
It’s always good when people with specific local knowledge respond to an article. The following comes from Willie Hutchison who was a member of the SNP in Graeme’s constituency in Dumbarton when HQ effectively sidelined Graeme and his local office bearer’s and took over their selection procedure.
Removing branch and constituency secretaries, as well as the constituency convener’s access to the centralised mailing lists thereby suspending all communications with members was I recall a trick pulled in the Dumbarton Constituency during the last Hollyrood candidate selection process.
Cancelling the hustings the night before it was due to be convened and replacing it with a HQ organised hustings where Michael Russell was drafted in to replace the Constituency Convener in an HQ organised meeting only promulgated to online members a day later was another trick as I recall.
And of course in setting up the hastily organised HQ run hustings, the online Zoom format was restricted to 100 maximum, or around 85 if you deduct out candidates, HQ support staff and Michael Russell, and you have the result of around a hundred or more members locked out of hustings participation.
Of course in Dumbarton the HQ malarkey didn’t stop there. Hostile and rigged HQ vetting committees binning candidates, timing decisions to literally hours before the vote, having appeals reviewed by a candidate who was standing on the list as a BAME candidate, was another trick. And of course, the successful candidate, the HQ preferred in the HQ circle choice, he knew or most certainly appeared to know early on he was approved because he went to school early doors in the press to say he was the candidate for the Dumbarton Constituency.
And so, despite all of that, and an expensive without much doubt HQ supported campaign, the preferred HQ anointed candidate failed to take the seat allowing the previously 109 vote marginally held Labour -seat ( Jackie Baillie) to increase its Labour majority over the SNP to 1,483 votes!
Had it been a local candidate as opposed to an HQ parachute in job into what was Labour’s weakest constituency seat in Scotland then I think it would be fair to say that Dumbarton would be SNP. But like the vicious and utterly outrageous SNP 1 and 2 diktat, our Nicola and her clique committed electoral flagellation.
And if you look back in history and to 2007 you will see that Graeme McCormick had the biggest swing in the whole of Scotland from Labour to the SNP in what was thought to be an impregnable labour stronghold. 11,652 to 10,024, it was a great result albeit that he did not win. And now where has the candidate’s star gone in the new Nicola run Nu SNP that he tries to support.
But don’t take my recall of the situation in this particular constituency. Ask the question as to how many members have chucked it. How many attendees that branch and constituency meetings get. Joan Hutchison makes some very good points as to why. And yes, whilst there has traditionally been merit about keeping discontent within the walls of the members, the SNP, a party who many spent a lifetime building, is past that point. And this has all happened these last eight years.
Were it not for the fact that the Labour Party and the Tories are so unpopular, the SNP as it has now become would be finished. But you know what, the independence movement is bigger than the SNP and it’s freeloading backsiders, and they will change, or be changed and or be replaced.
MY COMMENTS
I know the above is true because my own sister was an Office Bearer in this constituency. She was disgusted at the fiddle and left the SNP in disgust along with many others. My sister is now a member of Alba.
I am, as always
Yours for Scotland.
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Thanks Willie for the kind words and your almost verbatim recall of the explanation I gave all SNP members about the hustings being taken out our hands.
You are however incorrect in claiming that our candidate was given support from HQ which none of the other candidates enjoyed. He secured the largest number of votes from our local membership. As always in these selections I never vote to try and be scrupulously fair to everyone.
We fought and funded a good campaign actively supported by other contestants in the selection process.
The Unionist vote in our area is promiscuous. In Holyrood elections it piles in behind Jackie Baillie; in Westminster the Helensburgh part is in Argyll & Bute where the Unionist vote is shared by the Tories or Lib Dem.
In the most recent election the division between Unionist and Nationalist has become defining.
We were taken aback by how much the Unionist vote swung behind Jackie. We raised our vote but it wasn’t enough.
Jackie was up to her old games of starting a “Save the Vale” campaign when in truth Nicola saved it when she was Health Secretary. It would have been helpful if our candidate had been told by HQ that the manifesto would include an upgrade to the Vale , so we could have been on the front foot. The lesson has been learned .
We can however take comfort in the fact that the last Holyrood election is one in which Jackie can claim that Faslane is safe only in her hands, since by the time of the next one , we shall be independent.
The last of her seven veils will be blown away.
Sent from my iPhone
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Ever optimistic Graeme.
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You omit the huge number of members denied access to the zoom hustings, nor the fact that a very popular local candidate was like you previously rejected from being an approved candidate, had her appeal heard by a Woke list candidate for the same regional seat. Total fix.
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Graeme, I am stupefied that they didn’t select you as a candidate, even after this scrupulously fair explanation.
Your talk of a land tax to replace all tax at the SSRG conference was an unexpected highlight for me. As was your Paisley story and answers to questions.
You’re a serious asset to the independence movement.
Respect.
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I completely agree but it angers me more that the SNP far from moving on his ideas do everything they can to block him.
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I voted for Jackie Baillie and i am an INDEPEDENCE supporter i voted to make sure that that tosser tony giugliano did not get in and stirgeon never got her way. What i dont undrestand is the way you people have been treated and are still members of the snp. DO YOU NOT HAVE ANY RESPECT FOR YOURSELVES grow a pair get a spine.
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And the lucky recipient of Nicola’s gerrymandering was Toni Giugliano.
Very much a denizen o’ the leafy suburbs o’ Edinburgh parachuted intae wet, working class Dumbarton.
Yet another Politics graduate who’s never had a proper job in their life. A member of the SNP National Executive (Policy Development Convenor) no less and a fully signed up member of the wokoharam brigade.
That the cult should put factionalism before practicality and purposefully pass up the opportunity to defenestrate Jackie Baillie is über hubris. Baillie was the only member of the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints that possessed the will and the attention to detail to even approach getting to the heart of the conspiracy.
Jackie lives to fight another day. Hope Nicola will rue that missed opportunity.
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I voted for Jackie Baillie to make sure that that tosser tony giugliano did not get in it stuck in my throat but it was better that sturgeon did not get her way.
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This sadly was not an isolated case. For some bizarre reason those remaining in the SNP are waiting to see if Sturgeon delivers a Referendum. The same people who carried out the actions in the article.
The remote possibility of a Referendum is still possible ( no laughing at the back) but the total lack of an effective campaign will lead to a certain defeat but an intact SNP.
How much damage will be done to our Independence prospects by a 2nd. defeat.
Sturgeon has nothing to loose. Neither does Pension Pete and his fellow Club Members.
I left the SNP because of the total destruction of internal democracy in the Party. She keeps telling us who she is so we should believe her.
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Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
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It is clear that Sturgeon and her secret Unionists cabal are gerrymandering the selection process at every opportunity to get rid of real Patriots while infuriateing Britnate Unionists . Everything is being done to keep Sturgeon in place by the MSM and Establishment while their covert asset stuffs the independence movement. Her successor when her time comes will be another sleeper agent when people eventually wake up to her UK,Ok game. For me the SNP are beyond redemption, those who still care in the SNP should now cross the floor and join Alba.
Dissolve the Union
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I don’t take any pleasure in being disrespectful but Graeme YOU are part of the problem , you and others like you who stick up for this narcissistic betrayer of Scots and SCOTLAND
FGS man this woman’s governance is RUINING Scotland ,YOU and others are COMPLICIT in her gross incompetence , YOU are not stupid how can you not see what is glaring to others who have left your party
I have never been a member of any political party because it FORCES individuals to be silenced when that party has been corrupted , as YOUR snp party has
It breaks my heart to read of individuals who were members of the snp for DECADES , DECADES that they ACTIVELY fought for independence but they are having to leave because they are sickened that they are no longer respected and their views are ignored and dismissed
Do NOT kid yourself by hoping that sturgeon will come good on a referendum because even if she does it has been engineered to fail , 8 years of lies and corruption , 8 years of broken promises , 8 years of FAILING to educate or produce ANY INFORMATION that convinces no or undecided voters that indy will benefit them , 8 years of accepting every DESPICABLE action against Scotland and Scots by WM , 8 years of incompetent governance , and I could write lots more, but bear in mind Graeme your support for this perverted deviant is causing ENORMOUS HARDSHIP for your fellow countrymen , pensioners and families with children , it is NOT WM who is STOPPING independence it is sturgeon
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Sturgeon and her gang deliberately sabotaging an election. It breaks my heart to see that some people just will not see what’s going on. Does she have to go on tv and announce that she is a traitor? Even then some people would claim that it’s all part of her secret plan.
Winter is coming, and Scottish people, our people, are likely going to die. Many are struggling, really struggling, already to pay their bills. Energy costs are going to rise much higher. Hypothermia and starvation will take their toll unless urgent action is taken, and there’s no sign of that from Westminster.
So what is Sturgeon doing to help her own people? She’s probably on Twitter as usual telling people what book she’s currently reading.
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McCormick kens fine well what is going on.
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Thing is, moonwalking to freedom only works, if you’re the only gig in town.
Alba is rising. Alba members are actively canvassing for Yes just now, and inspiring some very disheartened SNP voters.
The SNP spent its last carrot on the Council Elections, and while there are still some SNP members who don’t want to acknowledge the issue. The voters round the doors are fully aware that Indy is a matter of survival now, and they are seeing the Party that is talking to them. Oh, and they might not like Alex…. but they are fully aware that he is the one talking sense about the current state of affairs, and laying down a road map for getting it done. Even Unionists are acknowledging that.
There won’t be any badness…. the SNP are just going to get left in the dust.
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Alex was found innocent of lies told and perjury that has not been held to account, all from Sturgeons innermost circle. The nuSNP are protecting those fully guilty of sexual harassment of a teenager. Are the SNP members totally blind I wonder?
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The empty pay pokes are on their way to you nicoliar and there’s nothing you can do about it. The stone is on its way…get oot the line o travel whilst yea can!
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Careful now in Scotland these days that sort of comment can land you in court. Free speech is a thing of the past. The SNP and Thought Police interpret the threat in your words and the Courts act appropriately. I am being serious it’s already resulted in a conviction of an Indy activist this week.
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the independence movement is bigger than the SNP and it’s freeloading backsiders
Wonderful – I’m putting that on a T-shirt 🙂
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McCormick does, of course, know what’s going on. Despite having been rejected on three previous occasions he remains loyal to the Murrell clique. Why? I think he is delusional and is living in the past. He is 70 now and has no chance of progress so he should just hang up his computer and spend more time in the garden.
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I am nearly 70 as well. Would you offer te same advice? I can think of a fair number of people in the SNP leadership who would be delighted if I did!
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Does anyone know the current membership of the SNP? I would like to think it had dropped dramatically since 2016/17. I would like to think there are many offended by the behaviour of the current incumbents.
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Top secret.
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Why? Somebody has something to hide???
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Yes.
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It is people like McCormick who are the real problem as they help to keep Sturgeon and her gang in power. So unlike some posters above I have no respect for McCormick or all the others who support Sturgeon. Sturgeon has shown what she us and it is not a leader of Scottish independence. By the time we get to a UK GE in 2024 she will be in power for 10 years and not delivered independence. Worse than that she has delivered rancour and splits in the yes movement.
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If Graeme McCormick was so monumentally sh@t on by the NuSNP why the hell is he telling us that we should rejoin?
It’s people like him who crawl around the stinking pile of dung that is Sturgeon and her cabal who are the real problem. People like him are allowing and encouraging this festering, putrid heap of crap.
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