An utterly unique political achievement: a month and a half after being expelled from the Alba Party, Chris McEleny appears to still be the Alba Party's Nominating Officer

It's been a little while since our last update on the McEleny saga, so I thought I'd take another quick look.  Correct me if I'm missing something, but I cannot find any publicly available reference to any appeal he made against expulsion from Alba or the outcome of it.  My guess is that it'll all be over by now, because we first learned about his expulsion in early May, he would have had a maximum of 21 days to decide on an appeal, and then I think the hearing would have had to be held within a month.  So in theory the process may still be dragging on, but I doubt it.  And the fact that we haven't heard anything at all probably indicates that his expulsion is now confirmed.

But it's not all bad news for "Mad Dog".  He may not be a member of Alba anymore, but according to the Electoral Commission website he's still the party's Nominating Officer.  You've got to give the guy his due: to still effectively be in control of a party he's been expelled from is a political achievement that is absolutely unique in British history.  He's never going to be First Minister, but they'll never be able to take this away from him.  OK, again it's theoretically possible that Alba may by now have found a way of coaxing him into resigning (they have no power to sack him) and the Electoral Commission website may just not have been updated yet.  But I somehow doubt that.

If things really are as they appear, it must be absolute mayhem behind the scenes at Alba, because it means that their ability to put up the candidates they want to at next year's election is subject to an absolute veto from a man they've just made an implacable enemy of by expelling.  Probably for the time being Corri Wilson is able to function as a de facto Nominating Officer due to written authorisation McEleny submitted well before his expulsion, but he could rescind that authorisation at any time he chooses.  I presume there must be Plan Bs in place to re-register the party with the Electoral Commission as a nominally new organisation - but to do that would require an entirely new name.  What would be left of the Alex Salmond Memorial Party by that point?

As for what McEleny's plan is, God knows, but everything we know about him and his ambition suggests that he'll be determined to stand as a Holyrood candidate next year, one way or another.  So if he hasn't moved on from Alba yet, that might indicate - bizarre though it may seem - that he still thinks he could be a candidate for Alba.  As Nominating Officer, he could of course just nominate himself as an Alba candidate and nobody would be able to stop him, but I'm wondering if perhaps he is holding out hope of doing it in a less provocative way.  

A number of people have pointed out that Kenny MacAskill seems to have lost all interest since becoming Alba leader - he spends more time these days tweeting cute photos of Highland cows and llamas than he does making political statements.  He's on a sort of Gerry Adams trajectory where it wouldn't be a total surprise if he releases a book of poetry.  So perhaps McEleny is banking on MacAskill giving in to his buyer's remorse and resigning quickly, thus leaving a vacancy that Ash Regan would be near-certain to fill.  If that happened, McEleny's expulsion would undoubtedly be reversed and he'd become the party's lead Holyrood candidate on the West list.  But Tyrannical Tasmina and the Corri Nostra (newly emboldened after the Wedding of the Century between Chris "the Crossmaglen Columbo" Cullen and straight-talking totally unfiltered independent woman Shannon Donoghue) will be determined to prevent that from happening at all costs.  If they need to hold MacAskill hostage, that's exactly what they'll do.

Meanwhile, it's dismaying but perhaps not surprising to see McEleny take a leaf out of his mate Stew's "Back Bibi With Whataboutery" book by retweeting a video mocking Greta Thunberg for being "selective in her activism" by sailing towards Gaza, rather than Ukraine "which is much closer to her".  Well, I suppose in the literal sense Ukraine is closer to Sweden, but in the overall scheme of things it's not that close, and by the same token Palestine isn't all that far away from Sweden either.  In fact Gaza is only a stone's throw away from Sweden's fellow EU member state Cyprus - hence all the intelligence-gathering flights Britain operates on Netanyahu's behalf from the 4% of Cypriot territory that is still colonised.

If I was in Thunberg's shoes I wouldn't have the slightest hesitation in prioritising Gaza.  Ukraine has control over 90% of its sovereign territory, whereas Palestine has proper control over none of its sovereign territory.  Ukraine has an army to fight back with, and it's backed to the hilt militarily and logistically by wealthy western countries.   Palestine has no army to defend itself with and it is receiving no external military support.  Its people are literally defenceless against genocide.

For as long as objective priorities exist, then yes, activism can be selective and it pretty much has to be, whether McEleny and Stew like it or not.