"Because we're worth it": The Corri Nostra tighten their unelected grip on the Alba Party, with Corri Wilson appointed as a "like-for-like" replacement for the disgraced former General Secretary Chris McEleny - who may now have had his party membership suspended

The tentacles of the Alba Party's so-called "Corri Nostra" stretch far and wide, but at its core are the Ayrshire-based family and friends of Corri Wilson, who was briefly the MP for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock between 2015 and 2017.  It's widely regarded as a 'party within a party' (I was going to call it a 'shadowy party within a party' but then I remembered Shannon's social media presence), which has repeatedly got its enemies ejected from Alba at will.  It's dominated by the following -

* Corri Wilson: former MP and previously deputy to the disgraced former General Secretary Chris McEleny

* Shannon Donoghue: Wannabe Instagram star, "totally unfiltered straight-talking independent woman", champagne lover, interviewee on a far-right podcast, daughter of Corri, and centre of media controversy when she was nepotistically employed at public expense as Corri's caseworker/personal assistant at Westminster

* Kieran Donoghue: Son of Corri, and centre of media controversy when he was nepotistically employed at public expense as Corri's caseworker/personal assistant at Westminster (are you spotting a pattern here?).  Apparently has a more mature temperament than Shannon, but has still been more than willing to mix it on behalf of the clan in Alba's internal politics.

* Chris Cullen: Fiancé of Shannon and thus will become Corri's son-in-law once the society event dubbed 'the Wedding of the Century' finally takes place.  Currently one of Alba's two local councillors, simply because he happened to be an SNP councillor in South Ayrshire at the time of his defection.  By all accounts regarded as a poor local representative by residents of his ward, and rumoured to have failed vetting to stand for Holyrood as an SNP candidate - probably the trigger for his change of party.  It's always useful to have your future mother-in-law in control of a rival party as a back-up plan.

The Corri Nostra's efforts in recent weeks to entrench their power within Alba by democratic means have failed spectacularly.  Shannon was one of the defeated candidates in the election for female Ordinary Members of the NEC, while Cullen was defeated in the male ballot and was also defeated in the Local Government Convener election - effectively meaning that Alba members rejected him for the NEC twice over.  You can't really get a much more comprehensive rejection than that - but it still didn't matter, because he and Shannon had already abused their positions on the Constitution Review Group to smuggle in a "reform" (ahem) that would automatically guarantee his appointment to the NEC if he failed to be elected.

Meanwhile, Corri Wilson herself has used her close ties to the party's unelected tyrant-queen Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh to ensure that she would be appointed as the replacement to the disgraced former General Secretary Chris "Mad Dog" McEleny, who was informally known as the Chief Executioner due to him presiding over mass-scale purges of anyone who displeased the leadership in even the smallest way (I was one of his many victims, of course).  The position has been rebranded from "General Secretary" to "Director of Operations", but it remains wholly unelected, and Wilson is seen as a 'like-for-like' replacement for the thuggish machine politician McEleny.

Delighted to be appointed Director of Operations for @AlbaParty.
Big year ahead - looking forward to working with our new NEC and members across Scotland as we campaign for #SP2026 and progress towards independence.
⁰#AlbaRising #VoteAlba #Independence

— Corri Wilson 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@Corri_Wilson) April 14, 2025

So without bothering to win any internal elections, the Corri Nostra now hold two key positions of power, and one of them puts Corri herself in control of the party's entire behind-the-scenes operation.  This is another crushing blow to the dwindling number of democrats who remain in the party, but there really wasn't anything they could do to stop it - the ruling Alba elite are self-appointed and maintain their position by force of will.  The internal elections are just there for show, and are routinely cancelled, rigged or bypassed if the members are impudent enough not to vote as they're supposed to.

No, the only real struggle for power in Alba is within the elite, and in that battle there are no elections, and no 'good guys' either - only winners and losers.  The Corri Nostra seemed to somehow have advance knowledge that they were going to come out on top in their 'Sauron v Saruman' war with McEleny, because I gather from people connected to Corri on Facebook that in January she posted a bizarre video in which she made a cartoonish "BOOM" gesture with her hands and said words to the effect that "people are about to get what's coming to them".  She didn't explain what she meant by that, but within days McEleny had been magically removed from his position.  It seems that those who speak butterfly language operate on a different plane from the caterpillar people.

A number of people have pointed out that McEleny has been fulfilling the role of Beria in The Death of Stalin.  In other words, after losing Alex Salmond, the remaining Alba elite had a number of discussions about their problems, and decided that the solution was to execute the executioner.  ("Let's bump off Beria!").  I can't prove this, but my instinct is telling me that McEleny has now at long last had his party membership suspended, pending a disciplinary hearing which may see him expelled.  That's consistent with one or two whispers I've picked up, and it would also fit in with the latest version of his Twitter bio, which replaces the unwitting comic genius of "Primus" with "proud member and supporter of the Alba Party".  The word "supporter" is of course redundant unless there is some sort of question mark over the status of his membership.