It's ironic that the Wee Alba Book co-author Stuart "Stew" Campbell is so obsessed with Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, because the little "shrine" he's set up to me on his blog is in many ways his own equivalent to the Two Minutes Hate (albeit it goes on for far longer than two minutes). There are dozens of comments from Wings readers in the BTL section of the shrine, most of them berating me, and yet it's blindingly obvious that 90% of the commenters either don't have a sodding clue who I am or have only the dimmest idea of who I am. They've just instantly decided to hate a bloke they know nothing about because the Pied Piper of Bath has instructed them to, which ironically lends considerable support to one of the key points I've made about the cult-like nature of Wings as it's moved towards a pro-Farage and de facto anti-independence stance. However, there is one comment right at the bottom of the shrine which is different from the others, because it criticises me for having done "absolutely bugger all in his own area to build up the [Alba] party at local level" before I fell victim to the McEleny Purges and was ejected from the party on trumped-up charges.
That's a weirdly specific criticism that wouldn't make much sense unless that person had some kind of knowledge of me at local level. There was something about his turn of phrase that seemed familiar, so I did a Google search for his moniker, and sure enough it was exactly who I suspected: Jim Cassidy, who if memory serves me right was the Convener of Alba's North Lanarkshire branch in the early days of the party, and who later on was the branch Secretary. (Strictly speaking the terminology should be "LACU" rather than "branch", but let's move on from incomprehensible Alba-speak.)
I have to say I regard Jim Cassidy's personal attack as rather cowardly for two reasons. Firstly, he obviously hoped to keep the attack just about generalised enough that I and others wouldn't twig who it was coming from, ie. he very noticeably didn't say "I was a party officer in North Lanarkshire for X number of years and I watched James Kelly do bugger all", etc, etc. And secondly, if Jim had any concerns about me, he had umpteen opportunities prior to my expulsion to raise those concerns with me directly, but he did not do so. I was at several branch meetings with him, and not even once did he give any indication that he had any problem with me. What he did often do, however, was moan generically about "people". He would frequently criticise people for standing for the Alba NEC but not for branch office positions, ie. according to him they wanted "the national glory" but didn't want to do the bread-and-butter work at branch level.
That is basically the criticism he is now directing at me specifically, but there's just one little snag here, Jim - I did put myself forward repeatedly for local positions in the North Lanarkshire branch, and you ought to know that because you were in the room at the time. Indeed, at the time of my expulsion I was technically the Organiser of the North Lanarkshire branch, although I was prevented from carrying out any of the actual functions of that role by the branch Convener Josh Robertson, who was also the leadership-appointed Convener of Alba's Disciplinary Committee, and who I strongly suspect had already been tipped the wink that action against me was in the pipeline and that he would be instructed to expel me from the party before the year was out. Come to think of it, Jim, within minutes of my election as Organiser, I distinctly remember watching you in conversation with Josh, as thick as thieves, deciding that Josh was going to use party software to do something or other that should really have been part of the role of the Organiser, but Josh was going to do it himself, just because, and only afterwards would he give me access to the software, which of course he never did and presumably never had any intention of doing.
That was my second attempt to get involved locally. The first attempt was a year or two earlier at what might laughably be called the branch's AGM, and which if memory serves me right was only attended by four people, one of whom was Corri Wilson, who of course isn't from North Lanarkshire but had been sent by HQ to try to revive the branch. I was the only person that night to put themselves forward as Convener. Josh Robertson declined because of work/academic commitments (he must have had a change of heart later on, perhaps because of his parliamentary ambitions). I'm not 100% sure whether Jim Cassidy was one of the four people who turned up, but I think he was, actually, and I think he declined because of work commitments too. So for a few minutes a strange consensus emerged between myself, Josh Robertson and Corri Wilson that I would be allowed to become Convener (this was long before I clashed with Wilson's daughter Shannon Donoghue so she had no particular grudge against me at the time). But then they had a change of heart when I pointed out that I was still taking precautions because of Covid, and that if people wanted in-person branch meetings, there would either have to be a hybrid element or I would have to delegate the chairing of the meetings. Corri Wilson was a bit of a zealot for in-person-only meetings, so the narrative instantly changed from "if James is the only person who can be bothered to put himself forward, nobody can argue with that, he must be allowed to become Convener" to "you know what, maybe we should organise another meeting and see if we can get more candidates to put themselves forward".
I am quite content, Jim, that I did all I reasonably could to get involved locally and that I was prevented from doing so, even if you seem to have had a convenient memory lapse about it. I'd also just note that if you think that I somehow had the power to "build up Alba locally" despite never actually being put in charge of anything, and that I failed to use that power, then I don't know what that must say about your own failings, because you actually *were* branch Convener for a period of time and later branch Secretary, and yet by your own admission Alba essentially doesn't really exist at a local level in North Lanarkshire. Where did *you* go so badly wrong, Jim?
I can certainly identify one issue for you. At one of the early meetings I attended when you were still the Convener, you informed us that "everyone should be out knocking on doors regularly for us as long as they are able-bodied". If I was someone who had never previously been a member of a political party, I would have found that attitude extremely off-putting and I might well have never gone back again. People do not join political parties to be subjected to military-style discipline. They might well be happy to help out once they feel at home, but that requires encouragement and friendliness. In the first instance, it requires a focus on the rights that people have as members and not on their supposed "duties".
When I was one of the four people elected in January 2024 to review the Alba constitution (a fateful turn of events that had a lot to do with my eventual expulsion), one particular focus for me was precisely on the local rights of party members, including those who may not attend branch meetings because of work or family commitments, but who I suggested could still be engaged and allowed their democratic rights to (for example) choose the branch's two National Council representatives via an online vote. That provoked blind fury from the likes of Daniel Jack (who thought online voting would be "far too expensive") and Chris Cullen and Shannon Donoghue, who essentially regarded local branches as the fiefdoms of the elite, and who felt that people who didn't turn up to branch meetings certainly hadn't "earned" a right to any say. I suspect Jim Cassidy's attitude would have been much the same. Has it ever occurred to you, Jim, that you might actually be part of the problem here?
My view was that Alba as a new party had a golden chance to start with a clean slate and use modern technology to build something better and more participative and more engaging - thus ultimately leading to a more active membership. Instead, they somehow ended up with a more backwards, more authoritarian and more elitist set-up than the older parties - and yes, if you pointed that out or (heaven forbid) actually tried to do something to change it, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh and the Corri Nostra ensured you were expelled. It really was that simple.
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