The tweet comes days after a Scottish Labour candidate tweeted a meme depicting someone spraying bleach on SNP MP Joanna Cherry with the caption “BANG! and the terf is gone”, despite said candidate being supported by the Jo Cox Foundation – a charity set up after the Labour MP of that name was murdered with a gun.
You probably haven’t heard of me. I’m a notoriously “vile” political blogger who’s said a few pretty mean things on social media about politicians in the last eight years. But perhaps that’s partly because I’m a grumpy old white guy who hasn’t had the benefit of your commendable programme aimed at “building the fairer, kinder & more tolerant world the late Jo Cox MP believed in”.
As we steel ourselves for the wretched purgatorial misery of (at least) the next six weeks, we’ve been sitting up late trying to think of a positive aspect of the coming election campaign, and the best we’ve come up with is this: if it’s awful for most human beings in the country, just imagine how terrible it is for Nigel Farage.
Because as has been increasingly obvious from the Brexit Party leader’s comments this month, Farage knows only too well the truth that the rest of the country is going to realise quite soon, if it hasn’t already: he’s now the only thing that might stop the UK leaving the European Union.
It’s a long time, apparently. Because while a general election on 12 December would be a “barking mad” idea according to the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford on Thursday, having one on 9 December instead is genius.
So in a month in which this site has been extensively screamed at by SNP diehards as the work of a “traitor” and an “MI5 plant” for suggesting that maybe the SNP could vote with the Tories (or perhaps just abstain) to let Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal go through in exchange for a second indyref, the official SNP plan is to now vote with the Tories to give them the election Boris Johnson has been trying to call for weeks – which all polls suggest he’d win, allowing him to enact any sort of Brexit he wants – but to cleverly NOT get a second indyref out of it.
It’s Monday morning, readers, so welcome once again to the world’s favourite situation comedy, the United Kingdom.
The current position is that absolutely nobody has the slightest idea what’s going to happen this week, or today, or by lunchtime. The Prime Minister is as we speak being taken to court (again), and a whole series of votes in the House Of Commons may or may not take place and may or may not determine anything.
But there’s one particularly interesting thing going on.
As we write this, Boris Johnson’s new Brexit deal appears to hang in the balance. According to Sky News this morning the arithmetic is poised on a knife-edge.
The four “in play” groups down the middle of the graphic are, from the top: three Tory “Spartans” (hardcore Brexiters who might yet back the deal), 19 Labour MPs who’ve suggested they might do so for various reasons, 20 former-Tory “rebels” who had the whip removed by Johnson for voting to block no-deal, and 14 independents, mainly from the “Change UK” wing or whatever they’re called this week.
The government needs 36 of the 56 to vote with it to get the deal through, and can probably count on most of the 20 former Tories. Labour sources are suggesting, quite plausibly, that double-figure numbers of their 19 will also back the deal. So it’s close.
If it passes, England and Wales will get what they voted for (Brexit), Northern Ireland will – after a fashion – get what it voted for (effectively staying in the EU), and Scotland will get shafted. It’ll be placed at a significant economic disadvantage to NI, at a likely severe cost in jobs and investment. The nation which voted the most decisively on Brexit (for either option) will be the only one not to get its democratic wishes respected.
And slightly surprisingly, the whole UK thinks that’s unfair.
As we write this, voting has just ended to elect the membership of a number of key SNP internal bodies, including the Member Conduct Committee which has the power to discipline members and even expel them from the party.
This year has seen a concerted attempt by a small but active faction within the SNP, led by the Young Scots for Independence and Out For Indy groups, to flood the MCC (which in normal times struggles to fill its ranks) with officers aggressively committed to transgender ideology, with the openly-declared intent of purging “gender-critical” women from all party candidate lists and ensuring that anyone seeking to protect women’s sex-based rights can be expunged for “transphobia”.
(An attempt to deselect Joanna Cherry on such grounds failed earlier this year, but with control of the MCC the faction could pretty much dump anyone it wanted to.)
The matter has not escaped the attention of the independence-hostile media.
We avoided discussing the committee elections while voting was taking place because it’s not our business to interfere in the internal affairs of the SNP, and also because a certain element of the party has been having a massive tantrum over some poll results we published last week and it might have ended up being counter-productive.
But make no mistake – the outcome of these elections will have a huge impact on both the SNP’s electoral fortunes and the chances of securing independence. We’re about to find out, in other words, how screwed we are.
SilentMajority on The View From Row Z: “Quick…over there….a unicorn!” Jun 2, 09:45
Willie on The View From Row Z: “She resigned before she was ” burned out” of office. And “burned out” she would most certainly have been.” Jun 2, 09:43
SilentMajority on The View From Row Z: “Someone needs to ask Swinney, succintly, in front of a camera (and not ‘in camera’) exactly this question…about the ‘ring-fenced’…” Jun 2, 09:40
agentx on The View From Row Z: ““Sturgeon’s term ended on 29 March 2023, following her resignation announcement on 15 February, in which she claimed occupational burnout…” Jun 2, 09:33
agentx on The View From Row Z: “The SNP has been accused of using a “ringfenced” independence fund to repay a massive loan from EuroMillions winners Colin…” Jun 2, 08:58
TURABDIN on The View From Row Z: “THE SYSTEM will use this as a hammer to beat Scottish nationalism conveniently fogetting that it is the historic forensic…” Jun 2, 08:56
SilentMajority on The View From Row Z: “It is amazing that organisations are still ignoring the law, and are being quite blatant about it. Will it require…” Jun 2, 08:36
robertkknight on The View From Row Z: “The most credible explanation yet…courtesy of Rev Stu. https://x.com/WingsScotland/status/2061514899843682386 Where’s Izzie when you need her?” Jun 2, 08:10
Owen Mullions on Friends Without Benefits: “https://youtube.com/shorts/LgOS_ZvX-6c?si=Y7SE3tYJPio8bcLw” Jun 2, 07:22
Bilbo on The View From Row Z: “O/T https://archive.is/hY8Bk The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has called out the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) proposed updates to…” Jun 2, 07:11
Bilbo on The View From Row Z: “The left has been dazzled by the idea that giving parts of our society who have been marginalised in the…” Jun 2, 06:49
Bilbo on The View From Row Z: “@ Young Lochinvar Snobbery works both ways. This whole sordid episodes shows us that where despite having the same upbringing…” Jun 2, 06:40
James Barr Gardner on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Sanctifying Misandry: Goddess Ideology and the Fall of Man Katherine K. Young , Paul Nathanson” Jun 2, 05:39
James Barr Gardner on Marvola The Memory Woman: “That’s great coming from a misandrist !” Jun 2, 05:32
Young Lochinvar on The View From Row Z: “And that is supposed to mean? Only public school educated chaps and chappesses from nice areas are allowed to stand?…” Jun 2, 01:25
Buck Stradler on The View From Row Z: “This is what happens when you elect guttersnipes from Irvine.” Jun 2, 00:58
Young Lochinvar on The View From Row Z: “Hannah Bardell, former MP, lesbian and self professed “Queer” was aggressively pro Sturgeon on STVs Scotland Tonight. A quick Google…” Jun 2, 00:29
David Blake on The View From Row Z: “What do the police believe about the indyref2 money? The most obvious fact about the whole business is that it…” Jun 1, 22:17
Rob on The View From Row Z: “We had a chance to change things just a few weeks ago, the largest party is still the SNP and…” Jun 1, 21:00
Ian Smith on The View From Row Z: “Murrell was given legal aid because all his assets were frozen.” Jun 1, 20:55
gm on The View From Row Z: “I take it back, it appears to be perfectly normal for a KC to defend someone on legal aid. The…” Jun 1, 20:20
agentx on The View From Row Z: “Well your coalface acquaintance with decades of experience at the coal face of Scottish Criminal Justice, knows sfa. Murrell pleaded…” Jun 1, 20:08
Alf Baird on The View From Row Z: ““The mists are parting – it’s all becoming clear” Indeed, Uk***ne’s national elite opted to sacrifice their people and nation…” Jun 1, 19:49
Hatey McHateface on The View From Row Z: ““She is, of course, a nobody in England” Only, she’s not, just as she’s not a nobody in Scotland either.…” Jun 1, 19:23
gm on The View From Row Z: “I have no idea how it came about, what the rules are or whether it is the luck of the…” Jun 1, 19:22
Hatey McHateface on The View From Row Z: “Believe this or not. An acquaintance of mine, someone with decades of experience at the coal face of Scottish Criminal…” Jun 1, 19:13
Hatey McHateface on The View From Row Z: “I think I’m starting to see it, Alf. The mists are parting – it’s all becoming clear. Despite the complete…” Jun 1, 18:43
Hatey McHateface on The View From Row Z: “You leave your helmet alone, Wally W. If there was any justice in this world, you’d have long since gone…” Jun 1, 18:31
