THE question of me standing as a candidate for Alba at next year’s Scottish Parliament is a small one in a world in which truly dreadful things are happening, especially in Gaza.
When we see murdered children every day, our personal problems seem very small. The current stramash is, however, symptomatic of a malaise within a party which continually claims to wish to unite the independence movement, while simultaneously embarking on a never-ending purge of its own members.
So many great independence supporters I believed were giving the movement a new start – James Kelly, Denise Findlay, Eva Comrie, Chris McEleny and scores of others – have found themselves expelled or forced out. Party membership has halved.
Like most decent people, I feel desperate to do anything I can to help stop the genocide in Gaza. I first authored the strategy to take Israel to the International Court of Justice and was there inside the courtroom in the Hague.
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I later travelled to Lebanon and for five months reported from the frontline, on Israeli atrocities there. So when George Galloway – whom I have known almost 50 years, although we have disagreed on independence – asked me if I would fight Blackburn on the issue of Gaza at last year’s election, I flew from Switzerland to meet him. I had fought Blackburn against Jack Straw as an Independent in 2005 on the issue of the Iraq War, gaining 5% of the vote. Local Muslims I met with George said they wanted the chance to redeem themselves for backing Straw.
I told George I would get back to him. I would need to get permission from Alex Salmond first as I was a member of Alba.
Alex and I had previously agreed I should not stand for Alba at the General Election as it was still too close to my imprisonment. The Unionist press would make mischief. I should wait for the 2026 Holyrood election.
Alex was enthusiastic about Blackburn. He did not set any condition. Had he not agreed, I would not have done it. I published why I was standing, that Alex had agreed, that I was campaigning purely on Gaza, and that I remained an Alba member. I came within 3000 votes of being elected.
The Alba member who got the next best result at the GE was Yvonne Ridley standing as an Independent in Newcastle. Also over Gaza. She also had Alex’s permission, in writing. Yvonne has also just been blocked as a candidate by Alba.
She was not even a Workers Party candidate, so the claim that the problem is the Workers Party standing against two Alba candidates in Scotland is evidently a lie.
At this spring’s Alba conference, I made a speech asking the party to stop expelling people, which was well received. All weekend, nobody mentioned Blackburn.
At the All Under One Banner march in Glasgow, I had a conversation with Alba leader Kenny MacAskill over which Holyrood region I might stand in.
Kenny indicated no reservation whatsoever. I was therefore astonished to receive a week later an email from the party stating that my vetting application had been rejected paper and I would not be allowed to go forward to the panel.
The reasons given were my standing in Blackburn, and my failure to volunteer my imprisonment on my application form. As though every member of Alba did not know I was imprisoned, and exactly why.
I remain urgently committed to the cause of Scottish Independence, and have recently been introducing the case to diplomats at the UN on behalf of Liberation Scotland and Salvo. Being stabbed in the back at this moment is unhelpful.
I am sorry to say I am entirely unconvinced the SNP has any genuine intention to do anything about Independence. The SNP accept the Westminster veto, and therefore do not really believe in Scotland’s right to self-determination.
But no progress can be possible if the more radical wing of the Independence movement continues to fracture itself into ever-smaller splinters.
So I intend to stay in Alba and try to reform it.
I fear it is becoming a vehicle whose entire purpose is to get a clique of former SNP MPs and MSPs back on to the gravy train. They are being positioned to dominate the party regional lists. Those forced out or expelled have all been outsiders.
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