Kenny MacAskill announces that the party is over for Alba
Speymouth
So much for my afternoon off. Literally seconds after publishing my last blog piece I learned that the Alba party’s leader Kenny MacAskill had issued a statement in an email to Alba party members saying that the party will not after all be standing candidates at May’s Holyrood election. The statement blames the sudden decision on the “perilous financial state”in which the party finds itself and the likely inability of Alba to re-register with the Electoral Commission by the end of next month as it is legally required to do. Unless something unexpected happens, this spells the end of Alba as a political party.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I have never been a supporter of Alba, but in line with the long-standing policy I maintain on this blog I typically refrain from attacking other independence parties with which I disagree. I have long felt that the SNP leadership could do with a kick up the arse when it comes to pursuing independence, although I have never doubted the commitment of the party to independence. However Alba was never about putting pressure on the SNP to pursue independence with greater vigour. Alba was founded by Alex Salmond as his personal political vehicle.
Alba did not want to give the SNP leadership a kick up the arse on independence, it wanted to decapitate the SNP, pour petrol on the party’s corpse, set it on fire and kick it into a ditch. Founded with considerable publicity, boasting two Westminster MPs among its ranks and led by a former First Minister of considerable political talent, there was a brief time in which it seemed that Alba was about to become a major player in the Scottish independence movement. However the party failed to make any headway in the May 2021 Scottish elections or the local elections the following year. Despite gaining an MSP when Ash Regan defected to Alba, and receiving the defections of a couple of former SNP councillors, Alba never came anywhere close to winning an election in its own right.
It soon became apparent that Alba lacked internal democracy, most shockingly illustrated by Alex Salmond’s unilateral decision to rip up the results of Alba’s internal NEC elections in 2023. Founding members of the party were expelled, and Alba soon became mired in rancour and internal fighting. While Alex Salmond was alive the lid was largely kept screwed down on all of this, but following his untimely death it all soon blew up. Ash Regan was clearly deeply unhappy to lose the leadership election to Kenny MacAskill and left Alba to sit in Holyrood as an independent. Alba’s internal dissensions exploded into the open with the very public warfare between Kenny MacAskill and former general secretary Chris McEleny. The various factions within the party were soon vying for power and the resignations of former high profile supporters came thick and fast. Alleged irregularities in the party’s accounts were reported to the police and by the New Year it became increasingly apparent that Alba was on its last legs.
But none of that matters now. With his email to party members today (Saturday 21 February) which was first published by James Kelly of Scot Goes Pop, Kenny MacAskill has effectively announced the end of Alba as a political party. In his email announcing the decision not to contest May’s election he writes. “I have to advise that it looks likely that we will not be able to register and therefore even to contest the election. That brings also into question the viability of a Party which neither has financial resource nor the ability to contest elections.”
As far as May’s election goes, this means that as the anti-independence parties are splintering, the pro-independence parties are consolidating. The SNP and the Scottish Greens are now the only pro-independence parties contesting May’s election which have been heard of by the wider Scottish public. The other minor parties have a small number of loud and vocal online supporters but only a negligible presence elsewhere. All of them combined have only a fraction of the support that Alba had. The question now is whether Alba’s supporters will rally behind the SNP, or the Scottish Greens or will scatter to support for minor parties which will not save their deposits thus increasing the chances of a unionist candidate winning. But for Alba, the party is over.
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