About

The #SNPCivilWar is a series of posts, tweets and captioned photos including photo shopped film posters comprising of first hand reactions to a humorous cyber civil war breaking out within the Scottish National Party (SNP), the largest political party in Scotland.

The #SNPCivilWar initially stemmed from the Salmondgate controversy as a response to the unionist media claiming that there was a civil war within party due to sexual allegations surrounding former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond and the Scottish Government. The use of Scottish culture and politics mixed with stereotypical war themes are featured in the memes.

The meme had resurfaced in January 2019 after pro-Union papers suggested that there was tension between Alex Salmond and First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon in the wake of the Scottish Government's civil servant team dropping their case against Alex Salmond after they acted unlawful against him.

It had again resurfaced only briefly a year later in 2020 where in January of that year, it was again hinted by some users on Facebook and Twitter in response to unionists who declared that there were tensions between SNP members and Nicola Sturgeon over her speech outlining further steps to a second independence referendum after the United Kingdom had left the European Union. In July of the same year, hints of another SNP Civil War emerged from an opinion piece in the pro-unionist newspaper Herald Scotland which was once again mocked by SNP and independence supporters.

#SNPCivilWar

Origin

In August 2018, Alex Salmond, former First Minister of Scotland was accused of groping two women in Bute House in Edinburgh back when he was First Minister. The two women spoke out about these claims against Alex Salmond and resulted in the allegations being released to the government.

After the public release of these allegations, Alex Salmond resigned from his SNP membership to prevent his allegations being associated with the SNP and launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund a legal battle against the Scottish Government in response to these allegations put against him.

In reaction to this, pro-union newspapers such as the Daily Express, the Herald, the Daily Record, the Daily Telegraph and The Times started to release stories which stated that Alex Salmond resigned from his SNP membership due to a potential civil war within the party.

Spread

In reaction to these allegations and to the pro-unionist news articles, Scottish National Party members and Scottish independence supporters started mocking these claims by pretending to start a civil war online. The first instance of the SNP Civil War meme was on Twitter on August 31, 2018.

Users used the basis of stereotypical war culture into reporting on the war such as announcements of losing loved ones, battles and threats using the #SNPCivilWar hashtag on Facebook and Twitter.

A Twitter account, @SNPCivilWar was also created and retweeted and posted tweets with the hashtag #SNPCivilWar.

Photoshopped film posters

Along with social media posts, photo shopped film posters were posted on social media with characters from various films parodied being replaced by SNP politicians. Films which were parodied included London is Fallen, Enemy at the Gates and Captain America: Civil War.

Reaction

The National newspaper reported on the spread of the meme and released an article citing the 24 most funniest SNP Civil War tweets including war movie titles and modifying them into Scottish slang.

#SNPCivilWar2

After the Scottish Government dropped their sexual harassment case against Alex Salmond in January 2019, the meme had resurfaced after there were claims that there had been tense discussions between Alex Salmond and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon according to pro-Unionist newspapers.

SNP and independence supporters had took advantage of this due to the fact that the Scottish Government's civil servant team has nothing to with the SNP Scottish Government opposed to what pro-Union newspapers are claiming.

Origin

In January 2019, the meme had resurfaced after the Scottish Government dropped their case against Alex Salmond during the sexual harassment case after they admitted it was unlawful against Salmond.

The Scottish Government Permanent Secretary, Leslie Evans who took charge of the Scottish Government's legal action team against Alex Salmond had admitted the unlawful way the government had treated Salmond.

After the outcome, Salmond stated that Leslie Evans should reconsider her position but the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon defended Leslie Evans and reacting to this situation, pro-Union newspaper started to report that another civil war was starting to happen in the party.

After Alex Salmond was arrested in January 2019, media outlets were reporting on his arrest and similar to the allegation claims that were made in August 2016, pro-Union media outlets claimed that the SNP were on the brink of a civil war.

Response

Similar to the allegations that were made against Salmond in 2018 with the media reporting an apparent civil war within the SNP, after the public release of Salmond's arrest, the media started to report that there was even more tension in the party between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon which SNP and Scottish independence supporters mockingly joked that a second SNP civil war was triggered with more new memes being posted on Facebook and Twitter.

The @SNPCivilWar Twitter account jokingly tweeted that a second war broke out:

Intelligence sources have confirmed that a second #SNPcivilwar has been declared and battle forces are gathering stockpiles of scones and Irn Bru for the eminent fracas expected to explode on all fronts #SNPCivilWar2 #Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 pic.twitter.com/bIeaBzGUWq

— SNP Civil War |🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@SNPCivilWar) January 9, 2019

#SNPCivilWar3

In response to Nicola Sturgeon's speech after the United Kingdom left the European Union on January 31st, 2020, unionist supporters stated that there were obvious tensions and divisions between SNP supporters and Nicola Sturgeon after Nicola Sturgeon revealed that there would need to be patience before a second independence referendum would occur, resulting in some SNP supporters not agreeing with Nicola Sturgeon.

In response to this, several comedic mentions of a third SNP civil war were mentioned on social media.

On March 23rd, 2020, Alex Salmond was cleared of all charges in a trial. After he was cleared, he made a statement outside the court stating that more things will come into light in time. Thrse words, according to some tabloid papers, suggested that Alex Salmond was going to go to war with the Scottish Government, hinting at a civil war within the party.

This was the third occasion of tabloid papers suggested an infight within the SNP was 'brewing' which led to some Twitter users himoursly hinting at another SNP Civil War, poking fun at the two previously.

In July 2020, Herald Scotland released an opinion piece by Struan Stevenson suggesting that a civil war was brewing in the SNP. Once again, this claim was mocked by SNP and independence supporters who openly joked about another SNP Civil War.

Various Examples

See also

• Salmondgate – Where the #SNPCivilWar meme initially stemmed from