradition is maintained because an accredited or “regulated” media only allowed to report in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in public buildings invites an inherently sinister Pravda-like monopoly (just look at the rise in local authorities publishing their own news as well as the way the regional BBC has cosied up to power).
How quaint that you take politicians at their word Tom.
I even vote for politicians. Don’t you?
Tom and Garry, you sound like Southern Gentlemen decrying the death of Gallantry in a conquered South.
At this moment, one slip, by anyone, and the nukes and germs will be airborne, get over yourselves.
Your point might be more persuasive if you had acknowledged the age old saw, “you are only as good as your last victory” that dominates sport, politics and war. If the sharks smell blood in the water – your toast. Like all the others, she played this game and now must pay.
Even if every point you make is granted, maybe some voters were looking for something more, something different, something new?
She talked a good game on those early Question Time appearences I will grant you. I did notice the difference between the old political product and the new but that time was long ago. In the context of her role in latter years, Tony Benn called it right, it is all about sovereignty, the people’s will over all. On this most basic metric I believe she failed.
I know Scotland well, particularly the council estates. Yes, of course I have seen the lights but I made sure to take a good look into the darkness – what I saw changed me. I was a kinder,gentler person with a much greater appreciation of how people endure the unendurable on a daily basis. It could be otherwise, indeed this person had the chance to make it so. I see no real change.
I would be sorry to lose my Scottish sisters and brothers, to see Scotland become independant of Westminster. for selfish reasons alone. I am proud to be connected to the people and the country, in a politcal sense. To have to lose this connection would reduce me. Remember, we in the west have been living through austerity for many years, almost by decree it seems. I think that means we all get less of everything. Opportunities and outcomes are reduced across the board. There will be no change without escaping this financial stricture. If there is any chance Scotland’s fate could be ameloirated who am I to put my selfish feelings above the well being of much loved neighbours?
She has not been turned into pernicious anti-semite who is an existential threat to British Jews, after spending her entire life fighting racism, prejudice and exclusion in all of its manifestations, in the British Isles and abroad.- so yea she has had an easy ride.
She has not been doorstepped by packs of reptiles, jostling her at the gate and shoving cameras in her face whilst making sneering remarks, as she leaves her rather modest semi and cycles to work.
She has not experienced the obvious attendant damage to her family and her family life that is to be expected when the full power of the British establishment is zeroed in on her, like some real world “Eye of Sauron” -so yea so has had an easy ride.
She has not been blah blah blah. So yea she has an easy ride
.
Can you hear what you sound like?
I would guess she never had any skin in the game, unlike Jeremy Corbyn or those who are sent jail unjustly – some people don’t need to be bought, they sell themselves – often to the first interested party.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, I will forget her.
The SNP and Scotland and Great Britain will be well rid of her.
I don’t know the ins and outs of Scottish politics but from afar I always suspected Sturgeon was a stooge: Firstly ousting Salmond (who I respected); then helping the Tories win the 2019 general election by dividing the left-wing vote (see also the Lib Dems); and finally imposing Johnson’s fascistic lockdowns afterwards. As with many senior female politicians, she is a fist in a velvet glove. It’s hard to know exactly what the game-plan for the British establishment is now, but they are probably still deciding whether to allow Starmer win the next election or give it to the Tories again.
Good point about 2019’s GE.
The SNP and Jo Swinson’s Lib Dems jointly forced Labour to accept an election, on Boris Johnson’s timetable. Johnson was running out of time, both with his own divided party, and with the EU; their extension clock was ticking down. The SNP and LDs saved his bacon. At the time it seemed a completely bizarre decision.
An Iron Fist in a Vulvaed Glove even
You certainly don’t know the ins and outs of Scottish politics
“Firstly ousting Salmond (who I respected)”
She didn’t oust him, he resigned of his own volition after the referendum
“then helping the Tories win the 2019 general election by dividing the left-wing vote (see also the Lib Dems)”
Is your position that the SNP should not have stood any candidates in 2019? Is that what you think Salmond would have done?
“and finally imposing Johnson’s fascistic lockdowns afterwards”
Ok
I disagree with Craig in as much as I don’t believe that Thames House let the attack dugs aff the leash. Sturgeon was still useful to the Security Services.
I’d attribute her downfall to the nameless, rank & file officers in Polis Scotland that repeatedly (x3) leaked to the Sunday papers that their investigation into the missing £600k were being stymied by the COPFS.
Sturgeon could cajole the Edinburgh legal establishment to reject the growing Polis file on the missing £600k through holding out the offer of political patronage, but when the Polis leaked to the press (and the leaker remained undetected), the COPFS lost nerve and gave the go-ahead for Polis Scotland to interview suspects under caution.
I also feel something happened here to precipitate her demise faster than planned. Someone somewhere has thrown a spanner in their works.
As Craig has tweeted though if Sturgeon is overseeing the leadership election it will be as bent as a three pound note.
Sturgeon has to be forced to step down now, do not accept her staying on Boris style.
I’ve never thought it was that straightforward and believe that the legislation, indeed even the discussion around, trans rights was pushed into a toxic place by some of those who were against it (no, not you Craig) and think that she MAY have continued but for the revelation that e-mails were going to be released by you if the legal advice panned out. She has, in effect, made these unnewsworthy by resigning. Although I could well be wrong depending on the actual content. We’re in a difficult spot – on the one hand we want to be united to push the independence of our country but on the other hand there is division being forced upon us. If someone wanted to neutralise SNP as a force for Scotland’s independence they’d have done exactly the same as recent events. That fact worries me..
Something tells me that neither Mr MacDonald’s emails nor the “misplaced” £600k are going to be rendered “unnewsworthy” by her resignation.
It showed us what a treacherous shit Sturgeon the Judas is when her main defence in her please feel sorry for me speech, was that she said she’s only human.
Anyway Sturgeon standing down doesn’t mean that much, all the real talent and real indy supporters have dumped the SNP for the Alba party, what’s left is the detritus, in the form of Brown, Robertson, Swinney, Forbes etc., and one of these close allies of Sturgeon will probably get the top job, so no change will occur on the indy front.
Forget the SNP, stick to the game plan: Vote Alba, Join Alba.
I’m currently in Alba, it’s not a plan that’s going to work anytime soon. The SNP if at all possible needs pointed in the right direction
Impossible, Murrell and Sturgeon will pick the next FM that’s how its going to be, the SNP are a busted flush.
Alba will win seats, at Holyrood and Westminster, but it will take time because Sturgeon seriously damaged the cause, the new SNP leader will probably be Brown, or Swinney or Robertson or Forbes, the last name the media has been touting as favourite.
Quote : An SNP spokesperson says party Chief Executive Peter Murrell, who is married to Nicola Sturgeon, will be staying on in post.
Time for the deMurrellisation of a demoralised party?
Goose.
The anti-indy mob still control the NEC, Murrell controls everything else Sturgeon is staying on as a back seat politician, its inconceivable that both of them won’t have a big hand in on who get the keys to Bute House, and it takes sup to 130 days to pick the new leader (see below link), so the supposedly proposed conference to plan a way out of this rancid union (there never was a plan to begin with) will probably not now take place.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/
Just found:
• According to the SNP constitution, a candidate for leader must have the nominations of at least 100 members, drawn from at least 20 branches.
• The close of nominations will be 77 days after nominations opened.
“Should there be a contest, with two or more applicants, then the selection of the new leader will be held on a democratic one-member-one-vote basis.”
OMOV could favour someone like Joanna Cherry, should she decide to run.
I wonder who gave Craig the McDonald emails?
That’s a joke, the idea that loyal slaves to the UK lose their immunity from their crimes.
Same day Starmer made the decision to bar Jeremy Corbyn from standing for Labour, coordinated with an EHRC clearance on antisemitism?
I don’t believe Corbyn was antisemitic or wanted to allow it or sees it as lesser than other forms of racism. I believe his inquiry into that was undermined by the framing of a black man who was just struggling to respond equally to the right-wing journalist and the politician she handed his leaflet to. I suppose that mural Corbyn *asked* about was racist, by a black man doing caricatures/tropes of powerful Anglosaxons and Jews.
Corbyn’s lost me on the trans issue though. I’d kept the hope that he was enough a man of truth, including belief in natural evolution, that his social outreach could effect change on mental health and neurodiversity (broad sense). But you don’t do that by using words wrongly to the detriment of others.
I thought they would have to chop her fingers off with an axe to make her let go. Unless.
An improvement over your previous takes on the GRA (at least, the ones I’ve seen) to acknowledge that Sturgeon’s swaggering belligerence on it all cost her the recent dive in the polls. However, the thing which “unleashed a wave of hatred towards trans people” as you histrionically put it, was doing nothing other than what the transgender lobbyists and activists demanded, virtually to the letter. Because it’s a movement whose demands are not compatible with common sense or objective reality or basic logic. Namely, that changing “gender” using hormones and surgery, or simply by subjective identification, is the EXACT SAME THING as changing sex, and not merely some sort of genteel fiction agreed upon by society to assuage a mental illness called gender dysphoria. Which is what led biologically male rapists to be held in female prisons etc. etc.
The real harm to trans people is caused by those who let them sink further into an unfeasible belief system by indulging their half-mad leader-cadres and transhumanist funders.
I Don’t agree with you on many points here. I think today marks a very grim and dark day for Scottish politics. To suggest that Nicola Sturgeon was used for the Unionist cause is laughable.
I know they didn’t report they were using her but it could hardly have been more obvious once her plot to jail Salmond came to light. If the London Establishment and its media had genuinely regarded her as a threat to the Union they would have destroyed her then. No, that episode made clear who they viewed as the real threat. To this day they ignore both Salmond’s acquittal and Nicola’s effort to frame and destroy him.
Laughable – or just plain naive, through doing not much reading??
You just have to check the people she surrounded herself with:- David Harvie, given the job of head of The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), who just happens to be an MI5 agent. SIR Nick McPherson, ex-Head of the British Civil Service; John Paul Marks, ex-Head of DWP, not to mention Angus Robertson, appointed to the Privy Council by the Queen, (meaning BOZO as head of Civil Service then), a member of the Intelligence & Security Committee overseeing MI5, MI6, and GCHQ. Why? Why would Sturgeon surround herself with these obviously very unionist members of the English parliament and take them onboard as ‘Cabinet Ministers’? They are PRECISELY the people she should have been telling their services were NOT REQUIRED. Instead… she hoarded them to her like a life jacket! It doesn’t make sense that an INDEPENDENCE PARTY would accommodate such people in a government that wants to LEAVE the union. Between Liz Lloyd, that carpetbagger Leslie Evans (whom Sturgeon rewarded for her work on the Salmond case with a two year contract extension & massive payrise!) and the rest of the Civil Servants, ie McPherson, Marks etc… I am at a TOTAL LOSS to understand how anyone could not see that there has been DELIBERATE infiltration of WM Security Services fighting against Independence. British leaders have been doing that in EVERY COUNTRY THEY OVER-RAN in the past – India, Africa, Canada – & claimed as theirs by right.
It’s well known that there is no such thing as retiring from the Intelligent services. And to believe it’s not happening here in Scotland, where the GREAT WEALTH WE SCOTS CREATE is being systematically stuffed into the pockets of an evil government down south, is beyond my understanding. Westminster will do – indeed IS DOING, everything it can to hang onto it’s cash cow. They have had HUNDREDS OF YEARS of insidiously hunkering down into other countries’ governments to create division, distraction & where possible, fill greedy hands of those countries’ politicians, full of money to make sure politicians keep the division happening.
Sturgeon knew VERY WELL how divisive her GRR Bill was. She knew 70% of Scots didn’t want Self-ID. She knew 70% of Scots resented their children being taught pornography & she knew that WOMEN would leave her party over it – and didn’t care. A broom-cupboard video of support for the ten or so trans people that left the SNP. But not a dickie-bird for THE THOUSANDS OF WOMEN THAT LEFT the party over Self-ID bill. WHY?? Why no gentle persuasion, no softly softly ‘let’s discuss’ (because let’s be truthful here – women DID NOT GET TO SPEAK AT ANY OF THE CONSULTATIONS!). She allowed the division to not just remain but the gap to widen… WHY?? WHY would someone supposedly so intent on Independence allow thousands of potential voters to just leave without even a wee attempt at persuasion, debate, discussion? As I see it… she didn’t want or need those votes. Yet all the time, she talked of the Indy Movement having to ‘talk over the ‘soft no’s’… (NOT her & her politicians who are PAID to win over the electorate with policies that make Independence attractive!) But – the Indy Movement must do it! Why do we continue to vote in SNP and why are we paying HR politicians to work for Indy when it is absolutely clear they are doing nothing about it? What point the Indy Movement talking over ‘soft no’s’ if HR deliberately continues to let thousands of voters go without so much as an attempt to win them back? None of this makes ANY SENSE. Unless – you step back, look at the whole picture & see the things that are really happening.
Sturgeon TALKS a good game. But when you look at the divisive policies she has put in place, the disastrous choices she has made (Stuart Ballantyne made her a genuine, AMAZING off for far more ferries at a cheaper price than the two she signed up for!), She has not taken ONE STEP toward Independence in any way whatsoever. So as I see it, there is only one conclusion…
Stugeon has been used in some way for the benefit of unionist Westminster. There is absolutely NO DOUBT of it. Anyone not seeing that, simply thinks ‘talking a good game’ is all it needs to be independent. She talked a good game but she DID zero, not a SINGLE THING to progress Independence.
I notice the “husband” running trying to keep up with Sturgeon. I have a distinct feeling that this planned manoeuvre benefitting the BBC and unionist agenda and supported on every other channel, queues to ridicule the independence movement.
Nothing changes in media reports of Scotland and its nation.
I was a member of the SNP until the atrocious accusations and vexatious prosecution of Mr Alex Salmond, I say her seat in the House of Lords and her directorship of the Bank of England, (like the union leader, sir Bill Sirs) will benefit her!
Are the rumours that Ms. Sturgeon is in a marriage of convenience and in a relationship with a French diplomat with no Y chromosomes well founded?
I have seen occasional hints to that effect.
Makes her vulnerable to blackmail by the powers in London I suppose?
(Mods please delete if in breach of site rules.)
All the best,
John
You may say so. I couldn’t possibly comment.
Are you sure you are not confusing Sturgeon with Susan Calman? 😉
Interdicts are generally handed out for the elite in Scotland on the nod, I believe.
Craig, is that a reference to a rumoured super injunction obtained by Sturgeon and Murrell?
Thanks,
John
A Human Rights Watch report released yesterday says Britain has committed “crimes against humanity” and “racial persecution” against the Chagos Islanders and called for them to be returned to the islands.
Nicola Sturgeon is being painted today in liberal media as an almost saintly figure. An all-round good person. But can anyone imagine her mentioning this report, anymore than she did HRW’s designation of Israel as an apartheid state?
What does that tell you about her and her media cheerleaders?
More then enough, thanks Reza. You’ve boiled it down it down to its essence
It is my belief that the SNP have been infiltrated by the Unionists pushing Policies.
Nicola missed so many opportunities to sever the Union.
I began to be disillusioned with the SNP support for Ukraine. I discussed this issue with my local MSP and in the SNP group forums and could never understand how uninformed our representatives really are.
I told them all that to support Ukraine, the by definition you support a coup d’etat and not UDI.
To support the banning of the RT network that is fascism.
Knowing that Zelenskyy (War Criminal) was bombing the Donbas region killing over 14,000 Russian speaking Ukrainians is supporting genocide.
Knowing that this war is a UN proxy war and giving Zelenskyy a standing ovation to a man who addressed the Parliament speaking in Ukrainian when he can speak perfect English.
Not to mention the corruption and Neo-Nazis that have been incorporated into their armed forces.
I have asked why the SNP never took a neutral position in this war? I have called them all lazy for not researching these issues.
The SNP are only trying to cosy up to the UN (War Machine), which is a paradox when they say they want to get rid of Trident.
The GRR issue is another avenue they should never went down. How did she never know that this issue was not only going to divide the party but the Country.
Why did we never hear loud SNP voices during the energy crisis. We are self sufficient on Oil Gas and Electric but we all have to suffer on Western lies.
Our SNP Mp’s and MSP’s are not ruthless enough to get independence. They have to call out all the corrupt liars as show the people of Scotland how badly they are being shafted.
I, for now have disengaged from party discussions, However, I have made my position very clear.
Who would I like to see as the new leader. That probity would be Joanne Cherry, why! She has an incredible intellect and legal background. She is totally focused on independence and I don’t believe she could ever be manipulated. A woman of great integrity.
I do hope that we very soon get some sort of Independence Committee setup that would include great minds like Alex. Like him or not, he is a great driver and I have never see an interviewer getting the better of him, quite the opposite. Independence was always going to be a dirty war, so SNP lets get down and get dirty. Callout all the injustices that are being done to their great nation, callout the corruption and call a liar a liar.
“I told them all that to support Ukraine, the by definition you support a coup d’etat and not UDI.”
Whit?
I think it is time we distance ourselves from the political side of things for the time being anyway.
Scotland has to shake off the 1998 Scotland act if we are to make any kind of progress towards independence in my view this is where we need Salvo who is currently finding out exactly how we are being conned and lied to by Westminster ever since the Union was formed back in 1707.
If we can get the backing and support and take this to the international courts this will in my view loosen the grip of the U.K. Government I would then hope by that time we will have a proper fit and true independence-minded Scottish Government to co-ordinate with Salvo / SSRG and any others to build an indisputable case that cannot be argued with.
I agree with you 100% re SALVO & their determination to make clear the whole & proper definition of ‘Scots Sovereignty’. I believe as you do that we have to get the International Courts involved too, as you say, to help loosen the grip of the UK Govt.
BUT at the same time, I believe we have to educate our Holyrood Politicians, the SNP, even ALBA & ISP. Ash Regan is heading in what I believe is the right direction, but I believe she needs a good session with Sara Salyers, to understand that if she becomes FM, she will have the power RIGHT AWAY to VETO any decrees of English Bills that we, Scotland, do not give consent to. That the ToU has NO article saying UK law will be determined by ENGLISH law. We have our own laws & we work with the Claim of Right, NOT the English Bill of Rights. She, Regan, needs to understand what the power of Scots Sovereignty really means & what it can do. If she wins, she needs to be firm, resolute & STRONG & just SAY NO. Alas, I doubt the other contenders care about any power they have or whether Indy is a ‘thing’ to them now or not. But their education is needed, I believe. One has to wonder why they haven’t taken her research up & want to check it out??
ALL our politicians need to understand what Scots Sovereignty is and they need educated in the historical power they have been TEMPORARILY granted through being elected – and that that power can be taken back if they do not agree to follow the policies on which they were elected. I believe its imperative to get them educated. But the age old problem – how to do that?? Without the will of a REAL INDEPENDENCE PARTY, without a strong media voice, it takes so much time. So it’s up to SALVO members etc. to keep making it clear what we Scots have the power to do.
Good post, Allan. Thank you for bringing it back into focus again.
Wow, Dominic Penna of the Telegraph seems to have read this post and even cites Craig Murray in mentioning the missing 600,000 pounds .
https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/15/nicola-sturgeons-husband-urged-step-aside-snp-chief-executive/
Unfortunately I think it’s Sturgeon wanted to get on with it and get Indy done in her time as FM, and one of the reasons she resigned is that much of the SNP higher echelons want to procrastinate and kick the can down the road. Unlike the membership itself. So congratulations those conspiracy theorists who’ve pushed for her to go, you’ve helped to delay Indy by a good few years by getting it the wrong way around with your fantasies.
Nonsense.
She promoted/appointed those people.
As Joanna Cherry rightly argues, the party needs a leader who is open to and welcomes debate, dissent. A leader that doesn’t act like some dictator perpetuo. A party that has healthy respectful debate, in which the leadership win some, lose some arguments, invariably makes for a happier party. A party that’s more attractive to outsiders wanting to get involved in politics; as they can see it’s an organic, grassroots democratic movement that’s open to new ideas.
If the SNP choose wisely, independence can be put back on track in no time. Under Sturgeon the SNP had become too sterile.
Sturgeon didn’t appoint the NEC, nor did she appoint the Westmister MPs, nor did she appoint the MSPs as candidates and elected representatives, nor did she appoint the depute leader. She DID appoint ministers from the limited pool she had available.
Anyways, just look at how many now want to put back the special conference, and remember how Sturgeon said the GE would be a de facto referendum, and look at those who undermined her and who’ve tried to turn it into some pathetic “Let’s put the begging bowl out for yet another futile request for a S30 please pretty please so we can get our pensions”.
Whatever, if there’s no de facto referendum on the HE or the GE, the SNP don’t get my vote in 2024, as they’ll have proven they and most of the MPs are a waste of space.
As I said, you lot had the wrong target, though maybe part of the right idea.
Sturgeon was the leader of the NEC. She wasn’t ALWAYS there, but enough to know what was going on. And then… that’s what Committee notes are supposed to be for – to hand out to those who can’t be there.
Indeed – she got the choice of Civil Servants from a lottery of three – when she could have told WM she DIDN’T REQUIRE THEM. Under the ToU, she was under NO OBLIGATION to take any one of them! Strange… she chose a woman, Leslie Evans, who had a VERY DUBIOUS PAST, as her PA & after the Salmond debacle, she awarded Evans another two year contract & a HUGE PAYRISE. That is NOT the way someone who believes in Independence behaves! She is a very weak woman – a great talker who made it look like she had everything under control. That was ONLY POSSIBLE by the hiring of her Civil Servants who made sure she had FULL services & ability to shut down any potential breaks in her control through judicial means.
Why do you people persist in closing your eyes & pretending she has seen NOTHING going on under her very eyes??? I find that incredible that you can do that! So much has happened, manipulating the NEC members to get her own carpetbaggers in, trying to jail a man for life, no awareness of the £107,000 her husband lent her party, the £600,000 that has gone missing… Yet you believe she KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT ANY OF IT???
Well, all I can say is, if such is the case, she isn’t half as bright as you would have us believe. And thus, has/had no right to be in the position she was in.
Excellent post katielass04, proving in Sturgeon’s case that ther’s nane sae blin’ as them that disnae want tae see!!
So give us one example where she pushed it on? Just one.
See above. Sturgeon is just one person, the party apparatus is hundreds.
And remember that the SNP went from 25,500 as at 18th September 2014, to 125,000 a few months later, some of them candidates with their own agenda.
Anyways, I’m off, and maybe permanently off every forum. I don’t see the point any more.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
That’s a bit sad Goose, you were quite a polite person up till then.
Apologies if that seems a bit snarky.
But why announce your departure from a forum you don’t engage with all that much anyway, like some petulant diva?
It’s like these people on Twitter, typically with a few dozen followers, who inform the world, they’re unfollowing someone who’s got like a million followers.
You’d fit right in to a Sturgeon cabinet.
You’ve gone from bad to worse. Nice one!
“But why announce your departure from a forum you don’t engage with all that much anyway,”
Goose.
He/She, is a WGD supporter – need I say anymore?
WGD followers were in shock yesterday; that shock has turned to rage, as Craig well knows of late.
Using your logic, as Craig Murray has posted there, he is “a WGD supporter need I say anymore?”.
You said Sturgeon wanted it and i asked for one example which you deflected onto the broader membership.A swell in membership does not illustrate your claim about Sturgeon and independence.Still waiting…
I replied to you “See above.” i.e. where I say:
“remember how Sturgeon said the GE would be a de facto referendum, and look at those who undermined her”
No worries, no need to apologise.
So a politician said something but nothing happened? Next..?
Yes, it went up to 125,000 members because they believed Sturgeon would take us to Indy. As it became clearer and clearer Indy wasn’t on her agenda, and with the deliberate division she stoked through the Indy Movement, those members soon dropped off the radar. It’s not even a sure thing the members are still even in the low 70,000’s. Some are saying 55,000. That is disgraceful that that woman allowed that to happen without even TRYING to piece the movement together again through some kind of movement toward Indy. There was none. NONE AT ALL.
She clearly resigned before she and Murrell get charged for corruption. That the journalists are all playing along with her stated reasons for departing simply confirms yet again how useless they all are at informing the public and challenging elites. Only you and a few others will know whether there is some equally incriminating stuff in her minion’s emails which has also informed this dramatic, ratlike leap off the ship.
Greg Park
Conjecture at this point.
Is there some reason why Peter Murrell wasn’t stood alongside his wife, offering support as she resigned, as is the custom? Bizarrely, he’s also made no statement on twitter, – merely a lone retweet of hers.
Having your husband in such a role was always open to accusations of there being a potential ‘conflict of interest.’ How can investigations be conducted in an impartial manner; providing clarity, trust, and accountability to members: We’ve investigated ourselves and cleared ourselves of any wrongdoing.
Exactly Goose,exactly.
Jm
There seems to be quite a lot more to go at besides the ring-fenced £600k : Investigations into the ferries – five years late and hundreds of millions over-budget, with questions about whether the procurement process was rigged.
The Sanjeev Gupta deal – he’s under investigation for fraud after paying just £5 towards the acquisition of a Highlands smelting plant. Quote “The Scottish Government contributed up to half a billion pounds in guaranteed loans for the smelter and the hydro power plants, worth a total of £586 million.” Missing billions for Covid. They seem to despise govt transparency too.
The new leader needs to clean the Augean stable. Anyone connected to the Sturrells should be automatically ruled out of contention.
Perhaps he was too preoccupied with the very young rosy cheeked man he spent the weekend with in the Balmoral?
But are the Sturrells able to differentiate between what is a man and what is a woman?
Nicola Sturgeon – Used and Discarded
Like a gender-neutral sanitary product.
I’m surprised Craig could resist lol.
Thanks for this refreshing tonic. Here’s another by David Jamieson of Conter Scot.
“Nicola Sturgeon should not be eulogised as some benign influence on Scottish politics. She ran down the independence movement and presided over the decline of Scottish society.”
https://www.conter.scot/2023/2/15/downfall-how-class-contradictions-ended-sturgeons-dismal-rule/
Good read.
She was a neoliberal in terms of domestic economic policy, and neocon in terms of foreign policy. Even her enthusiasm for the woke agenda, was likely driven by her controlling authoritarian instincts; subjecting Scots to new societal norms and rules to obey.
When people were marching for independence come rain or shine, was she marching alongside, drumming up support? Senior SNP figures gave every impression of being totally disinterested. Seeing the independence movement as weirdos and fundamentalists. But useful, when it came to party & election campaign fund raising.
I think history will take a very damning view, depending on what happens next.
Murrell is still in office Sturgeon will haunt the back benches for a bit to make sure the person she puts into Bute House continues her failed and warped agenda, and lets not forget the SNP MSPs who voted for the unamended GRRB which allows paedos and rapists into women and children’s safe spaces.
No it doesn’t matter which SNP MSP becomes the new FM; the SNP are a busted flush of a party and we must not vote for them again.
Keep to the game plan: Vote Alba, Join Alba.
Meanwhile the Britnat media in Scotland (all the media) are fawning over Sturgeon, and at the same time claiming that independence is now all but dead, when the reality is that support to dissolve this fetid union has held firm at roughly around 47%.
The SNP are finished as an indy party, the election of Swinney, Robertson or Forbes changes nothing.
Republicofscotland
At ‘least’ a 5 year referendum delay according the guardian, based on senior SNP sources. Mid-40s in terms of percentage support for independence and the SNP are waving the white flag and giving in. Absolutely astounding to go from arguments about whether a general election can be used as a de facto referendum, to now this position of, sometime in the distant future we may have a referendum. No wonder Robertson and Hosie could barely keep the smirks off their faces when talking about the ‘ GE de facto referendum’ plan months ago on Newsnight. Did Sturgeon ever have any intention of following through, I don’t believe she did. Party members have been led up the garden path. It’s a real betrayal, akin to that which Starmer has pulled on the Labour membership.
What’s left? The SNP risk becoming an ultra woke equivalent of Sweden’s ‘feminist initiative party,’ they crashed and burned electorally. All the mooted potential candidates are second-raters, like Forbes, a pound shop Sturgeon.
Craig, thank you for the cheery news. Take care.
Good riddance to very bad rubbish. I’m afraid Nicola is another example of women in power. It would appear they take a Faustian deal: in exchange for laws around rape, and women’s issues, they sign up to the most ridiculous globalist nonsense. You see this in Victoria, Australia, where Daddy Dan is supported by a cohort of left-feminists. Nicola’s driving motivation was always her feminism, and the bigger picture around the economy and independence was essentially ignored. She was a terrible First Minister, and her role in the Alex Salmond scandal should have seen her prosecuted. Doubtless she’ll sail away to a nice UN job.
Perhaps like Jacinta she was given the tap on the shoulder. Her sponsors were no longer willing to defend her, too difficult. Like every other leader, she was a huge covidian basket-case, and abused her own people with insane lockdowns, but she’ll never be punished for that either. I hope we never hear another word from this crook.
They’ve already got a second-rate, pound shop Sturgeon, lined up to take her place : the uninspiring Kate Forbes.
The SNP are at a crossroads. The finger-wagging, holier-than-thou woke feminist woke agenda has clearly run its course and it only had limited electoral appeal to begin with. Feminist parties in other countries have seen support collapse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_Initiative_(Sweden). Sturgeon carried support from the 2014 referendum campaign boost, yet that goodwill has largely been squandered. If they continue to seem more interested in fighting stupid culture wars, and rigid identity politics, support will surely move to Alba?
The fact the London based, anti Scottish independence media, are fervently trying to make Kate Forbes a foregone conclusion, should immediately ring alarm bells.
Many of these reporters backed Liz Truss, as being the ‘fresh start’ the country needed. So much for their judgement.
I am more inclined to think that Craig’s previous post may have been a factor in Nicola Sturgeon deciding to step away from difficult times ahead. The risks to national security from the breach of emails may have placed the pressure she is under out into the open. The independence agenda has been compromised by the High Court decision. She is beset by opposition from many directions, and if the options open to her did not tie up into a viable choice, then stepping away from that responsibility, and handing it on to another, was a wiser choice. She has been an enviable leader for Scotland, compared to England’s law breaking, profligate, leadership under Boris, its fiscal catastrophe under Truss, and now Sunak and his freeports which are potentially territorial encroachments on national sovereignty by corporations. Ardern too may have felt the winds of change emanating from shifts in global alliances and New Zealand will be missing her kind and rallying call for action following the recent cyclone and damage to roads and infrastructure there. Difficult choices lie ahead for smaller countries within our alliances, and the pressures on whoever takes over will be heavy. As for the compromised postal voting system, that is an issue for another day.
“The risks to national security” Are these the same “risks” that gave us no closure on Saville, Smith, Janner, blah, blah, blah and on and on it goes.
While we discuss the line between “national security” and covering one’s arse (or even other peoples) may I point out that “global security” hangs by the merest gossamer thread. Instead of trying to save us, they (her amongst them ) propel us towards earthly apocalypse
Imagine, by a strange “time slip” , the good ship SS Titanic is found sitting on top of the Colosseum – whilst we rearrange the deck chairs we could listen to the soothing but deadly sound of Nero, as he demonstrates his obvious talent in fiddling. That is were we are at. We probably won’t drown but we will all burn.
First class deeply confused gibberish from Garavelli in the Grauniad,as usual.