Come On Baby, Let’s Do The Twist
All of the words you’re about to read below were written by the same person in the last few days. It’s completely verbatim and none of it is taken in any way out of context. It means what it sounds like it means.
But even if you’ve got a forehead the size of the “eggheads” from the famous Tefal ads of the 1980s, you’ll never guess the big reveal at the end.
“The John Swinney strategy motion MUST be amended, or the dream could be over.
Until the SNP’s fateful decision at the weekend, the difference between winning a pro-indy majority and not doing so would have looked like the difference between victory and defeat for the SNP leadership and for independence itself.
But now, it looks like the only difference would be between one type of defeat and another type of defeat – a self-imposed defeat, because the SNP itself has declared that a pro-indy majority is nowhere near enough for victory.
Essentially all the suspense has just been drained from the election, because we now know with a very high level of confidence that defeat, in the absolutist all-or-nothing terms that the SNP have defined defeat, is firmly on the cards.
It’s rational to say that it’s not a question of what John Swinney will do if the SNP do not win a single-party majority, but what he will do when the SNP do not win a single-party majority. The laws of arithmetic do not yield to sheer force of will. They do not change just because the SNP has inexplicably chosen to set itself a near-impossible target.
I really don’t understand what the plan is in that eventuality or where John Swinney proposes to go from there. If you want us to believe the current plan of seeking a Section 30 order is the credible grown-up alternative, get back to us if you ever manage to break its seemingly endless run of being tried repeatedly without even the remotest hint of success.
The SNP have just decided for the very first time that Scotland does not have the right to choose, or at the very least that it does not have the right to make certain choices or in certain ways.
For example, if Scottish voters look at a Green party manifesto that offers independence, and if they vote Green on that basis, the SNP are now saying that is not a decision they have a right to take – or at least that it’s not a decision the SNP will respect or recognise the legitimacy of.
We’re also told that a key part of the strategy will involve reaching out to the rest of the movement and uniting it, but how are you even going to get a hearing from the non-SNP parts of the movement when you’ve just told them that they have no legitimacy whatsoever and that votes for them don’t even count?
If the SNP leadership do not, for whatever reason, feel able or willing to make a serious effort to use next year’s election to win independence, then I think that’s highly regrettable and I think that’s a mistake.
Setting a needless precedent of saying that a single-party SNP overall majority is required would indeed make that much harder, because the UK Government would eagerly leap on it and hold us to it until the end of time. We’ll be putting the independence cause into a much weaker state than it’s been for decades.
And yes, I do of course intend to vote ‘Both Votes SNP’ next May, and would urge all SNP members and supporters to do the same. Pushing for the best possible result for the SNP at next year’s election remains the right thing to do. Make mine a double.“
So there you have it, folks. If you want to set the independence cause back “for decades”, tell Scotland it “does not have the right to choose” its own future, divide the movement irreparably by telling anyone outside the SNP that they have “no legitimacy whatsoever”, and give the UK government a weapon it can use against us not just for the next five years but “until the end of time”, then Both Votes SNP!
Those of us who DON’T want those things should perhaps take another path.
What did I just read?
Naw, naw, naw, naw, aye ok then? Hit yourself in the face, again?
I’m a turkey, I’m a turkey, I’m a turkey, I’m a turkey, I’m a turkey, I’m a turkey, I’m a turkey…..
Oh great, Christmas is coming, I’ll vote for that.
TT, I think your joke is probably a bit too close to the truth than people might be willing to admit.
2 + 2 = 4.
Except when it doesn’t.
That’s when
2 + 2 = 22.
Theres no I in Party Politics
There’s no I in Party Politics!
A bit of a dunner heid this morning! Who wrote this?
James Kelly over on Scot Goes Mad, instead of his daily diatribe against Stu and Wings.
Yep, and the individual concerned is vying for a place on their NEC committee I believe. Nuff said.
Seriously?
Yes, although he lost. He’s on the Policy Development Committee, because he was the only person in Central Scotland who put himself forward so he was elected unopposed.
Let me guess, the man of many parties, the ass kisser with a demented obsession for relevance SGP.
It’s good to know our ‘betters’ don’t understand the voting system though I don’t know what else you can do to explain it to some of the voters and odd bods who write blogs with little knowledge of it.
I still can’t find the wee film on youtube which explained it perfectly even to a dunderheid like me!
I believe you might be referring to the great video ISP made about the d’Hondt system. If so, you’ll likely find it on their site. 🙂
Thanks Katie!
Somewhere in Scotland a village is missing its idiot.
I recon we’ve found him!
If you impeach Holyrood on constitutional grounds; that the Scottish people are sovereign yet Holyrood arrogantly sets itself as a higher authority, then next, we formally denounce Holyrood as nothing but a colonial administration masquerading as government. Do that, then ALL the above arguments about democracy, strategy, settled will of the people, protocols and procedures… All such issues leave Holyrood, and slot into place in the wider Realm of Scotland, – but they are Scottish issues, not UK issues because the UK no longer exists.
All you’ve removed by the process of impeaching Holyrood is to remove Westminster’s chokehold on what the Scottish Nation is allowed to decide, and in doing so, we have wrestled that decision making power away from the colonial Westminster imposter, and put it back where it belongs, into the hands of Scotland’s sovereign people.
By this act of impeachment, you have thus nullified Westminster’s self proclaimed “veto” over Scotland’s democratic process and political will.
Sovereignty is simple. It is simply the power to make a decision which NOBODY is empowered to overturn. That is it. Scotland has that power, lawfully and properly, but the trick of this deceptive “Union” was to create and secure the illusion of a veto over Scotland’s rightful sovereignty. However that veto was NEVER real, NEVER legitimate; it never was, never will be. It was a lie. It has always been a con upon the Scottish people.
Scotland stands imprisoned in an imaginery cage thats entirely of its own making, the door is standing wide open. All we need to do, is step forward away from here and we are free. We do not need anybody’s permission. We do not need Westminster to guide us, tell us what to do, set the timetable or preconditions.
All those who believe we need Westminster to hold our hand through this are actually no better than the douchebags in 1290 who had the brilliant idea of asking for the English Edward I’ s advice and input on Scottish succession. You’d think we might have learned eh?
Freedom, is one act of realisation, and a simple step forward. Break the spell, and guess what, you’re no longer spellbound.
Go to Hell with these interminable Westminster parlour games, hung parliaments, list votes, 60% rule, wait til the local elections, make the next one a plebiscite. Oh, let’s wait til 2031, put that deferrential spineless puppet John
BalliolSwinney on the throne… Get f!*ked eh? It is all the same horseshit. Shuffling the deck chairs on the SS Great Britain for somebody else to sit in. NONE of this crap, nothing, can rival the credentials of the sovereignty we Scots possess.Independence takes a simple sovereign decision, and we can hold that ballot any time we like. We just do it. Independence will not create Scotland, it just delivers the long overdue and perfunctory end of a rotten Treaty which should never have existed in the first place.
The only fear Scotland should have is the mad rush to re-invent all the essential instruments of Scottish State which have shrivelled up and atrophied from lack of use these past 300+ years. If only somebody had it all planned out eh?
Truth be told, I don’t even think we need that vote. We already are sovereign, and voting to prove it won’t make us more sovereign. We simply make one choice to end the rancid Union Treaty, and that is our prerogative and ours alone. Fuck are we waiting for?
As you say Breeks let’s just keep on going round and round on this endless trailer load of shite, who knows within the next 100 years some bright spark might ask “what happened to independence for Scotland”
Good post, Breeks
Careful, Northy – dinna clutch at yer pearls like that – ye’ll brak the string.
Breeks posts a clarion call to arms that should have every Scottish patriot rooting around in the thatch for his claymore, and you go all Morningside on us.
Fit are ye like, eh?
Which bit of “Fuck are we waiting for?” eluded your comprehension?
“We already are sovereign, and voting to prove it won’t make us more sovereign. We simply make one choice to end the rancid Union Treaty, and that is our prerogative and ours alone. Fuck are we waiting for?”
Dunno about anybody else, but I’m waiting for you to name the date and the time when you intend to march on Hollyrood to sort this out once and for all.
It’s too close to this weekend now for me, but next weekend – FUCKING BRING IT ON!
There are sheep then there is this guy.
I am with Liberate Scotland bye bye all yee SNP fools.
“Pushing for the best possible result for the SNP at next year’s election remains the right thing to do”
If we were to replace ‘SNP’ in that sentence with ‘SCOTS’… then I would agree with its sentiment.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the quoted text in this WoS piece was written by Swinney himself referring to himself in the third person.
Illeism: Referring to oneself in the third person. There are quite a few psychological conditions that might induce a person to refer to themself in the third person – to exhibit a heightened sense of self-importance, for instance.
Also, I believe Swinney does have a secret Scottish independence plan – it involves destroying any chance of it ever happening; him getting some kind of peerage or other; a seat in a jaded empire’s House of Lords; and a large imperial pay-off for services to the empire.
Katielass , it says video is unavailable!
Stu, where you and James ever friends?
For me, I can’t give the SNP any votes next year the party at the moment just isn’t working in Scotland interest and it is evident the party’s interest is entirely for England 1st, 2nd and 3rd where Scotland comes on that list, I have no idea.
I really do not believe that the SNP member hasn’t fully grasped what John Swinney has done and how his policy on Independence goes well beyond a section and just asking for permission.
John plan indicates that the only way any nationalist can achieve Independence is via a Holyrood election, so would would anyone vote for the SNP in in any other election.
Its evident that the MSN is protecting the SNP, because if the MSN wasn’t here is a perfect opportunity for the MSN to lay out what john Swinney plan does and how it will never achieve Independence but will in fact keep the status-quo with the union.
The MSN doesn’t need to run constant front pagers educating the General public to the Independence plan set out by the FM because Swinney has taken out all the ground work and the membership has backed his plan entirely if you where a unionist what in the Swinney’s plan isn’t to like.
I actually believe the idea of Liberate Scotland as the new Indy movement appeals to me more than just 2 vote for a Single, it has more meaning than one party owns it all.
If I under stand Roddy correctly liberate is struggle to get people to sign up, hopely more will join to take on the SNP, or Alba who have become one man bands with no interest in Scotland.
Lots of bitterness towards Alba from the individual. And no. I’m not an Alba member.
SWINNEY is manifestly a puppet, but who is pulling his strings?
A question many people seeking freedom have asked about their elected political leaders over the centuries.
Inevitably the reply turns the attention away from career politicians towards something more «visceral».
There is a old constriction in the nation’s body politick which only strong medicine might shift.
Its name? Britishness, the cement that keeps the antique British state from crumbling.
The pish from the Brit Nat SNP will continue and continue and continue. They are the trojan horse anti independence party and everything they do is to stymie independence.
And that is why the cry is both votes SNP. They know fine well the Hollyrood electoral denies political parties a majority. They pulled the fabulous stunt in 2021 when after encouraging folks to vote SNP1 and SNP 2, the 1,093,000 votes that they asked voters for deliver them 2 seats and a minority government that had to be propped up by the Greens.
Not that an SNP majority would have made any difference. But yes the people bought it. Of course an second vote for ALBA would have delivered around 25 additional independence MSP – but that didn’t happen. Sturgeon schemed not to allow that and the Tory and Labour i=unionists held their list seats.
Its a fabulous state of affairs and all these years on Swinney wants to keep the SNP 1 and SNP fools gold promotion.
Aye Rev, its no egg head but egg on our faces. Mugs R Us!
Old joke :
pedestrian to bus driver : is this bus going to YOKER?
– NAW …
“but it says YOKER on the front”
– it says INDIA on the tyres but we’re no goin there either …
I think Billy Connolly told that one, back when I was a nipper.
Modern addition : the pedestrian, an SNP voter, who wants to go to Yoker, decides to GET ON THE BUS ANYWAY
it could happen; the driver could get lost, or the GPS satellites malfunction and the bus gets to Yoker by accident
or
massive earthquakes open chasms in the earth and the bus is thrown through the air, landing in Yoker
you just need to keep believin’
and buy two tickets.
link to youtube.com
Very good Confused.
Of course the song of ” don’t stop believing ” by Journey should be should be the SNP’s anthem whilst ” won’t get fooled again ” by the Who should be the electors anthem.
Two perfectly matched anthems.
Another thing I don’t understand about all this (a series of many) is that if Gibraltar could hold a referendum on the question of sovereignty when the UK government didn’t want them to, which they did on 7th November 2002, why doesn’t Scotland just do the same thing? No-one is going to rush up from England to grab all the pencils and ballot papers. Why not just do it?