In such a confusing time it is difficult to know where to start.\u00a0\u00a0I thought of looking back at various attempts to split the SNP; most of my comments will be personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I see Jim Sillars\u00a0\u00a0has thrown his hat in the ring, so it is worth emphasizing that every time he is quoted as a former Deputy Leader of the SNP people may not be aware that this was only for one year;\u00a0\u00a0he managed to spend a lot of money, and members voted him out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I cannot remember exactly when but he made a proposal about more public demonstrations \/civil disobedience\u00a0\u00a0– this was passed at the Annual National Conference in Perth.\u00a0\u00a0On the Saturday I was having breakfast in the hotel and was talking about this with one of my colleagues, and suggested that Gordon Wilson should appoint him as\u00a0Convenor of that Committee.\u00a0\u00a0At that time I was unaware that Gordon was sitting at the next table.\u00a0\u00a0In any event Gordon did appoint him as Convenor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was not present at the meeting to appoint members of that Committee, but I was nominated;\u00a0\u00a0when the names were read out Jim Fairlie commented \u201cI take it that Mr Lynch is the token black!\u201d (This would not be an acceptable comment today)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I do not recall everyone on that Committee but knew most of them were Sillars supporters.\u00a0\u00a0When looking for events to heighten our campaign I suggested that we make a simultaneous blocking of the Forth and Tay Road Bridges;\u00a0\u00a0a fellow member, very left wing Alan Clayton stated\u00a0\u00a0\u201cCars are so middle class!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The last time I heard of him is that he had been expelled from the SNP.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Committee did not adopt my resolution, and I heard later that Gordon Wilson did not think it would be a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the things I did do\u00a0when on that Committee was look at the possibility of occupying Torness Nuclear Power Station\u00a0in East Lothian.\u00a0\u00a0I went with Jim Sillars – I drove –\u00a0but the project was not feasible due to an additional\u00a0\u00a0apron of barbed wire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sillars also had a plan to invade the Holyrood building on Calton Hill; the Committee, including myself, were completely unaware of this;\u00a0\u00a0only tried and trusted members of his\u00a0\u00a0inner circle knew.\u00a0\u00a0When he attempted to get in the building, the police were waiting for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the SNP Conference in Ayr in 1982 I was on the Agenda Committee, when Gordon Wilson put forward a resolution to ban all Groups within the Party.\u00a0\u00a0This was overwhelmingly passed\u00a0\u00a0by Conference, leading to a walkout by members of that Group \u2013 always a bit of farce somewhere – Andrew J T Kerr told me he joined the walkout as he needed the toilet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All those expelled appealed against and were interviewed by a Committee; the appeals were all rejected. One person, Alex Salmond, brought along his lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a subsequent National Council Professor Neil Mac Cormick had a resolution to\u00a0\u00a0readmit\u00a0the expellees;\u00a0\u00a0this cleared the decks for the 1983 General Election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so to the current situation.\u00a0\u00a0It has always been my belief that Alex Salmond wants to be the obtainer of Independence.\u00a0\u00a0After he persuaded a somewhat reluctant Nicola Sturgeon to take the reins, he did give a quotation from Bonnie Dundee on his flight North – \u201cYou\u2019ve no\u2019 seen the last o\u2019 my Bonnets and Me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the aftermath of Scotland failing to support Independence, David Cameron, the then Tory Prime Minister announced \u201cEnglish Votes for English Laws\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was followed by a General Election, when Scotland voted in 56 of Scotland\u2019s 59 MPs. Alex Salmond won Gordon. Cameron resigned and was succeeded by Theresa May. She had a majority, not very big, but decided she wanted to be secure, so called another Election. Alex lost Gordon, and was shattered as the SNP lost a lot of seats. Theresa May bribed the DUP to get their support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This disrupted Alex\u2019s plans, I think, but then along came Corona Virus; in her handling of the issue Nicola Sturgeon\u2019s image soared in Scotland, the UK and the rest of the World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Alex\u2019s plans were drifting away, he was accused of sexual harassment; information is curious \u2013 first we had 2 Civil Servants, then we had a trial by jury which declared him innocent on something like 14 cases \u2013 and Not Proven on 1.\u00a0\u00a0Just the other day I read that somebody had been given 6 months imprisonment for publishing 5 names.\u00a0\u00a0I do not know all that is going on and now Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of breaching the Ministerial Code!\u00a0\u00a0And the Unionists are chortling with glee!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>forgotten by everybody is that Nicola is a lawyer \u2013 Alex is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I see George Galloway seems to have turned Unionist and will support the Tories; he was extremely active in Dundee in the Seventies, and the PLO Flag flew over the City Chambers. He was trying to wangle a corporation house for his girl friend; another member of the Labour Party, Bunty Turley, said \u201cEnough was enough\u201d stood against Galloway and beat him. I met her during the 1983 General Election and asked her to sign my adoption papers. She refused, politely, and said that while she had known my father, she did not know me! She was most amicable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am starting to waffle; I came fourth in that campaign \u2013 the SDP had just started up and their campaign was a loudspeaker car playing \u201cChariots of Fire\u201d- we saw no sign of them on the streets At that Election we won \u00a3500 for the best Election Address in Scotland. This address was created by myself and Percy Holton, a retired Commercial Artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The money was a big help with the Election Expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I watched\u00a0\u00a0a fair bit of Nicola\u2019s testimony on BBC on Wednesday;\u00a0\u00a0she was calm and courteous and very open with her\u00a0\u00a0answers.\u00a0\u00a0In the Opposition was Jackie Baillie for Labour, Margaret Mitchell\u00a0and Murdo Fraser for the Tories and former Green, now Independent, Andy Wightman.\u00a0\u00a0From the SNP Maureen Watt, Stuart MacMillan and Alasdair Allan;\u00a0\u00a0in the Chair was Linda Fabiani SNP in her capacity of Deputy Presiding Officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As expected the Unionists kept repeating names and dates of every \u201cslip\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0The whole affair went from 9 am to 5pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have to say that this episode was because Alex Salmond did indulge in some sexual harassment which he admitted in his Day in Court the previous week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nicola Sturgeon was not guilty of any lapse, but the Unionists acted otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord, give me strength<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In such a confusing time it is difficult to know where to start.\u00a0\u00a0I thought of looking back at various attempts to split the SNP; most of my comments will be personal. I see Jim Sillars\u00a0\u00a0has thrown his hat in the ring, so it is worth emphasizing that every time he is quoted as a former Deputy Leader of the SNP people may not be aware that this was only for one year;\u00a0\u00a0he managed to spend a lot of money, and members voted him out. I cannot remember exactly when but he made a proposal about more public demonstrations \/civil disobedience\u00a0\u00a0– this was passed at theRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2967"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2969,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions\/2969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Snippets<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Nicola Sturgeon<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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