LEADERSHIP ELECTION WEEK 2 REVIEW.

Posted byiainlawson27Posted inUncategorizedTags:, , , ,

Leadership election. After a quiet start it explodes down South. Questions over who can vote?

The week started with Humza promising an expansion of universal childcare with no explanation of the source of money, he also had several other spending promises. What they all had in common was a complete lack of explaining where the cuts would come to pay for them. As a devolutionist he must answer that question to have any credibility

He followed this up by issuing an insult to volunteer activists all over the country. He plans to introduce paid organisers across the country. I can just imagine who they would be. Increasing the payroll vote while starving real activists of effective campaign material is just insulting. 

Meanwhile Ash Regan was stealing a march on her rivals hosting a meeting with the Scottish Currency Group then issuing a positive statement that reflected strong support for our own currency as quickly as possible after Independence. By doing so she was respecting a previous Conference decision to follow this route. This was a major departure from the Sturgeon years where that Conference decision had been studiously ignored in favour of the Charlotte Street inspired “Growth Commission Report”

The campaign exploded when Branch Convener Steve Norris revealed that list MSP Emma Harper had driven a coach and horses through the rule book and emailed thousands of members in the South of Scotland, using the Party’s email account urging everyone to vote for Humza Yousef. For the second week in a row Humza’s campaign was caught up following the highly dubious tactics rule book. Last week it was the bot tactic to generate a huge number of votes to conceal he was trailing badly in the National newspaper readers poll. This week it was Emma Harper using the Party email to circulate a support letter for Humza breaking every rule in the book. 

What rules you might ask?

Organisational Neutrality
9.1     All hustings must be conducted in a manner which gives no advantage to any of the candidates seeking selection.
9.2     No resources of the Party, including membership data, may be used by, or made available to, any candidate seeking election.
9.3         No Party meeting may take a vote preferring any candidate in the election.
9.4         No member may use a Party email facility to seek to influence the votes of members in the election.
9.5         Headquarters staff must not act, or be asked to act, in a way which would call into question their impartiality.
9.6         Parliamentarians and councillors must ensure that neither they nor their staff use parliamentary or council resources for campaigning.
If you have any questions, please email me at national.secretary@snp.org

To be fair these rules seem clear enough to me, seems strange that a SNP list MSP who owed her seat to previously dubious rules that allowed her diabetes to leapfrog her over the very popular Joan MacAlpine on the list, was ignorant of them this time round.

I have to admit to being surprised at the rank amateurism of Humza’s campaign

The “ I am backing Humza” campaign involving an array of highly paid SNP MEMBERS is thoroughly depressing. Why? Because these professional stooges are quoting words supplied by others and many lack the skills to do it without cue cards. Hardly inspiring . This has led to the hashtag #TroughersforHumza. Not helpful I would have thought!

The eagerly awaited first hustings took place on Wednesday night. This follows widespread allegations of audience fixing as all the hustings were full up amazingly quickly. How did so many get advanced notice? I have heard from one area where the hall was effectively full before they sent the message out to their members. How does that happen?

At the 1st hustings Kate was best speaker by some distance, Ash needs to sharpen her Independence message, she has an advantage here but she needs to spell it out more effectively, with Humza waffling,and avoiding answering questions. He did justify his Continuity candidate tag however never missing an opportunity to big up Nicola,

Now to what is clearly the most worrying issues in this election. That is just how open and transparent is the process? What steps are being taken to ensure honesty and fairness?

We know that the constitution regulations were sidelined in favour of a much shortened campaign, we know from the National readers poll that on the first day was showing Humza trailing badly in third place suddenly experienced a bot attack with many tens of thousands of false votes being cast in favour of Humza. Worse, subsequent enquiries revealed many of those false votes,tens of thousands of votes, originated “near Holyrood”. I think we can all guess of a building “near Holyrood” that would have had more than a passing interest in that poll. That however must remain speculation.

This is very important. It is scandalous that Peter Murrell still has involvement in this election. He is already under investigation over the missing 600k and the Lord Advocate has stepped aside so not to be involved in determining the further charges that are currently looming. His years in post since his wife became First Minister has been a constant conflict of interest, not least during the Salmond debacle when Scot Gov staff and friends of Nicola conspired with senior SNP HQ staff, including Peter Murrell to try and jail the former SNP Leader. It is asking for big trouble having him head up this election in these circumstances.

Let me put a scenario to you that is potentially explosive. People across the country, like on the first day of the National readers poll, think Humza is lagging behind. Suddenly the votes are “cast” and Humza emerges as the “ winner”. Members across the country meet far more fellow members who voted for the other candidates. Sadly I think this scenario is possible. I will restrict myself to one possible way the election could be rigged.

Why do I think we need independent scrutiny? Well for one thing I don’t believe for a minute the SNP have over 100,000 members, nothing like it. What control is there to ensure every vote comes from a real member and not some voting bank?

I ask that because I speak with many people in the SNP. They tell me attendances at branch meetings are dire. That the level of attendance has dwindled and in many cases are now lower than they were when the Party claimed 25,000 members. They don’t believe the SNP have 100k members so why should I?

If I was involved in either Kate’s or Ash’s campaign I would be insisting on an independent audit of just who is entitled to vote. No excuses, we all know the importance of the Electoral Roll in elections. Believe me they can be crucial in internal elections as well.

STOP PRESS

So John SWINNEY joins Nicola Sturgeon in stepping down, the Chief Constable does the same, the Lord Advocate steps aside so not to be involved in the police enquiry over the missing £600k. Seems to be a cold wind wafting it’s way through the corridors of power. Now all we need is Peter Murrell to do the same!

I am, as always

YOURS FOR SCOTLAND


BEAT THE CENSORS

Regretfully there are some among us who seek to censor what others read. Sadly within the YES movement there are sites which claim to be pro Indy but exist to only promote one Party and will not publish articles which come from bloggers who don’t slavishly support that Party to the exclusion of the rest of the YES movement. I ask readers who support free speech to share articles from Yours for Scotland as often as possible as this defeats the effectiveness of the censors.

FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS

Free subscriptions are available on the Home and Blog pages of this site. This allows,for an email of each article to your Inbox and that is now how several thousands get my articles each day. This avoids problems that some have experienced gaining access from Twitter and Facebook. You will be very welcome to choose whatever route works best for you.

SALVO

The work and important development of Salvo has been a beacon of hope in 2022 and as it develops Salvo is creating campaigning hubs throughout Scotland. Salvo will join  with Liberation.Scot and as the campaigning arm of Liberation we are looking at very effective campaigns kicking off very early this year and introducing some new campaigning methods as well as those that have worked well in the past. This requires money so all donations to this site, once the running costs are covered, will go to support the work of Salvo/ Liberation. I think you will see it well used and effective.

LIBERATION.SCOT

We are seeking to build Liberation.Scot to at least 100,000 signatures just as quickly as we can. This is part of our plan to win recognition as an official Liberation Movement via the United Nations. We intend to internationalise our battle to win Independence and through the setting up of our Scottish National Congress will prepare and develop our arguments to win progress in the International Courts. Please help by signing up at Liberation.Scot. It is from those who sign up to Liberation.Scot that the membership of the SNC will be created by ballot.

44 thoughts on “LEADERSHIP ELECTION WEEK 2 REVIEW.”

  1. You are spot on. They have never released figures and we all know people who have left the SNP. Meetings and Activists are less than they were prior to 2014.
    Last year’s local elections, there was a ballot for selection. Previously we were lucky/estatic if 10% of membership participated. Nobody ever replied to Branch emails, about anything. Suddenly, we had about a 30% turnout. A candidate was selected over a better known activist and sitting councillor. On speaking to many activists, not a single one voted for the winning candidate nor did they understand the result.
    There was definite interference but we didn’t know how. We assumed that someone was casting votes from the paper members, most of whom no one in the Branch knew.
    Murrell has access to real time votes, membership lists and to the polling company. Is he just staying to ensure the “right winner” and there are no “loose ends”?

    Liked by 19 people

    2. Aye, “paper members” has always been my favoured guess regarding the end use of the £600k and the £107k. I had attributed this to the need to avoid the embarrassment of revealing that a once mass membership party had been reduced to payroll, carpetbagging parasites dependent on Short money fae the British state.
      As you point out there’s also a practical benefit to Murrell in falsely inflating numbers with paper members; ballot rigging.
      This has been established, common practice in Labour Party, internal elections for council candidates in England. Entire, extended families are found to have 100% party membership all registered to the one address.

      Liked by 13 people

    3. Well perhaps the SNP leader can be selected by whatever means the party decrees, the members have had long enough to decide for themselves what they believe, but such methods to choose our FM? I really dont want an independence organised by this heaving heap of corruption and the idea of Scottish finances in the hands of the Murrels, on current form, is the stuff of nightmares. If the new incumbent shows signs of following the Sturgeon pattern we should organise huge protests for a general election and if our media wont give us a voice we’ll have to find our own ways to shout. I always liked the protest through gigs idea myself. Come to think of it, might be fun….

      Liked by 1 person

  2. When it is impossible to check everything you do what auditors do: create a sample set. There is nothing in this world to stop Regan and Forbes organising their own independent sample set – designed to focus on voting members with less than 7 years membership. Take those sample votes and verify them. Make clear to Murrell the police will be involved over any irregularities – or perhaps it is more fun not to announce in advance a verifying sample will be taken.

    Liked by 15 people

    1. I wish BB would release that snip he showed of just how cowardly YUSELESS is & how obedient he is to Herr Sturgeon..He is certainly NOT a man in my eyes.. I have never seen a man look so shameful..

      Liked by 6 people

  4. I am considering rejoining the SNP in order to be able to participate in (ie. monitor) branch activities and to be able to vote in future internal elections. My mistake, and that of many former activist members, was to be too trusting of the party hierarchy. By the time we realised what the party had become it was too late. I was one of those Membership Secretaries who sat one Sunday afternoon watching resignations from the SNP rolling in – many of them people I knew and campaigned with for years.
    If Humza Yusaf becomes Leader and FM I will rejoin because I foresee another leadership election in the not too distant future.
    As an aside, I know of one SNP member who will not vote in this election because she cannot understand the online voting system. She will not accept help with this. (She has reluctantly abandoned support for Humza Yusaf.) There will be many more who will not be able to vote for other reasons, e.g. not having access to or experience of the internet.

    Liked by 9 people

  5. Thanks Iain for another summary of how the leadership contest is bring utterly gerrymandered.

    The SNP is not a, functioning party. I doubt it has more than a handful of active members in most of its branches.

    It is now a party comprising of effectively only paid elected members, payroll assistants and a coterie of paid HQ staff.

    That Humza wants to install paid organisers tells you that. Indeed, the last conference with only around 600 members attending tells you that too.

    The SNP is now a ghost member party. A virtual party. the party.

    Alba I suspect has more members than the SNP.

    And we wonder why the SNP has sold us short on independence.

    The SNP is a thoroughly rotten burst ball. A virtual party in fact structured to lead us the wrong way.

    Liked by 10 people

  6. (Hope you don’t mind Iain, but I’ve just written a comment on Wings, and it seems kinda apt to repeat it here…)

    I’m so bored of this inaction.

    I know, I know, the candidates need to get their chances, blah, blah, blah…

    8 years we’ve been marking time while the SNP had it’s mental breakdown. It feels more like 80.

    For Humza to be the preferred choice of the outgoing junta should properly be a death sentence on his campaign, but it manifestly isn’t. Hate to tell ya folks, but Rip van SNP hasn’t woken up yet.

    Serious question, who is going to change their mind in four weeks? While the bourgeoisie debate party procedures, the Wee Free Church or a person’s stance on gay marriage, Scotland haemorrhages another month of life force, another month of resources are plundered, our economic turnaround and societal resurrection is delayed another month, and Scotland’s Neoliberal divergence away from EU standards proceeds another four weeks..

    It grinds, and grinds, and grinds, and grinds… and it’s xxxxxx insufferable.

    For fk sake draw lots. Ping an arrow in the air and see which one it lands closest to. Who knows, we might get really lucky.

    The SNP membership can wake up and align itself behind a Convention of the Estates with or without the histrionics of a Leadership “contest”. There is NOTHING to stop sitting MP’s and MSP’s backing a Convention of the Estates and affirming the Sovereignty of Scotland and doing it by lunchtime today, yet they insist on locking progress into these interminable political procedures; the Scottish Independence uphill Steeplechase.

    I am so xxxxxxx tired of it.

    What has patience delivered? A rat infested Vichy Assembly which repeatedly panders to the invasive doctrine of Westminster Parliamentary Sovereignty, which is wholly and irremediably incompatible with the Claim of Right. It isn’t “our” assembly, it’s theirs.

    Holyrood isn’t a mechanism catering for our liberty, it is a mechanism which delivers our subjugation; the Claim of Right and Sovereignty of the People throughout the Realm of Scotland is usurped and subjugated by the contemptible Scotland Act, the dog collar Scottish MSP’s put round their necks in order to collect their Westminster pay cheques.

    Our “Patience” with the SNP witnessed Scotland missing out on a Scottish Backstop in 2016 which would have rendered the 1707 Treaty of Union untenable, and Scottish Independence left standing as the only viable conclusion. But no, the SNP had to dither and procrastinate while the initiative was lost, opportunity squandered, and deals were concluded to Scotland’s greatest possible injury and disadvantage.

    Here we all sit on tenterhooks not so much waiting for the new SNP leader to energise the moribund SNP, but to see whether the hand of the corrupt cabal is still on the tiller, and whether the SNP serves the interests of degenerate perverts are creeps, or remembers it’s former identity, as a the Party of Scottish Independence which has sold off the family silver.

    Do we really need this quivering blob of bloated inertia? Cannot we just go ahead, create a Convention of the Estates to champion the Claim of Right and Constitutional Sovereignty of Scotland, and trust that whoever or whatever MP’s or MSP’s remain in the SNP that are any good to us, will be adequately nimble and fleet of foot to make their own way to the Convention of the Estates, and there to pledge their democratic mandate from the people, to the furtherance of the peoples’ sovereign rights and integrity?

    Go SALVO. Roll that snowball down the slope. We must not surrender our vital initiative to the SNP, the insatiable political black hole where countless mandates, initiatives, opportunities and hopes all go to die.

    Liked by 11 people

    1. For Years the Cleveland Browns were one of the worst teams in the NFL despite having multiple years of very high draft picks achieving nothing in all that time.

      Collectively their fans describe themselves as the Factory of Sadness.

      With regards to Scottish Independence, I know exactly how they feel.

      Liked by 4 people

  8. No need for any convention IF Steven Flynn has the courage to advise The English Parliament that if Sunak breaches the Treaty Of Union with his Windsor bill for Northern Ireland we Scots will leave the Union IMMEDIATELY.
    Job done and we are Free once again.

    Liked by 11 people

      1. I would have no hesitation in taking this course of action were I Him. We need to get this Eternal Treaty ended. Our MPs sre suppsed to be there to obtain Scotlands FREEDOM. Is this not a chance to do so?

        Liked by 3 people

  10. In the Atlantic City of real life Nuckie Johnson (as opposed to fictional Nuckie Thompson of the HBO series), the town was a early version of “Hotel California”, you could check out any time but you could never leave.
    Ward Bosses kept a list of the deceased and folk who had moved. Come Election Day these ghost voters would be resurrected to present themselves at the polling stations. Bus loads of folk would go from station to station acting as doppelgänger voters for $5 a pop.
    Any audit of the SNP membership, voters roll would begin by contacting folk to ask “are you aware that your a member of the SNP?”. I suspect a large number would respond “no” or “I stopped paying subs years ago”.
    An audit would require Murrell, Ruddick and McCann to relinquish their death grip on the membership list and that ain’t going to happen.
    This is the highest of stakes games. Potentially there’s more to lose than a generous salary. With their influence over the Edinburgh legal establishment removed, Murrell and Co. could be headed for the big hoose.

    Liked by 10 people

    1. This has to be done by Regan/Forbes and the branches – no-one outside the SNP can help them here.

      Here is a thought:
      Regan/Forbes could use the ALBA membership list and check if those votes have been cast in this election – one of the places the 600k might have gone is paying the subs of members who left and at least some of those will have joined ALBA.

      Liked by 6 people

      1. Concerned branch secretaries could email their own membership list to verify these folk are paying their own subs. Now is the time the Aegean Stable can be cleaned – but only the SNP can turn on the hoses.

        Liked by 7 people

  11. “So John SWINNEY joins Nicola Sturgeon in stepping down, the Chief Constable does the same, the Lord Advocate steps aside so not to be involved in the police enquiry over the missing £600k.”

    We might add to that Angus Robertson’s unexpected decision not to participate in the leadership contest. I can’t help but think that there’s something big and highly damaging on its way into the public-domain.

    Liked by 11 people

  12. I was under the (clearly naïve ) impression that constituted bodies like political parties had legal obligations regarding their finances and governance, including properly audited accounts… Seems the mice have nibbled a whole metro system of loopholes through the swiss cheese that is the law.. Thank you for your posts, are these Questions making it through to wider public view (twitter, the National, etc) ?

    Liked by 5 people

  13. I have zero doubts that the Cultists have already ensured that sufficient votes have been amassed for Humza’s coronation.
    That will complete the fracture of the YES movement and cement the TransCult grip on the SNP.

    Then what?

    Do the remaining SNP members have no desire for Independence? It is obvious that Independence can only be achieved by bringing sufficient Indy supporters together. My entire family left the SNP and would never vote for them while the TransCult control the Party.

    What will a Humza victory deliver? Whatever that is it will guarantee a decline in SNP votes. I cannot see any upside in placing Humza as FM APART from pushing forward the TransCult Agenda, delaying the exposure of the missing money for a little while and allowing Peter Murrell more shredding time.

    Liked by 8 people

  14. It strikes me as odd that the drainstream media aren’t all over 1] Humza missing in action for the GR vote and 2] Emma Harper’s queering the pitch on his behalf.

    They were all over Kate Forbes for her honesty. And Ciaran Jenkins (C4 News) body blocked Ash Regan in his eagerness to question her about Kirk Torrance.

    I smell something fishy and it’s coming from the press gallery. I’ll be passing Paul Hutcheon’s (Daily Record) pad later – maybe I’ll take a photograph and post it on line.

    Liked by 6 people

  15. ‘He followed this up by issuing an insult to volunteer activists all over the country. He plans to introduce paid organisers across the country. ‘

    I sincerely hope not. I know this is a bit off-point, but this modern, ugly trend has escalated. I suppose it has taken the place of jobs where people make things. Looks good, committed, funds set aside. But in charities volunteers can tell a different story. Samaritans, for example, extended use of paid organisers. They sit expensively in ‘head office’ using up fund-raised finances, and have ‘organised’ the large numbers of volunteers who listen to people experiencing a variety of degrees of down.

    A few years ago an alarm was raised by head office who said there was a need to identify predatory behaviour amongst volunteers. Random listening in was proposed, which challenged the constitution regarding confidentiality. Just dipping in to ensure the vulnerable were safe. For those who stayed, head office has since developed further safety precautions: an Alexa-type pattern of responding to callers which, while possibly anodyne, is uniform, and limits what the volunteer may say. If a random listener catches a volunteer responding not in the Samaritan Way, a report is sent to the Branch Director with recommendations for further action.

    Bullying is reportedly rife in charities, actually. Paid organisers intend to guide people into doing things in a specific way: decided by whom? (My border collie is expert at this incidentally.) Paid organisers in the SNP will extend what has already happened in the NEC and Head Office, and will result in loss of assistance and the loss of rich and varied participation at meetings and on doorsteps. Whoever decides the party line will be well served. Everyone else loses. Don’t do it Humza.

    Liked by 7 people

  17. The big problem with this leadership contest is Murrell has engaged a polling company called Mi-Voice which guarantees customer satisfaction, I’m not saying Mi-Voice would do anything illegal, all it takes is for vote counter Murrell to phone them up and say there’s a bunch of votes we forgot to add in to the total, and the polling company is obliged to add them in.

    When you think about it Murrell MUST remain in office and see this through, he MUST make sure Yousaf wins for if Regan wins (I’m not so sure abut Forbes) then its more than likely all of Sturgeons and Murrells dirty little secrets will come out, and both of the could even find themselves in court over them. So Murrell will make sure the dam is plugged by ensuring that the obedient lacky Yousaf wins.

    The above scenario will set back independence even further for Forbes isn’t interested in the 50+1% MSP/MP victory for independence parties at each and every election she wants to wait until support for independence is quite high. Yousaf isn’t interested in independence at all, and he’s probably in synch with Stewart McDonald’s 2050 or longer date.

    The only real way to stop Murrell from ensuring Yousaf wins is to remove him before the contest concludes and replace him with people who are willing to have an open and fair vote count.

    Liked by 2 people

  18. I really have my doubts about Forbes, she’s been far to at ease with big business in the past.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I am keen to see Regan elected. The ‘Tory in disguise’ angle might be not be true RoS or it might be!! I don’t think there is enough evidence. I prefer the benefit of the doubt rather than taking the risk of giving a good person a bad name. Sturgeon rule was Westminster rule. Freeports, greenwashing public funds to landowners, Scotwind were most definitely the policies of a British state manager in operation. Nicola Sturgeon. There is not yet enough evidence there for me to condemn Kate Forbes.

      We were taught from a young age to give the benefit of the doubt, take people at face value. It kind of just seeped into us all, somehow. It is part of our culture.

      Having said all that Sturgeon ruthlessly exploited that trait in us. While she was manipulating us. We knew something was wrong but we gave the benefit of the doubt.
      We were being manipulated into giving the benefit of the doubt to Nicola Sturgeon at exactly the same time that her political corruption was eroding our right to the presumption of innocence and our right to a trial by jury.

      Maybe I am a fool for giving a politician the benefit of the doubt after our experiences Sturrell and Co.? I could well be.

      What happens if we no longer give politicians the benefit of the doubt? That’s a genuine question. Maybe we shouldn’t give them the benefit of the doubt?

      Liked by 3 people

      1. F*** it. I retract that pish I just wrote. Politicians need to earn every bit of respect from us including the right to the benefit of the doubt. It shouldn’t be given unless there is clear evidence that they deserve a bit of slack.

        I wouldn’t slag someone off without evidence but they don’t get a pass having been in government while something as outrageous as the Scotwind betrayal took place.

        Liked by 4 people

  19. Murrell uses Survey Monkey and announces the result without sharing the screen. Why does anyone think Mi-Voice will be different. Mi-Voice may record an accurate result and send it to Murrell. What he announces could be a work of fiction.

    Murrell has plenty of time to manipulate a ranking system. He will have they data passed through several systems to ensure Mi-Voice raw data is “compatible” with the SNP systems and hey presto Ash and Kates 2nd preference voters will all become Humza fans.

    Why do you need an all electronic vote open for weeks……?

    Liked by 6 people

      1. Absolutely Marion. it would not prejudice me in any way towards Kate Forbes. I was interested in why he was at a Tory conference that is all. If he was a Tory party member just say so surely?

        Liked by 2 people

  21. GM – to assess the Tory candidates and report back to Kate Forbes?

    Electronic voting, what can possibly go wrong?

    Reference roscurwood’s comment – Murrell says -Alexa….

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Aye that crossed my mind Vellofello. its probably none of my business i was just curious to know.

      As for the voting. Robin McAlpine’s article is probably accurate. What a nick we are in just now.

      Liked by 2 people

  22. Ian, I really cannot reveal my sources and I confess that this is largely anecdotal but a reduction in membership at all branches is what I’m hearing.

    DR

    >

    Liked by 3 people

  23. I wish you could make these shareable, I think everyone should be told of the corruption within the SNP now

    Like

Comments are closed.