Rise in SNP membership is going to make them much more volatile

The sudden rise in SNP membership is going to make them much more volatile as a party.

Indeed with a 400% increase in membership it is safe to say that the old SNP that campaigned in the referendum in September is now dead - and a new party has taken its place.

It is not tenable to say that the new party is the same as the old - it cannot be.

The old party had fixers and old-timers and wise grizzled grandees.

It had backstairs plotters and rising stars and bitter-enders.

It had procedures and conventions and accepted ways of doing things.

Above all it had buggins-turners waiting to step into dead mens shoes.

All that is still in place as a facade, but behind the scenes things must inevitably change.  No organisation can change at such a rate and remain integrated.  Among the rush of new members are going to be revolutionaries and oddball fanatics and out-for-themselves carpetbaggers.

The SNP may already be experiencing a form of nemesis.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/scotland-blog/2014/nov/13/who-are-the-new-members-of-the-scottish-national-party