Thread by @BingoDemagogue

Here's my take on if Scotland is a 'one party state' I think what is being referred to represents a genuine concern about a number real issues.

It's not about the seats in Holyrood, where the SNP have a nominal minority, it's about the blurring of lines between party, civil-state, nation and Government.

About where a party, led by a married couple, seek to be both the power, and the oversight of power, behind closed doors and hidden from the scrutiny of even their own members.

We are meant to accept an SNP chaired committee investigating an SNP Government, where the SNP Depute can vet the evidence in defiance of Parliament, aided by an 'independent' body led by an SNP minister and the SNP CEO can threaten not to appear.

Transparency and accountability are two fair measures of democratic health. Not for nothing does the paper that brought down Nixon have the tagline "democracy dies in the dark".

Holyrood has no second chamber, the government is meant to be held to account by committee. When there *is* a majority government, that means the government controls the majority of the committee votes.

The design of our system isn't a tried and tested robust Government with checks and balances. It was designed by new labour based on a paper model. It was a unicameral regional assembly designed for coalition.

The SNP simply rebranded it as a government, after the first two coalitions; first Labour-liberal, then the SNP-Tory coalition. The years of SNP majority then showed the flaws, and now they have a supply and demand green support.

Even in a minority government, look where we are. Government business is done under the aegis of it being a party matter; so no minutes or official records are kept. First ministerial decrees are sent by trusted messenger on slips of paper, destined for the burnhole.

Or done via SNP email server rather than their Government address; so it's kept hidden from FOI.

In 14 years of Nationalist rule, it is an open secret that to get ahead in modern civic Scotland you need to be pro-SNP or, at least, openly pro-independence. Doubly so if you happen to be English.

It's the constitutional politicisation of public bodies. It's where if the head of a public body is, say, English or doesn't commit wholeheartedly to Scottish independence they will be abused and hounded out.

The fact is, if you are critical of independence and, or, the SNP then it is hard if not impossible to get ahead in civic scotland. A career in the state require Party loyalty, not meritocracy, and it's only one party they count.

Think of Vicki Featherstone, the founding creative director of our National theatre of Scotland. Someone who was nothing but an asset to Scottish culture. she felt hounded out of her job by Nationalist Bullying for the crime of being English.

Condemned as a 'colonist' for daring to take a promotion in Scotland.
Her replacement Laurie Sansom before even starting the job being criticized for being an "Englishman replacing an English Woman".

Or the campaign against Neil Oliver at the Scottish National Trust for the audacity of being a Unionist.

Devi Shrindar kens; she's been fanatically supportive of Nicola Sturgeon ever since she pointed out that if public health officials are critical of SNP ministers they risk losing funding.

It's the politicisation if the civil service. After 14 years of filling the ranks with independenistas, working on the whitepaper, dedicated to the Nationalist policy of making devolution fail; could, or would, they work for a non SNP administration?

If not, then yes; we have sunk to the level of the one party state.