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During 23 years with the BBC, and 40 years in journalism (when he was trained to use simple language, avoiding jargon), the rise and sudden falls of influential people have always been central for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, so today he looks on with incredulity at major events in the news – the extraordinary revelations about Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish National Party (SNP), as well as now the abrupt disappearance of key politicians on the other side of the world.
Previously Phil has described how he was helped to break into the South Wales Echo office car when he was a cub reporter, recalled his early career as a journalist, the importance of experience in the job, and made clear that the ‘calls’ to emergency services as well as court cases are central to any media operation.
He has also explored how poorly paid most journalism is when trainee reporters had to live in squalid flats, the vital role of expenses, and about one of his most important stories on the now-scrapped 53 year-old BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW) TV Current Affairs series, Week In Week Out (WIWO), which won an award even after it was axed, long after his career really took off.
Phil has explained too how crucial it is actually to speak to people, the virtue of speed as well as accuracy, why knowledge of ‘history’ is vital, how certain material was removed from TV Current Affairs programmes when secret cameras had to be used, and some of those he has interviewed.
Earlier he disclosed why investigative journalism is needed now more than ever although others have different opinions, and how information from trusted sources is crucial.
These things make great copy for journalists like me.
First we had the extraordinary revelations about Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish National Party (SNP), with the lessons they might offer for the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru (Plaid), and now we hear that two key politicians who were seen as high-fliers have abruptly ‘disappeared’.
First the SNP.
It appears that Ms Sturgeon paid for a member’s theory driving test, funded yoga classes, and the party she then led bought multiple copies of her books, including a collection of her speeches. During the spree almost £10,000 was apparently spent on VIP airport upgrades, and more than £32,000 on ‘team-building exercises’. Apart from the yoga classes, driving test and books, other purchases by senior staff included nail polish, and £4,182 for hospitality, as well as accommodation at the five-star Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire. In all £14.2 million of taxpayers’ cash was spent by Scottish civil servants in three years. Taxpayer money was also spent on wellington boots “for inspections”, and China crockery for a meeting room.
Talking of China what has happened there is unbelievable too.
It was reported on September 14 and 15 that General Li Shangfu, who was appointed Defence Minister and State Councillor (a senior role in China’s cabinet), was recently detained for questioning. General Li, has not been seen in public for more than two weeks, and was suddenly yanked out of an annual meeting with Vietnamese defence leaders that was scheduled for earlier in the month, with Chinese authorities officially blaming a “health condition”.
This follows other disturbing news about one of his high-profile colleagues from earlier in the Summer.
Qin Gang was suddenly removed from his post as China’s Foreign Minister in July, even though he’d only been given the job in December. The Chinese authorities cited health reasons for that change as well.
But let’s go back to the chaos inside the SNP, because it might have more relevance closer to home with Plaid, and affect the by-election in Scotland tomorrow. The disarray inside the SNP is incredible for onlookers to watch, and resembles a car crash in slow motion, so Plaid ought to take note, but is unlikely to do so.
We are told that journalistic research has revealed how public money was used by the SNP, to upgrade travel arrangements for Ms Sturgeon, even while other policy matters appeared more pressing.
For example, the ferry system in Scotland seems to have been appallingly badly managed, and given that around 90 inhabited islands rely on ferries this reflects poorly on the SNP’s record in government. As The Economist has put it: “The SNP’s nationalism has at times eclipsed its competence…polls suggest a mauling for the SNP at the next British general election. The ferry saga has not helped the case for independence-indeed, it makes it likely that voters will toss the SNP overboard”.
This has all come as the SNP was forced to expel one of ITS OWN MPs! Angus MacNeil was suspended from its Westminster group. The Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) MP was suspended after reportedly clashing with party chief whip Brendan O’Hara. He was kicked out following a breach of their ‘code of conduct’. Mr MacNeil said he would stand as an independent candidate at the next General Election.
The backdrop is incredible, because it comes hard on the heels of an extraordinary police investigation, following allegations of fraud, and an unbelievable leadership election campaign, in which a leading contender said that in line with her religious beliefs she opposed gay marriage. Worrying details about the leadership election would have been enough to sink most parties, and as Sky News described it: “The contest has been bitter and fractious with the candidates, two of whom are serving cabinet ministers, trashing and attacking their own government’s record”.
The winner was the Scottish health secretary Humza Yousaf, but it is doubtful he will set alight the cause of independence, and has been described in The Times as a “lightweight”, and a “complete chancer”. Mr Yousaf (or Yusaf or Yusuf), has been dogged by controversy in the past, and there have been accusations that he ‘blatantly manufactured anti-SNP narrative’. In The Sunday Times (ST), he was called a “serially unsuccessful cabinet minister”.
The campaign of the Scottish cabinet secretary for finance, Kate Forbes, all but imploded, after she said she opposed gay marriage. On children born out of wedlock she proclaimed: “That’s choices they (the parents presumably!) have made”. Ms Forbes is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, and takes the Church’s teachings on these matters very seriously, but was still described in an ST headline as a “leadership favourite”. She also had support in some of the other churches north of the border: The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), The United Free Church of Scotland, The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland and The Associated Presbyterian Churches.
The SNP had been turned into a highly-successful, centralised, election-winning machine under Ms Sturgeon, before things changed totally. Members were prepared to accept her iron discipline (she was elected as leader unopposed in 2014, and the recent competition to take over was the party’s first contested election since 2004) as long as she kept winning, but the simmering underlying tensions have now burst fully into view, and this could be a lesson for Plaid. It is obvious the SNP is in COMPLETE turmoil, damaging hugely the cause of independence, and this, too, is something Plaid must confront.
Here’s The Economist again, about the situation today: “A revolution is tearing through the Scottish National Party (snp), which has governed Scotland since 2007. The extent of the party’s disarray is stunning…The scale of preference falsification during the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon is now on full display…”.
The party’s Chief Executive Peter Murrell, who is married to Ms Sturgeon, was forced to resign in the face of a no-confidence vote, and the membership of the SNP fell by 30,000 in just OVER A YEAR! Meanwhile, the police investigated how party funds were used. Mr Murrell had been accused of undermining the leadership contest to replace his wife as party chief and first minister, following a damaging secrecy row.
This came in the wake of the SNP’s head of communications also quitting after it emerged he had inadvertently provided bogus membership numbers to a journalist. Murray Foote was told to deny reports the party had lost those thousands of members branding them “inaccurate” and “drivel”.The astonishing events were described as a “crisis” in the ST, and amid all of this, a poll showed that support for independence had plunged to 39 per cent.
The beneficiaries in Scotland may be the SNP’s fierce rivals, Labour, which once held sway north of the border. In 2010 it had 41 of Scotland’s current 59 seats in Westminster. After the independence referendum in 2014, Labour haemorrhaged support, and in 2019 it was all but wiped out, managing to hold just one seat (but there may be another one tomorrow). The by-election was triggered, when Margaret Ferrier, a former SNP MP, took a train from London to Glasgow even though she had tested positive for Covid-19.
The amazing spectacle we have witnessed, reflects the fact that the SNP (like Plaid), is the broadest of broad churches. Their membership ranges from dotty dreamers obsessed with Bonnie Prince Charlie, and anti-Englishness (who hold socially conservative views), to liberals (like Ms Sturgeon) who support gay marriage, and accept gender re-allignment. Take out the bits about ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, as well as ‘Ms Sturgeon’, and this could apply equally well to Plaid.
I have had a conversation with a long-standing Plaid supporter, who is deeply against homosexuality, and even believes that lesbianism DOESN’T ACTUALLY EXIST!! He represents a section of his party which is on the left economically (possessing a strong belief in nationalisation), but is extremely conservative socially.
Another wing of Plaid (as with the SNP), wants independence from England in a socialist republic, socially liberal laws, and (in a way I have never really understood) to rejoin the European Union (EU).
Unlike for its fellow party (the SNP), devolution did not galvanise the cause of independence in Wales, and Plaid has never properly broken out of its language strongholds in the West and the North West, into the South Wales valleys at the level of the Welsh Assembly (WA)/Welsh Parliament (WP)/Senedd Cymru (SC), (the party can only point to a couple of examples, but it YEARNS to do so!).
It is the job of the newish Plaid leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, MS, to hold the two wings of his fractious party together. But uniting around a form of independence may not be enough for them – these two views within Mr ap Iorwerth’s party are simply too far apart.
‘Official’ and reported reasons behind a politician’s downfall may be far apart too – as China and Scotland know only too well…
Details including political stories like these by Phil, as he was gripped by the rare neurological condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – why a disturbing message about Air Traffic Control (ATC) staffing, and the knock-on effect for Wales’ biggest airport, have highlighted growing concern about its future amid mounting alarm that it was bought using millions of pounds in taxpayers’ money when a Scottish equivalent was purchased for only £1.
