This really is grim, folks. Remember the days when there had to be overflow rooms for the leader’s speech at the SNP conference, in venues holding thousands? Now they can’t come close to filling 750 seats in a 2000-seat arena.
The reception afforded to Sturgeon yesterday, who left the party in the pile of wreckage that the hapless Yousaf is still trying to stumble through, was a symptom of desperate people clinging forlornly to the shadow of better times, like an abandoned dog seeking the last bits of warmth and scent from its owner’s chair.
But those days are gone, never to return. This is the barren, foreboding autumn of the SNP, the cold ground thickly carpeted in the lifeless, crumbling and silent remains of lost members fallen from branches.
We thought this was overdue an update. It’s got about 16 new front pages on it, one whole new row and a handful of newly-rediscovered replacements. It really is worth taking a few minutes to peruse it properly (click on the pic to enlarge it) to get the full effect of eight wasted years of deja vu disappointment.
It’s not even The National’s fault. They’re a business, they’re simply trying to sell a few papers to a diminishing audience of endlessly gullible eejits. The real fault lies with the halfwitted SNP members who just keep on doggedly failing to learn a single lesson, and repeatedly vote to carry on doing what they know doesn’t work and never will.
As alert readers will have noticed, Wings has been perusing the SNP’s Governance And Transparency Review over the last couple of days, a document which tentatively attempts to discern just how big a mess the party’s previous leadership has left it in.
The paper has now also reached the mainstream media.
Wings already touched on that particular aspect of the party’s mismanagement back in August, but in the light of the report now formally acknowledging the problem it’s worth taking a moment to establish just how astonishingly bad it is.
The writing, we mean. Because it’s not until you see it baldly written down in black and white that it really hits you how insane it is.
The SNP has 44 MPs now, and has not managed to enter independence negotiations.
Winning 29 seats would represent a LOSS of 15, or more than a third.
And they’re about to stand up in front of voters and insist that that would somehow compel the UK government to hand over what they’ve been flatly refusing since 2016.
(It’s all pretty academic anyway, obv, as we’ll be amazed if they get double figures.)
The very last shred of credibility has left the building, readers.
Labour won far more handsomely in last night’s by-election than anyone – and we very strongly suspect that includes themselves – expected. If the swing of over 20% was to be repeated nationwide next year (which it won’t be, but we’ll get to that in a minute), the SNP would be reduced to six or seven seats, as Wings has predicted for a while.
From the abject pit of despair of 2015, when Labour lost 40 of its 41 MPs in Scotland, let’s look at how the party has powered back to recapture the hearts of voters.
Humza Yousaf didn’t turn up to the count tonight. In the end, even on a dreadfully low turnout of 37%, Labour won by 9,446 votes, with more than twice as many as the SNP.
It was a much worse defeat for the governing party than most expected. There should be only one outcome.
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “Because Alliance are not a threat to the SNP at the levels their support is at at the moment! Nobody…” May 1, 17:23
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “AI Dun @ 4.44 How so? Account for that.. I’d imagine those who vote alliance on the constituency ballot would…” May 1, 17:10
Captain Caveman on Seven Days Too Long: “He’s always come across as an exceedingly bitter, verbose troll to me. Granted, he’s not as bad as “Geri”, YL…” May 1, 17:01
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “Nope – but then of course the status quo would prevail and Scotland would be further and further away from…” May 1, 16:44
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “@CC – do you get the sense that Northcode is moving from charming simpleton to banal troll? I used to…” May 1, 16:43
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “JCD If you can’t bring yourself to vote for Tommy then just sharpie in large letters across the ballot “end…” May 1, 16:25
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “AI Dun @ 4.09 They wouldn’t have to hold their nose if they voted for the alliance and similar and…” May 1, 16:20
Captain Caveman on Seven Days Too Long: “Yes, your life must be pretty dull indeed, Northcode. I imagine you must reminisce frequently upon your halcyon days back…” May 1, 16:16
Oneliner on Seven Days Too Long: “We need to find a pejorative for ‘English based unionist’ ‘County Lines’ or just simply ‘Colonial’” May 1, 16:13
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “Yes and that’s perfectly sensible YL, but the Alliance isn’t going to hold the SNP to account when it comes…” May 1, 16:09
JCD on Seven Days Too Long: “Could someone advise me on the most constructive way to spoil a ballot? What I’m looking for is the nearest…” May 1, 16:01
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “Fat Slag Wilma Flintstone @ 3.35 “Maaaaaate”..” May 1, 15:44
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “AI Dun @ 2.30 PS: Sinn Fein I believe take their seats at Stormont (not Westminster). It’s the Unionists now…” May 1, 15:41
Mark Beggan on Seven Days Too Long: “One would have thought the Lady boys and the attempted brain washing of children would have been enough for most…” May 1, 15:40
Alf Baird on Seven Days Too Long: “Colonialism is described as ‘legalized lawlessness’ (Elkins), which raises questions about what may be deemed ‘lawful’ by a dominant power.…” May 1, 15:40
Captain Caveman on Seven Days Too Long: “Aww! Rambo’s triggered *again*… Good grief, you’re such a fragile little twerp aren’t you. Looks like my original remark went…” May 1, 15:35
Northcode on Seven Days Too Long: ““Oh my mistake…” That’s a pretty weak retort… you’re no fun to play with. In fact, none of the current…” May 1, 15:27
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “Fat Slag Wilma Flintstone @ 2.48 Oh I’m perfectly comfortable to be rated as smaller than you Wilma thunderthighs, heck,…” May 1, 15:24
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “AI Dun & 4.02 Somebody has to unambiguously hold the SNPs feet to the fire about actually striving for independence…” May 1, 15:18
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “Oh my mistake, it’s just that all of your posts are so verbose, boring and absurd that it’s hard to…” May 1, 15:11
sarah on Seven Days Too Long: “@ Potace: not ALL the candidates are “an utterly depressing shower”. You’re right about the established parties but there’s independents,…” May 1, 15:09
Northcode on Seven Days Too Long: “Good God! First… far from being tiny and deluded, my mind is vast and crystal clear and far, far beyond…” May 1, 14:54
Captain Caveman on Seven Days Too Long: ““All parties start small, that’s life.” Well, the word on the street is you know all about “being small”, Rambo.…” May 1, 14:48
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “I’m aware YL that all parties start small, but think also how many countless political parties have been started and…” May 1, 14:30
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “AI Dun and Fat Slag Wilma Flintstone All parties start small, that’s life. I believe I made that pretty clear…” May 1, 14:02
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “Your tiny deluded mind cannot possibly think that your life would be in anyway better if a war started with…” May 1, 13:31
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “That is absolutely true Alf, but that’s a different proposition from dispossessing people of property they now already lawfully owned…” May 1, 13:28
Del G on Seven Days Too Long: “As each day passes, Reform UK manage to flush themselves further down the pan. Their % rating in polls is…” May 1, 13:26
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “Sorry fat stinker are you telling me where I am and am not welcome? You don’t have authority over your…” May 1, 13:25
TimePilot on Push The Button: “This is a common misconception. Whilst it may be of interest, you DO NOT need to PROVE anyone’s motivation in…” May 1, 13:16
