ALBA - Unofficial Forum

I’d intended to leave my monkey/airport article at the top of the site for a few days because it is important and I hope you read it. If you only read one thing on the site this week, make it that. But with matters inside the SNP devolving over Angus Robertson’s Isreal meeting, there are a few points I’d like to make.

First, could you give us a break with the idea that this meeting was a serious contribution to achieving a ceasefire in the Middle East. It’s insulting to repeat this argument because it is so patently stupid.

I’m all for negotiations and engagement with unsavoury groups in the credible pursuit of the greater good for all. Indeed it is one of my fundamental driving principles and my refusal to operate within the whole blacklisting system that dominates contemporary politics has caused me more than a little grief over the years.

But a negotiating position has to be credible. The meeting needs to have some credible chance of progressing the aim you are seeking to progress. I’m absolutely confident the Israelis knew the SNP’s position on the ‘plausible genocide’ in Gaza given the SNP put forward a motion in the UK parliament on it which topped the news agenda for days. I’m equally confident Angus Robertson achieved nothing whatsoever towards the goal of a ceasefire in his meeting.

I’ve seen a number of SNP people give the example of Tony Blair negotiating with the IRA as a justification. Aye, but the UK was one of the antagonists in the Irish Troubles and Blair had overall policy responsibility for Northern Ireland. Angus Robertson has no standing, no credibility, no substance. The IRA suspended military actions, Israel remains on an unstoppable path of brutality and carnage.

But more to the point, let’s say Robertson fought the good fight over a ceasefire; I can absolutely promise you that Tony Blair didn’t finish up his negotiations with the IRA by organising a join IRA/UK Government social. There was no exploration of what mutual energy development opportunities the IRA and the UK might have had, and they didn’t make arrangements for ‘cultural collaboration’.

Let me be really, really blunt; if calling for an end to genocide is only one item on your agenda for a meeting, you’re an appalling human. ‘Please stop killing Palestinian babies, oh, and would you like a Scotwind contract and an invitation to the Edinburgh Festival’? Fuck right off.

This was 100 per cent about a photograph to make the Israelis look like respectable global figures rather than pariahs. It was 100 per cent a PR exercise for genocide. That the SNP was a willing participant in that is 100 per cent stomach-churning.

That the Israeli Deputy Ambassador met with evangelical Christian John Mason is unsurprising; Mason is the go-to figure in the SNP for deeply unpleasant people who want credibility and can plausibly find some sort of far-end religious connection.

(And, by the way, what is it with Christians and genocide? The Crusades, the Conquistadors, the Afrikaans in South Africa, the persecution of the Roma in Europe, the Holocaust, the Hutu’s in Rwanda – they seem unable to help themselves. And Germany’s Christian Democrats seem to think that if they let the Jews have a genocide of their own then it’s sort of like quits.)

This appalling meeting was an inevitable destination on the path the SNP set itself on when it flipped its Nato position. I told you all at the time that joining Nato wasn’t pragmatic, it was about turning the SNP into a lackey of the American Empire. That’s what just happened.

And of course it was Angus Robertson who held the meeting, just like it was Angus Robertson who acted as a one-man battering ram to get the party into Nato alignment. Whatever Robertson’s political agenda, it appears to have very little indeed to do with Scottish independence. I feel no surprise whatsoever that this meeting took place.

What I am very much surprised about is everyone else. Did John Swinney know in advance? Did Cabinet? Were they content with this? My guess would be that Robertson told them nothing, that this is all his own initiative. So why is Swinney backing him? If I’m right about the above, I’m then almost certain that Swinney’s position is just weakness. For the sake of his party he ought to fire Robertson over this, but his position is so shaky I guess he doesn’t think he can.

The membership of the party is therefore making a decent attempt. I know of a number of branches and constituencies that are putting forward censure or no confidence motions in Robertson. One I spoke to told me that at constituency level there is fury and that support for a censure motion is 5-1 in favour – and that is most certainly not a rebellious constituency.

The unprecedented public anger over this is not all that surprising, even if some of the participants are (good on you Lorna Finn – not always been a fan of your role in the party but you’ve gone some way to redeeming yourself today). But it marks out another feature of this affair; the sheer risk involved to all around it.

As I’ve been pointing out, the SNP membership is very unhappy just now and if it has an outlet for serious rebellion things could unravel quickly. The fact that people can’t identify a credible replacement for Team Swinney is more or less all that is holding him up. It will only take one tipping point to be crossed and they are in serious trouble. This might be it.

I think the more likely outcome is that this is the tipping point for Angus Robertson. A self-made ego who had a big reputation among the commentator class which it is now clear was based only on his relentless self-promotion, his fall from prominence is quite remarkable. He was a leading candidate for ‘next leader’ at some point. Now I suspect he’s got a lot more chance of being deselected.

For ten years the SNP has run over the top of the sentiments of many in the party but got away with it by dangling a fake referendum in front of members. That’s why there wasn’t a much, much bigger rebellion over the deeply unpopular Growth Commission. With no referendum to dangle, the leadership must be feeling pretty isolated.

Certainly it is clear (and entirely predictable) that the Westminster Group is furious over this. Of course they are – Robertson just made them all look like utter hypocrites, like part-time genocide-opponents. People can only take so much contempt.

But I want to finish with one thought to get across how I feel about this whole affair. The now official position of the leadership of the SNP is that it is right to engage with a genocidal regime  – but not All Under One Banner. All Under One Banner (Palestinians killed: zero) is untouchable and must be boycotted with extreme prejudice, but Israel (40,000 Palestinians killed and counting) is a valuable partner?

I think this tells you an awful lot about how long ago the SNP leadership clique lost its moral compass, how tiny their preoccupations are – and how little they have left to offer Scotland or the cause of independence.