'Personality cult' of Nicola Sturgeon to blame for SNP implosion claims ex-MP in blistering attack

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A high-ranking ex-SNP MP has blamed the “personality cult” of Nicola Sturgeon for the party’s disastrous implosion and called First Minister John Swinney a puppet who should resign.In an unprecedented attack, Angus MacNeil, who was the Western Isles MP for 19 years before losing his seat in Thursday’s poll, branded the leadership “fools” and “enablers”.He and other senior politicians have told the Sunday Mail that the SNP is now engaged in a full-on civil war, with bitter infighting and recriminations about who or what is to blame for their 38-seat election loss.McNeil said: “People have been too scared to speak out against the likes of Sturgeon, John Swinney, Mike Russell and Ian Blackford, and now they are at a dead end.“It’s time for the pettiness to leave the SNP leadership.

That pettiness was brought in by Nicola Sturgeon, who couldn’t cope with a different opinion or learn from another opinion or change her opinion.“You are only going to be able to discuss routes to independence when Scotland is being well managed with good policies, and the problem is we have had neither.“Saying I told you so doesn’t give me any pleasure because we still have the same fools in charge.“The personality cult of Nicola Sturgeon needs to end - people saying ‘I’m with Nicola’, the SNP was allowed to become a group to follow Nicola.“They suspended their critical faculties and it is time now to go back to reason and good arguments and sound thought and make up policies that way, rather than doing whatever pops into Nicola Sturgeon’s head.“For John Swinney he is continuing Nicola’s same petty personal squabbles with people like Alex Salmond and countries don’t become independent when run by people entertaining petty personal squabbles.“You