The SNP have been pretty clear about the reason they think they got a battering in last week’s election: it was because people were voting to kick out the Tories.
Now, that’s obviously nonsense. There were almost no Tories in Scotland to start with – just 10% of voters had a Tory MP – and only one of the six actually lost his seat. (Which was entirely down to the ham-fisted interference of Douglas Ross rather than an SNP surge – the SNP’s vote share in the seat in question went DOWN.)
If you wanted to keep Tories out in Scotland all you had to do was keep voting for your current MP, most of whom were SNP, rather than risk splitting the anti-Tory vote by switching to Labour and risk letting the Tories squeeze through in the middle. (Which would have happened in many seats had the Tories’ own vote not collapsed.)
But if it was true that the SNP lost because the electorate thought the election was about getting rid of the Tories, whose fault was that?
To be honest, folks, we’re not quite sure what to do with ourselves at the moment.
Everyone and his wee dug is writing election-aftermath columns and offering the SNP advice of varying intelligence and solemnity about how to recover from the shattering blow they’ve just been dealt by Scottish voters.
But it’s a pointless exercise. They may as well be yelling down a manhole.
The Scottish Greens, in a feat of remarkable hubris and financial profligacy, stood 44 candidates in this week’s general election, knowing that most of them would lose their deposits, which they duly did.
But not quite all of them. And there the comedy arose.
Because while SNP boneheads on social media are raging idiotically at Alba, Wings and others for causing division and damaging the unity of the indy cause yada yada yada, a small handful of Green candidates made a real difference.
The 2005 election was the last time the Daily Record and the Scottish Sun both endorsed the same party at a UK general election. So, y’know, something is going on.
Survation released their final projection for the election last night. It’s quite a boring image because they had to make it mostly grey to correctly illustrate the margin of Labour’s lead.
Those ranges are substantial, but even their BEST-case scenario for the Tories is below 100 seats. The WORST-case scenario for Labour – 447 seats – still gives them a majority of 244, which would smash the all-time record of 209 set by the Tories exactly 100 years ago. (The best case is a dizzying 384.)
Scotland is probably the hardest area of the UK to call. In most polls there are only a few points between Labour and the SNP, and depending on how the votes are spread and who’s best at getting their support out either could still win the most seats.
That won’t, of course, make the slightest difference to the governance of the UK for the next five years. Even 57 Scottish MPs out of 57, for any party, would be completely meaningless to a government with a majority of over 200.
But it’ll make a big difference to the independence movement. Because if the SNP manages to hold onto to a significant proportion of its seats, we can all wave goodbye to the slightest chance of progress for another decade on top of the one that’s been wasted since Alex Salmond resigned.
In the modern political world, you don’t get anywhere without a movement, and movements don’t get anywhere without a flag. So we’ve decided it’s time to take action and stand up for a very large group of people who are genuinely discriminated against and significantly disadvantaged in our society.
Here’s their symbol.
Today is July 1st, and we officially, on behalf of all our oppressed kinfolk, declare this to be People Who Aren’t Eligible For A Railcard Pride Month.
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““we have known for decades (if not centuries) that increasing poverty, reducing public services and taking away social security benefits…” Aug 25, 19:47
James on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Ah. As expected. The unionists seasoned pish goes “naw it isnae” [that’s Scotch, Adrian] and “naw he didnae”. “….A country…” Aug 25, 19:30
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““austerity measures resulted in about 190,000 excess deaths, or a 3% increase in mortality rates, from 2010 to 2019, including…” Aug 25, 19:28
sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/01/24/are-uk-austerity-policies-social-murder/ “We argue that the hundreds of thousands of extra deaths seen in the UK between 2012 and 2019 (with…” Aug 25, 19:16
sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/35/2/235/8008562?login=false “Profound changes to mortality trends and inequalities were observed across both nations and all cities in the decade up…” Aug 25, 19:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “English version of a foody poem. Posted before, but a while since. “If you had seen this toast before it…” Aug 25, 19:02
sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/06/19/the-cost-of-austerity-how-spending-cuts-led-to-190000-excess-deaths/ “The austerity measures introduced by the UK government in 2010 had severe consequences for the British population. Yonatan Berman…” Aug 25, 19:00
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Your turn with the Baton Of Erudition is it?” Aug 25, 18:45
twathater on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Where the FUCK is engerlands barnet formula where the fuck is engerlands parliament, where the fuck is engerlands version of…” Aug 25, 18:10
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Ah, c’moan noo Aidan! Div ye want Indy or nae? If ye dae, swear blind tae abody that WM is…” Aug 25, 18:06
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “An interesting take on things, sam. Some people would rather kill themselves than have a more equitable allocation of scarce…” Aug 25, 17:49
Aidan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “There has been no “extraordinary rise in mortality” across the UK, the mortality rate has decreased overall since 2010, and…” Aug 25, 17:41
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““Typical factors: … Housing need and homelessness” Uh Oh. There’s 5.7 million UK households getting cash from the government to…” Aug 25, 17:34
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Just for a moment there, Alf, I thought you had a serious point to make. I guess the joke’s on…” Aug 25, 17:19
Alf Baird on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““What a chump was Swinney to accept the Smith Commission crap.” Yes, Swinney also tells the SNP faithful he is…” Aug 25, 17:15
sarah on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “@ sam: interesting stuff re Barnett and Caithness. Thanks for posting.” Aug 25, 16:53
sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Over the period 2010 to 2019 austerity cuts led to a reduction of about £540 billion. Local government funding and…” Aug 25, 16:43
Aidan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “@Sam – the funding received under the Barnett formula is consolidated though, so it’s up to the Scottish Government how…” Aug 25, 15:29
James on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “But Scotland will still be artificially ‘poor’. All part of the Onion dividend.” Aug 25, 14:46
Alf Baird on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““How did the imperial UK construct prove its immorality yesterday?” So many examples, Hatey, you’re obviously not paying attention to…” Aug 25, 14:34
sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “https://caithness-business.co.uk/article/32159 “What a needs?based formula actually means A needs?based formula allocates funding according to measurable indicators of need, not just…” Aug 25, 14:23
Captain Caveman on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““That it?” I’m betting that’s a phrase you’ve heard quite often.” Aug 25, 13:25
sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Neither of us can say with truth if the Formula meets the needs of Scotland. Here is the abstract from…” Aug 25, 12:37
James on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Jappy; “As a civil servant in London in the 1960s, and being part of the establishment, I always accepted the…” Aug 25, 12:34
James on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “As I posted earlier. “Disingenuous Adrian”. But hey, worth a try, champ.” Aug 25, 12:31
Spartan 117 on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Fada bho abhainn an t-sluaigh, as a favourite band of mine sang back in 1991. Zero understanding of the world…” Aug 25, 12:16
gm on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Swinney was warned, by trained honest people, that the Smith Commission was a miserable effort at containment, nothing more and…” Aug 25, 12:00
Aidan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Actually James, it’s you trying to post in “scotch”, by which I mean the incoherent meaningless ramblings of someone who…” Aug 25, 11:21
