Robin McAlpine quits as Common Weal chief after angry article

The prominent independence activist has stood down from the role days after writing a highly critical article of Nicola Sturgeon in connection with the ongoing row with Alex Salmond.

It is understood McAlpine will continue to be involved in the organisation in a different position concentrating on policy development.

As well as attacking the First Minister over the Salmond case, McAlpine criticised her independence strategy and said a second referendum will not come in the next five years if she remains in power.

READ MORE: Robin McAlpine: Why an independent Scotland is the only route

The controversial blog post angered many grassroots independence activists and caused fury in Scottish Government circles.

Laura Waddell wrote on Twitter after the article was published last week: "In this diagram we see the circle of delusion, as exemplified by Robin McAlpine and Alex Salmond propagating the fantasy each is an important and relevant man."

This morning one insider aware of the article and its impact told The National:"Robin will still be involved with the Common Weal, but his article was too controversial and made it hard for the organisation to work with the SNP and Scottish government."

It is understood McAlpine asked for a different role in the think tank.

READ MORE: Sturgeon-Salmond saga having no real effect on voters, pollster says​

McAlpine argued that it was 'over to the loyalists now' to deliver independence during his attack on the First Minister.

The 48-year-old accused Sturgeon of hiding behind her “self image” for three years, and behind Brexit for the next three years, to avoid talk of independence.
He claimed that, for the next five years, the First Minister 'plans to hide behind Covid' and will not focus on delivering a second referendum.

He wrote: "If you really believe that the SNP is going to be in the same polling position by election time you probably need a reality check.

"Politics doesn’t work like that and a full year of ‘Covid, Covid, look at me, not my record’ isn’t likely to play out.

"There are those that would like you to believe the Salmond affair is over. It is no such thing."

Speaking to ITV's Peston recently, Sturgeon said she will park the independence question “for as long as it takes” to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

She said she would be "on the wrong side of public opinion pretty quickly" if she focused on the constitution instead of the pandemic, and urged her party to drop it for now.

But McAlpine says he gives the prospect of achieving independence in the next five years as “being as close as damnit to zero.”

He added: "I’m tired with this, and much as I love the independence movement, more far-fetched schemes hatched on social media but with no chance of implementation may make you feel better, but will be as pointless over the five years to come as they were in the five that we just lived through.

"So as far as I’m concerned, it’s over to the loyalists now.

"Don’t tell me it’ll be different this time, that there is a secret plan, that the rise in the polls is all a result of genius, that supposed competence wins referendums, that you really, really promise to hold them to account this time, that there will be a manifesto commitment.

"I don’t believe a word of it. Set out your detailed plan now or, to quote that sentiment towards people like me who actually want independence, f*** off."

Polls have put the SNP set for a vast majority at next year's Holyrood elections, with 19 successive surveys recording majority support for independence.

The Common Weal think tank has contributed in a significant way to advancing policy ideas in favour of independence.

It has published a raft of detailed documents on many issues, including what currency an independent Scotland should use, on a 'new green deal' for Scotland, on a new child care system and on a universal basic income.

Last May, a report commmissioned by the think tank was highly critical of the Scottish Government's handling of the pandemic spread in care homes.

Nick Kempe, a former head of service for older people in Glasgow, concluded in his report to the Common Weal that a delay in a decision by ministers to intervene contributed to the high number of fatalities.

His study, commissioned by the pro-independence Common Weal think tank, concentrates on Scottish Government response in the first eight weeks of the pandemic.

Apart from the article he penned last week McAlpine has previously been critical of the First Minister and the Scottish Government.

READ MORE: Flaws in Holyrood's Covid-19 response led to 'unnecessary' deaths, report says

In 2018 he criticised the SNP leadership's response to the poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, complaining that "the independence movement" is "being let down" by the First Minister's willingness to accept, and endorse, the former PM Theresa May's view that the Russian state was responsible for the crime.