Y’know, maybe we were a little harsh on the lads at Holyrood Sources yesterday when we implied that a more direct and aggressive interviewing style might have cut through John Swinney and Kate Forbes’ pathetically feeble waffling evasion on the SNP’s lack of an independence strategy in their recent podcast.
But the closest thing (along with Colin Mackay at STV) that the Scottish media has left to a proper Rottweiler interviewer – Peter Adam Smith of ITV – had a shot at that five years ago and didn’t do any better.
Smith noted that even back in 2019 Nicola Sturgeon had been droning on about how Westminster’s refusal to grant a second indy referendum was “unsustainable” for two years already. But no matter how hard he pressed, Sturgeon just kept on glibly and smugly insisting that they’d concede.
“The UK government strategy is to say no. Do you have a way around it?”
“My strategy is to say yes.” [smirks]
Readers might be forgiven for wondering how long it’s going to take the SNP to accept that that “strategy” is a failure, if seven years and three First Ministers isn’t enough for them to have worked it out. But as long as the pathologically gullible keep voting for them anyway, we suppose they have no reason to.
The National carried a strange article yesterday, apropos of seemingly nothing, about a Brussels-based political thinktank supposedly linked to the right-wing Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban. The piece actually originated on superwoke “fact-checking” site The Ferret a couple of days earlier, and professed to expose how the thinktank was “stoking Scotland’s culture war”.
Alert readers will already have pricked up their ears at this point, because “culture war” is a radical-left dogwhistle term used to obscure, belittle and dismiss groups (largely though not exclusively comprising left-wing feminists) fighting for the safeguarding of children and the protection of women’s and LGB rights.
As more horrific experiences from survivors of rape torture gangs surface from across the UK, we must focus not on knee-jerk political posturing but on the root cause that led to the failure of these children by our society.
Political inaction has now opened the door to inevitable political mileage, nurtured from stoking vengeance in a rightly-angered public. Those only interested in creating cultural conflicts no more support justice for survivors than those who allowed this abomination to fester by looking away or worse, covering up the problem.
For any functioning society, inflicting unimaginable pain on children on an alarming scale seems unimaginable. Yet, the evidence has been in front of us for years – so why has immediate action to ensure the safeguarding of children – and vulnerable adults – not been a pressing priority?
Any rational assessment of Scottish (or indeed UK or world) politics at the moment tends to be negative and depressing, so since it’s a new year we thought we’d make an extra-special effort at writing something positive.
Unfortunately that does require us to enter the realm of fantasy. But hey, everybody needs a little holiday from time to time, right?
Nobody really answered the question in this article from a few days ago. A few of the dimmer bulbs in the indy movement have been getting over-excited at what are still currently a couple of outlier polls from fringe polling companies, which suggest that the 2026 election could unexpectedly return a pro-indy majority due to the Unionist vote being split four ways in the wake of UK Labour’s implosion in government.
That scenario depends on all sorts of dubious propositions, but in any event what none of them have addressed is what that would change even if it did happen, given that Holyrood has a pro-indy majority RIGHT NOW (and has done so on every single day since the indyref more than a decade ago) and it’s produced nothing whatsoever in terms of movement towards independence by any possible measure.
And it occurred to us that we had genuinely no idea what the SNP’s current official indy strategy is, because the party’s been in such farcical chaos and turmoil ever since Nicola Sturgeon’s sudden resignation. So we thought we should go and check.
To be honest, we’re not much the wiser for having read it.
Look, we know that mocking front pages on The National is low-hanging fruit, and this particular example could hardly be any more of a self-parody if it tried.
But just for the sheer mental exercise in that stone-dead last week of December when nobody even knows what day it is, let’s imagine if it came true.
Mia on The same old tricks: “It all depends on the context he had in mind, of course. For example, 100 years from now, in geological…” Jan 17, 23:10
Mia on The same old tricks: “Ireland was one of the Kingdom of England dominions and entered as such, the same as Wales, in the treaty…” Jan 17, 22:40
Chas on The same old tricks: “Unbeleviable. Yet a link to yet another load of mince written by, you guessed it, the bold Alf Baird. As…” Jan 17, 21:07
Andy Ellis on The same old tricks: “Ireland’s independence happened in the face of incipient civil war after negotiations between British and Irish nationalists predicated on a…” Jan 17, 21:07
Mia on The same old tricks: ““the effect of the treaty being implemented was to dissolve two states and create a new one” Actually no. The…” Jan 17, 20:51
100%Yes on The same old tricks: “I’m 100%Sure Swinney meant monsoon, the guy is a moron. I’m absolutely in dread of next year elelction their becomes…” Jan 17, 20:32
Alf Baird on The same old tricks: “Much of what we know as postcolonial theory was written from the 1950s and 60s onwards, which corresponded with the…” Jan 17, 19:32
Mia on The same old tricks: ““that strategy had worked in 2012 with David Cameron” Actually no. From what I read, Mr Salmond never asked for…” Jan 17, 19:26
Aidan on The same old tricks: “I’ll come back tomorrow as I’m out tonight, but for everyone’s benefit can you please highlight the section where Aidan…” Jan 17, 19:13
sarah on The same old tricks: “Is anyone holding their breath? [I’m not.]” Jan 17, 19:11
Aidan on The same old tricks: “Yes – and the effect of the treaty being implemented was to dissolve two states and create a new one.” Jan 17, 19:03
Mia on The same old tricks: ““The international community would have ignored such a result, and so would Westminster” The international community recognised the division of…” Jan 17, 18:24
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The same old tricks: “Secondly, for detailed analysis of the contrasts between Scottish and English constitution heritages, Aidan O’Neill QC is excellent here, clarifying…” Jan 17, 18:15
Chas on The same old tricks: “The nutters, there are a good few on here, are incapable of reason. They live in their own wee fantasy…” Jan 17, 18:13
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The same old tricks: “In support of Mia’s train of thought, here are two deeply relevant contributions by Aidan O’Neill QC (second link to…” Jan 17, 18:11
Mia on The same old tricks: ““the effect of which was to merge the Scottish and the English parliaments and the Scottish and the English states…” Jan 17, 17:57
Andy Ellis on The same old tricks: “Try interacting with what people actually say and write rather than what the voice in your head or at the…” Jan 17, 17:54
twathater on The same old tricks: ““I wish Alf would realise how much harm his constant spamming of every discussion does to the Indy movement.” FFS…” Jan 17, 17:53
agent X on The same old tricks: “Speaking in an interview with the Scottish Sun, John Swinney was asked: “When will Scotland next vote on independence?”He then responded:…” Jan 17, 17:46
twathater on The same old tricks: ““The international community would have ignored such a result, and so would Westminster.” And as usual the FRANCHISE FANNY not…” Jan 17, 17:46
Mia on The same old tricks: ““The idea of the U.K. as an entity formed of an international treaty between two sovereign states is complete nonsense”…” Jan 17, 17:18
Insider on The same old tricks: “Well said Andy ! I wish Alf would realise how much harm his constant spamming of every discussion does to…” Jan 17, 17:13
Mia on The same old tricks: ““That’s obviously nonsense” Remind me again what the response from Ms May was to the request? “Now is not the…” Jan 17, 17:01
Andy Anderson on The same old tricks: “Sorry Aidan, what you say is not correct. There was no territorial union, there was no legal and judiciary union,…” Jan 17, 16:56
Andy Ellis on The same old tricks: “If only you had any ideas of your own Alf rather than regurgitating inapplicable post colonial theory talking points like…” Jan 17, 16:42
Alf Baird on The same old tricks: “The role of the colonizer ‘is to make any prospect of liberation for the native seem impossible’ (Memmi). Aye, yer…” Jan 17, 16:37
Alf Baird on The same old tricks: ““The Treaty of Union agreed the terms for the union to be entered into” Thank you” Jan 17, 16:26
Andy Ellis on The same old tricks: “The Germans have a history of Grand Coalitions though, so it won’t seem that outlandish to them. Parties representing 70%…” Jan 17, 16:02
Andy Ellis on The same old tricks: “As we all know a majority of MP may not represent a majority of voters. 56 of 59 MPs represented…” Jan 17, 15:39
Aidan on The same old tricks: “The Treaty of Union agreed the terms for the union to be entered into, and then the two parliaments both…” Jan 17, 15:32