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SNP recruit expelled for criticising the party's policy on windfarms
A recent SNP recruit revealed yesterday that he had been expelled and his three-month membership fees refunded after he “dared to criticise party policy”.
Bob Graham, of Orton, Fochabers, chairman of the Highlands Against Windfarms pressure group, joined the SNP believing it was the “only party not intent on decimating the Highland countryside”.
And he condemned what he considered the lack of courtesy in the handling of his expulsion, claiming he was offered no right to appeal.
He returned home from holiday at the weekend to a letter from SNP national secretary Duncan Ross explaining that his local Fochabers branch had contacted party chiefs to raise Mr Graham’s “continued criticisms of the SNP Government through letters to the local press”.
The letter contained three £1 coins, his three-month membership fee.
The party letter stated that the committee “reserves the right, in exceptional circumstances, to declare any membership invalid” and that it had decided his “behaviour did not uphold the basic principles of membership”.
Mr Graham said: “I’m horrified by the sheer lack of democracy within the SNP. “Two of their candidates were elected last year on the back of anti-windfarm campaigners, one in Lewis and the other in Ayrshire.
“You could argue that the SNP secured power on the back of anti-windfarm campaigners, but there’s been no moratorium and they seem to be relentlessly pressing ahead with windfarm developments.”
He added: “They have approved the Griffin scheme in Perthshire and are umming an aahing about Lewis, so clearly the pre-election promises were purely to get the anti-windfarm lobby on board. Having got them on board they are stabbing them in the back.”
Mr Graham said he would write to party leader Alex Salmond to point out that he had been “hung, drawn and quartered” without a hearing.
A SNP party spokeswoman told the Press and Journal yesterday: “There is a three-month period in which the party is able to invalidate an application, as has happened in this case. It is only after the three-month period that the individual can be considered a member.”
19 February 2008
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