@Meredithgrey1, you might find it illuminating to spend time on the Wings over Scotland blog. I can't vouch for how true any of his recent reports are, but taken together with Joanna Cherry being sacked from her front bench role and Nicola Sturgeon's odd and desperate video appeal to transactivisits leaving the SNP last week, I'm getting the impression of a party which is falling apart and a leader who is clinging on to power for dear life.
Alec Salmond gives evidence next week to the enquiry into how he came to be charged with all those allegations of sexual assault by other party members. He was found not guilty on most and not proven on one. Now, that's nothing new in cases of sexual assault. We all know that the conviction rate is pitifully low. However, Wings has a link to some startling allegations about how the case came to be put together. Ex-ambassador Craig Murray says the media utterly failed to report most of the defence evidence, which is odd if true, as by his account it was devastating to the prosecution's case - cast iron evidence that some of his accusers couldn't have been where they said they were at the time of the alleged incidents, etc.
Mr Murray's suggestion may be fanciful but he says he wonders if Nicola Sturgeon is worried that AS may make yet another attempt to be elected as Party Leader (he's had two previous stints). Hence the pro-NS faction feeling that it was important to destroy AS's reputation for good and all.
Meanwhile, Joanna Cherry is a staunch ally of Salmond and would be a top contender to replace NS as leader should it come to a contest. JC's gender critical views are therefore a convenient stick to beat her with as NS has (inexplicably) thrown her lot in with the activists who are trying to get the SNP to adopt gender self-ID and all that goes with it.
I used to be an admirer of NS. She seemed a much better bet than Boris Johnson (of course, this isn't saying much). But now I'm getting the sense that the SNP has not managed the pandemic crisis well. The death rate in Scotland's major cities is high. The vaccination rate is low. It's extraordinary that with a once-in-a-century crisis to handle that the SNP has decided to push through a hate crimes bill which is so abysmally drafted that they are having to backtrack on key provisions every week.