I READ with dismay Kevin McKenna’s latest update and analysis on the “dark going-ons” in both the Scottish Government and the upper echelons of the SNP (Here’s why the SNP better organise an indyref sooner rather than later, February 3). His personal comments once again do little to help the independence cause.
Much of what he states is pure speculation on his part, and if I did not know better he would fit the bill of a Labour “fifth columnist” to a tee. Apart from his tongue-in-cheek lauding of the First Minister’s attributes, at her presentational skills and management of the Covid pandemic – which he grudgingly agrees outshine many other political leaders –his article is totally mischievous and suggests a dark conspiracy in relation to Joanna Cherry and Alex Salmond.
READ MORE: Here’s why the SNP should organise indyref2 sooner rather than later
I have no idea of the actual facts and neither does he. Until all is revealed, such comments and speculation is not only unhelpful but clearly is an attempt to destabilise the SNP and create division among its ranks. There is little doubt that within the SNP leadership and among its “grandees”, constant jostling for position seems now to be overtly taking place on a daily basis. Many times I have commented on how destructive this is to the party and that how any such wrangling becoming public really hurts the SNP where it matters, and that is with the Scottish voting public.
Perhaps that is what Mr McKenna is trying to achieve. As an ordinary member of the SNP I am really concerned that articles such as this will take my dream of Scottish Independence away from me.
Is it too much to ask that SNP politicians who have personal axes to grind to meet with the FM and others and "iron out" their differences behind closed doors and that so-called pundits who on a daily basis undermine the hard work of the Yes movement at this critical time refrain from doing so?
Perhaps such expert commentators should read all the positivity being delivered in the other pages of The National. A word to the wise: no individual’s ego, no matter who they are, is bigger than the party or the Yes movement.
Dan Wood
Kirriemuir
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