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 You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “@James – £1trn in oil extracted over 40 years produces an estimated tax revenue of £4-6bn per year, around 0.5%…” Aug 25, 20:53
Captain Caveman on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Get a Time Machine or a job, Fatso, preferably both. A shower would also be in order.” Aug 25, 20:09
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “It’s certainly near worthless when the current Scottish government at HR, the SNP and Green administration, has committed Scotland to…” Aug 25, 20:09
Aidan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “None of those studies suggest that the overall mortality rate increased between 2010 and 2019, or up to 2025 (we…” Aug 25, 20:02
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
