THE SNP is a party of fairness. The SNP is a party of hope. The SNP is a party whose members unite in common cause to achieve social and economic progress for Scotland.

Tell that to Julie McAnulty. The former SNP councillor had her life ruined by a fellow activist as part of an internal feud a negligent party HQ was warned about for years.

Or tell it to Lord Uist, the judge who heard all the evidence and agreed she had been traduced.

On Wednesday, he awarded Ms McAnulty £40,000 in damages at the Court of Session after a defamation case that should shame the SNP from top to bottom.

It was the culmination of a three year fight to expose a false and malicious accusation of racism made against her by Sheena McCulloch, a caseworker for Richard Lyle, the MSP for Uddingston & Bellshill.

Over five days, Lord Uist heard about the chronic dysfunction of the SNP’s Lanarkshire operation, and a fight between two rival factions for control of the local party apparatus.

On one side was the then Coatbridge MP Phil Boswell, his staffer Ms McAnulty and others who saw Mr Boswell, a relatively fresh face, as their best hope of reform.

On the other was a near-feudal old guard which wanted to stay in charge. Dubbed the Monklands McMafia by critics, its cronies included Mr Lyle, Ms McCulloch, Fulton MacGregor, now the MSP for Coatbridge, and Allan Stubbs, now a North Lanarkshire councillor.

The court heard disputes about bullying, smears and the improper conduct of party business linked to this turf war were routinely reported to SNP HQ, but to little avail.

Against this backdrop, on 5 February 2016, Ms McCulloch, a childhood friend of Mr Lyle, emailed SNP HQ from his constituency office alleging Ms McAnulty had used the word “Pakis” in a car trip the previous year. It was a lie.

For good luck, Ms McCulloch copied the email to a dozen other people in the SNP, few of whom had any role in disciplinary matters, including her boss Mr Lyle, Mr MacGregor and Mr Stubbs.

The content swiftly found its way to the Daily Record, and on 8 February it ran a front page story about the allegation. Ms McAnulty said it was the worst day of her life.

She was suspended by the SNP, stopped from standing for Holyrood, and later deselected as an SNP council candidate too.

A church organist and music teacher, she withdrew from the East Glasgow music school where she taught Asian and African pupils because she foresaw it causing problems. “I felt sick. I had been accused of being a racist.”

She sued for defamation. In court, Ms McCulloch’s story fell apart. Another SNP councillor, Steven Bonnar, said he was also in the car that day with the women, and Ms McAnulty said nothing racist.

Under oath, Mr Lyle told the court he had no knowledge of Ms McCulloch’s email, despite it being written by his friend and employee in his office. Nor had any of the other recipients told him about it.

The first he knew, he said under oath, was when someone phoned him about the Record story. He vigorously denied any “input”.

Ms McAnulty’s QC later called his evidence “wholly unbelievable”.

Mr Stubbs admitted in court he may have called Ms McAnulty a “twisted bitch” at a party event. He is now in in charge of SNP discipline on North Lanarkshire Council.

Lord Uist believed Ms McAnulty and Mr Bonnar, and gave seven detailed reasons for disbelieving Ms McCulloch, including a previous conviction for theft in 2006.

He said her allegation of racism was false, outrageous and “activated by malice and ill-will as part of a campaign directed against [Ms McAnulty] by the opposing faction within the local SNP.” He said it was “highly significant” that Ms McCulloch worked for Mr Lyle.

That’s some conclusion. Not only did Ms McCulloch defame Ms McAnulty, she did it part of a calculated smear campaign, just like the ones that local party members kept warning HQ about in vain.

All parties have feuds and rivalries of course, but this was special. How in God’s name did it come to this?

The Lanarkshire SNP has long been an open sore. One old SNP hand told me this week he’d never seen a party operation as hopelessly shoddy. “Nothing about policy, it’s all about personality,” he said.

And what personalities! Spineless weasels. Sexist oafs. Grasping clans. Ambition in inverse proportion to talent. An endless demented fight over the flimsiest scraps of influence. SNP HQ knew the lot.

Its failure to fix it seemed to create a permissive environment where offenders came to believe they could get away with any dirty trick they liked - for they generally did - while victims lost hope and saw HQ as part of the problem. I doubt Ms McCulloch would have acted as she did without being confident there would be no comeuppance.

The SNP leadership owe Ms McAnulty a profound apology.

Even when HQ suspended the Coatbridge branches in 2016 there was no follow through. The stables have yet to be cleaned. An AGM is due next month. “They’ll need G4S,” said one weary member.

On Thursday I asked Mr Lyle for a comment. All he said was that he was going for his lunch. When I suggested we talk in the Holyrood canteen, he turned on his heels and fled. As I pursued him through the lobby asking questions about Ms McCulloch, himself and faction fights, he didn’t say a word. He just pretended it wasn’t happening and hummed.

That, in essence, is what the SNP has done about its Lanarkshire mire for years: looked away and turned mute when asked serious questions.

It would double the party’s disgrace if it were to continue.