‘Stalin’ attack on Sturgeon reveals there’s no limit to SNP absurdity

Like the Roman, Mark Antony, I have not come to praise Nicola Sturgeon. Her reputation, just as Caesar, lies long buried.

However, I have come to question the sense of politicians – on Sturgeon’s own side of the aisle – reaching for wildly inflammatory and historically absurd language in order to heap blame on her for the ruination of the SNP.

The comments in question came from Jim Sillars, former SNP deputy leader, in what’s now known as his ‘Stalin attack’ on Sturgeon.

Sillars, in a long open-letter about the state of the SNP in the wake of its thumping at the hands of Labour in the General Election, referred to Sturgeon as “Stalin’s wee sister”.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve yet to receive valid information that Sturgeon ordered the mass execution of her political enemies, used famine as a weapon, established a nationwide Gulag, or personally launched crimes against humanity which murdered anywhere between six to nine million victims. 

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This isn’t an exercise in po-faced humourlessness. Politics needs more humour, more humanity, not less. Ed Davey of the LibDems has proved that in spades. But hysterical hyperbole in an age of polarisation, disinformation and hate isn’t funny. It’s at best foolish.

If Sillars wanted to call Sturgeon ‘controlling’ then fine, call her ‘controlling’. If he wanted to say she’d broach no internal opposition, then fine say just that, but don’t conjure up comparisons to one of history's most cruel and bloody dictators. By doing so, he reduces himself and defeats his own argument.

This is not the first time senior SNP figures have reached for the Stalin line to describe Sturgeon. It’s cringe-worthy and undergraduate rhetoric, the type of nonsense you’d hear at a drunken student debating society.

There is much to blame Nicola Sturgeon for, however criticism framed in these terms won’t be taken seriously. Once an argument reaches levels of plain silly exaggeration, the debate is already lost. So any valid complaint about Sturgeon vanishes amid the hyperventilating.

Sturgeon’s critics often ignore her role in securing the party huge electoral wins. In truth, they all bear responsible for failure, not just her. But she is very easy to hide behind.

One watches politicians reach for such overblown insults towards their own side, and is left thinking: well, if they say that about their team, how can I believe anything they say anymore about their opponents?

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They create a vicious cycle where over-exaggeration fuels distrust among the electorate. I, for one, do not take any politician seriously when they stoop to extreme language. It’s merely a cover for intellectual emptiness.

It should also be noted that this wildly overheated and misleading language rages within the media as well. During the hate crime legislation furore, we were assailed with apparently educated columnists claiming that the ‘Stasi’ – that’s the very term used – would be coming for us at our dinner tables. So far, I’ve read no reports of the secret police kicking in doors in Scotland. 

Evidently, the SNP are far from alone in this failing when it comes to political parties. The Tories are past masters at swivel-eyed madness. Suella Braverman is currently wailing that her party got its backside handed to it at the election because it failed to tackle the “lunatic woke virus”. The what? It’s hysterical, flailing, bereft, embarrassing.

If she means the party wasn’t right-wing enough, then say it. Don’t make up absurd terms that even the daftest denizen of Twitter would blush to deploy.

The absurd language also extends to the Tories when Suella Braverman said her party's collapse was due to failure to tackle the 'lunatic woke virus' (Image: Getty)
There’s a new phrase for this type of politician: ‘conflict entrepreneurs’. This is the politician who knows they have nowhere else to go, that they’ve run out of road with the electorate, and all they have left is whipping up some cheap headlines and fanning outrage.

I pity the SNP that it’s fallen so low intellectually. This overheated in-fighting will not assist the party on its long road to recovery. Voters want to see a party reflecting on its failures in a calm and considered way, and resetting with humility in order to tackle the real priorities of the people.

The electorate does not want to see has-beens, and losers who’ve been kicked out of office, haranguing their own side with intemperate and inflammatory insults.

However, if you’re a unionist, if you loath the SNP and want to see them booted out at Holyrood in the 2026 Scottish election, then cross your fingers and hope that nationalists continue with this type of playground nonsense.

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The longer this goes on – the more the Scottish people see the SNP gazing angrily into the mirror rather than engaging with the hopes and needs of the country – then the worse the party’s defeat. Carry on much more like this and the SNP may as well just hand the keys of Bute House to Anas Sarwar right now and put themselves out of their misery.

Politicians whine and moan about the degradation of politics, about how they are subject to torrents of hate and abuse online. Such behaviour appals any moral citizen. But politicians fuel this ugliness themselves when they turn to extreme and exaggerated language.

Lastly, let’s have a little respect for history. If we don’t understand history, we damn ourselves. In our democracy, there are no Hitlers and Stalins. There are bad and failed politicians, and it is fair to say that about Sturgeon. There’s something rather sordid – something dismissive of the victims of political terror – about equating her with one of the most evil dictators of the 20th century.

In short, the SNP needs to wise up and grow up.