A former deputy leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party has called on the spooks to stay out of the debate on Scotland’s constitutional future.
A former deputy leader of the Scottish National Party has called on the spooks to stay out of the debate on Scotland’s constitutional future.
Margo MacDonald, now an independent MSP, has argued that she believes MI5 agents are already operating undercover within the SNP as part of the security service’s remit to protect the UK “against threats to national security”.
In 2007 Scotland on Sunday revealed that classified government documents showed that secret service and special branch agents and officers infiltrated the SNP in the 1950s in an attempt to undermine efforts and support for independence.
Many nationalists believe the same occurred in the 1970s when Scotland’s oil boom raised fears in the heart of Whitehall that it could revive calls and support for independence.
The Sunday Herald has quoted MacDonald’s letter to Andrew Parker, director general of MI5, as saying:
“I will be obliged if you can give me an assurance that UK Security Services will not be used in any respect in the lead-up to the Scottish referendum on sovereignty, unless, of course, the Scottish police have sufficient evidence to justify normal responses to potentially overtly criminal acts.
“I do understand that the Security Services are vital to all the countries and regions of the British Isles and the potential for law-breaking may be heightened during the forthcoming campaign.
“As action on the Security Services’ part is calculated to keep communities safe and aid cohesion, I would welcome an assurance from you that this will continue, and that no other consideration will inform your Department’s work.”
Fuelling the suspensions likely to be felt by many in the nationalist movement, Crispin Black, a former intelligence adviser to Tony Blair and the Joint Intelligence Committee, has argued that MI5 will in all likelihood have the referendum debate and campaign on its radar.
Arguing that the vote next year is likely to have a knock on effect in Northern Ireland, Black was quoted in the Sunday Herald as saying:
“My guess is that MI5 would have the referendum on its radar, primarily to ensure its fairness. There’s definitely a national security angle to Scottish independence that the security services would be aware of, but my sense is that they would be stopping dirty tricks, rather than trying to initiate them.”
A spokesperson for Better Together told Left Foot Forward:
“The idea of MI5 getting involved in the referendum is pretty fanciful.
The real issue is what happens to our security and intelligence services if we separate from the UK. The nationalists need to bring forward credible answers to this important question, not more bluff and assertion.”
Both the Scottish government and Home Office declined to comment.
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24 Responses to “Scottish Nationalists spooked by the spooks”
Alec
No, chum. You’re the one who’s invaded a dead post on an ill-read blog.
I would have forgotten about it had you not erupted on it.
~alec
Jeanne Tomlin
And yet you are the one who said she was a nobody and not worth discussing, but here you are. I never said that. As for the McRae case try doing as search on Willie McRae assassination.
Alec
You really are a bit of a thicko. You’ve done the rhetorical equivalent of running up to someone in the street asking for a fight, and when they walk towards you, you’ve walked backwards at a rate of knots waving your hands about shouting “why are you picking on me?”
This is the chronology of events:
i. Some blog Alec reads gave credence to Macdonald’s question begging which seems to be only hosted on the revolting PressTV.
ii. Alec said, “this is a non-story, why are you giving this nobody credence?”
iii. Alec forgot about it. Everyone forgot about it.
iv. A fortnight later, some e-alert was sent around and a brace of Cybernats appeared saying “please, please, please let us go on about McRae and Snowden!”
v. Alec said, “why are you still commenting on this non-story?”
vi. You mistook Alec’s disdain for your infantile behaviour for actual interest in the topic you’re frantic to be given air-time, and tried to impute disreputableness in Alec for doing precisely what you wanted.
vii. Alec said “I’m not doing that, and I think you have low-personal ethics not to mention the emotional maturity of a 12 year old”.
~alec
Alec
Now, I know it’s an inherent mistake to reward question begging like yours, but d’you have any evidence that McRae’s post mortem is covered by the OSA? And, by evidence, I don’t mean the standard procedure for Procurators Fiscal to sign and be bound by it (which is where the claim comes from).
You also would do well to consider the fact that the OSA is not universal… that is, only people who sign it – through whatever job or professional position they are in – are bound by it. You or some intrepid journalist could get hold of details, and there’d be nothing the authorities could do about it.
~alec