The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 17th February 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 17th February 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
WHILST a few hundred Scottish Unionists pranced around Edinburgh waving Union Flags, Nicola Sturgeon’s followers were left bemused and confused at her sudden departure from the Scottish political arena. But whilst friend and foe line up to pay tribute to her nine years at the helm of the Scottish National Party, the power brokers in the nationalist camp are already cutting deals to advance the cause of those they hope will take her place.
Prime Ministers’ resignation speeches, of which we have had several in recent years, tend to be brief affairs, of 4–7 minutes. Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation speech was somewhat different, lasting nearly half an hour, and it obviously was not a hastily drafted one, despite the news taking everyone and their dog by surprise. Not even her tarot-reading sister knew in advance.
She denied that the “short-term” matter of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill was the cause of her departure, but it must have been a major factor because she has weathered other storms in the past and managed to wash her hands of responsibility for her many failures onto hapless ministers. It was this issue that split the party more than any other, despite grumbles on other issues such as from SNP councils moaning that they were getting a raw deal from their Holyrood masters.
When her heroine, New Zealand PM Jacinda Arden resigned in late January Sturgeon explicitly said she was carrying on, shortly afterwards betting the Scottish Tory leader £50 she would be around to fight the 2026 election.
Perhaps tellingly, the last question asked at her surprise press conference and left unanswered was about the Police Scotland investigation into the missing £600,000 of party funds. This investigation, and that into an undeclared £107,000 loan made by her husband, the SNP’s CEO, has recently restarted. There were also rumours that emails stolen from the phone of SNP MP Stewart MacDonald would be very embarrassing for her when they go public.
It is unclear when exactly she will depart Bute House. One reading of the SNP rules allows for a 130-day election process, so she is likely still to be in place long enough to get a seat at the coronation. Ms Sturgeon ruled out supporting any potential successor, claiming that: “The SNP is awash with talented individuals.” It would not take long to list them.
Two SNP heavyweights, her enemy Joanne Cherry and her ally Ian Blackford, are out of the running by being Westminster MPs. Her Deputy John Swinney has already made a hash of being leader, so can be ruled out. The former Westminster leader Angus Robertson, now Constitutional Secretary, and the Finance Secretary Kate Forbes are the most likely – but the latter is very young and her being a Wee Free will not be an advantage with trendy nationalists. The Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has a record that in normal circumstances would rule him out forever, but one never knows. By far the most popular successor candidate according to the polls with a massive 69 per cent approval is “Don’t Know”. If one thing is certain, the next First Minister will not be planning a drastic programme of nationalisation.
We can look forwards to not only some vicious infighting for the ruling party of Scotland. Further down the ranks are those who were forbidden to stand as MSPs and councillors because they offended Mr & Mrs Sturgeon, who ran the party with an iron rod but whose spell is now broken. They will be out for revenge. Such infighting can only help opposition parties but whether Scottish Labour, under the thumb of Starmer & Co in London, is capable of exploiting it is another matter altogether.
Nicola Sturgeon’s predecessor Alex Salmond was one of the politer nationalist critics when he said of her reign: “Independence has been taken into a cul-de-sac. There’s a barrier, a roadblock, and it’ll be the job of everybody who supports independence, in particular, the new First Minister, to find a way through that roadblock or round it.” Others, such as maverick former British ambassador Craig Murray, openly said she was a traitor to the cause for the damage she has done by focussing on gender issues.
Whereas no-one can dispute the fact that she has ably ensured that the independence issue remains top of the agenda on the Scottish street, she nevertheless failed to win over the millions more needed to force Westminster to agree to another referendum.