Guided By Voices
If there’s ever been a (branch office of a) political party that could somehow manage to blow it in Scotland against the burning trainwreck in a ditch full of sewage that is the SNP right now, it’s definitely Anas Sarwar’s hapless Scottish Labour.
Honestly, this stuff is comedy gold. But in a winner-takes-all dumb-off with Humza Yousaf’s SNP, it’s way too close to call.
Because as we noted yesterday, the SNP seems determined to go into this year’s general election riding the horse of “making Scotland’s voice heard” at Westminster.
And if anyone actually stops to think about that for even a moment, Yousaf is going to find himself in a whole heap of trouble.
What Yousaf is actually doing with the line is campaigning for Labour. Because it’s abundantly plain now, with last night’s by-election results providing further evidence, that Labour are going to not only win the election but win it comfortably.
Now, if that happens, Keir Starmer doesn’t have to pay a blind bit of notice to Anas Sarwar. But he’d presumably like to win the 2026 Holyrood election, so it would certainly serve him to do so for a couple of years at least, in an effort to pull off the miraculous feat of making Scottish Labour look vaguely relevant and competent.
So if Scottish voters really do want nothing more than to have “Scotland’s voice heard” at Westminster, they’re faced with a no-brainer of a choice: vote for Scottish Labour MPs, who Starmer will listen to (even if largely for show), or for SNP ones that we know for absolute certain he won’t listen to.
Scottish voters have had almost a decade of MPs opposed to the Westminster government who achieve nothing. The idea of MPs who are in alliance with the government of the day is going to be a tempting one for blindingly obvious reasons.
The pledge not to work with the SNP is just about the only one Starmer’s made in the last three years that he HASN’T reneged on, and he’s a man who reneges on pledges at the slightest hint of a breeze.
But on current polling there’s no question of it even being an issue. The SNP could win every seat in Scotland AND 50 in England and still be a total irrelevance to Starmer.
Even in the almost inconceivable scenario where Labour undergo some sort of massive collapse in the next few months and didn’t win a majority, nobody with an ounce of sense believes the SNP would actually bring them down anyway, because the party is still pathologically terrified of being seen to vote with the Tories.
The reason nobody believes that is that Yousaf himself has told them so.
So what Yousaf is telling people is that voting SNP to have Scotland’s voice heard is a waste of time – exactly the same thing Anas Sarwar is telling them. He’s saying that if Labour don’t listen to “Scotland’s voice”, Scotland will sit in the corner and grumble a bit, but nothing more. So they may as well vote for people who are at least Starmer’s friends and have his ear.
And what makes the whole strategy doubly moronic is that everyone already KNOWS it doesn’t work. The SNP threw everything at the Rutherglen by-election in the autumn using the exact same message, and got wretchedly thrashed as Labour’s vote turned out and the SNP’s stayed at home.
Nobody’s buying the schtick any more. Everybody knows that Westminster DOESN’T listen when Scotland sends SNP MPs down there, because they settle in and cause no trouble and nothing happens when they get jeered at and mocked and slapped down contemptuously time and time again.
But Humza Yousaf is so dedicated to continuity that he’s happy to continue with tactics whose complete failure has been proven over and over since 2015.
And we can’t even assume that he wants to lose for some relief from the pressures of governing (as often happens with long-serving adminstrations), because of course the SNP don’t govern at Westminster. They live the blessed life of opposition MPs, with all the perks and pensions and subsidies and none of the responsibilities, and the party definitely needs the money that comes with the seats.
So the only rational conclusion it’s possible to draw is that the man’s simply an idiot. And at some point that’s a fact that even the diehard gullible dopes still supporting the SNP are going to have to face up to.
Indeed, Rev. Nothing to add to that.
True. What a betrayal of Scotland – the treachery of abandoning the only policy, i.e. withdrawing from the Union, that would enable Scotland to improve the lives of everyone here.
Send no one. Sit on the house.
I simply can’t understand the thinking, sorry, reasoning, sorry, fuckwitery of the remaining SNP supporters. Lemmings don’t actually blindly follow each other over cliff edges but these supporters are prepared to argue the case for why they should perish by following their leaders!!
Stu
Have you ever conducted an abstentionist poll on X?
IF Scotland completely boycotted the General election?
Only SNP MPs will stand up for Scotland, then drop to one knee and pay homage to the gravy train that is Devolution.
Indy for Scotland
SNP Out!
…
(Nothing to say)
If the polls are right though , and about 40 SNP MPs get elected to Westminster, then it will be regarded as a ringing endorsement of the SNP’s strategy over the last 5 years and a licence to continue what they were doing before for the next 5 l o n g y e a r s. Can’t be allowed to happen.
Kevin
In my own opinion it may be because sending a load of Scottish unionists to Westminster allows all sorts of skullduggery to be voted & passed without any interference.
A new “lock in” clause for example. Any complaints would be brushed off as “The will of the people has spoken” cause Scots made the costly mistake of sending unionists to crush a gnat.
Or the voters they have now are just more interested in Trans rights & environmental issues.
Apologies, I posted this at the end of the previous thread, but it’s relevant to the strategy to retain as many SNP Westminster seats as possible (and as much of that juicy £1.3m pa in Short money that Jackson’s Entry depends on).
Devoid of a positive message, the SNP will approach the coming GE with a pitch that Starmer’s Labour doesn’t represent the collective, Scottish psyche (and this would be factually accurate).
Starmer’s overt Neoliberalism and partisan Zionist agenda will save a substantial portion of Flynn’s dae nuthin’ parasites.
YouGov, Where do sympathies lie, Palestine / Israel, field work 12 – 13 Feb.
Excluding don’t know & equal.
UK, Palestine net +12%
England, Palestine net +10%
Scotland, Palestine net +20%
Next week the SNP will weaponise Scotland’s innate sympathies for the Palestinian cause to damage the position of Labour in Scotland and save their own worthless skins. They will don a faux persona as “radicals”. Whether Stewart McDonald has run this past his Handlers in Foggy Bottom is unknowable. Ultimately it matters not a jot, it’s just performative posturing, theatre.
The MRP Poll from earlier this week put the SNP’s Westminster prospects at 40 seats just behind the LibDems on 53 seats.
The two by-elections yesterday had the LibDem vote collapse to 4.7% and 3.3%, while interestingly RefUK’s vote remained resilient at >10%.
Does this cast doubt on the prospects of the LibDems predicted in the MRP Poll, or will there be quid pro quo, tactical voting by would be Labour voters?
It would be frankly infuriating to see Flynn’s troupe of troughers emerge once again as the 3rd largest party in the HoC and settle down for another five years of luxuriously remunerated prevarication.
Geri @1:50pm
Labour’s victories on such low turnouts mean that we’re well on the way to an abstentionist election, never mind a poll.
Sooner or later everyone will have to look in the mirror and admit the current system simply isn’t working. Once the two quarters of economic decline become two years, then perhaps, alternatives might come into focus.
It will be interesting to see whether the Conservatives fall apart – though they tend to prefer hanging together instead of hanging separately, as the recent “revolt over Rwanda” showed.
As for Starmer’s firm hand on New Order Labour? We’ll see how long they’ll be able to hold things together. I doubt it will take long. The country is on a clear downward trajectory. Once Labour are forced to start privatising parts of the NHS then the wheels are likely to come off in grand style.
So what’s next? Well, at this stage pretty much anything will be an improvement.
SNP have shown themselves to be completely useless no denying that.
Labour will very likely get in everywhere.
Whilst I am disgusted at what the SNP has become I fear Labour I remember Labour do you remember Labour?
Labour incompetent corrupt always a whift of sulphur about them.
There may be trouble ahead.
Perhaps he is being played by the same team that played Sturgeon.
Still seeing no reason to vite SNP
But Vivian, events, my dear boy, events…
…the pressure is building and building over Palestine and sooner or later something is going to blow. Either the collective West accepts their heritage as being aligned with Baerbock’s, Scholz’s and von der Leyen’s grandfathers or they start to grow a conscience.
The politicians already know who is buttering their bread and they’ve picked a side. Same goes for the media. Just how much blood the electorate want to be soaked in remains to be seen.
At the start of this, before the latest bloodletting, I was sort of on the fence over the situation. Clearly the people of Gaza have gotten themselves a government with questionable morality (yes, I know that H**** is a liberation struggle) but now the situation is getting unbearable. I doubt hundreds of millions of Europeans are willing to go to their graves knowing they stood by and did nothing while children were being slaughtered by snipers.
The image may convey more than words.
Had the SNP benches been empty the image would have been a constant reminder of the fragility of the British state.
The full benches are a reminder of the strategic vacuity of chasing the «low hanging fruits» and a timely testament to what happens to parties when they cozy up to the system.
The system will harvest the best fruits every time.
We all know that Big Burd Whatsherface is always hingin aboot whoever’s the leader, but do we know who is actually advising Humza?
Any names?
Regional north brit branch manager says what?
Alexi Navalny finally murdered by the Russian state.
They were so afraid of this man they just had to kill him.
I didn’t agree with all of his views but I will say Respect to a brave man.
That would be great.
Let’s start campaigning here & now.
Got any good campaign slogans.
You know when all these party leaders get photographed leaving the polling station we could photo-bomb them with our placards.
Don’t Vote! They just want a cushy job & a pair of slippers.
OT did anyone notice the gas company’s profiteering?
72 million last year to 751 million this year – just had my statement in and this months gas is 100 quid dearer than last month . I am pondering the possibility that we are being fleeced.
Geri and Ruby (and others of a similar view)
Correct. It’s as pointless voting SNP in the upcoming GE as it is voting for a unionist party. But if you’re going to abstain, don’t! Instead, make your abstention count and repurpose your vote. Write this message across your ballot paper: #endtheunion.
More here..
Humza has had a silver spoon in an orifice since birth. His dad sent him to a private school. The problems are that he’s just not that clever, and that he blames everyone else for his own inadequacy.
He has never done anything but politics. And he has been at the heart of things when Sturgeon fooled us all. For 9 years.
Sturgeon led the independence party and did nothing to further the independence cause. She betrayed us all.
Humza thinks more of the same will still do the trick. News just in – It won’t.
If I don’t have an Alba or ISP candidate to vote for – I’ll just spoil my vote.
“Scotland United ” would have been the way forward.
SNP and Scottish Labour…
Two cheeks of the same Pro-Devolution arse.
@revstu
OT but I tried contacting you about it – probably WordPress is still fucked for that & I’m not joining X for this – but your link to Scotland Speaks on the front page should probably be deleted.
It now links to a holding page offering the domain, all the social media channels and the publishing engine for sale/rent which I find interesting….
Sarwar was born with a parachute on his back while Yousaf was born with grease between his legs.
Don’t be too hard on Sir Keir “my dad was a toolmaker” Starmer. He’s U-turned on just about every promise he’s made. By the law of averages, an about turn on his promise to ignore the SNP will be along soon.
Not that it’ll matter. The SNP’s chocolate teapots are beyond useless – apart from getting their snouts deep into the Westminster and Holyrood troughs.
Channel 4s new fly on the wall documentary , the Unelectables .
Logic dictates that at any forthcoming election Labour is the party to vote for. Hopefully this obliterates the SNP, Greens and the Tory’s which is a good start in anybody’s book. Refusing to, or spoiling your vote will achieve nothing.
If anybody thinks that Independence is coming soon then their heart is ruling their head.
We are in for a long haul with no clear way forward for a number of years. Scotland needs to regroup with a clear, concise plan. Who is going to provide this?
Some clever person analysed the voting in Westminster over the last few decades. His/her conclusion was that Scottish MPS have made no difference and make no difference to what Westminster decides.
There is no point in being there. That has been the case since the UK was formed.
Only separation may work for us. That will only be got by secession.
So vote for labour? Not spoil my paper? Fuck of you fucking dickhead.
Everyone here agrees that both the SNP and Labour are corrupt and inept. Yet Scots voters overwhelmingly vote for these two parties. And will likely vote that way in the next election. That’s not a good sign of Scot’s voter’s intelligence.
At some point, all those who voted SNP in the past have got to look in the mirror.
Robert Knight
They’re not even pro devolutionist.
SNP = 10 yrs & 6 mandates & not even the gumption to use it to squeeze hee-haw out of Westminster.
Scottish Labour has Starmers ear? = In yer dreams. Well they tell you yer getting fck all BEFORE an election even takes place & they really, really wished they hadn’t given you a few morsels to start with – believe them. Yer getting hee-haw.
I don’t know why my post went into moderation earlier. The problem with sending yoons is the signal that will resinate through WM & the Scottish duds will sign us up to anything – including being permanently locked in.
Faolie
Cheers. I’ll take a look..
A hung parliament is looking more and more unlikely given current results and polling. Labour v0.3 will lose some support due to their support for neo-liberalism and their soi-disant even handedness on Gaza.
However the triple whammy of the rise of Reform taking carpet biting Tory votes from the right, the collapse of the LD vote, and the fact Scottish Labour won’t make the gains they probably expected from the SNP, makes it much less likely that the SNP or other parties will be in any position to hold the balance of power.
Of course, a “real” independence party would stand on a platform that if Labour failed to negotiate on the right of Holyrood to hold referendums, they would withdraw from Westminster.
Sadly, Scots voters have – by and large – failed to notice that the SNP aren’t an independence party in any meaningful sense.
Roll on Holyrood 2026 elections?
The abuse has started. What do YOU suggest pipinghot?
It is very easy to criticise, I know, I do it all the time but, at least I come up with some suggestions/alternatives. the SNP is hemorrhaging support by the day. It does not appear to be flowing to Alba. Labour seems to benefitting. Why is that?
This is the first time I have seen you posting-what a waste of effort it was.
@ pipinghot 5.47pm you have to excuse Chastity he has fallen in with some rank badyins who love to ridicule and denigrate everything about Scots and Scotland , Chastity has always punted his beloved Labour as the answer to Scotland’s woes as you will see if you look at his other comments where everyone bar Andy Pandy Ellis who BTW has OPENLY and PROUDLY STATED that if ANYONE dare to amend the current FRANCHISE where his English wife and daughter can vote, to anything where they can’t, he will OPENLY, VOCIFEROUSLY and PROUDLY work AGAINST INDEPENDENCE that is the type of indy supporter Andy Pandy is, It’s ma baw and i’m no playin , the other rank badyin is John Moan who thinks Scotland is shite and delights in his every comment telling everyone so
Why do you put ‘hater’ as the last five letters in your username?
The first four letters sum you up perfectly.
@Chas
“Refusing to, or spoiling your vote will achieve nothing.”
Doing the same thing over again in the hope of a different result is utterly daft and also achieves nothing. #End the Union! is the only fitting response.
“Labour seems to benefitting. Why is that?”
Hmm, let me think…
Oh! I know! Could it be bullshit & a whole heap of wishful thinking? Doesn’t polling shape opinion.
** at least I come up with some suggestions/alternatives. the SNP is**
LMAO! Someone must have borrowed yer account. You’ve whined for over a year yer bored. That’s been the grand total of yer input. You’ve only recently strung two sentences together that doesn’t involve Ruby, Alf or myself.
TURABDIN @ 2:53 pm
“Had the SNP benches been empty” then the UK parliament could no longer lawfully legislate for Scotland.
So yes, it is SNP MP’s sitting in Westminster who keep the colonial racket going:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Ruby
**Got any good campaign slogans.**
Aye..The wee Ned’s Fae Still Game.. *naw ye urny*
wank, wank, c*nt… prrrrick, nane of that shower o shite..
Stu has a large following on X. It’d be interesting to see the results of a free poll.
Trouble with abstaining is I don’t think MPs get paid. A sure fire way to sort the wheat from the chaff tho..
I just wish Salmond and Alba would come out and declare they will adopt Sinn Fein’s policy of abstentionism. The craven SNP will say it’s a meaningless gesture because Alba has no chance [at the moment] of winning a seat in Westminster but it would definitely put pressure on gutlessh wonders like Yousaf and Flynn to follow suit.
Going back to Stu’s article:
** The SNP could win every seat in Scotland AND 50 in England and still be a total irrelevance to Starmer.**
That’s because when the eejits go there they swear an oath before they can park their arse on green leather. They’re immediately swearing an oath to a foreign king & to be protectors of his realm.
Any upstarts will be ignored permanently.
BTW Sinn Fein MPs do not receive a salary but they still receive expenses for parliamentary business – presumably when they help individual constituents to represent their cases in Westminster. How much I dinnae Ken. Sinn Fein, like all opposition parties, also receives expenses but whether it is at the standard Short Money rates as others again I dinnae ken.
I think pro independence folk in Scotland would be more likely to donate to a party that took Sinn Fein’s stance.
Did we ever find out how many ‘Believers in Biology’ there were in Scotland?
“Alexi Navalny finally murdered by the Russian state.
They were so afraid of this man they just had to kill him.”
I doubt the leader of the RF had this CIA stooge killed especially with the RF leaders stock riding high after the candid interview with Tucker Carlson.
The hypocrisy of the west is staggering, Assange has been held in a high security prison (Belmarsh) for five years without charge, and in four days time he’ll come up against another establishment judge (Lady Sharp) that will sign-off on his extradition to the States where he will be tortured then killed, his crime? exposing western war crimes, basically telling the truth.
Yesterday Rome made Assange an honorary citizen.
link to declassifieduk.org
I think our biggest mistake has been to insist in seeing the SNP under the political fraud and her continuity candidate as a different entity from labour and the tories. They are not. They are the exact same thing and with the exact same purpose: to preserve the union, the monarchy and the pillage of Scotland’s assets at all costs.
Because what is really there differentiating the tories from the other two brands? That they do not support self-id
What differentiates the SNP from labour? The seemingly support of Humza’s SNP for Palestine in opposition to the blind support for Israel by Starmer’s labour.
This is mere political posturing, political positioning to force some artificial differentiation into three products that are now so, so close to each other, that unless you have them standing next to each other and side by side you would not know which one is which.
Both, the Israel/Palestine and the trans/self-id bollocks are global matters that have nothing to do with our actual domestic policy of governing Scotland. They are deliberate distractors. Artificial differentiators to make three identical products look slightly different from each other and create the illusion of choice.
But the reality is that the Scottish people have been denied of a choice since 2015. What we are being presented with is the illusion of choice, not a real one.
If there is no choice, then there is no democracy.
That these “parties” have to hide themselves behind international matters to look vaguely different, tells us they know they are conscious they have nothing different to offer in in terms of domestic policy. They are trying to take us for a ride.
It stands to the obvious that those in control of the SNP have no interest whatsoever in winning. They want Labour to win and they have wanted this for a while, and that is why they are behaving like complete and utter clowns working every day to make the party unelectable and a laughing stock.
Sturgeon resigned (or was asked to resign) because she completed the job she was tasked with, which was to rein in the yes movement and keep it on a leash at what has been the most critical and dangerous point the union has been through in 300 years of history.
Now that the political fraud and her brigade of useless paper tigers have left the yes movement in disarray and with no credible political vehicle to deliver independence, they will simply obediently retreat like good useful idiots, pass the baton to labour and, voila, the useless English bipartite political system resumes in Scotland.
What is scandalous is that we still have the corrupt and unscrupulous colonial leaders and their propaganda mouthpieces singing victory when the turnouts are now so embarrassingly low that to even dare call elections in Scotland democratic, never mind representative, is simply laughable.
Unless a political party who campaigns on an abstentionist platform of not sending MPs to the Westminster cesspit, and they have in their manifesto revoking of the treaty of union is available, spoiling the ballot is the only way of creating a choice.
Sending MPs to the Westminster cesspit only serves to legitimise the continuity of this rotten to the core undemocratic system, to prolong the same toxic denial of democratic choice for Scotland, to prolong the continuous gagging of Scotland and the legitimisation of the continuous abuse and pillaging of Scotland.
At some point we are going to have to refuse to continue playing this losers’ game of casting, over and over again, a useless vote that takes out nowhere and changes nothing because this flawed system is designed precisely to move nothing, to change nothing and to ensure the rot remains permanently in the system.
An election is only democratic if it offers a choice. Having only pro-union parties and parties that seek to preserve the pillaging of Scotland and the denial of its constitutional and democratic rights is not a choice.
The useless SNP paper tigers have demonstrated to us for 10 never-ending years that sending MPs to Westminster is a complete waste of our time, energy and votes.
Either we vote for an abstentionist party or we spoiling the ballot. Those are the only two ways we can force choice at the ballot box and have our voices heard.
Mia – please stop giving Sturgeon an excuse for the way she behaved – she was/is no agent for anyone else other than her own self interest.
And the really sad thing is none of the political parties in Scotland have a USP.. A unique selling proposition. I can’t tell you the difference between Scottish Labour and the SNP. I can’t tell you the difference between the Scottish Conservatives and the failed UK Government. Who do I vote for in the GE if Alba don’t stand in my constituency? I have a USP for Alba but it’s half time back to the fitba.
“A strong voice”, “A STRONG VOICE”??
What’s that all about? More SNP BS, methinks.
Why don’t they try and be honest for a change? Let’s have a more honest message. Something like:
“Give us your vote, help us to maintain our cushy tax-funded jobs down in London for another four years, and we will go through the motions of fighting for Scottish independence!”
“BTW, would anyone like to buy London Bridge?”
No ALBA candidate?
Write END THE UNION across the ballot paper.
Jason Smoothpiece
He was a racist, corrupt ("Tractor" - Ed) & a war criminal. If he was bumped off it was by his handlers who wouldn’t want him blabbing their methods in a book, a tv show, a film & a documentary….Zzz
Pity we don’t have that option in Scotland. LOL
He was no threat to anyone but America if he blabbed. They don’t like loose ends. Bin Laden & Saddam had a fair trial eh? Those great bastions of all that is good & proper.
In Westminster war criminals are allowed to still give government advice & be trotted out on the telly to interfere at election time.
Humza and Anas, or “Two Cheeks”, as they like to be known on their joint Facebook account.
Whit a choice! Makes ye proud tae be Scottish disn’t it aye.
@ Jason Smoothpiece
Interesting, how the usual suspects are going into overdrive about your post on Navalny – with deliciously stupid, trollfactory-grade arguments. As for P’s interview, Hitler was similarly “candid” about his reasons for Anschluss of Austria and annexation of Sudetenlands.
The SNP haven’t came up with a new line since 2014.
Make Scotland’s voice heard. Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands.
I swallowed that line up for a long time. Never again.
Death to the SNP.
George Ferguson: “Who do I vote for in the GE”
You vote for whoever is most likely to beat the SNP. And you should do that with enthusiasm, no matter who it is. Abstaining plays right into their (the SNP’s) hands.
One other thing… I’ve heard a lot of people in Scotland going around talking about how they have nobody to vote for. Before say 2007, that was always the case. We are right back to where we were before Salmond came along — the only difference is we didn’t know it before.
Republicofscotland
Ignored says:
16 February, 2024 at 7:51 pm
“Alexi Navalny finally murdered by the Russian state….
…The hypocrisy of the west is staggering…
Not just Assange. I heard Biden’s outrage a Navalny’s death, yet US citizen Gonzalo Lira’s torture and death in Yookranian custody, as he foretold when arrested, is swept under the carpet. Lira criticised the “wrong” side, and doubled down on his “crime” by being right about every word he wrote.
Hypocrisy somehow seems too small a word for these eye watering double standards, and there seems no end in sight to the West’s sepsis-like infection of dishonesty and misrepresentation.
We are watching the flesh of western society fester and rot on the bone, like a gangrene which will ultimately destroy everything. Whether it’s the decades of febrile dishonesty in the Middle East or the despicable charlatans masquerading as champions of Scottish Independence, they lie to our face without a microgram of shame, and utterly demean the integrity of their office. I cannot adequately convey how much these t(reacherous) bastards disgust me.
The word bastard is entirely apt, because there is no legitimacy whatsoever in standing for election on a Scottish Independence ticket, only to then turn your back on Scotland’s cynical exploitation and sell our nation down the river. May they burn in hell for this nauseating betrayal.
Whether incompetent aresholes devoid of conscience or principle, or bought and paid for subversive agents of an enemy state, the distinction is purely academic for the one is as much an enemy of Scotland as the other.
The only vote these tossers will get from me is “guilty”, as I sit as juror in their trial for t(reason).
“Not just Assange. I heard Biden’s outrage a Navalny’s death”
Breeks.
Navalny was a minor irritant to the RF leader, if he had wanted Navalny dead he would have been killed ages ago and not allowed to head to Germany. Navalny was used by Washington, Westminster and Brussels to ramp up the Cold War against the RF to an even higher level.
Navalny was more famous, or should I say infamous, in the west than he was back home.
By Craig Murray.
link to wikispooks.com
Everyone seems to be assuming a landslide Labour victory . I am not so sure . The GE is probably going to be late in the year and the scheming Tories (1922 rulers) Will undoubtedly be plotting the “ way forward” over the forthcoming months . If the hapless Sunak ( just the latest media front man for the Tory establishment cabal ) remains circa 20 points behind 3 months out then quite possibly he will be ditched and a “ new media friendly hero “ will be installed ( how about say Farage ?) . Immediately the Tory controlled right wing media will spring right behind the “ new messiah “ and of course the people will be promised the “ mythical future prosperity” under the ‘new hero’ government. The English middle classes will probably gobble the “ jam tomorrow “ dangled carrot ( as usual ) and Scotland will be irrelevant as under London Tory ( or the London Labour 2nd eleven “ democratic choice” , as of course we will always be “ better together” ( what a joke!).
As usual , our “ Scottish” MP’s will accept their 30 pieces of silver plus expenses of course for the next very generously pensionable 5 years .
If there is no abstention it’s candidates ( Alba maybe ?) then I might just stay at home rather than participate in the next “ democratic” farce .
“You vote for whoever is most likely to beat the SNP”
I completely disagree. I think that is narrow-sighted.
The SNP has now become a mere distraction clown. So let’s not be distracted.
From Scotland’s perspective, the SNP is in the exact same side as Labour, the tories or the libdems. The four of them are just the acting political arms of the crown, whose main interest continues to be the preservation of this political union.
Forget about political games and keep your focus. You should vote for whoever/whatever is most likely to help deliver what you want.
If what you are pursuing is the end of this political union (in my opinion the only realistic way to achieve Scotland’s independence), then casting a vote for the SNP, labour, tories or libdems will be a complete waste of your time. It will only serve to endorse unionism even more and to secure the continuation of the Westminster farce, the abuse and silencing of Scotland, and the usurpation of Scotland’s three powers by the crown.
10 years of stasis after having sent three absolute majorities of anti-union MPs to Westminster, have, at the very least, served to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that, if what you want is Scotland’s independence, sending MPs to Westminster is not and will never be the route to achieve it. It is in fact a complete waste of time and votes.
If you want independence, you have to stop MPs being sent to that parliament so you force it to stop claiming it represents or acts on behalf of Scotland.
This means that, if you want independence, you need to find the vehicle in your constituency that will help you stop sending Mps to Westminster. That will be either a political party campaigning on an abstentionist platform (like ISP), or directly spoiling your ballot, stating exactly what you want, so your ballot cannot be used to endorse the union or to endorse some form of decaffeinated “secession” which ensures this political union remains intact.
I hope I am mistaken, but I do not think, at least at this moment in time, Alba is campaigning on an abstentionist ticket. I know Alba desperately wants Scotland’s independence, but I have to admit that, at this point, I am not quite sure what kind of route they are pursuing.
If that route consists in continuing to prolong the validity of the treaty by sending MPs to Westminster to continue its legitimisation as the “union parliament”, then I will be sceptical about the potential for success for such route. This is because, as soon as MPs swear allegiance to the English crown, they do no longer act in the interests of Scotland.
Let’s be clear: voting Labour, Tories or libdems to ensure the SNP is gone is not going to bring independence. It is going to push it even further away. So let’s not lose our focus. You bring independence forward by voting for none of those.
If you want independence, the first thing you have to stop is Scotland’s MPs (and MSPs for that matter) swearing allegiance to a foreign king and crown. Due to the current stipulations, this means they cannot join Westminster at all.
Staying at home and not casting a vote will not help either. That will be a lost opportunity to express exactly what you want. Disenfranchisement is what the establishment (and by the look of it the SNP) are currently pursuing to hide support for independence. Don’t fall for it. Make your vote count for what you want. If you don’t find a political party that aligns with what you seek, then spoil your ballot and cast it.
The suggestion made by Peter Bell “#EndTheUnion” is very tempting. However I prefer more precision: “Terminate The Treaty Of Union 1706”
Mia said;
“If that route consists in continuing to prolong the validity of the treaty by sending MPs to Westminster to continue its legitimisation as the “union parliament”, then I will be sceptical about the potential for success for such route. This is because, as soon as MPs swear allegiance to the English crown, they do no longer act in the interests of Scotland.”
Making Scotland’s MPs swear that oath is an unwarranted imposition that denies the very sovereignty of the people and kingdom they formally represent.
England’s monarch is not entitled to any authority over Scotland, and neither are England’s MPs. Even Scotland’s monarch was subject to the sovereignty of the Scots. And the monarch of the UK cannot have inherited any powers beyond those of its predecessors in their respective territories.
The authority that the Union parliament exerts over Scotland derives exclusively from Scotland’s MPs, as they are literally the physical delegation of Scotland’s governance authority.
Thus if all or a majority of Scotland’s MPs leave their seats, Westminster’s delegated authority over Scotland will leave with them. And it is for precisely the same reason that England’s MPs have zero authority over Scotland, since no such power was ever delegated to them from Scotland at any time ever*. It also means that England’s MPs have no right to ‘outvote’ Scotland’s MPs, since Scotland’s MPs obviously can’t be obliged to submit to majority decisions of the MPs of a completely different foreign country**. Being in the same chamber doesn’t change that relationship.
* It makes no sense whatsoever to suppose that the Scottish Principal of the Treaty actually and formally granted England’s MPs any authority to govern Scotland at all, never mind giving them enough authority to go over the heads of Scotland’s own MPs, and there is not the slightest evidence that Scotland ever did any such thing.
** The two kingdoms negotiating the Treaty were and still are sovereign equals***, and neither has any formal authority over the other.
*** Hell, I even got ‘A Scot Abroad’ to concede eventually that Scotland’s sovereignty was equal to England’s in 1707, and a little later that Scotland’s constitution was ‘not legally defunct’ as he put it.
“England’s monarch is not entitled to any authority over Scotland, and neither are England’s MPs”
True. Yet, they are exercising that authority because our useless MPs and MSPs are letting them.
The English crown is being allowed by our MPs and MSPs to successfully usurp, on demand, the people of Scotland’s control of both the executive and the legislative powers. And yet, our MPs and MSPs have done SFA to stop it.
A beautiful example of this was the way the unelected lord advocate handed temporarily to the crown the control of Scotland’s executive power by blocking the entry of the referendum bill into HOlyrood to be debated. If handing to the crown control of the executive power was not enough, the same unelected lord advocate proceeded to piss over democracy by handing to the English crown,this time represented by an English court and English judges, control over Scotland’s legislative body.
Meanwhile, Scotland’s MPs and MSPs, instead of doing something about it, proceeded to whine a little bit and sit over their hands to let it happen.
If those who call themselves Scotland’s MPs and MSPs were really representing Scotland rather than the interests of the crown, they would have immediately passed an act to terminate the Scotland Act and with it the subjugation of Scotland’s parliament to England MPs and the crown. Instead, they chose to let the absolute rule over Scotland continue because it suits their career prospects.
Another example of the usurpation by the crown of Scotland’s control of the legislative power was the disgracefully undemocratic intervention of the unelected lord advocate, when he sided with the UK government to block the keatings’ case.
And in yet another example of how the crown has usurped control of Scotland’s legislative body, we had the unelected Lord Advocate and the unelected Crown agent forcefully gagging witnesses and tying the hands of the committee behind the back under threat of prosecution during the Holyrood enquiry. That was truly disgraceful.
It seems the usurpation on demand by the crown of the control over Scotland’s executive and legislative power is happening increasingly frequently. So much so that is being normalised. The violation of the Claim of Right is being normalised.
Yet, our hopeless MPs and MSPs continue to look the other way, sit over their hands and even disgracefully renege on Scotland’s popular sovereignty so they can justify their inaction. Such is their investment in this union that they rather see their country degraded, gagged, pillaged and subjected to absolute rule than getting up their fat, corrupt arses and do something to stop it.
None of this would have ever happened should Scotland had a real democracy instead of a charade where Scotland is represented by useful idiots of the crown.
Wouldn’t vote for him in a million years but Anas Sarwar is actually very good as an MSP in my exeperience. As everyone knows, there are limitations to what they can do but he responds within hours and his office manager (I think) is pretty good too. Always helped me as much as they can. I wouldn’t trust Ann Mclaughlin (I know she’s an MP) with a toothbrush to fight my corner.
Makes me feel a bit weird saying that. I’d rather have him than that charlatan Starmer any day. But the fact he’s under the thumb says it all.