SNP and the lost members.

[Workingman]

Due to the election of a new leader following Sturgeon's resignation the SNP has had to give its membership numbers to the Electoral Commission and they show a drop of almost a third from the December 2021 figure to 72,182.

It is still the biggest party in Scotland by a country mile but the drop must be a worry. It comes at the same time as support for Independence is almost 11 points behind that for the Union. A double whammy.

It is also unclear which of Forbes, Regan or Yousaf will be the new leader. The membership will decide, but there does not seem to be much enthusiasm for any of them among ordinary Scottish voters.

The next general election should be interesting.

[Suff]

Hard to hold a position of unilateral nuclear disarmament when a nuclear superpower is waging conventional war on a nation state and using Nuclear threats to try and keep the others from supporting the underdog...

People are not really that stupid.

[Workingman]

Avoid, body swerve and avoid again.

Send in the nuclear strawman.

The UK can move its nuclear deterrent to England or Wales. The SNP is stuck in Scotland.

It's the SNP who are stupid.

Ash Regan for me.

[cromwell]

Missing members aren't the half of it.

Two of the candidates for SNP leaders are wanting more transparency on the vote for the new leader.
namely:-
Ash Regan and Kate Forbes issued a public letter to Peter Murrell, (Peter Murrel being the SNP's Chief Exec and Mr Strugeon) calling on him to disclose the latest membership count, the number of electronic ballot papers issued and the number of postal ballot papers.The national secretary, Lorna Finn, had earlier refused these requests, saying that candidates would learn the numbers after the election was over.

It is widely believed that Nicola Sturgeon wants Hamsa Yousaf to be the next leader, and the two other candidates suspect dirty deeds are afoot.
They aren't the only ones either.
Robin McAlpine, founder of the influential independence-supporting Common Weal think tank has been claiming for weeks that ‘the rigging of this election is so blatant not even a political ingenue could miss it’.

Whatever happens the SNP won't be a happy party, whoever wins.

[Suff]

Avoid, body swerve and avoid again.

Send in the nuclear strawman.

The UK can move its nuclear deterrent to England or Wales. The SNP is stuck in Scotland.

It's the SNP who are stupid.

Ash Regan for me.

What Strawman? A lot of Scots are actually anti US and many SNP are radically anti England. Now they have to face the reality that if they unilaterally disarm they have to go begging to the US, or, worse, England, for protection against an aggressive nuclear armed opponent.

You think Scots are not aware of this?? They're not a shallow as you make them out.

[Suff]

It is widely believed that Nicola Sturgeon wants Hamsa Yousaf to be the next leader, and the two other candidates suspect dirty deeds are afoot.

Labour tried that. They were crushed. You do not put in a leader from a minority ethnic group and expect the majority to vote for them. The majority actually feel they are not being represented.

Lib Dems will gain from this hugely if they do. Because Labour did the same it leaves Lib Dems and the Tories. Most of those who won't want to vote for this leader won't vote Tory.

I haven't followed this. The SNP are leading themselves away from victory and further away from Independence. It will take decades to recover the damage Sturgeon has done to the party. No point in worrying about it, even if I returned home they would not get my vote.

[cromwell]

Get the popcorn in.

SNP spin doctor Murray Foote resigned yesterday. Questions were being asked by the Ash Regan campaign team re SNP membership. Foote, briefed by SNP top brass, said that the claim that the SNP had lost 30,000 members was "drivel".

It turns out that it wasn't drivel, it was correct. Foote had deliberately been fed false information.
Today mr Sturgeon, Peter Morrel has stood down from being Chief Exec of the SNP.

Apparently a police investigation has been launched into the whereabouts of the missing £600,000 supposedly "ring fenced" for independence.
In other news Nicola Sturgeon "can't remember" when her husband lent the SNP £107,000.
To believe this would mean you'd have to believe that a husband doesn't tall his wife that he's lent somebody £107,000 and also that as leader of the SNP Nicola Sturgeon didn't know that someone (her husband) had lent her party £107,000.

What a shower!

[medsec222]

More than likely this played a big part in the surprise resignation of Nicola Sturgeon. It was obviously coming down the track at some point. Politically Nicola is the type to hang on like grim death and weather all storms, and something like the unpopoularity of the gender recognition bill or similar, would not cause her to lose any sleep. She was quite vague regarding the reasons for her resignation despite a rather long farewell speech.

[jenniren]

My thoughts exactly Medsec.

[Suff]

I have been unable to avoid the latest article on the SNP election.

So I was forced to see that the 3 candidates were 2 women and a non ethnic man.

It is an interesting century this 21st.