@NatashaDancing
The party has a policy, passed during a private session of a conference that excluded the press, which prohibits public criticism of official policy or elected members.
This sounds like a line straight out of Soviet Cold War Russia.
When The Party prohibits public criticism of policy or members, it might start by being applied only to party members, but what sane mind thinks they will be happy stopping there. Why not just stop everyone criticising The Party?
Putin right now clamps down hard on critics. Any Russian criticising the war accidentally dies from falling out of a window even if they were on the ground floor. Putin has done 5 terms at the top so far as either President or Prime minister. He has to keep swapping back and forth because the Russian constitution, like most countries, limits consecutive terms at the top. So he bounces back and forth but he's the one in charge whatever his official title. He needs a second person to fill the other role while not disrupting his power, so Dmitry Medvedev does that.
Sturgeon is gone, but on the way out she and her husband are trying to rig who her sucessor is. Do you think she won't yield any power through the person she puts in her seat?
Anyone following JKR on twitter sees Iranians being sentenced to death and executed for criticising the Iranian regime.
In China The Chinese Communist Party controls everything. Dissent is not tolerated, never has been.
To hide party workings, to hide leadership elections, to hide lawmaking, to hide laws, is to hide democracy. The reason Sturgeon's gender bill was so badly formed is because it was built hidden in the dark away from the input and wishes of the people of Scotland. The reason it turned into such a political disaster is purely because a greater power exercised oversight over the Scottish legislature with section 35. Well, that and a multiple rapist in a wig with his cock poking out of his tight leggings. Sturgeon's ultimate goal was, and still is, to remove that oversight that prevented a catastrophe for Scotland.
It looks to me like the SNP see Sturgeon leaving as only a minor setback. She wants to decide who replaces her. The chosen sucessor has a history of clamping down on free speech. His Hate Crime Bill clamps down on so-called hate speech inside the home. No one in the home needs to be offended. If any person outside any home finds out what was said by any person inside any home, and considers it hateful, that's now a criminal offense in Scotland.
Sturgeon leaving will not change the path of the SNP if Sturgeon gets her way.
The motto of The Washington Post is "Democracy Dies in Darkness". There is no better way to ensure darkness and opacity than to control who gets to participate, and who gets to see the inner workings of politics. To stop any light at all shining on the process is to guarantee the darkness that is the death of democracy. This looks like a fledgling attempt to build a brand new dictatorship, in Scotland of all places. Never could I have imagined this happening in my lifetime.