Chris

Yep … as I said earlier, The National (strapline, “the newspaper that supports an independent Scotland”) actually got hold of the membership numbers a month ago. When they put it to the SNP Press Office they unfortunately seem to have framed the question in such a way that the SNP leadership thought it could swerve it with a denial. I thought it might have been to do with the exact timing of the loss of members but apparently it was to do with the National suggesting that the Gender ID bill was the precise cause. The SNP leadership can’t know for certain what the cause of all those lost members is so they used that as the basis for a flat denial.

In the light of all that has come out this week that has put the person acting as press spokesman in a very difficult position because the agreed response was clearly an extremely pedantic and deliberate ploy to avoid the truth. The party leadership might have assured itself that it wasn’t lying but nobody outside that clique will see it that way.