THERE is something seriously wrong with the governance of the SNP, especially over the last couple of years. The NEC has been all but uncontactable for a long time. Emails and letters are ignored, requests for information or even functional support are dismissed, and more importantly there is no transparency in its democracy.

Policy decisions are arrived at behind closed doors with no opportunity for the wider party to engage, and the recent NEC elections are a sham, taking a leaf out of the Donald Trump How to Run an Election Manual.

READ MORE: New SNP equalities convener criticises members complaining about her win

There is no proportionate structure to the voting, especially in these times of no face-to-face meetings or hustings. It was and is hard enough reaching out to branch members, and reaching out beyond was and remains impossible.

While it is reasonable that appointed delegates vote, the process was not proportional and is still not transparent, and whoever had the most delegates had a significant advantage. The process itself is little more than a beauty contest and there is absolutely no guarantee that whoever gets selected is actually capable or qualified to take on these vital roles.

READ MORE: Alyn Smith: OK. So you defeated me. Now it’s time to deliver

This is especially important at this critical time, with a forthcoming election and the following referendum. No results were announced to candidates. We have to read them online in a newspaper. What votes were cast for each candidate? No information has been presented, still less to the candidates, definitely conforming to Trumpian management. There are no contact details for anyone in the hierarchy, so even as a senior branch official we have no way of contacting anyone.

There are dark forces at work here. Instead of focussing on achieving an SNP or at worst an independence majority in May and thereby laying the groundwork for the referendum, attention instead is been paid to micro-managing factional issues and obscure policies that will only be achieved following independence.

Debating these is good and yes, the issues are important and need to be addressed, but there are two critical things we have to do before we can have the luxury of navel-gazing.

Nick Cole
Meigle, Perthshire