I was extremely sorry - and frankly shocked - to discover an hour or two ago that Eva Comrie has left the Alba Party. I don't know her exact reasons for leaving, so I can't analyse the significance of it with any precision. But there are a couple of common sense observations that can be made. Firstly, I've always had the impression that she was probably the second most popular person in the Alba leadership, after only Alex Salmond himself (her 82% to 18% victory in the recent Equalities Convener election would support that impression), and she's always been very supportive of Mr Salmond personally. So this is not a development that can be brushed off lightly - people who see her as a political lodestar are going to be upset and bewildered about losing her and will want answers from the leadership that may not be immediately forthcoming. And secondly, this fits into a pattern of a number of very senior people within the party either leaving altogether or stepping back. It's a statement of the obvious that none of this would be happening if the party was in a good place internally, which is a frustrating thing to have to say at a time when Alba should really be going places after the addition of rocket-fuel from the defections of Ash Regan and Chris Cullen.
My own view, as I've said many times, is that the solution can only lie in greater transparency and internal democratisation. There was an interesting exchange in the comments section of this blog the other day between someone who felt that internal democracy doesn't matter because the most electorally successful parties are often centrally controlled, and someone who pointed out that a centrally controlled party which is not electorally successful is the worst of all worlds. I think that's right - members will tolerate almost anything if the electoral triumphs are free-flowing, but in a relatively small party which has yet to demonstrate an election-winning capacity, the trade-off needed to keep members on board is empowerment. They need to feel their voices are heard and that they are the party's ultimate masters - and if they don't feel that way, there's a danger they may start to look for that empowerment elsewhere.
I made a speech at conference this year saying the culture needed to change . It’s ok saying amend the constitution but something isn’t right in the culture. For that the leadership needs to listen to grass roots stop dismissing it or Alba won’t rise .
ReplyDeleteAlba's big shot at making a mark was the Rutherglen by-election. You can't talk a big game on independence, rightly berate the SNP for not striking when the iron is hot, and then baulk at the best opportunity you're ever likely to have as a small party. Not standing there remains possibly the most strategically incoherent decision Salmond has ever made in his political career, and it smothered any chance of an Alba breakthrough in the short-term future.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he was worried about losing. But in the week when George Galloway just made a remarkable return to Westminster, it bears pointing out that he only did so on the back of a bunch of electoral failures himself. Galloway is tenacious to the point of shameless, and eventually his tenacity has borne fruit.
I'm just not convinced Salmond has the tenacity for what it takes to get a small party off the ground anymore. Pass it over to somebody who's hungry to make their mark instead of cautious about blotting their legacy. Otherwise Alba is doomed to fizzle out.
^This.
DeleteRutherglen was the chance.
Eck should have run.
He even could have won.
Opportunity knocked and he blew it.
Hi, I dont agree that this was Albas chance to make a mark I think AS called it correctly as this was allways going to be about Gaza of which George Galloway has been an expert on for a long time and was the obvious choice for his outspoken and informed knowledge about the middle east.
DeleteWe were talking about Rutherglen. The spectacle of Alba running in Rochdale remains for the imagination of the inattentive reader!
DeleteAlso the conceit of Galloway being an expert on anything but himself.
I was asking my ALBA pals why we were not taking part in the Rutherglen by-election. Responses were nonsensical to me. They just parroted the rubbish Salmond told them to say. That was the day when it in was clear ALBA do not want to replace the SNP. Salmond wants to work with the SNP and just wants a MSP list seat. That is the beginning and end of his ambition. The ISP on the other hand do want to replace the SNP and Colette Walker stood in the by-election. I think Salmond should stand down as leader and Ash Regan should replace him, as soon as possible.
DeleteIt has been surreal watching some Alba members who became disillusioned with the SNP’s top down structure of secrecy suddenly defending the exact same behaviours from the Alba leadership.
ReplyDeleteI have utmost respect for members who are prepared to speak out for reform. After all was the whole point of Alba not that it should be a clean break from the many structural failings of the SNP? I don’t recall the Alba leadership selling it as a less electorally viable mirror image of the SNP.
I also have total respect for those members who feel their attempts at reform have been stymied by a top down clique and thus feel that they can no longer serve or contribute.
What a way to make so many outstanding people jaded about party politics as a viable route to independence!
Looks like the proximate cause of some of these departures from Alba was because of disagreements over the trans issue.
ReplyDeleteWishcasting?
DeleteThere's an account from Alba members that's been published on Iain Lawson's Yours For Scotland blog that may shed some light on the sorts of things that have been going on in Alba that may have some bearing on Comrie's decision to abandon the party.
ReplyDeleteIf what's alleged there is true (and there appear to be a fair number of receipts involved in the allegations) then I can't say I blame her. McEleney does not emerge from it well in terms of conduct. And it's more than a little troubling to see that there are significant discrepancies in the numbers that were provided to candidates surrounding NEC election results.
The contradictory information about which round Christina Hendry was elected in is particularly troubling. It is no secret that she is a relation of Alex Salmond. You'd have thought the party would be keen to transparently demonstrate that elections have been fair. Especially where members of the party leader's family are involved.
What's the relationship? Is she his niece?
DeleteAh, so *this* is why the 2013 SNP Leadership Contest was administered in London!
DeleteThere was no contest 2013.
DeleteThere was no contest 2013.
DeleteTypo: should have been 2023. I was just being snarky, anyway, as there's no good reason, obviously, that votes can't be counted in Scotland.
DeleteAnyway, I just read the Yours For Scotland piece about this. Seriously alarming!
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/02/19/requiem-for-a-dream/
Terence Callachan Dundee , I have read again the piece you refer to written by Iain Lawson on yoursforscotland.com , i read it at the time it was published there on 19/2/24 and still after this second reading im annoyed at the way Iain Lawson refers to to Alex Salmond throughout as SALMOND .I have heard that ALBA has some difficulty with people who do not really support Scottish independence infiltrating the NEC , this is nothing new SNP have the same thing with their membership but ALBA are still a small political party , infiltration therefore has a greater effect.Personally i will wait and see what develops there are people in ALBA who have a finger on the pulse and i have confidence they will see it through that the right thing is done.
DeleteIf you've read it twice, it's troubling that you still haven't managed to notice that Iain Lawson did not write it. The two authors of the piece are clearly specified.
DeleteThey also mostly refer to him as “the party leader.” It’s not written as the MSM-style hit piece you infer.
DeleteMaybe the third read is the charm…
If I may make a suggestion:
ReplyDeleteAlba needs to ditch the computer system and all the smoke and mirrors, pronto. Use paper ballots, and count them in the room, like we do in public elections.
The way it's done right now, going by that report, rubs people up the wrong way, and quite legitimately too. Certain agencies based in London couldn't ask for any better scope for operation than a self-inflicted smokescreen.
I can't see any evidence that it's the online voting that rubs people up the wrong way. It's the secrecy. You could just as easily have a paper ballot and keep the results secret, that would be no better.
DeleteCount them in the room. It’s not like we’re talking about an electorate of tens of thousands here. Or even more than a few hundred. Should be easily done on the day, right in the open.
DeleteIn that case you'd have to organise postal votes. Doable, but expensive enough to be used as an excuse to continue restricting the franchise in most of the elections. It's a nice idea in theory, but it misses the point of where the real problem lies.
DeleteThe problem is trust and it is a problem because of doing everything in the shadows. The quickest way to destroy a party is playing out here. Not before our eyes, but hidden from them.
DeleteExcellent suggestion; digital voting is exclusionary.
DeleteOn the main issue here, this whole thing is tragic. We need Alba too much to be put off by procedural wrongs which are easily solved. I don't know what's going on among members of the inner circle; I'm more concerned with policies -- which, of course, should be arrived at completely openly. Some reform is necessary, but not abandonment of the whole project, as the word 'Requiem' on Lawson's blog implies. As I commented there, the YfS article reads to me like a hatchet job (Mark II in Alex Salmond's case).
And that is relevant. The worst thing Sturgeon did -- qualitatively miles above her other faults -- was the vicious and despotic attempted jailing and continued slander of Salmond. It was an emblem of the SNP's glide towards fascism, found also in the persecution of Craig Murray, Marion Millar, etc., and the hate crimes law. Besides Alba's nonpartisan pursuit of independence and its social justice policies, we need Alba to preserve civil liberties in Scotland.
It seems likely that the NEC result was withheld because Abdul Majid did so implausibly well that members wouldn't have accepted it as a credible result, especially after his crushing defeat to Eva in the office bearer vote. That doesn't mean the election was rigged, it may be that however the result was achieved was technically within the rules, but publishing the result would still have totally discredited those rules, so an excuse was dreamt up not to publish. I don't know that for a fact, but it's an educated guess based on what I've heard from multiple sources.
Delete@11:52
DeleteThat’s… quite an excuse!
The fear is people voted for the Muslim-sounding name on the ballot, for a bit of diversity? No one should be surprised at that. It’s a welcome impulse. The fact he did so differently between posts just sounds like the age old “I’ve heard of none of these people…” problem. Going up against Eva Comrie is obviously a different ballgame in this party.
I'm sorry but that's complete drivel. His vote increased by what, twenty-fold, thirty-fold, forty-fold or more in the space of 12 months? No, that was not people suddenly thinking it would be nice to vote for a bit of diversity. That was probably friends and relatives being rounded up to register for conference with the fee paid for them.
DeleteFair enough. I’m not a member so just going on what’s said here. Still, when the selectorate is tied to buying conference passes, the system invites just this kind of behaviour. Vote early, vote often, and bring a friend. ;)
DeleteNot a member of Alba - but perhaps this comment may assist in clarifying why she resigned.
ReplyDelete" she is quite knowingly sitting on a gerrymandered NEC which by virtue of her commitment to that principle ( collective responsibility) she is complicit in giving credibility to the corrupt nature of that body. That is not a moral position to take, EVA should have withdrawn from that process when anomalies in the voting procedure became obvious."
If true then better late than never.
Who made that comment and where?
DeleteAsks the anonymous poster.
DeleteYou're an anonymous poster too, "Independence for Scotland" is not a name. Now, come on, you've been asked a reasonable question, it's not a trick question, what's the answer?
DeleteOther than your tag, you too are 'anonymous'. Nobody on here knows your identity.
DeleteJust call me Indy.
DeleteCould you answer the question, please? No-one was trying to catch you out, it was a simple and reasonable request for information. Who made the comment you quoted, and where?
DeleteI regularly ask people reasonable questions on SGP and get ignored. So please get off your high horse. The words I quoted were from a post btl on the blog Yours for Scotland. As I said I am not an Alba member and I also said "if true" so I was just trying to help provide a possible reason.
DeleteHow many times does it have to be made. The point is continuity of posting - I could post under a false name how would you know it was real or false. You can see my posts for years on SGP.
Indiana Forgan Scotland - how is that? Does that seem more real. How much trouble is it to put a unique identifier on your post. Terence Callaghan manages it. I have no idea if it is a real name and don't care but you have a continuity. 23 anonymous posts - same person? 3 posters? 12 posters?
DeleteWe are borg. Resistance is futile.
DeleteIt is not difficult to find the comment on YFS, and hence under whose name it was made. A name of "Robert McAllan" was used.
DeleteThe comment quoted from would appear to be the link below, there is some discussion following an earlier comment under the same name.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/02/19/requiem-for-a-dream/#comment-51943
Is Robert McAllan correct that the NEC is bound by collective responsibility? Intuitively it's hard to see how that principle can possibly apply in an elected body where every individual has their own mandate. It's totally different from a Cabinet system in which everyone's authority ultimately derives from appointment by the same person.
DeleteAnon at 11.32am - nice one that made me laugh.
DeleteI referred to 'collective responsibility' in my comment following confirmation by Leanne Tervit a then ALBA member that the NEC was indeed bound by 'collective responsibility'. I have not heard of Eva's reason for resigning however the fact she was a member of an NEC the vote for which was clearly manipulated may have influenced her, only Eva can explain her decision.
DeleteI was on the NEC for just over a year between September 2021 and October 2022, and I can't remember collective responsibility being mentioned. We were certainly bound by confidentiality rules, but that's not the same thing. Towards the end of that year, I became unhappy with certain aspects of Alba's direction of travel and I said so publicly. (Basically when Nicola Sturgeon announced the de facto referendum plan, I thought we should have claimed it as a triumph for Alba's pressuring tactics and got fully behind the concept. Instead we did the complete opposite, treated it as a con-trick, and pushed even harder for Nicola Sturgeon to resign, which made no sense because when she departed, the de facto plan departed with her.)
DeleteI fear Alba are going to do more harm than good at the GE, by splitting the nationalist vote in the constituencies they stand.
ReplyDeleteI’ll either vote Alba or not vote at all.
DeleteLooking like the latter at this rate!
It’s not so much Alba pulling, as the SNP doing everything it can to *push* us away.
DeleteTerence Callachan Dundee , i am a member of ALBA , my opinion is that ALBA are as a relatively new party in Scotland always going to have these kind of struggles to and fro as people try to gain positions of power , it happens in all political parties , worse as they grow ,being a Scottish independence party you can be assured there are people trying to bring it down , from the inside as well as the usual suspects , attempts at reputational damage persist and unfortunately there are SNP supporters who get involved in this way too.
DeleteWhen will people learn that we are all aiming for Scottish independence and must work together , in that respect if you have nothing good to say about other indy parties keep out of it dont interfere in each others business because you dont know the whole story.
Don’t worry. It’s just our regular “Humza is settling into the rôle” chappy.
DeleteActing like a single party OWNS the electorate is not a good look. Labour had that attitude and would love to reclaim Scotland as its fiefdom.
Every single one of the SNP’s mistakes in recent years has been to act like they are Labour.
ALBA will not split the Indy vote with the SNP at UKGE 2024. SNP offering to the Indy Voter is identical to Labour's. They both promise to do nothing to progress the case for Indy. If there is no ALBA or ISP candidate for me to vote for I will write #NotMyParliament on my ballot paper.
DeleteJames’s closing line in the post:
ReplyDelete> there's a danger they may start to look for that empowerment elsewhere.
Where though? The ISP? There’s really not much viable choice right now for Scunnered Yessers. It’s nice to think we have options, but we really don’t.
My advice would be to get back inside the SNP. We've got our National Council back in place and change dan be delivered via SNP Branches.
ReplyDeleteOh come off it. There's only one way change can be delivered in the SNP and that's with a change of leader. If you were advocating people should join the SNP to ensure they have a vote if a leadership election is called, that would be fair enough. But they won't change anything via the branches or National Council.
DeleteOh I’m quite certain the high heid yins will be fair scribbling down all of our perfectly obvious demands!
Delete@10:15. I do sometimes consider joining the SNP in anticipation of the all important next leadership election. Don’t know what the rules are for eligibility though. Pointless if I can’t vote because I’m late / etc.
DeleteLast time the cut-off date was the day Nicola Sturgeon resigned. So as long as you're in the SNP before the leadership election is called, you should have a vote.
DeleteKeith Brown raises the question of why the SNP should continue to participate in the Westminster farce. Now like Kavanagh I thought he will raise the question put forward lots of reasons not to participate but then bottle out of saying we should not participate. He didn't disappoint - Brown bottled it.
ReplyDeleteTo some, Scottish nationalism is just to bark and bark for love from our inattentive master. Actually leaving them? Whit! Are ye mad? Then they’ll never love us!
DeleteAye anon at 12.01pm a neat summation.
DeleteIt is interesting to ponder the underlying causes of resignation by Alba members. In the labyrinthine machinations of the first-past-the-post electoral coliseum, the Alba Party's quest to usurp seats from the Scottish National Party's dominion embodies a quixotic venture fraught with Herculean challenges. This electoral system, inherently predisposed towards the entrenchment of duopolistic hegemonies, mercilessly marginalizes nascent political entities, relegating them to the peripheries of political discourse. The Alba Party, a fledgling phoenix rising from the ashes of political realignment, seeks to navigate this Sisyphean battlefield, aspiring to disrupt the established SNP stronghold. Yet, the inherent vicissitudes of this electoral system, with its inexorable gravitation towards the consolidation of power within the bulwarks of entrenched parties, casts a long, obfuscating shadow over their quixotic ambitions. In such a milieu, the Alba Party's endeavor to puncture the SNP's monolithic presence appears not as a mere exercise in electoral competition but as a defiant rebellion against the titanic forces of political inertia. In this context, the daunting and Sisyphean challenges inherent in the first-past-the-post electoral system, with its implacable suffocation of nascent political aspirations, serve as a poignant catalyst for a procession of disillusioned resignations among the Alba Party's ranks, as erstwhile stalwarts confront the disheartening realization that their valiant efforts might merely be tilting at electoral windmills.
ReplyDeleteDo robots not use paragraph breaks. Go on give us a break.
DeleteThe Sisyphean struggle of regurgitating pish is incumbent on recumbent respondents.
DeleteI do point out the highly non-AI mistake of the word “coliseum” in that prattle, though. Could it be manually made by some eijit? What a waste of time and typing!
It's party politics. Nobody ambitious in Alba believes they're going to take any seats in the Westminster election. That leaves a maximum of eight list seats for Alba to realistically target in 2026.
ReplyDeleteSalmond's got one. Regan's probably got Lothian sewn up, awkwardly for MacAskill. Since Comrie was number one in Mid Scotland and Fife in 2021 and Hanvey was second, I think the implication is obvious - she's realised she's not going to be number one.
This sort of maneuvering and its consequences will continue until Alba formally selects the 2026 candidates(at which point there will be a final outburst). It's obviously critical to give the party membership the power to select those lists because then the majority is inclined to campaign for whoever they select, so that's the way to stop the internecine struggling and start building around your 2026 team.
You couldn't be further from the truth about Eva Comrie's reasons. They've got nothing to do with list placings. My guess is she would have been top of the list again anyway.
DeleteThe list was more or less hand-picked by Salmond in 2021, wasn't it?
DeleteI think the reality is that Hanvey has a higher profile as a MP. He was second last time because he had that to fall back onto and possibly believed that Alba could win a dozen or two seats. The next time, he won't be a MP anymore but he will have built up that profile among Alba's members.
In any case, there's plenty of time for Comrie to rejoin if Alba puts its list in the membership's hands.
That's not the reason she's left, that's not the reason why she'd rejoin. You're just completely barking up the wrong tree.
DeleteTrans issue.
DeleteTo anon 5.16: do you know if Salmond would stand again for any election and especially Scottish Parliament.
DeleteHe is 70 this year. Seems likely he would not want to be an elected politician at that age.
@ 5.42pm & 8.05pm: You seem very certain of Comrie's motivations, which implies that you know exactly why she left. Care to share?
DeleteI’m neither of those anons, and I’ve no inside info at all. But let me say this: if you think someone quits a party so as to earn a higher rank in that party (with an eye on the Holyrood list) then you must have no experience with politics. Loyalty is fierce. People don’t just quit on a whim, and parties certainly don’t long for their return.
DeleteNo, I don't think that she's trying to "earn a higher rank". I think she lost the top ranking she had in 2021 and has no intentions of returning. I suggested a membership-selected list MIGHT allow her a shot at retaking that top ranking.
DeleteYou're politically naive if you think there aren't ambitious people trying to use Alba as a career vehicle. The issue, as I put it in my original comment, is that Alba only has eight first-rank list spots to give out and nobody's prepared to settle for second this time around(never mind third, fourth, etc.).
"You're politically naive if you think there aren't ambitious people trying to use Alba as a career vehicle"
DeleteAnd you're clueless if you think Eva Comrie is one of those people. You just don't know her at all.
You're still missing my point. Whether or not Comrie was an ambitious climber is irrelevant; those who ARE climbers have an incentive to push her out, especially if you(or other anon) who suggested Comrie would have been first on the list are right.
DeleteI feel bad for decent ALBA activists and other party members. What a travesty.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I’ve no positive suggestions for the immediate future. All options seem bad.
@s
DeleteBarrhead boy, Eva Comrie some others leaving Alba? Ball seems very strange. What's the reasons behind this?
ReplyDeleteSpellchecker,! But you get the picture.
ReplyDeleteAll Alba will do at the GE is split the nationalist vote in the seats they contest.
ReplyDeleteA vote for Alba is therefore a vote for the union.
Earn my vote then! FFS, it’s on you, SNP. If you reek of gradualism, devolutionism and unionism: do something about it.
DeleteA vote for the SNP is a vote for the continuation of the union and for feeding the SNP grifters on the green benches.
DeleteALBA will not split the Indy vote with the SNP at UKGE 2024. SNP offering to the Indy Voter is identical to Labour's. They both promise to do nothing to progress the case for Indy. If there is no ALBA or ISP candidate for me to vote for I will write #NotMyParliament on my ballot paper.
DeleteIFS at 11:09, you’ve got it completely wrong I’m afraid. A vote for any party other than the SNP is a vote for the union. An abstention or spoilt ballot paper is effectively, of course, a vote for the union also.
DeleteYou write just like our resident Brit troll. I think you’re KC, “concerned” anon.
Deletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/bnnbreaking.com/politics/alba-party-shaken-by-founders-exit-amid-gender-policy-dispute
ReplyDeleteNow that we're so used to what Chat GPT comments look like, I strongly suspect that whole article was AI-generated (or AI-assisted at the very least).
DeleteProbably, but had email from HQ saying similar - Yvonne Ridley standing aside over same issue. The thing is - as I don't use social media I have no idea what the stushie was about
DeleteBasically Yvonne posted a few tweets with language that you'd associate more with trans rights activists. I assumed she was being ironic because I know she has gender critical views, but several people told me that she was being serious, and as she's apologised, maybe that was indeed the case.
DeleteI'm fairly sure it's an over-simplification to suggest Eva Comrie's decision is just about this one incident, though.
Eva - A twitter disagreement with Yvonne doesn't seem to me a resigning issue. The internal election stamash may be relevant too.
DeleteThanks James - I'm sure we'll find out in time
ReplyDelete