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.
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.
6 November 2024 was a normal sitting day in the Scottish Parliament, so we shouldn’t be surprised that Nicola Sturgeon spent the previous evening in London, watching a special screening of a dreadful BBC Three sitcom about – of course – drag queens.
But remarkably, though she must have been puffy-eyed and weary, the 6th was one of the few days when she did actually manage to turn up at Holyrood to do her job.
Polling in Scotland, the UK and Wales in the last few days has shown Great Britain taking a fairly heavy swerve to the right after just five months of Sir Keir Starmer’s government. Labour now lead Reform (who have five seats to Labour’s 411) by just three points in the UK and are even more remarkably now in THIRD place in Wales, a country where the party has won every single election for over 100 years.
Scotland, meanwhile, is heading for a hung Parliament in 2026 in which – as this site has been telling its readers for the last year and a half – the only possibility of a stable administration will be an SNP-Labour coalition.
The proceedings at the Supreme Court this week were a tough follow even if you could get the court’s abominably bad livestream to work. They’re all archived here now, but non-lawyers will probably glaze over quickly during the nine hours of intense legalese.
We’re not allowed to clip up any illustrative sections, on pain of possible contempt of court, so perhaps the best way to explain the key parts of what happened in a vaguely comprehensible way is by showing you some commentary from social media.
As a lifelong political geek and former SNP and Alba Party member, I’ve spent years supporting Scotland’s independence movement. However, over the last few years, I’ve watched the campaign (as opposed to support for independence) wither away. Being a Scottish nationalist has become increasingly disheartening, like watching someone you love succumb to a slow, debilitating illness. In frustration, I switched off from my homeland and turned my focus to the drama of US politics.
Over the last three years I immersed myself in it, watching both left and right-wing outlets. I became so hooked and invested that I jumped on a plane to Washington DC for the 2024 election. I canvassed with DC Democrats in rural Pennsylvania (that’s me third from the left in the pic below), attended Kamala Harris’s concession rally, and went to Trump’s only watch party in DC.
My journey led me to believe that Scotland’s independence campaign could learn a great deal from Trump’s victory and the Democrats’ failure.
So it looks like the USA has elected a mad orange rapist convicted of 34 felonies who could yet be in jail by the time of his inauguration. (He would remain President even if that happened, which would be really funny.) And we can’t even blame them for it, because the alternative they were offered was, remarkably and stupendously, worse.
Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Does any left of centre politician care about the young people born in the UK, sam? Much of the evidence…” Jul 9, 16:48
Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Sae true, NC, the scribblin is oan the wa. In fact, it’s only going to be (checks notes) 4-5 years…” Jul 9, 16:40
sam on Too Tight To Mention: “When you don’t know what you think you know. Cambridge Journal of Economics Cover Image for Volume 44, Issue 2…” Jul 9, 16:36
Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “I’ve just run a couple of searches on ChatGPT for for similar search criteria. Which is helpful and revealing because…” Jul 9, 16:32
sam on Too Tight To Mention: “Not many people agree with you. https://www.derby.ac.uk/blog/margaret-thatchers-legacy/ Survey results In January and February 2019, researchers at the University of Derby…” Jul 9, 16:28
Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Great stuff sam. Now do the type of “personality” that posts interminably about pricks, penises, wanking, shirt lifting, glory holes…” Jul 9, 16:22
Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “James says: “Brexit” Aw, we need to crowdfund the boy a dictionary. Turn doon the page corner on the letter…” Jul 9, 16:16
Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “Heh. So you couldn’t back up any of your earlier bullshit claims then. Imagine my surprise. Whatever, dick.” Jul 9, 16:14
Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Aren’t we gonna be keeping the Pound, Confused? How does that fact fit into your fevered fantasies?” Jul 9, 16:10
James on Too Tight To Mention: “Yet more bollocks. Give it up, pal. No-one is listening.” Jul 9, 15:58
Xaracen on Too Tight To Mention: “@Aidan; “@Xaracen – you beautifully highlight the major challenge with AI. Because people like yourself are filling the internet with…” Jul 9, 15:45
Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “Your quoted post fails to consider the alternative under Michael Foot’s Labour. I think we can safely assume it would’ve…” Jul 9, 15:38
sam on Too Tight To Mention: “Scott-Samuel et al “The aggressive promotion of free market policies under Thatcher was accompanied by the growing influence of business…” Jul 9, 15:15
Confused on Too Tight To Mention: ““here’s what you could have won … ” https://archive.is/mHvKx “- they are doing well enough, but imagine how great these…” Jul 9, 15:03
sam on Too Tight To Mention: ““An Intolerant Personality Type is someone who displays a very limited tolerance for differences in opinions or beliefs. They tend…” Jul 9, 14:57
sam on Too Tight To Mention: “intolerance. “…we discuss the psychology of three understandings of intolerance that are concealed within the literature: (a) prejudicial intolerance based…” Jul 9, 14:53
Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: ““@CC – well exactly, does anyone think a website like this would be tolerated in the PRC?” Yes, exactly Aidan,…” Jul 9, 14:30
Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “In reply to P3nisbreath @ 3.11 am (yes 3.11am!!!!) And your point is caller, “whanging oan” yet again about the…” Jul 9, 14:25
Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “Whoosh. Way to miss the point, pal, with your straw man boilerplate pish. I didn’t say “James” had to be…” Jul 9, 14:23
Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@CC – well exactly, does anyone think a website like this would be tolerated in the PRC?” Jul 9, 13:48
Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Xaracen – you beautifully highlight the major challenge with AI. Because people like yourself are filling the internet with nonsensical…” Jul 9, 13:44
James on Too Tight To Mention: “Aw, thank you – we are indeed blessed by the munificence of the unionists! Thank you for inclusion in the…” Jul 9, 13:34
AndrewR on Too Tight To Mention: “Hatey, have a heart. (Heartey!) Did you never do anything stupid, aged 15? Maybe not as stupid as going to…” Jul 9, 13:26
Xaracen on Too Tight To Mention: “This morning I asked three different AIs the following question; Has the JPTI/Salvo Petition to the UN been rejected? None…” Jul 9, 13:09
Andrew scott on Too Tight To Mention: “For heaven’s sake james PUT A SOCK IN IT total word salad -same words just in a different order Sad…” Jul 9, 13:00
James Cheyne on Too Tight To Mention: “Thus we see that the UK ? Westminster parliament with continued English members of the old parliament of England running…” Jul 9, 12:16
Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: ““It is true in what you point out, a fact that a colonised people will have no voice” Gngh. GNGH!…” Jul 9, 12:04
James Cheyne on Too Tight To Mention: “Halsbury Laws of England and Wales. Statues and legislation in Westminster based on the Halsbury laws for England and Wales…” Jul 9, 11:57