It’s not just Prime Minister Liz Trust and the Tory party in both Scotland and England who are facing big trouble come the next election, WRITES BILL HEANEY
Despite the cockiness of their Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, who seemed to be enjoying overmuch kicking a woman when she is down – and it would be hard to find anyone closer to the floor than Liz Truss at the moment.
However, Truss is not the only one in staring down the barrel of catastrophe. I can reveal that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, who have been doing a lot of crowing over the past few days, do not have their own troubles to seek.
Their boast that there has never in history been a country so ready for independence as Scotland is an out and out lie, a travesty of the truth, a fantasy and a fallacy.
I have been looking on the internet at the YOURS FOR SCOTLAND blog by Iain Lawson, who was once the public face of the Conservative Party in Dunbartonshire, an outspoken Tory who found he lacked support from the electorate here and eventually, in despair some say, switched to the SNP.
Big Iain, son of the late Rev Alexander Lawson, of Dumbarton Presbytery, who did politics on the periphery of various councils and committees, was a “rummel ’em up” merchant, and it appears he hasn’t changed a bit.
His blog this week looks at the “interesting” numbers involved at the recent SNP conference in Aberdeen, where Nicola Sturgeon controversially revealed her wafer thin plans for an independent Scotland.
Sturgeon’s chances of independence for Scotland are about the same as Truss’s chances of holding on to the premiership after the next UK election – a dug’s and nane, as they might say in Brucehill, Bellsmyre, Bonhill and downtown Dumbarton and the Vale.
Lawson, LEFT, told his readers: “Interesting numbers involved in the votes for office bearers at SNP conference – maybe not all delegates voted but surely most would have voted for national secretary but only a total of 822 votes!
“No wonder the party was e-mailing members the evening before conference asking members if they wanted to be delegates! Annual National Conference Elections 2022.”
SNP smearmeister, the tedious Cllr Jonathan McColl, who represents Lomond on West Dunbartonshire Council and whose political views would be more at home in Belarus than Balloch, was was elected to the SNP’s National Executive Committee by two votes out of a total of a miserly 50 votes cast.
WEST SCOTLAND (Open List)
Jonathan McColl – 26
Graeme McCormick – 24
Iain Lawson commented: “I am struck by how few votes are now required to become a NEC member. To give an example have a look at the West of Scotland region where only 26 votes were required for victory. This is a Party that claims 119,000 members, the West of Scotland must account for at least 15,000 of those numbers but only 50 votes in total were cast.
“When you look at this voting, just over 800 votes in the most contested election there seems very few people involved in these elections. Now I know it is delegates voting but the West of Scotland has has 9 constituencies within it and there should also be a lot of branch delegates as well. Yet 26 votes, under 3 per constituency were sufficient for victory?
“These numbers do not suggest a dynamic Party rather a lethargic one with fading involvement from the grassroots.”
Lawson also tackled the question of secrecy and censorship, which the SNP has an obsession with at national and local level – they imposed a ban on The Democrat in West Dunbartonshire which astonishingly is being kept in place by the new Labour administration, which has taken over from them.
He said: “Unfortunately some pro Indy websites are not pro Indy. They are pro SNP sites and ban any content on their sites which dares to question the SNP or the SNP leader. They seek to censor discussion and free expression.
“Fortunately many of my readers share the articles on Yours for Scotland frequently and because of this the attempted censorship is proving ineffective. This support is very important and I thank everyone who share and protect freedom of speech and choice.”
Well! Well! Well! Lawson’s dad was a minister at the church, at the junction of Drumry Rd and Kilbowie Rd. In Paisley he had a “pest control” business. He was some kind of a Scottish Business Envoy to the Baltic States for a while…..a Mecca for Nazis.
For sure! The SNP are playing a double game. Originally they saw the IndyRef as a win-win for the SNP. They couldn’t lose either way. On the contrary, the IndyFolk lost the IndyRef because it was betrayed by the SNP who didn’t campaign and voted No outside of WD. The result here revealed something of the local politics….a 90% turnout and a 55% win. These largely working class people weren’t revolutionary by international standards but they were far removed from the SNP’s business as usual. However, had they won, there never was going to be any departure from “London Rule.” “London Rule” is the West rules, the US rules, the UN rules, NATO rules and the EU rules. “Independence” only existed on paper. Yes, things would have been different….extra Trill all round different. Now we’re stuck with this Judas and all their scams….because they’re capitalists.
I hold the record for letters to the press in support of Independence, 2012-14. At one point the Editor of the Clydebank Post asked me to slow down because he couldn’t keep up. I didn’t “leaflet” much. I had boxes x 1000 leaflets delivered to my door. I was doing 100 leaflets delivered per 60 mins. Every day I was on the streets with my bag of ammo, stickers, badges, flags, you name it. I was at endless meetings. You bet there was treason, treachery and betrayal and I know who they are.