I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve had just about enough of being told to shut up about the SNP leadership because I’m no longer an SNP member. I’m afraid once you put yourself forward for election, and particularly once you form the government and once your leader is the First Minister of Scotland, the fitness for office of that person becomes quite properly a matter of interest and discussion for every single voter in Scotland. If that’s uncomfortable for you, resign from government and become a secret society instead.
But it goes further than that, of course, because independence supporters have a special stake in what goes on inside the SNP. Almost all of us have voted SNP at some time. Many of us are former SNP members and have made financial contributions to the party. In my case, I was a member until 2021 and made a number of standalone donations. I have also voted SNP in all but one of the Scottish elections I have ever partipated in – the sole exception was the 2021 Holyrood list ballot. (I even voted SNP in the local council elections last year because there was no Alba candidate in my ward.) The idea that SNP voters and those who have contributed financially to the party have no right to an opinion is pushing credibility beyond breaking point.
I mentioned on Twitter a few days ago that the SNP leadership election reminded me of the 1999 Welsh Labour leadership election, when the Blair puppet Alun Michael was installed even though the much more popular Rhodri Morgan would plainly have won if nature had been allowed to run its course. In that case, the dice were loaded due to a dodgy electoral system that gave the bulk of the vote to parliamentarians and unions who were in Blair’s pocket. In the SNP’s case, a similar effect was achieved by breaking party rules with a rushed contest, by ensuring crucial information was withheld from members until most or all of the votes were cast, and by pressuring members with a string of ‘shock and awe’ endorsements for Humza Yousaf secured by calling in favours or promising ministerial positions. Both Alun Michael and Humza Yousaf won by very narrow margins, which – rightly or wrongly – left the impression that their opponent would never have been ‘allowed’ to win, and if necessary there would always have been some additional measure taken to drag the puppet candidate over the line.
Alun Michael was, of course, deposed by the Welsh Assembly less than a year later, with his defeated opponent Rhodri Morgan succeeding him. Michael and his defenders repeatedly deployed the argument that his leadership was a private matter for the Labour party, and that the Assembly as a whole and the people of Wales had no right to any view. That type of hubris was never going to wash – not least because it was written into law that the First Secretary (as the First Minister position was then known) was accountable to the elected Assembly and could only continue to hold office with the Assembly’s blessing.
