GEE, NOW WE NEED MEMBERS?

Posted byiainlawson27Posted inUncategorizedTags:

Who says the SNP don’t pay attention to what I write?

On the 7th September 2021 I wrote in my article about the SNP Governance Review “I write that because nobody knows how many members each of those minority groups have as members. There is no requirement to supply membership lists. The new proposals, if you believe current SNP claims of live membership, means each of the eight surviving regional representatives must represent 15,000 members each. How many BAME members are they? They get two places on the NEC, 100, 200, 500? I have mentioned BAME but it could be any of them. They should never be there, the Equalities Committee should be a sub committee with only the Chairperson of that group being on the NEC. I know, because NEC members have told me, every meeting is dominated by these minority groups agendas.”

Obviously SNP members have started seeking answers to those questions, no wonder, each of these minority groups are now enjoying much greater influence on the NEC than any of the branches or constituency associations, indeed more than each regional association if they have even been created.

So far those seeking the answers have been, pardon the phrase, Stonewalled!

The good news is the leadership clearly believe such a position is not going to be sustainable, that members are going to keep demanding answers, so it has become urgent to grow the membership of these minority groups to a level where meetings can no longer just take place in somebodies front room.

The flyer below has been sent to members across the land, new members are urgently needed, no membership fee involved, please join as many groups as possible. Now I know the Scots Asian Group is viable and has been for years but it will be interesting to find out how many members the other groups have when the info is finally revealed! Having said that credibility and SNP membership figures have not really ever gone together in recent times.

HOW LONG BEFORE PEOPLE WHO CAN QUALIFY FOR MEMBERSHIP OF MULTIPLE GROUPS CAN COMMAND A TRANSFER FEE?

 Join our affiliates todayDear,xxxxxx

The SNP has a range of affiliated organisations, each providing a community of support within the Party.

You can join one or more – and it’s absolutely FREE to join. 

In return, the affiliate organisation will keep you in touch with the work they are doing, events they are holding, and ways in which you can get involve. Sign up now. The BAME Network, Disabled Members Group, Scots Asians for Independence and Out4Indy would welcome your support – join now! Follow the SNP and YES on Social Media      

These groups have been around for a few years, they enjoy power on the SNP NEC way in excess of their current membership, how interesting that after my article they have recognised the current pals arrangement does not stand up to scrutiny and the first big official recruitment campaign is now urgently underway?

No need to say thanks.

I am, as always

YOURS FOR SCOTLAND

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26 thoughts on “GEE, NOW WE NEED MEMBERS?”

  1. Think I’ll write and ask them for an affilliate group for indigenous, working class Scots – and maybe one for people who actually want independence. We both appear to be under- represented in the SNP and in Parliament. One for pensioners wuld have no chance because Nikla is Gerontophobic and wants to deny independence to us oldies. Wants to wait until we all die off.

    Liked by 21 people

      2. Part of her time is on my side plan is to hope we all soon leave this world and give her peace to create her vision of a Cult Metropolis. Our views do not align with those of Madame Guillitine. We have no employers for her Taliban troops to contact to threaten our income. We are not on Twitter to be abused. We are not active in Universities to be hounded out.
        It is not the Tory/Labour/LibDem Union voters she is waiting to go. It is us! She can use her transcult troops to threaten and intimidate the future generations – we are the problem.

        Liked by 10 people

  2. Scottish Greens and SNP both appear to be waiting for “demographics” to increase their support? However, ethics aside, other studies (e.g Common Weal) have shown that the “oldie turnover” concept is rather dodgy. My personal experience (now nearly 60) is that politically I have become more radical (indy per se is not enough; it has to guarantee human rights, equality, social justice etc) whereas I am slightly more socially conservative than previous. A life long indy supporter and aware of climate change etc, I would not vote for the SNP or Greens in any Holyrood or local election at this time. Both parties have lost their way under current leaderships.

    Liked by 22 people

    1. I don’t believe in social justice because I keep asking the same question: where is the justice in being on the social?

      Liked by 3 people

    2. I’m of the opinion that a lifetime of observation teaches us to be careful in our trust of politicians. Particularly career politicians with little or no outside experience.

      Liked by 7 people

  3. Maybe you can get Alba to get rid of it’s affiliated groups. Disappointed to see they’ve gone down that path as well.

    Liked by 7 people

      1. Not automatic, no, but they sit on the NEC. With a vote. Why? WHy not just advisory? This just gives some people more than one vote on the NEC. I was hoping for a truly ‘one-member-one-vote’ party and didn’t get it.

        Liked by 5 people

      2. Monica I think it is very different the NEC position is personal to them, substitutes are not allowed. Fiona Robertson has appeared under various guises as a substitute for several minority groups. That is very different. In my day the only positions on the NEC for affiliates were for the Youth wing, in the form of two places, including one of them for students.

        Liked by 4 people

      3. Affiliates are not given places on the Alba NEC – they have representation of 2 members on National Council – an institution now abandoned by SNP.

        Liked by 3 people

    2. Do not let the poison of NuSNP lead you to see corruption elsewhere.
      All Parties risk being infiltrated or manipuled ( e.g. any branch of any political Party can have a branch meeting hijacked. The usual attendance is probably around 10 at best). Taking over an NEC should be extremely difficult but Sturgeon has proved it can be done by sliding through rule changes while the membership slept.

      Sturgeon is politically corrupt. That doesn’t mean they all are. It does mean stay vigilant!

      Liked by 9 people

  4. Just one of the reasons that after 37 years I left the SNP.

    Policy, procedure, power, is concentrated in these small cabals. They are the SNP. That is how Sturgeon operates it. She has taken control well. The members who are left are but the cannon fodder, pack mules, there to back up the numbers, throw in a few quid, and run the stairs during campaigns.

    Ordinary members, branches are but disenfranchised peasants in their own party.

    Liked by 16 people

  5. Back in the good old days, when I was a shop steward, I would get lads tackling me about all sorts of grips, and how the union was being taken over by communists and left footers with a political axe to grind, I would ask them “When was the last time you bothered to go to a Union Meeting and have your say or cast your vote?” I take your point, but sitting at home and bemoaning on Facebook about the state of the party will not change the situation on the ground. Many of these groups are very active inside organizations simply because “Ordinary” members of the organization live it to others. No point in joining a keep fit class, then expect to get fit by not getting involved.

    Liked by 2 people

    3. That system you describe was when only those attending the meeting had a vote. I remember a Union meeting when a handful of people decided on recommending strike action for thousands. The wider membership should always have their say in any organisation and they do now. What Sturgeon has done is the reverse and the members have no say. They cannot remove these NEC voting affiliates who can jump around seats and pass on voting powers and so the system is now locked and the minority rule.

      Liked by 9 people

  6. ” It’s absolutely FREE ” ! Does this FANTASTIC offer extend to the Lame Snails For Indy faction , what about Trans Sloths or BAME Tortoises 4 I……..N……..D……..Y , will these critically important factions also benefit from this new-found not-at-all-desperate NSNP largesse ? .

    This devotion to the abstract noun – Diversity- shibboleth has served only to dilute , distract and on present form destroy what should be the single , overriding , relentless focus of the – supposed – main Independence vehicle – you guessed it . INDEPENDENCE .

    ALBA take note

    Liked by 10 people

  7. Shortly after Norther Ireland was created the main population areas were divided into multiple electoral seats using FPTP unlike during the first election which allocated seats which used PR via several seats per large regions. It was very wrong to change the system then and remains wrong to select any voting system that favours any group.
    They removed the original PR system for first past the post for obvious reasons and to ensure the dominance of one group Protestants loyal to London.

    The abolition of PR.
    This adversely affected the Labour and Unionist candidates in two ways. First, by introducing single-seat constituencies, minority parties had much less chance of gaining representation. All seats simply went to the candidate with the greatest number of votes. Consequently candidates who were able to gain enough votes to reach the quota under PR often found that their support was insufficient to provide a simple majority under the new system, es­ pecially if their support was spatially divided between several of the new constituencies. Second, the abolition of PR reduced the variety of issues which were relevant to the outcome of the election. This particularly dis­advantaged the Labour candidates who had deliberately tried to avoid the national issue (partition) in previous elections. The Unionists pushed the national question to the fore and implied that any non-Unionist vote was necessarily anti-Partitionist.

    If the argument for PR is made to ensure all groups are proportionally represented then it would be difficult to argue against. However when the representation of the entire Group or Party is dominated by the minority group only – then it is very, very wrong.

    Two very different cases but what they have in common is a leadership trying to direct an outcome by the manipulation of a voting system

    Rigging the representation attendees by the false manipulation of the main body by the exclusion and under representation is not democratic – ever. First past the post is not a democratic system either.

    You either have a PR system or what you have is Gerrymandering ( see below)

    “Gerrymandering is a practice intended to establish an arguably unfair political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts.

    Two principal tactics are used in gerrymandering: “cracking” (i.e. diluting the voting power of the opposing party’s supporters across many districts) and “packing” (concentrating the opposing party’s voting power in one district to reduce their voting power in other districts).”

    Northern Ireland used Cracking – used to dominate totally the minority group
    We are witnessing a form of Packing in the SNP – being used to enable the minority to dominate the debate

    Sturgeon – We see you.

    Liked by 12 people

  9. I’m afraid competence and credibility has been driven out of the SNP by those who’ve accommodated radical trans-activism. Though I don’t think the SNP is quite as openly hostile to the interests of natal women as the Greens.

    Embodying Vulnerability: A Feminist Theory of the Person
    scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1235&context=djglp

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Though fortunately, the only way the Greens can get anywhere near power is if some dodgy deal is done with the SNP. Who have chosen to go after the low-hanging fruit of social transformation, as they appear to be pretty much bereft of talent.

    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/equity-and-sustainability-in-the-anthropocene-a-socialecological-systems-perspective-on-their-intertwined-futures/F6DCBE05CA3F6820A10C0DF193BB29E7

    Liked by 1 person

  11. If those living in Scotland want to ever experience the benefits of open government and potential to access our human rights, then we’ll need to re-connect Scotland’s political and legal Establishment with a respect for international law and scientific theory. As the rule of law does not work in isolation from international law and scientific theory. So that means we’ll need to step out from under Westminster, which draws its legal authority from pre-Darwinian cosmology and the political and legal science of the sixteenth century. As a result, Westminster considers itself above international law. So Westminster’s legal authority simply isn’t legitimate, and the Scottish government clearly lacks competent legal advice.

    Women’s rights under universal protection
    and international human rights treaties:
    dialogues between global and local
    https://www.redalyc.org/journal/934/93458828008/93458828008(dot)pdf

    Like

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