Panic attacks
Any time you’re not sure whether something that happens in Scottish politics is good or bad for the cause of independence, here’s a top tip for you: see how the enemies of independence feel about it.
“Running scared” would seem to be a fair, if understated, summary.
But you know that you’ve properly put the frighteners on people when they start telling really big lies the day after the event.
There’s no uniform definition for the term, but the lowest possible figure we’ve ever seen given for “supermajority” is 67%, and that’s what the Scottish Parliament uses.
In Holyrood that means 87 votes. So what percentage of votes would the SNP need to achieve a supermajority by itself, as Angus Robertson today claims is possible?
We’ll give them the best possible chance (and keep the arithmetic as simple as we can) by assuming they were to somehow win every single one of the 73 constituency seats, even though there’s zero chance of that happening – the best they’ve ever actually done is 59 in 2016.
That would mean they needed another 14 seats from the regional lists to get their supermajority, plus a couple more for luck since such a Parliament would almost certainly lose one SNP MSP to the role of Presiding Officer – to keep it tidy call it 16, or two per region.
So let’s take a look at a couple of regions and see how that would work in practice.
The SNP’s strongest region historically is North East Scotland.
But despite securing 45% of the list vote there in 2016 they got no seats, because they won 9 of the 10 constituencies in the region, meaning their list vote was effectively divided by 10.
The seven list seats were allocated on these votes:
SEAT 1: Conservative (42,924 votes)
SEAT 2: Labour (38,791 votes)
SEAT 3: Conservative (28,616 votes)
SEAT 4: Conservative (21,462 votes)
SEAT 5: Labour (19,396 votes)
SEAT 6: Lib Dem (18,444 votes)
SEAT 7: Conservative (17,169 votes)
But in our theoretical 2021 example the SNP have taken all the constituency seats, so the Tory vote doesn’t get halved at the start, they get an extra seat at the top of the rankings and the “cheapest” list seat is the Lib Dems’ one at 18,444 votes.
So to beat that and take ONE seat, the SNP list vote would have had to be (18,445 x 11 = ) 202,895. That’s almost 50% more than their actual vote was, and a colossal 66% of the total votes cast on the NE list (307,006).
But one seat per region isn’t enough for the SNP, remember – they need two per region to get their supermajority, so they also need to beat the Seat 5 total above. The required number of votes is now 213,367 – a ludicrous 69.5% of the list vote, or a 56% increase on the SNP’s 2016 total.
We’re going to let you in on a secret here, readers – Angus Robertson does not really believe the SNP can get 70% of the list vote in North East Scotland. The last time he himself stood in the region, in the 2017 UK election, he got less than 39%.
What about somewhere the SNP already have all the constituencies AND have a huge list vote? Step up, Central Scotland.
Nice simple 2016 arithmetic here:
SEAT 1: Labour (67,103)
SEAT 2: Conservative (43,602)
SEAT 3: Labour (33,552)
SEAT 4: Labour (22,368)
SEAT 5: Conservative (21,801)
SEAT 6: Labour (16,776)
SEAT 7: Conservative (14,534)
To get two seats there the SNP would need 167,700 votes – a relatively modest, but still colossally improbable, 30% increase on their 2016 vote, up to a 62% total share.
Just for fun let’s also check the other end of the scale – South Scotland, where the SNP actually got three list MSPs in 2016.
How well would they have to do to hold onto two of them if they’d somehow swept the board in the constituency elections? Here’s how the seats were allocated last time:
SEAT 1: Labour (28,036)
SEAT 2: SNP (24,043)
SEAT 3: Conservative (20,151)
SEAT 4: SNP (20,036)
SEAT 5: Labour (18,691)
SEAT 6: SNP (17,174)
SEAT 7: Conservative (16,792)
But in our fantasy 2021 result the SNP are taking all nine constituencies, so their vote of 120,217 gets divided by 10 to 12,021 and the allocation would change to this:
SEAT 1: Conservative (100,753)
SEAT 2: Labour (56,072)
SEAT 3: Conservative (50,377)
SEAT 4: Conservative (33,584)
SEAT 5: Labour (28,036)
SEAT 6: Conservative (25,188)
SEAT 7: Conservative (20,151)
That means to get the two list seats they’d need, the SNP list vote would have to rise to a dizzying 251,890 – well over TWICE what they got in 2016 and an absurd 80.1% of the total list vote of 314,192.
So if you glazed over at all the numbers and just skipped to the end for the conclusion, it’s this: Angus Robertson is trying to tell you today that it’s a credible and achievable goal for the SNP to get over 80% of the list vote in South Scotland.
And folks, we hope it’s not too big a spoiler to say that that just ain’t gonna happen.
If you’re still not sure that “both votes SNP can get a supermajority” is an insult to your intelligence after that, then you’re truly beyond the reach of reason.
Typical Guardian – those bastards have always had an inverted snobbery towards Scotland as “noble savages”. The late and unlamented Edward Pearce in particular would go on and on about how unfit we were to run our own affairs and simply didn’t understand what was best for us.
It’s always been the rag for smug, patronising Middle England liberal-fascists who go on about the “legacy of slavery” whilst having no problems with having au pairs at home and a conveyor belt of interns at work.
Just fantastic. Been needing this for a long time!
Angus Robertson is a slavering oaf. He wasn’t talking about a ‘super-majority’. He was talking about a ‘super-mandate’. Which is actually of more benefit to the independence cause. But only if the SNP adopts the #ManifestoForIndependence.
Snp 1 and Alba 2 is only way to supermajority for Independence. But the SNP/Nicola fan club font see it or believe it.
They don’t like it up’em Captain Mainwaring, they don’t like it up’em!
Alba has its first MP – Kenny MacAskill who will be standing on the Lothian list.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Unfortunately, there are many in the “Nicola has a clever plan” brigade who certainly are in the “ beyond the reach of reason” bracket
Angus Robertson can fuck off.
I’m seeing today a softening on Twitter from the SNP1&2 brigade… the reality *is* beginning to sink in…
Particularly since Alba made the strategically *brilliant* move to support SNP in the constituency vote.
The mathematics are plain for a pro-indy supermajority.
SNP1 Alba2 – thats it in a nutshell.
Hold yer nose, boke while voting, cross your fingers, but thats the vote pattern that will give indy a REAL super-majority.
Don’t vote for people who take you for fools.
I definitely think the SNP are more spooked by Eck’s come back than the Unionists.
He’s got them shitting themselves, mistakes will be made within the SNP ranks.
The biggest will probably be if they ignore the sage advice of this post – but, at the top, they are too arrogant to tak tent.
17,000 votes for Alba in the West of Scotland is all it takes to rid us of the scourge of Ross Greer. Vote wisely, folks.
I’m still quite surprised that your ordinary punter doesn’t quite get this, seeing as the voting system hasn’t changed in years.
When I see politicians like Robertson coming out with the both votes stuff. I can’t help but think, “your blatantly lying to people”.
Douglas Ross should write to Nicola Sturgeon to see how they can work together.
SNP politician being dishonest? Surely not…
I’m so glad Alex has started something new. I can finally at least vote on the list, even if there is nobody I can give my constituency vote to at this time.
The people most rattled on my Twitter feed are the pro-Indy folk wedded to the idea of the GRA. About time.
I think the Proclaimers say it best about how I feel today
“I’m on my way from misery to happiness today
I’m on my way from misery to happiness today
I’m on my way to what I want from this world ……”
Ian Blackford’s statement re Kenny M is absolutely potty. Surely a dignified Olympian response would have been preferable. It makes him sound unhinged.
Can we please stop it with the ‘you can’t game the d’Hondt system’ arguments?
Of course you can. Murdo did it. Annie did it. Patrick did it. Ross did it. Kezia did it. Ruth (in her Glasgow period) did it. Douglas intends to do it.
The system was adopted to try to prevent the Scottish Parliament having anything other than coalition governments, which couldn’t pass any radical legislation.
It’s Westminster’s game, with their rules. Let’s play it and beat them.
By this reckoning Robertson would be as well telling us to vote Tory. While I’m at it why have the SNP in Westminster become such ” low flyinf Jimmies” always voting for Government policies or abstaining allowing the Government to implement more State Oppression?
Guardian smuggery is so very Lib Dem, dahling
Can’t help feeling that this might split the vote, especially if the reds and blues are organised. Might not half the independence voters sticking Alba first and SNP second – for example – and the other half putting the SNP first and ALba second, no fuck things up? And then you add in the green vote!
“Might not half the independence voters sticking Alba first and SNP second – for example – and the other half putting the SNP first and ALba second, no fuck things up”
No, because Alba aren’t standing for constituency seats.
What do l know, but in response to Ross asking other unionist parties how they can work together, should Sturgeon ask other Indy parties how THEY can work together? Rather than rubbishing the newly formed Indy parties – you would think SNP is feart of competition.
Blackford is a certifiable buffoon. True by All.
Ellie. The SNP seem frightened they might win and be forced to face or neglect their responsibilities.
The nastiness in the Graun editorial really shows the panic in the unionist ranks. Expect them to wheel out big Gordy Broon tomorrow.
I’ve had a few on my Twitter feed also beginning to change when presented with the evidence AND a credible alternative. Also pleased to report that some are realising that they don’t have to vote for the Greens as well, which I suspect will excite as many people as it does me!
The sooner the Robertson family depart Scottish politics the better the country will be.
If the wheel out Gordie Broon, fir a Broontervention – it will be the first time the WGD will have to write a favourable article about it.
That’s how far down the rabbit hole he’s travelled.
To all SNP Onanists. I hope you’ve decided to change your lives by heeding my advice to give up pornography and by implication masturbation. Such activities take up too much of an SNP staffers time that I feel the cause of Indepence is better served if the SNP actually DO something to make it reality. So remember keep yir hauns aff it. You know it makes sense.
@Limey (12.45) –
‘17,000 votes for Alba in the West of Scotland is all it takes to rid us of the scourge of Ross Greer.’
That’s a belter.
You’d have to imagine Alba will get that in Glasgow alone.
How low can the SNP go? Now they are actively trying to lie to the Scottish voters about how the electoral system works, and try to game it to stop a party who are in favour of independence, and actually have a plan. More gerrymandering and dishonesty, just to keep their comfy lifestyles.
Alex is completely right, the system is set up exactly to benefit smaller parties and improve on the unrepresentative FTTP, and is using that to boost the independence vote, while also generating the badly needed opposition to the SNP which has been entirely absent. For that he deserves credit, whatever you think of him, since Alba will thrive on the input of many people. It is not, unlike the current SNP, a one person autocracy.
It has come to this. They do not want the voters to understand the voting system, and are urging them to vote under the false pretences of an SNP ‘supermajority’. Whatever happened to principles and, you know, the objective of independence? The SNP have never owned independence, but their presumptuousness that they alone do, is nauseating.
It’s being reported in Glasgow Herald, Kenny MacAskill, has joined ALBA!
By sitting on its hands after 2014, the SNPG has allowed us to be railroaded. It was obvious that another S3- referendum – or any referendum – was a non-starter in terms of getting one and then, in terms of winning it – that it is difficult to see any other reasoning than that any prospect of independence was deliberately sidelined in favour of colonial co-operation.
What were the SNPG advisers and strategists doing? It was also obvious that no country in the history of the universe ever got independence by co-operating willingly with the oppressive and hostile regime south of the border, so why insist on a S30 Order that they were never going to get? The only credible answer is that independence was no longer a priority, that what rUK NO voters (who actually held the balance in Scotland in 2014, although you’d never have known it from the propaganda) was all that mattered and that Scottish YES voters, by far the biggest demographic majority, were to be silenced and handcuffed.
That wasn’t decided in 2016, after the Brexit vote, where, again, rUK voters held the balance, but immediately after 2014, so that independence was always off the agenda, even in relation to Brexit. Had we gained every single seat in Scotland and most of the List seats (I know, not possible) under the SNPG at any time between 2014 and 2021, there would still have been no push for independence.
This election is probably our last chance to bring us independence even if not immediately – this side of the millennium because absorption is the aim of Westminster, not continuing devolution, unless, of course, we are utterly compliant, and, probably not even then. Instead of trying to ‘persuade’ the ‘unpersuadable’, we should be concentrating on those who actually will vote for independence.
However, having said that, it is time that potential NO voters, Scottish Unionists, English Nationalists et al, were given a short, sharp shock in reality: trying to stymie a country’s march to its own self-determination is illegal under international law, the same international agreements to which the UKG is a signatory. Colonialism is not a good look in the 21st century, and it will be storing up trouble for the future. This is probably the last chance saloon for a negotiated, peaceful withdrawal from the UK.
We ought to be in contact with the UN and any other international agencies prior to this election to ensure fairness, but also to drive home the message to those who, for their own selfish reasons, want to prevent Scotland from regaining its independence, that it is not on. Those who cannot bring themselves to vote for an independent Scotland always have the option to abstain. Those whose futures are here can all come aboard before it is too late. Everyone needs to use his or her noodle now and work out, constituency by constituency, how to vote, on the day, to achieve that supermajority.
At last.
People who keep going on about “both votes SNP” clearly do not understand how the system used in Scottish elections works. Every opinion poll published for the last year or so has predicted a majority of first-past-the-post seats for the SNP. This means that the SNP will not be entitled to a single “top-up” seat from the lists, and so a vote for SNP on the list will be a WASTED vote. A list vote for the ALBA Party, on the other hand, holds the strong prospect of providing independence-supporting parties in Holyrood with a “supermajority”, and bringing independence much closer.
Corrie Wilson MP for Ayr and Cumnick has joined. She’s standing on the list.
Superb.
We now need some on the SNP Constituency ticket to ask themselves – what will Nicla do now, in order to spike an Indy supermajority?
Hmm? I’ll tell you. She will scorch earth all and any chances of the SNP Constituencies winning those seats.
You have until Wed 31/3/21 to jump or get humped. After that you won’t be able to change trains for this election.
Wings—-this article should be compulsory reading for all journalists and broadcasters preparing their pieces for tomorrow’s papers including the BBC in Scotland.
@limey says: 27 March, 2021 at 12:45 pm
“17,000 votes for Alba in the West of Scotland is all it takes to rid us of the scourge of Ross Greer. Vote wisely, folks.”
If enough people vote ALBA, it will also mean kissing goodbye to a raft of Tories, Labour and Lib Dems who would also otherwise have won seats.
Here’s the irony: there’s a lot of Tories about who will vote for Salmond’s new party simply because they see him as the only way of stopping the madness of the Gender Recognition Act “reforms” (ie. self-indulgences).
A tactically voting Tory is a terrible thing to behold to a professional politician, for unlike Labour’s tortoises slow to move, they do so swiftly and without warning or mercy. That most by-election shocks down the years have been with the Tory candidate as victim or the local blue rinse and doilies brigade massively swinging their vote to an SNP/LibDem better poised to dispose of a Labourite has long been documented.
As May approaches, as they see a hapless party who have promised to vote for Sturgeon’s hated reforms anyway to please Orange Ruth – now safely living the life of Riley retired in the Lords at the grand old age of 42 – the old mantra of “politicians are meant to be our servants, not our masters” will burn indignantly within them.
If Salmond bites the bullet and puts Tommy Sheridan top of the Glasgow or West of Scotland list, one can almost picture the malevolent glee twinking in the eye of Mrs Suburbian of Spam Valley as she puts her cross in the Alba box this time. Sure, everyone’s heard of Tommy, everyone has an opinion about him, but everyone also knows what “the thinking man’s ned” STANDS for – which is more than can be said for just about every Scottish Tory, LibDem and most of Labour.
In an age where politicians have become so beige, Dulux could name a paint after them, ones with a bit of character and passion are prized jewels. Look at the cult of Rees-Mogg, like or loathe him there’s a reason he has impact, the way the Commons’ legendary “awkward squad” of Benn, Foot and Powell made governments of all colours’ lives uncomfortable and helped perpetuate a little longer the dying myth of a Parliament where the people remained sovereign.
The time is right for Salmond. It is also right for certain others to put the past aside, and like the heroes of all the corniest but best loved Hollywood movies put their differences away to ride out one last time because it’s the right thing to do. Sheridan has done it. Sillars has done it, and history will judge them accordingly.
The question is, who else now will do so to ensure they are not just being on the right side of history, but helping to create it?
Robertson’s talking through a hole in his backside as usual.
Meanwhile.
Ian Blackford doing down Kenny MacAskill already.
“SNP Westminster leader
@Ianblackford_MP
says MacAskill has become an “increasing embarrassment” and his departure is “somewhat of a relief”
He’s calling for a by-election in East Lothian”
link to twitter.com
Champagne Marxists Patrick and Ross face the very real prospect of having a severe dent to the standards of living they’ve become accustomed to but nothing to deserve.
Work together = we’re fucked.
Nice bit of Massie bullshit up there too.
Daisy Walker
Corrie Wilson was the former MP. She was still in SNP though up until today.
Well done Corrie.
Angus Robertson can double fuck off.
A thought. Big numbers of English folk moving to Scotland in the last few years.
No offence to them, but en mass when they vote, they vote from an English nationalist point of view, but call it British.
I’m coming round to the idea of Confirmatory Indy Ref – with a condition being that its open to people who have resided in Scotland a minimum of 5 years – single residency (not holiday home) and full taxes paid here.
Even if that doesn’t come to pass, it might stop the flow of folk moving here for very purpose of keeping Scotchland English.
And before anyone makes misguided comments about racism. It is the height of racism to move to other peoples country and impose your own countries governance upon it, against their wishes, and have your home country sieze that countries assets and do with them what they will. The fact that England does that unchallanged as a matter of course, and they seldom get called out on it, does not stop it being racist.
@Allium
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Got a link?
Ian Blackford may well get his wish of a by-election in Eest Lothian, MacAskill is top of the Lothians list for Alba. 118,000 SNP list votes going spare.
Listening to Radio 4’s any questions, with Fiona Hyslop (My constituency MSP) on the panel for just 2 minutes there. My mind is made up. Does anyone remember the oleaginous Ursula in The Little Mermaid? Well, I just can’t morally vote for that.
Ohhhhh Kenny Queen Minge The Merciless will be displeased.
The way that the launch of the ALBA Party turns everything on its head is just sublime.
Wait for the inquiry, she said.
Ok, lets respect the courts and Inquiries he said.
Let the voters decide, she said.
Ok, let the voters decide, he said.
I love the jibe that Yessers are “gaming the system”.
Aye!!! And???
Dross trying to get Tories, Labour & Libs getting together, whats that then? Its like WGD slagging off bloggers for being attention seeking. Why wouldnt you game the system? Its what the Unionists have been doing for 20 odd years. Its not cheating to vote Indy. The system that was put in place to stymie indy, is now being used to stymie unionism.
Before yesterday I couldnt possibly see myself voting SNP. With ALBA on the scene, suddenly, its imperative we vote SNP1. Doing so now increases the chances of ALBA List MSPs, while forcing the SNP to concentrate on what they blimmin well should have been concentrating on. Voting SNP actually helps AS. And it means AS keeping them 100% honest, or showing them up as the shysters they’ve become. AS asking NS (or hapless successor) whats the latest on indy. Every single week. Beautiful.
The more they bleat, the more danger they’re in. It is as clear as it can be that Alex Salmond is the single biggest threat to the union and its comfy troughers. How he can keep such a straight face and soar above their hysteria with such dignity is simply joyous to behold.
Mure Dickie, writing from Edinburgh (so he’ll know what he’s talking about) in the Financial Times (£4!) this morning, says:
“(the new party) pits Salmond, who quit as leader of the SNP after sexual harassment complaints were made against him, against his former party, now led by Sturgeon.”
My recollection is that Salmond quit after losing the indy referendum, not as a result of harassment allegations. But what do I know, I’m getting on a bit, male, and no fan of Sturgeon, so that probably puts me in the category of ‘old men’ that so many feminists (not all, but many) and so-called progressives sneeringly dismiss as being of no account, and of course (they allege) I’m bound to be a misogynist as well.
Anyway, apologies for my age, misogyny (aye, right!) and memory failure, because if the pink one says in its main front page story that Salmond resigned as SNP leader after harassment complaints, it must be right, mustn’t it?
Frank Gillougley says:
27 March, 2021 at 1:21 pm
Listening to Radio 4’s any questions, with Fiona Hyslop (My constituency MSP) on the panel for just 2 minutes there. My mind is made up. Does anyone remember the oleaginous Ursula in The Little Mermaid? Well, I just can’t morally vote for that.
———-
What did she say Frank? I’d rather not listen to R4
I began to gauge how potentially effective, in terms of achieving independence, anything is by how patronising, condescending and dismissive the Guardian is about it.
At least you know where you stand with the sclerotic and rheumy outrage of the Tory rags. I hold a special loathing for the liberal/metropolitan left, because they claim to be progressive.
Mike Small springs to mind as a case in point.
Spot the loony: Lorna Campbell at 1.08pm.
Joyous and civic, eh?
Daisy Walker says:
27 March, 2021 at 1:19 pm
A thought. Big numbers of English folk moving to Scotland in the last few years.
No offence to them, but en mass when they vote, they vote from an English nationalist point of view, but call it British.
This doesn’t chime with my personal experience, Daisy.
Our local Grassroots group must have be at least one third English members, and they are usually the most enthusiastic and active.
It’s almost as if the Additional Member voting system for Holyrood attempts to have the % votes a party has approximately reflect the number of seats a party wins.
And so to win a supermajority i.e. around 70% of seats, that party would need at least 70% of votes. Who’da thought it? Certainly not mince-for-brains Angus Robertson.
The Albaparty’s focus is on securing Independence can the same be said for the SNP.
Of course the weasel Ian Blackford, whose war cry is Scotland won’t stand for it, also sacked Joanna Cherry from the front bench claiming she wasn’t a team player and that she upset people.
Blackford’s problem with Cherry and now MacAskill, is that they want Scottish independence and he doesn’t.
Anyone with a grasp of simple arithmetic and who values independence over tribalism, should hold their nose and vote for SNP candidate – then Alba on the list vote. Angus Robertson values tribalism and his fat-arsed pension over independence.
robbo 1.25
Nothing but tired cliche after tired cliche talking very patronisingly about voters (cos we be simple folk) and ultimately both votes SNP. She really has to be one of the biggest troughers ever having morphed into that type of west lothian council member of the death star with a hugely high opinion of herself, right up there with ‘where’s my central nervous system’, Evans.
Actually just makes me physically ill.
I wonder how many of the lesser fetishist supporting SNP msps are waking up this morning, sucking on a lemon for breakfast, and wondering if they should jump ship now, or wait until after the election?
A couple of points. We’ve heard a lot from the SNP and the FM recently about ‘what possible motive would we have to stitch up Alex Salmond’. Take a look at their comments last 24 hrs. Can we put that question to bed now.
Secondly, the SNP seem hell bent on outrageous lies to their electorate, and pathetic smears on individuals who have served the party since before a lot of current membership were born. Conspiracy theory time….faced with a very real opportunity of a supermajority the only recourse they have to avoiding this outcome is to offend and lose voters, especially in the constituency vote. All the evidence suggests Sturgeons party really really doesn’t want indyref2 and will pull out all stops to avoid it.
Just a mad thought. Let’s see how the next few weeks will pan out.
We really need to drive-home the importance now of the List vote. I’ve Whatsapped many friends, informing them of Alba Party etc and not one of them – not a one – is aware of how the List vote works, but in defence of their ignorance, neither did I until it was first pushed a year or 18 months ago.
Another quickie; ask yourself how you’d regard a staunch SNP vote on Twitter who tweeted the following; “I don’t agree with Salmond, don’t like MacAskill, but I’ll vote them on the List – for Scotland”?
You’d probably respect, and trust, that person, yes? So it goes for us promoting Alba – we must gain the respect and trust of the ‘Both votes SNP’ crowd. I know it’s difficult as some are utterly dopey (or planted), but a not so dopey might be reading the convo and be influenced by it. In other words – behave yourselves.
Some cultists are in serious it’s ma ba’ an’ ah’m no’ playin’ mode. Actually embarrassing.
Ian Blackford’s rallying cry a vote for the SNP is a vote for Independence and to protect of place in the EU, nearly 6yrs and neither has happened great success and a poor track record of delivering for Scotland the Scots need a second option AlbaParty is it.
Take a look at the Alba FB page, it’s mobbed with SNP trolls operating no doubt on strict orders from the lady herself. But it’s vapid, pathetic “ooooo I never really liked him/ it’s his ego/ he’s old/ he’s bad/ I’d like to slap his face” stuff. Just like what you hear when the troops hit their twelfth slammer on the company’s Christmas night out. Entertaining, but instantly forgettable.
Pixywine says:
27 March, 2021 at 12:58 pm
Blackford is a certifiable buffoon.
Sadly he is what the English see every week and can you wonder that they don’t take the SNP seriously?
At this point, the Sturgionites are either completely ignorant to how the Aditional member system works or would rather a slim chance of just 1 SNP list MSP over 3 or 4 pro-indy list MSPs and as cynical as it sounds the SNPs recent actions don’t make it implausible.
Upwardly mobile faux liberal professionals in Islington can read Libby’s and Severin’s facile Guardian articles about the Scottish election whilst munching their croissants and drinking their decaff.
We don’t care anymore who says what about Scotland. We are focussing on the goal.
@Ian Brotherhood
Glasgow isn’t in the West region but is region its own. However Patrick Harvie got a list seat in Glasgow and he might be feeling a bit worried these days… No announcements of Glasgow candidates as yet. Chris McEleny has been announced as standing for the West and I could see him taking Greer’s place.
Daisy Walker @ 1:19 pm
“I’m coming round to the idea of Confirmatory Indy Ref – with a condition..”
Perhaps a pro-indy supermajority should just pull the plug on the UK union alliance.
However, the UN sanctioned ‘secondary criteria’ used in the New Caledonia referendum does look as though Auld Caledonia unnecessarily lost out in 2014, and may do so again if we ever have to depend on another referendum:
“The (New Caledonia) referendum was held using a special electoral roll. Potential voters had to be registered on the general electoral roll, and also meet one of the secondary criteria:[10]
– Was on the electoral roll for the 1998 referendum on the Nouméa Accord;
– Qualified to be on the electoral roll for the 1998 referendum, but were not enrolled;
– Failed to meet the requirements to be on the 1998 electoral roll solely due to absence related to family, medical or professional reasons;
– Having civil customary status, or born in New Caledonia and have their material interests in the territory;
– At least one parent born in New Caledonia and have their material interests in the territory;
– At least 20 years of continuous residence in New Caledonia by 31 December 2014;
– Born before 1 January 1989 and have had their residence in New Caledonia between 1988 and 1998
– Born after 31 December 1988 and reached voting age before the referendum, with at least one parent who was on the electoral roll (or qualified to do so) for the 1998 referendum.
As a consequence of these restrictions, in the 2018 referendum 35,948 registered voters on the general list were thus excluded from the vote, equating to 17.11% out of a total of 210,105 registered voters on the general electoral roll.[11][12][13] Vote restriction restricts the voting power of recent inhabitants—derogatively known as Zoreilles—and enlarges the voting power of native Kanaks, and was long sought after by FLNKS”
Some SNP candidates are blatantly lying about how the voting system works.
Can the Electoral Commission not do something about this, as they are publicly misrepresenting the actual workings of the electoral system in Scotland?
OMG the SNP are rattled. They’ve taken over the albaparty.scot domain which redirects to SNP website.
link to twitter.com
It is incredible how one man can galvanize the independence movement after years of SNP inaction. SNP 1 Alba 2 for a supermajority. This coming election will, I am sure, be one for the history books. It will also be remembered as one of the nastiest. Bring it on!
Compare and contrast the attention Alex Salmond is now getting from the Bwitish MSM and the total lack of coverage for Sturgeon and her pals.
Tells you everything you need to know about her cosiness with them.
In one day with one move Salmond has totally upended their comfy wee Gravyfest.
There’s Alex Massie worrying about damage to the Independence movement. How thoughtful of him.
Remember Onanists. Abstenance = Usefulness.
Well done Kenny MacAskill. Hopefully others will follow his lead.
Wings—-this article should be compulsory reading for all journalists and broadcasters preparing their pieces for tomorrow’s papers including the BBC in Scotland!
The SNP’s chronic mis-explaining of how the D’Hondt system works and misleading about the true outcome of tactical second party voting is truly Trump-level intellectual dishonesty.
Weird how the concern trolling whinging about “gaming the electoral system” from the likes of Alyn Smith never came up when the second indy party list-voting strategy was only taken seriously by the politically compliant (de facto merged with SNP) Greens.
Proof that it is all about power and jobs for the New SNP.
Alex Massie could do with following my advice against self love.
Nicola Sturgeon has defecated.
Well done Kenny. C’mon Angus and Joanna – you know you want to.
Panda paws. The SNP appear to have sophisticated online spyware. I’m a medieval peasant when it comes to technology but the SNPs computer bods seem almost Militaristic in their tactics. I wonder if 77 is the SNPs lucky number these days.
@Pandapaws
Am enjoying the extent to which the SNP are clearly bricking it.
What’s the Alba Party plan for when a supermajority is achieved and Westminster still says no?
Game on.
And a real chance for a super-majority and a bit of control for the Scottish Parliament. If the signs are right, the tories will set about destroying Scotland’s identity pretty soon. We 100% need grown-ups in the Scottish Parliament… preferably people who like men and women and respect the rule of law.
Mr Salmond, welcome back.
You have been sorely missed. Respect.
Anyone want to bet Angus McNeil might be going to Alba! It would make sense for him.
I keep hearing about an incident at Balmoral Hotel involving Sturgeon where the police had to be called.
Does anyone have any details on this?
“I keep hearing about an incident at Balmoral Hotel involving Sturgeon where the police had to be called.
Does anyone have any details on this?”
I have heard this story from well-placed sources but not accompanied by any evidence and it is widely rumoured – again without evidence – than an injunction is in place over it.
I really don’t know how this sort of thing works. Since I have no actual evidence of an injunction, I don’t see how I could be breaking any sort of law by writing about the supposed story. And if I did, and then had to pull it on the basis of an injunction, that would be as good as advertising the fact that it was true.
Because this is Wings, of course, I won’t be writing about it without evidence. But it’s a very strange situation.
If Patrick Harvie and Ross Greer lose their list seats I might never stop laughing.
I was planning on spoiling my ballot until the news this week. I still can’t give my first vote to the SNP though. Am I allowed to skip the first vote and only vote in the second or would that invalidate the whole ballot paper?
“Am I allowed to skip the first vote and only vote in the second or would that invalidate the whole ballot paper?”
Yes, you can spoil or simply ignore the constituency paper if you want. You are NOT obliged to vote in both, you can vote in either one or both of them.
I’m seeing more and more twitter ads from the SNP that don’t mention independence at all. Is this how they spike Alba’s guns?? It’s certainly one way to stop an indy supermajority.
Elsewhere in the gaslighting Graun, aka Guardian of the Status Quo, Freedland’s written an op-ed “Joe Biden is giving left parties the world over a masterclass in how to use power”.
@ Scots Renewables re English residents voting on Scottish Indy.
I’m happy for you SR that that has been your experience. Genuinely.
What is not in doubt, is this, unlike a Polish or French person, living here and getting to vote on Scottish Indy, an English person voting, is in a unique position – very much a heads they win, tails we lose situation.
If Scotland votes for Indy and that is what they also wish – they get to live in a country with a Government that they help elect, and will finally get a say in how the country manages its assets – which will benefit all who live in Scotland.
If Scotland votes against Indy – they get to live in a country that their country folk elect, and which deliberately asset strips Scotland, and damages Scotland’s economy in order to keep Scotland down trodden and poor – making it a much cheaper (and better looking) option for English people to relocate to – kind of like a great big liebensraum/retirement home plan for the English.
It is lovely that some English people support Scottish Indy – but that does not change it from being a heads they win, tails we lose position if we allow them that say.
When we lose, we lose our country, they will always have England, even if they don’t want to live there anymore.
I read somewhere that the employment ratio of Scots in our Universities is around the 10% level. I can’t recall where I saw that and so cannot confirm. If that is anywhere near true, it is deeply, deeply racist. I will leave you to ascertain what the ratio of English staff in Scottish Unis is. A wee clue, it is very, very high.
JP says:
27 March, 2021 at 2:06 pm
I was planning on spoiling my ballot until the news this week. I still can’t give my first vote to the SNP though. Am I allowed to skip the first vote and only vote in the second or would that invalidate the whole ballot paper?
———–
Two separate voting ballots JP
Stu @ 1.58pm. It just shows the confusion between the voting methods used in the different elections. After all these years. Shame on the SNP trying to mislead the electorate.
Saw the SNP stand shoulder to shoulder with the unionist parties yesterday to attack and smear a new pro indy party. I dont remember them ever going after the greens. Why? The hypocrisy is astounding.
Showing enduring love for the independence movement:
Sturgeon dismisses Alba (goal: a successful, socially just and environmentally responsible independent country) as a game, and plunges the knife into Salmond (again). Robertson asserts Alba is driven by Salmond’s ego. Black slings ‘misogynist charges’, and Blackford ridicules MacKaskill’s strategic defection as an embarrassment. Meanwhile, Wishart smears you all (‘Bad-Bloggers’/participants, & ‘wrong-speech/grammar sinners’) as an embarrassment.
Most malicious and deprived Scottish election, ever ?…
link to bbc.co.uk
https://www.thenational.scot/news/19191838.angus-robertson-alex-salmonds-new-alba-party-egos—not-independence/
link to thenational.scot
link to twitter.com
link to twitter.com
The fact that SNP activists are trolling Albas Facebook bears out my belief that pornography poisons the mind which only leads to eccesive Onanism with the resultant psychosexual conditions e.g. gynophilia. Sado masochism etc etc… etc. Luckily for the SNP there is a cure. They should read their Bible and see if they can tell the difference between Christ and Nicola Sturgeon.
JP says:
27 March, 2021 at 2:06 pm
I was planning on spoiling my ballot until the news this week. I still can’t give my first vote to the SNP though. Am I allowed to skip the first vote and only vote in the second or would that invalidate the whole ballot paper?
Yes you are allowed to do that, and no it would not invalidate the whole ballot paper.
What it will do, if the SNP don’t win the consituency vote, is strengthen their list vote count making it more likely they will go directly head to head with Alba.
Maybe see what comes out in the next couple of weeks. I can only see one course of action for Nicla and the Britnats now – and that is to deliberately saborage the SNP Constituency vote in order to scupper the Supermajority. But there’s a danger they fall on their own swords in doing so.
It is interesting though, everyone (me included) learning about D’Honte and how we can actually vote for what we want. Not really surprising since there have only been – what – 5 HE elections since it started. Looks like we’re getting to be quick learners when its all said and done.
Daisy Walker @ 2.07pm. You make valid points which I think should be taken on board. My only addition would be a main residency requirement of 7 years.
The SNP should apply themselves to achieving Independence. They should take advice from Alec Salmond and last but by no means least.. They should keep thir hauns aff it.
You know, I have no objection to the SNP arguing SNP 1&2. It’s their job. They are standing in every constituency and putting up a full slate of candidates on the lists. Any and all SNP members are, therefore, bound to support only SNP candidates. That also avoids problems with “gaming the list” arguments. Any finding of “gaming” would do more harm than good. We (Alba Party) have no such restrictions. We are not standing in the constituencies so we can advocate for candidates there who most align with our goals. Chief amongst those is the restoration of Scottish National Sovereignty.
However, the SNP must stop with the petty sniping. Policies are what matter and they should be prepared to debate us on policy. The needless attack on Kenny MacAskill is not a good start. Kenny was the first politician that truly inspired me at Mungo Bobby’s adoption meeting in 1987. I will not bore you with the details but it was a life-changing speech for me. To denigrate a long-term advocate for independence is unbecoming of Mr Blackford. Perhaps he should wheesht for indy.
Oops. Bloody spellcheck. Bobby = Bovey. Mungo Bovey.
Apologies, I asked this on an older article by mistake…
Does anyone know where I can still find an archive of Craig Murray’s reporting on the Salmond trial? He was forced to remove it from his site.
Why “Both Votes SNP” might not be such a good idea. An explanation of the voting system for the Scottish parliament.
Scotland has 8 Regions.
Each region has 8 to 10 Constituencies, a total of 73 Constituencies which each has 1 MSP.
Scottish Parliament is elected using the Additional Membership System with voters having 2 voting sheets.
VOTE 1. Constituency MSPs are elected by First Past The Post (FPTP) i.e.vote for the CANDIDATE you want to win.
Whoever gets most Constituency Votes (CV) (Vote 1) wins the Constituency Seat (CS).
VOTE 2. Regional Seats (RS) are allocated according to the d’Hondt method,
which is designed to approximate proportional representation. Vote for the PARTY you want to win.
D’Hondt works by dividing a party’s Regional Vote (RV) (Vote 2),
by the number of Constituency Seats (CS) the party has won in the Region plus 1.
There are 7 Regional Seats (RS) (a.k.a. List Seats) to be allocated per Region,
So the calculation is repeated until all 7 Regional Seats are allocated.
7 seats in each of the 8 regions = 56 Regional MSPs + 73 Constituency MSPs = a total of 129 MSPs in Holyrood.
That’s how voting in Scotland works.
Now, let’s take an example you can identify with.
In 2016 SNP won every single constituency in the Glasgow region.
They also got more than 3 TIMES the amount of regional votes than the Tories and almost twice as many as Labour. You can’t get any better than that, eh?
But when it comes to allocating the regional seats, the SNP votes are divided by the 9 constituency seats they won plus 1. Every time their vote gets counted it’s DIVIDED BY 10.
The Tory regional vote is divided by the zero seats they won plus 1. Their vote is NOT DIVIDED AT ALL.
This process is repeated until all 7 regional seats are allocated.
The result? SNP get ZERO regional seats.
The Green party pick up 1 seat but the remaining 6 seats go to the unionists.
Even if every single SNP voter had cast their regional vote for SNP that number would still have been divided by 10 and EVERY SINGLE VOTE would have been wasted.
However, if only a quarter of the Glasgow SNP regional votes had gone to another indy party then Glasgow would have gained another indy list seat.
In almost every region, the more people you can persuade to NOT give their second vote to SNP, the better for the indy movement as a whole.
However, success in the constituencies is crucial for the SNP. If SNP support goes down significantly then failure to secure a convincing majority in the constituencies would mean that their regional vote would become more important. In the South Scotland region there is strong support for unionist parties and SNP do not do as well in the constituencies, which means that the regional vote there could well gain them list seats, as happened in 2016. In this region “Both Votes SNP” may be a better strategy. Similarly, Highlands & Islands region can be slightly more closely run, although BVSNP is still unlikely to be a good strategy.
In all regions it’s advisable to pay close attention to voter intention in the days running up to the election so that you can make an informed decision on how to cast your votes.
If you want to dive deeper into D’Hondt and even experiment with the numbers to test different scenarios then I’ve built this spreadsheet/calculator to do just that. It has been independently verified as being built with sound methodology.
link to drive.google.com
@Limey
Like you I’m in the West region and the only thing better than the Wokerati throwing their toys out the pram is Ross Greer’s greeting face at the thought of his personal gravy train ending.
Hearing on twitter that the ISP has a meeting today at 3pm – not sure why but given AfI’s decision yesterday are they thinking the same or is it a pre-planned meeting???
Greetings from a (not hiding) unionist. I am very glad that Mr. Salmond has made this move, Scotland needs better than it has at the moment, and I include all parties in that, even my own as I am not blind or stupid. The galvanising effects of AS’s intervention could be good for all of us in raising the standard of Scottish politics across the board.
That being said I am horrified by some of the reactions I am seeing to this news, in the media particularly but also to a far lesser extent in the comments here from a few people. The ‘true blooded Scot’ nonsense for starters. All that does is alienate people and makes them yes, frightened.
I reserve especial horror for the comments of N. Sturgeon as reported on the BBC news front page. Of all the vile, hypocritical, nasty, poisonous claptrap she takes the cake. All the cake, an entire Bake Off’s worth. She is skirting very close to defamation. Should Mr. Salmond decide to take her to court over it I will be putting my hand in my pocket to help with his legal costs, I know wrong when I see it. If I was any of you I could not vote for a party led by her, whoever told me to, or for whatever reason.
It’s going to be interesting. I’m inclined to believe that if the Alba party can dispose of the “greens”, the SNP in its current iteration would pally up with wee Willie Rennie, or Anas Sarwar long before asking for the support of Alex Salmond and the Alba party.
When that happens, Scotland will know why we haven’t moved in inch towards independence in 6.5 years.
“The SNP seem frightened they might win and be forced to face or neglect their responsibilities”
Absolutely. In addition, I think we have before us the exact same case of Starmers’ labour: their credibility relies completely on deception. Starmer’s labour only looks “left” when you compare it against the most right wing tory party England has produced in recent history. If you add a real left party to the equation, Starmer’s labour starts to look for what they really are: tories.
The exact same has been happening to the SNP under Sturgeon: the only way they can look moderately pro independence is when you put them side by side with the staunch unionist arms of the British state.
Remove those unionist parties from the scene and bring a serious pro indy party into the equation and Sturgeon and Robertson’s deception collapses: Their SNP starts to look for what it is – another unionist arm of the British establishment designed to frustrate independence.
I think THAT is what frightens the bejesus of gravy train riders like Blackford, Smith, Wishart, Oswald, McDonald, Blackman and of course Black among others.
Why? Because their ride’s end countdown clock started yesterday at 14:00 pm. Sturgeon’s SNP has now less than 3 years to deliver or to disappear from Scottish politics. Either they deliver independence in that time or all these careerists can be certain they will be bypassed and ejected from the comfy green seats they are currently warming up.
I think the reason for their frantic calls for SNP1 and SNP2 is two prone:
1) without unionist parties the SNP does no longer look pro indy
b) they have been using unionist parties as shields for the last 5 years to justify not delivering our mandates and right to self determination.
bartleby
The SNP may well not be led by NS – not if she loses to Sarwar.
I would not put money on NS holding that seat.
Besides, the War is bigger than the battle between NS & AS.
It’s a game changer and no mistake.
SNP get my constituency vote and Alba get my list vote.
…but, if SNP don’t take the opportunity to deliver Independence, it’ll be the last time they get my vote. Instead I’ll be lobbying for a serious Indy focussed party to stand in the constituencies too.
At this point, I’d vote for a party led by Jack the Ripper if they had a reasonable chance of delivering Independence – after all, we can always vote them out subsequently.
panda paws says: 27 March, 2021 at 1:45 pm
The narrative of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP is that Alex Salmond is a gambler and that the A1ba party is a gamble. From what I’ve read, it is the same of the Unionist media. Funny that?
IndyLiveRadio seem to be pushing SNP 1 & 2 quite hard, which is a shame. I did put a comment on Discord but no response as yet, except for a repetition of “SNP 1 & 2”
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
? Upton Sinclair
Though, for those thinking of it…I would suggest NOT spoiling your 1st ballot.
Reasons? If we want the Alba party elected on the list, we need to make sure that SNP gets the constituency seat, otherwise it will positively affect their list vote chances and negatively affect the Alba party’s chances.
Alex isn’t an idiot, He knows exactly what he is doing by asking for SNP1 ALBA 2
Blackford: nim nim nim nim nim
Sturgeon: nim nim nim nim nim
Spear: min nmi imn inm mni
Rev,
I think Bridges for Indy might help you DM him oan Twitter re the hotel incident
The SNP need to wake up and smell the coffee. They are in a catch 22 position and cannot escape this by deploying the usual bunker mentality.
They simply have no choice but to back the super-majority and SNP 1 ALBA 2.
Otherwise they are advocating for Tories to hold their seats.
No choice. And whitehall knows it.
Truly enjoying this moment. Thank God the grown ups are back, well done Alex.
@ Bartleby64
I agree 100% I think Nicola Sturgeon is skirting very close to defamation, but personally I don’t think she’s doing herself any favours it’s not a good look and people other than the stupid and blindly loyal can see through it, as for Alex I suspect he’s had enough of lawyers and courtrooms recently to do him a lifetime
Cannit think of a reason why Alex Salmond would want to work with burst welly face Sturgeon after her saying this.
She has just come out with the following statement…”I take no pleasure in saying this.
“I think there are significant questions about the appropriateness of [Alex Salmond’s] return to public office given some of the concerns that have been raised about his conduct.
“But that is a matter for voters to judge and decide. This is an election after all, we live in a democracy.”
Bartleby64 I hear what you say but my eyes are on the greater prize. The SNP is bigger than any one individual and sooner or later the leadership will enjoy their just deserts. Meanwhile, SNP 1 Alba 2 will suffice, to get the ball rolling and to get independence back on track.
Unionists have lost a big shouty point of theirs. They can no longer claim Scotland is a ‘one party’ state (not that it ever was).
@Kenny 1.35pm
“We must gain the respect and trust of the ‘Both votes SNP’ crowd. I know it’s difficult as some are utterly dopey (or planted), but a not so dopey might be reading the convo and be influenced by it. In other words – behave yourselves.”
No.
No more “Wheesht for Indy”. No more “Be nice for Indy”. No more “Mind your Ps & Qs for Indy”. The more we give the more they take. They need to sort themselves out. They need to start exercising their own brains. We’re not babysitters or baggage handlers. They need to stand up on their own two feet or fall over.
Mia @ 2.36pm
Respect, Dear La§dy – you have been on-fire of late.
You have identified one of the reasons for the tsunami of anti-Salmond shite from Sturgeon’s SNP. Up until yesterday there was, if you wanted INdependence, no alternative to the SNP. Now there is, and they don’t like it.
Alba will force them, on independence, to put up or shut up. The SNP will not be able to put-up, since they don’t have a genuine plan for Independence, beyond the Section 30 route – which they know is a dead end.
Trouble for me is, I am loath to hold my nose and vote SNP on the Constituency vote. I cannot forgive Sturgeon and her cabal’s maltreatment of Wee Eck.
“The SNP may well not be led by NS – not if she loses to Sarwar”
The cynical in me thinks that losing to Sarwar is precisely the back door exit strategy the powers that be have designed for a totally discredited Sturgeon and the back door entry for Robertson. I am such a cynic that I even think that is the very reason why they put Sarwar in that seat. Unless they knew Sturgeon was about to lose the seat, why would one of the main parties of the British state risk losing their brand new leader? I mean, they surely are protecting Ross by keeping him at Westminster.
As a pro indy movement I think we should be ambitious and conservative with our ammunition. If both unsuitable leaders are contesting the same seat, we have an opportunity to eject them both simultaneously from Holyrood. Now, wouldn’t that be epic? Why beheading just one snake when you can do two?
It does not have to be either Sturgeon or Sarwar, as I think the powers that be are expecting us to believe. It could be neither nor and that would be the best option for Scotland’s independence.
What we need is a credible, good independent candidate to contest that seat, somebody that could appeal pro indy voters and also labour voters to take votes from both sides. Somebody like Mr Sheridan.
Skip_NC says: 27 March, 2021 at 2:24 pm
As I had previously mentioned yesterday I don’t have a great knowledge of the Holyrood electoral system but with the link that Dan supplied me last night, I’m going to have a look at it over the Easter weekend when I’m off to work.
Logic though dictates that the most likely way of voting to get a guaranteed result is SNP x2 which will give a SNP majority.
However, will that SNP majority be enough to give allow the SNP to form a government in Holyrood? More crucially though if that SNP government did occur, do you trust that SNP government to hold a referendum in the lifetime it holds office?
It is all about trust. I spoke in my previous post about gambling. It is highly likely that voting SNP x2 will result in the SNP having a majority but it is still a gamble.
If you are going to gamble, then gamble safe. Why gamble on a majority by voting SNP/SNP when you can gamble on a supermajority voting SNP/A1ba?
@Benny Nevis-Hill
Those who are critical of the SNP – whether they’ve joined the Alba, just intend to vote for them or not – should be under no illusion that there is no point trying to co-operate or “play nice” with the SNP as currently constituted.
If anything, the establishment of Alba – particularly if it manages to take seats and has a future beyond the short to medium term – makes it LESS likely that “ordinary” SNP members can change their party from within. It has become the creature of the Sturgeonistas and the Twitler Youth. Only slavish obedience to their woo-woo agenda is admissible.
If Joanna Cherry, Joan McAlpine and Angus B MacNeil have any sense they will follow Kenny MacAskill’s example.
Now isn’t the time to praise the SNP, but to help bury it.
Alba’s already got more new members than the SNP has new members. With the additional bonus that Alba’s new members are not imaginary.
I just posted this over on the Herald. I think it’s a jolly good idea:
Perhaps if DRoss and Rennie think a little, they might withdraw their candidates from Glasgow Southside and let Sarwar have a free run against Sturgeon.
If Sarwar wins then its goodbye Sturgeon because there will be no backdoor open because the ALBA party just hoovered up all the Regional List votes.
In that instance, it is also Goodbye, Murrell, Evans, Ruddock, Wolffe, Lloyd, MacKinnon and all the other vermin.
If you cut off the head of the snake, the body ceases to rattle.
Benny Nevis-Hill says: 27 March, 2021 at 2:43 pm
In the scenario that the Alba party gains enough seats to hold the balance of power, Alex Salmond won’t be working with Nicola Sturgeon, he will be working with the SNP.
It will be interesting though how Nicola Sturgeon gets her way back to Holyrood in a months time. Depending on how she gets there will place a standing on her credibility 🙂
For those who did not save a copy all of CM’s trial reports are available on waybackmachine. I just downloaded the lot.
When I hear Blackford and Humza and Sturgeon publicly embarrassing themselves I am reminded of Tim Collins speech immediately prior to the invasion of Iraq.
‘If you are ferocious in battle, remember to be magnanimous in victory’
WE are going to win this thing.
Let’s not get dragged down to their level.
Scotland the Prize.
Pacman @2.36pm.
That’s a sure sign that the SNP hierarchy are rattled to their core by the emergence of the REAL ALBA party.
No poor substitute will do.
link to albaparty.org
@Socrates MacSporran
I understand that, and feel the same….But needs must. If we want to make sure that Alba gets the list seats, we need to make sure the path is clear and there is one less party competing for them. That means removing the SNP from the competition, which ironically means voting for them in the constituency ballot.
They’ve become the lib dems in all but name, and I despise them for morphing into the party I left over decade ago (and subsequently treating their most successful leader in the exact same way the lib Dems treated theirs in Charles Kennedy…and hence my cutting of ties.)
But…If I want to ensure that Alba takes list seats, my constituency vote has to go to them. Ugh.
I actually think some peeps are truly beyond the reach of reason. I’ve just had a bit of a ding dong with someone close to me that thinks AS is more or less guilty even after his acquittal.
I suppose some folks are beyond reach but let’s hope there’s enough that aren’t.
Truly enjoying this moment. Thank God the grown ups are back, well done Alex. SNP 1 ALBA 2.
My god, Sturgeon is a crabbit, poisonous wee backstabber. All she had to do, as befits her office, was to say “I don’t agree with him, but he has every right to stand and let the public decide on his plans, as we all do in a democracy”. It’s called retaining dignity in office, and accepting the verdict of the courts and the electorate, whatever your personal feelings. But no, she has to descend to the green-eyed vindictive monster role. It apparently hasn’t crossed her mind how bad that looks, when Alex has made it clear that he has no interest in attacking her, and unlike her he accepts the verdicts of the courts and that of the people in the election. She, like some of her colleagues, are beginning to sound deranged.
Mind you, if you had spent the last three years on a crusade against one man, spending millions of taxpayer’s money to ruin him, while losing any pretence of obeying democratic norms, and then he bounces back, outsmarting you – well i suppose you too might have a face that looks like you swallowed a bag of sour lemons. What a colossal waste of time and money it was, eh Nickla? Hoist by your own petard. Prickly, much?
Thanks Rev. 1st paper will be getting spoilt then. Nice one!
“Perhaps if DRoss and Rennie think a little, they might withdraw their candidates from Glasgow Southside and let Sarwar have a free run against Sturgeon”
I am sure the powers moving DRoss and Rennie’s strings have already thought about it so libdems and tories will only put paper candidates in that constituency to maximise Sarwar’s chances.
I think there is an wonderful opportunity for an independent, left and pro indy candidate to emerge and hoover up the votes from both sides pushing both Sarwar and Sturgeon out of the seat.
That, in my view, would be a massive success for the pro indy movement. We have here a rare opportunity where we can push out of the race two anti-indy leaders in one go.
I know most of you on here hate Paul Kavanagh because you regard him as Sturgeon’s lapdog, but in today’s blog looks as though he has finally seen the light:
Supporters of Alex Salmond need to accept that Nicola Sturgeon is still very firmly in place and must move on from their failed efforts to remove her from office, instead they must focus on doing what their leader called for, which is working to build a supermajority for independence in the coming elections. That means doing what they can to maximise the pro-independence vote, and critically for the success of the Alba party’s plan, to ensuring that the SNP sweeps the board in the constituency vote. That in turn requires that they stop their attacks on Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP and start to focus on attacking the British nationalist parties and highlighting that they have nothing to offer Scotland.
Equally supporters of Nicola Sturgeon need to accept that Alex Salmond isn’t going to just go away. They may have hoped that having failed to unseat Nicola Sturgeon he would quietly pack his bags and head off into retirement, but that isn’t going to happen any more than Nicola Sturgeon is going to resign as leader of the SNP. He has launched his new party now and just as his supporters need to cease their attacks on Nicola Sturgeon so as not to damage the total independence vote, so supporters of Nicola Sturgeon need to stop attacking Alex Salmond for the exact same reason. As far as the attacks on each other are concerned, everyone needs to wheesht for indy.
I can’t really fault that. We are in a totally new situation, and it is GAME ON.
Alex made it clear in the Press Conference yesterday that ALBA intends to run a wholly positive campaign. Let’s go for it. We can get back to fighting with each other after the election.
I particularly look forward to Alex standing up each week at FM’s Questions to ask Nicola “What the First Minister has done this week to further progress towards independence”
Until then, let’s try ot be nice to each other. Some of the Nicolytes are slowly coming round, let’s be ‘wholly positive’.
Angus Robertson still thinks he’s in Westminster. Both votes SNP giving a supermajority? That’s first-past-the-post stuff.
You can no more reason with the SNP than you can with a brick wall. They have convinced themselves that two plus two does not equal four and that a man can become a woman. Rational analysis is clearly not their speciality.
For Daisy W.
I’ve been on here occasionally for yonks. I would like to move from England to a particular town in Scotland. There are problems, though, and until yesterday I was despairing of Scots news.
The SNP left me a year ago, I joined ALBA yesterday, and hope to move. Please don’t tar us all with the same brush.
The absolutely venomous response aided and abetted by the MSM to the launch of the Alba party reveals indeed the absolute panic that has set in.
Hoist by one’s own petard may be the saying but Westminster have certainly done that. They system that they implemented to shackle the Scottish Parliament has all of a sudden become the parliaments strongest weapon.
And it is deadly simple. Vote SNP 1 and let the SNP max the constituency seats and vote Alba to to let party Alba max the constituency list seats. And together SNP and Alba could take over 90 seats out of a 129 seat parliament. And all without the need for a bad word, my gain at your loss or vice versa, the strategy is so simple.
No wonder Douglas Ross is panic struck trying to arrange meeting with Sarwar and Rennie insisting
Meanwhile, in response to the new party, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has requested a meeting with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader insisting that action was needed because Friday’s launch of the Alba Party had “changed the nature of this campaign”.
Indeed Ross is said to have told Sarwar and Rennie:that “We’ve got to address this. If we don’t the Nationalists will dominate our politics.”
Never a truer word spoken Douglas Ross. That is exactly what we want. Nationalists of all hues dominating our politics defending us against the horrors of Boris Johnson and his Westminster shit show.
Thank you Douglas for telling us what to do.
SNP1 and Alba 2
Yes the SNP can’t really say anything other than vote for them 1 and 2. However they don’t have to come out with the childish smears and defamatory attacks.
Neil Mackay is comparing the Alba Party to the Tea Party. Just when you thought he couldn’t get any more stupid.
Fifteen years ago, both votes SNP was the right thing to do but as has been stated in the past, d’Hondt is designed to prevent a majority. A pro-indy list party only works if the SNP are able to take so many constituency seats which wasn’t always the case.
AS is by no means a saint but the goal is Indy and Indy is bigger than the Salmond, Sturgeon or the SNP.
Those who really desire Independence all agree that that the SNP1/2 is a waste of votes.
What Nicola, Angus and Co want is a SNP domination of Scottish Politics in order to drive through unpopular policies and protect the “Family Business”. They also want to keep the secrets, secret.
Almost 90k votes on the list in H&I for the SNP delivered ONE MSP in 6th. place but only a few hundred votes ahead of Labour.
If you want Independence do not give the SNP a single vote on the list. We could in theory have had at leat FOUR ISP/ALBA MSPs if those 90k votes had been shared between them.
Remember D’Hondt cuts the divisor for everyone.
Welcome back Alex, as far as I can see you have only made one mistake, but you where not to know that, as even you cannot see into the future and a persons weird personality and shortcomings.
The Dilly Dolly reminds me of Mr Putin, Boris Yeltsin had the wrong idea about him, whatever you think of him, he is clever, he hoodwinked boris into thinking he would carry on what boris started.
But what did he do, he basically declared himself leader until he and only he could decide when he would go, who knows what’s in store for russia when he decides to step down.
The Dilly Dolly will not have that power, she is going sooner than later, whether she wants to or not.
As far as I am concerned, the sooner she goes the better taking all the rest of the bums with her.
Alba Gu Bra
@ pixal at 3.15: “..the Electoral commission would be down on SNP like a ton of bricks”.
Not so for two reasons:
1. No party is obliged to stand candidates and are free to choose where to do so. So SNP could decide not to stand in the Regions.
2. The Electoral Commission is perfectly happy with electoral pacts. In Wales in at least one constituency for the GE 2019 there was a 4-way pact.
SNP manifesto:
Nice wee middle-class coffee table independence at some point in the future when the UK government says we can have another referendum, pretty please with a thistle on top, yes sir, no sir, three hundred years and countin’, sir.
Sturgeon has completely given up on civil discourse. Her repeated attempts to smear Salmond only reinforce peoples’ suspicions that she was the prime mover in the attempted stitch-up.
ScotsRenewables said
“I particularly look forward to Alex standing up each week at FM’s Questions to ask Nicola “What the First Minister has done this week to further progress towards independence”
We all know damn well Alex will run circles around her, burst welly Sturgeon thinks she is the great experienced leadership Scotland needs, seems her leadership has dragged Scotland down into the mud.
You can see in those old photos of her sitting alongside Alex with a scowl on her face. she’s probably thinking “One day the FM job will be mine, but must get rid of Alex first.” Well Nicoliar, the Big Boss is back!
The SNP running a negative narrative against Alex’s ALBA Party only serves to turn voters away and make the SNP look stupid in the long run.
.
After 3 years watching the Wings readership fight in disbelief at the possibility of Sturgeon being a plant or a selfish narcissist who has been overpromoted to Bute House, it was confirmed on 31st January 2020…
link to wingsoverscotland.com
During these torrid three years, Stuart Campbell, aka “The Messenger” has endured some of he worst acid dripping vitriol I have ever witnessed. The lucky ones got splattered fast…
Three major pro-indy bloggers called it wrong and their readership numbers are dropping faster than a Chris Cairns messenger pigeon.
We all watched so many fights on this and other blogs. Many eejits and amadans flounced off in a huff and joined the donate-a-thon for my buying-a-house-a-thon yon Wee Ginger Slug website exists for.
Sorry to be so angry with Kavanagh but he is a talented and gifted man who greedily opted for Mamon over principle. Also the fact he is ill does not cut it with me as a line of argument. I’ve had the same as Kavanagh and frankly was appalled to hear that Stuart’s Dad has had it too when Stu., mentioned the pettiness of the iScot magazine cancelling hid Dad’s subscription.
Those three years of “shit, surely not Sturgeon going that way and selling Indy down the river” has been like a dry rehearsal for today. Now we have the experience and the mettle to take those arguments of Sturgeon-Orwellian-McWokeists-Bad to the electorate.
Stuart, when I first read the utter avalanche of bile and excrement about Alex & Alba headed towards all of us here down that mountain of the Establishment, I though Holy Crap. I thought of yon Chris Cairns ‘toon. Here is it is again…
Then the penny dropped. They must be shitting themselves to pour so much unsophisticated, baseless drivel, so soon. Last night I did wonder if Stuart Campbell’s analysis of words/lies spoken in haste would appear here 🙂
Then with PERFECT timing you write this post.
Stuart ZX Campbell, this is one of your all-time top ten articles.
It is such a pleasure to read, I read it twice.
Three years of shit. Now we have some hope.
Watching people storm off, one or two of whom were and are decent Indy folk. Seeing the best and finest First Minister Scotland has ever had, traduced and fitted up for a jail sentence.
Watching him age 10 years in three.
Seeing the unfolding dissonance of three Scottish establishments have their leadership get away with such banana republic behaviour?
I reckon many here have had a bellyful. Even yourself considering retiring until Pete Wishart the UK Government Twatter of The Year winner pisssed you off so much you kept going for a wee bit longer.
All of that has been worth it. For today we have that Lifeline. Today we have a clear direction of travel.
Today we are back in the game.
Thank you Alex. Thank you Stuart and a thanks to all those BTL folk here who saw through all the shit and stayed the course.
The next 6 weeks are going to be a helluva ride. But if Alex & Alba and all of we who support it manage to secure 20 Alba MSPs then Breeks and others’ observations of what the new Scottish Parliament will be debating are something worth staying around for.
For some of us, that means more than many might know.
An Independent Scotland is still possible in our life time.
Alex, you may have looked like you had aged 10 years in three at the end of that disgusting fit-up and court case. It would have broken most men and women. But now you’re back. With a spring in your step, bunnet in one hand, microphone in the other. You are looking happier and 10 years younger.
They will hurtle megatons of shit at us, but here’s the thing and I believe it a Scottish attribute (we saw it after losing IndyRef1 when the SNP membership rocketed). Scots are thrawn. Thrawn to the bone. Scots loathe injustice. I believe when the Scottish people learn what really went on here they will be disgusted to the core. As a result of that, I believe we will have 24 Alba MSPs in Parliament.
The dream shall never die.
Andy Ellis at 2.52 makes a really important point.
Alba will take seats from the SNP, and is a viable player in the future. Many current SNP MP’s must be considering their future as Sturgeon’s reaction is to double down.
Their will be no conciliatory moves from the SNP, only a tightening of party scrutiny.
A direct comparison of this would be the effect of the inner Labour Party groups that actively fought against Corbyn when he was elected leader. There’s every chance this will happen to the SNP working against the likes of Cherry and McAlpine.
scotsrenewables
WGD will have seen the light when he promotes SNP 1 ALBA 2
Until then, he is working for tory seats, for that is all a double SNP vote does.
2 x SNP = TORIES!
ahundredthidiot 2.36pm
“The SNP may well not be led by NS – not if she loses to Sarwar.”
The unique Constituency of Glasgow Southside is the seat of the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon.
I will do everything I can to stop Sturgeon ever reaching Holyrood.
I will be campaigning for the people there to vote Labour 1 and ALBA 2.
Sturgeon is thought of in the same glowing terms as Margaret Thatcher and has to be stopped.
Just think of how easier our path to Independence would be if Sturgeon was taken out the picture altogether.
Let’s hope the incident being reported is nothing trivial.
I mean, would anybody really miss Evil Sturgeon if she was suddenly taken from us?
She’ll be down there with Auld Nick and Thatcher, what a threesome.
@ sog: “don’t tar us with the same brush”.
No-one is doing that sog but it is thought that a substantial number of No votes in 2014 came from non-Scots born voters. It is a valid subject for discussion especially as so many non-Scots, mostly English, move here each year or have a second home here and manage to vote here.
I wasn’t born in Britain and my husband was born in England though his family had strong links to Scotland. We are both amongst the most active Yessers in our district.
I would happily give up my right to vote in an independence vote in order to allow the native Scots to make the decision on regaining independence. However my husband disagrees saying he would feel unwelcome.
I point out that in many European countries there is a distinction – all residents vote in certain elections but only citizens vote in others. I also argue that in establishing a country’s existence why should people from a dominant neighbour have a say?
So, room for debate and no hostility intended, just a burning desire to get Scotland’s status as a nation state restored.
The Return of the King!
Just when we thought all hope was lost Alex Salmond – a man amongst men – returned with a bang! On of the best features of the 2014 ref was the grassroots mobilisation and activism. I can see that occurring again but this time smarter, more incisive and targeted to rid the country of the plague of rat-bastards who pass for politicians including Pete “Cosy Toes” Pishart, Angus Robertson, Ross – “The Ginger Minger” Greer, Patrick Harvie and Wullie “Can he really be that fucking stupid?” Rennie.
But of course Nickla remains involved, god help us all! There remains questions over the postal vote and the opportunity’s it provides for the Evil Witch and her handlers in the Security Services to manipulate and falsify the outcome of any election.
But let’s not forget the corrosive impact of the media and their “beasting” of Alex. We have not seen anything like it since Kinnock.So heartfelt thanks from all of us must be given to Mr Salmond for returning to the service of his country in the middle of the immoral maelstrom of Scottish Politics.
Re alleged Sturgeon Violent incident, i saw some stuff on twitter which hinted at an indictment.
Wonder if that was the story Jackie Bailey was alluding to when she asked Sturgeon if the leak of the Salmond enquiry to the Daily Record was to divert a story that the Record was going to run on Sturgeon.
Friend just left SNP joined Alba membership now over 2500 going by her customer number
i will be leaving SNP and joining Alba next week, spending a couple of days telling some elected SNP politicians what i think of them on twitter first, its great to say as a SNP member etc etc etc.
A very longstanding member of SNP i know is sending them a cheque for £200, shows how out of touch the Sturgeon Cabal is.
“I mean, would anybody really miss Evil Sturgeon if she was suddenly taken from us?”
I guess what you mean if she was ejected from Holryood.
Well, equally, would anybody really miss Sarwar if he was denied a seat in Holyrood?
Why keeping Sarwar when you can eject from Holyrood Sarwar and Sturgeon at the same time?
A slight modification of the famous last stanzas of Nessun Dorma ie None Shall Sleep seems appropriate to the occasion.
Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
All’Alba, vinceremo!
Vinceremo! Vinceremo!
Vanish, o night!
Fade, you stars!
At dawn, We will win!
We will win! We will win!
Viva Alba!
I don’t like these splits in the independence movement, but at the same time the SNP really does have to remember what it’s supposed to stand for.
sarah says:
27 March, 2021 at 3:47 pm
@ sog: “don’t tar us with the same brush”.
“I point out that in many European countries there is a distinction ”
Including in a UK general election.
The point of Alba is to effectively hold the SNP’s feet to the fire in parliament, which no-one has been doing.
The SNP want 1 and 2 because it lets the tories be the opposition and they- the Snp- can slabber and barf and play pointy-fingers and be complacent in the knowledge that they are still playing to the largely anti-tory electoral audience.
Very well named PANIC ATTACKS one man has caused more interest in Independence in the last day than Sturgeon has in the whole of her term as First Minister now that’s the value of the man ,
The unionist media are as the headline states in a PANIC because it isn’t going according to plan , they knew Sturgeon wasn’t going to cause the Union any great problems if she’s not following their orders she certainly is acting as if she is the pet in the corner waiting for orders.
Just wait it might take a few days for them to get up to speed but I can see the Mr Nice Guy approach being ditched pronto , more than a few people remarked how obliging the unionist media were being towards ms Sturgeon, that’s about to stop big time she no longer serves their purpose in fact she is now a real annoyance, because she failed to keep her domain in good order and the locals in check,
Everything was going just fine they bolstered their northern colonial base , they built without any hindrance a parallel parliament right in the centre of our capital city , they are about to do a similar – Up yours Jock in the centre of Glasgow again not a word from the SNP management not one .
This from Alex Massie
“Very unfair of folk to dismiss Salmond’s new venture as a party for cranks. It has space for morons too.”
And this from Sturgeon
“I think there are significant questions about the appropriateness of [Alex Salmond’s] return to public office given some of the concerns that have been raised about his conduct”.
When they’re reduced to smearing and name calling you know they’re f@cked, they know they’re f@cked
They are shitting themselves today.
@ sog says:
27 March, 2021 at 3:16 pm
For Daisy W.
I’ve been on here occasionally for yonks. I would like to move from England to a particular town in Scotland. There are problems, though, and until yesterday I was despairing of Scots news.
The SNP left me a year ago, I joined ALBA yesterday, and hope to move. Please don’t tar us all with the same brush.
Sog, I would like to think that I am not tarring you all with the same brush, and I will be the first to welcome you here and appreciate your assistance in us achieving Indy. But I don’t think you should get a vote on it. Whether you like it or not (and most of your fellow countrymen do like it) you’ve got a dog in the race and an unfair advantage.
I won’t entertain calls of racism on that. It is factually correct. I’ve also met far too many genuinely nice English people that go blind, deaf and dumn when it comes to taking very good Scottish jobs, and then recruiting fellow Englishers to the next ones available. The same nice English people who were overwhelmingly outraged when EVIL came into being and when Scotland was forced out of Europe against her will… oh wait.
I realise it is difficult to air, and really difficult for it not to stray into racist territory. But its always been a British England, run first and foremost for the benefit of England, at the expense of all the other countries – and its of little comfort to me when people point out that a lot of English people are simply unaware of that going on. To which I say, oh really.
I’ve had a dream for over 20 years, to buy a small woodland. I’ve save up, and recently retired… just in time for a shed load of English people to be investing in… Scottish woodland and pushing me out of the price range.
And its getting to be the same with the housing market. Call me a cynic, but I really don’t think your fellow country men and women are doing this with any kind of respect for the democratic wishes of the local people. You are a rare (and valued) exception to the rule.
MacAskill jumps and the BBC interview was poison if not slanderous.
In the near future:-
Ross Greer steps forward and taps the microphone . ” I was very recently an MSP in the Scottish Parliament . At Holyrood. In Edinburgh. I had my own desk , cha…”
Did ye aye . Look mate how long until I get ma coffee, I’m in a hurry.
Mia 3.54pm
Can you tell me how we can ditch both Sarwar AND Sturgeon?
Please explain.
I’m up for that.
And no,,,I didn’t mean if she was ejected from Holyrood.
Was SNP 1 Alba 2, but looking at the abuse against Salmond on the Alba FB page, the SNP vote might not take place. We are seeing the disgusting, bullying, abusive, intolerant, mysandrist face of the SNP as it is today. Truly a party worthy of its leader.
Eh Andy might want to cool it a bit
It’s not all friends that are watching , everybody’s a bit excited just now but other people are watching and taking notes they are not to pleased that their Union is in real shit now, don’t give them ammunition to shut this shop down permanently ,
PacMan @ 2:51pm, see Pixal’s observation @ 3:15pm. Most of all, we need to make sure that the Electoral Commission does not find that Alba and the SNP are one and the same. Daft? Aye, but it is still a risk. So let the SNP argue SNP 1&2 and let us argue Alba on the list. I’d like to see us argue pro-indy in the constituencies, rather than just SNP.
If I had a vote, would I vote SNP in the constituency? Probably. Would I be happy about it? Not particularly. The SNP is in Last Chance Saloon and the bell for last orders has just rung. They have to deliver on independence in the upcoming parliamentary session, otherwise they may find that another pro-independence party has gained the trust of the Scottish electorate.
Scozzie says: at 3:02 pm
“I actually think some peeps are truly beyond the reach of reason. I’ve just had a bit of a ding dong with someone close to me that thinks AS is more or less guilty even after his acquittal.
I suppose some folks are beyond reach but let’s hope there’s enough that aren’t.”
Aye to this, was out for a bike ride earlier and had a couple of chats with several Indy supporters in the passing. Some receptive to hearing about and voting for Alba, whilst others seemed completely brainwashed by the smears. To the latter I mentioned several aspects that they may want to consider before finally casting their votes. They know me from years of activism for SNP so there’s a possiblity they might take on board what I was saying.
The Alba 2nd vote strategy was never going to get 100% take up and I am sure that will have been factored in.
If Alex is marmite then at least there is a definite side that will tend to support what he is attempting to do.
For what it’s worth all of my family and most of my acquaintances are up for voting for Alba though.
Still feel a great deal of sympathy for all those in ISP who stepped up early and have put so much effort into getting their party up and running. Must be hard for them seeing Alba get off to such a flying start.
Maybe they will stand down or merge like AFI did.
Tommy Sheridan explained the rational for AFI doing this as he can see the big picture, and it isn’t the first time he’s has asked folk not to vote for him and to vote for SNP. IIRC he did this in Dundee at a rally in late 2014 or early 2015 pre General Election.
@sarah 3.47pm
Your response is considered and sensible. As a Scot who spent 25 years in England (including during #indyref1) I never supported the idea of any vote being limited to “native” Scots. I think you’d find only a minority agree with plans advanced by folk like Alf to introduce criteria similar to those outlined in e.g. the recent New Caledonia referendum. Scotland =/= New Caledonia. It is not a colony, except in the fervid imaginings of a few fringe cranks like Alf. There is no such thing as “Scots citizenship”, and won’t be until we achieve independence.
None of those advancing what boil down to old-fashioned “blood and soil” nationalist arguments about only “born” Scots being entitled to vote have come up with a coherent plan, or explained how it would be organised, paid for and enforced. Such a plan would entail some for of national register of those born in Scotland (and presumably as potential citizens those whose parents and possibly grand-parents were born here?), plus some legal criteria allowing those resident in Scotland for “x” years to be accepted on to the voters roll.
If the sub Siol nan Gaidheal nativists had their way of course around 800,000 Scots in the rest of the UK would feel entitled to vote in the referendum (and doubtless others elsewhere in the diaspora). If these folk honestly think most Scots in the diaspora are pro-indy, I have some magic beans to sell them. I doubt there’s much polling evidence on it, but 5 will get you ten that the overwhelming majority of Scots in the diaspora are unionists.
This guy Ross Greer does nothing to endear himself to his electorate does he?
He’s not exactly your baby hugging politician?
Lets hope he joins Harvie on the List of Ex MSPs.
He’s not exactly your baby hugging politician?
Well, I wouldn’t let a Green MSP babysit, that’s for sure.
Serious question. Given the attacks by SNP over the past 24 hours, is it possible that the SNP would rather serve as a minority party needing support of unionist parties over the support AS’s new party? It seems independence is being removed from their social media adverts..
Perhaps if enough people are disgusted with them and don’t give then their constituency vote, then their list candidates come into play – directly competing against other yes parties.
The hate out there is incredible..
@kapelmeister says: 27 March, 2021 at 3:23 pm
“Neil Mackay is comparing the Alba Party to the Tea Party. Just when you thought he couldn’t get any more stupid.”
Mackay’s a permaraging weirdo with a fanny beard kept on at the office after the parent company sacked him due to the ideosyncratic employment practices of their Glasgow offices since the days of George Outram & Co.
The the SNP unionists are definitely running scared.
As for the greens… they are heading for losses.
Is there a contact number for Alba Party or a working contact email? I had a friend join but he didn’t get a receipt or a membership number. I hope somebody here can help out with this.
I agree 100% Daisy English people should not have a vote on Scottish independence and if that sounds racist then so be it, but that said I have nothing against England or the English people some of the nicest people I’ve met in my lifetime are English, but they have an interest that no other nationality has and it taints their vote.
I accept there are many English folk support Scottish independence and some actively campaign for it but they are the minority, the rest will always vote in the interests of the mother England and I don’t blame them it’s human nature.
I know the arithmetic behind it and I know the SNP have to do well in the Constituencies for the plan to work, but I just don’t think I could vote for the SNP with the current leadership.
I going to be agonising over this until the election and it is another reason to despise Nicola Trump for what she has done to the SNP.
Clavie Cheil says:
27 March, 2021 at 4:24 pm
“Is there a contact number for Alba Party or a working contact email? I had a friend join but he didn’t get a receipt or a membership number. I hope somebody here can help out with this.”
Maybe a daft question but has your friend checked their junk mail? I got two or three emails but one of them, the one with the membership receipt, went into the junk mail.
I wonder if the SNP are opening a back door dialogue through the Wee Ginger Dug, here.
link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com
Red 4.22pm
Brilliant,,,lol.
“I had a friend join but he didn’t get a receipt or a membership number”
Mind get him to check his junk email folder and click the link for email verification on the site.
Clavie Cheil@4:24
I joined and received a confirmation email after clicking on the link in the initial mail I received.
It says confirmation #585 but I’m not sure if that my membership number or not. Still I’ll not clog up the website with questions that I’m sure will be answered later. I’ll leave it be and let it cope with the new recruits.
Hope that helps.
If anyone is in contact with Eva Comrie for the Mid Scotland and Fife area… and if that area includes Crieff and Comrie area I have some, well 3, big local issues she should know about and have a plan to deal with.
There is no contact button that I can see on Alba site, and her online contact is via SNP…. which I somehow think she may no longer get to use.
george wood says:
27 March, 2021 at 4:30 pm
“I know the arithmetic behind it and I know the SNP have to do well in the Constituencies for the plan to work, but I just don’t think I could vote for the SNP with the current leadership.”
Feeling exactly the same.
I watched Alec Salmonds speech introducing his new party. It seems the overall strategy of a ” Super majority” is geared towards a demand for a Section 30 from the UK Government. That has a familiar ring to it. Is a Prime Minister really more likely to give in and say yes to a Section 30 just because a few more MSPs demand it? Look where making demands has gotten under Blackford in Westminster. Even if the whole Parliament in Edinburgh demanded a S30 does a UK Prime Minister have to say yes? If I’m wrong so be it I’m sure someone here will point it out. If my doubts are well founded then it’s fairly sobering.
Blackford has probably done Alba a big favour with his undignified and unjust comments on Kenny MacAskill, a man of integrity. I’ll hazard a guess he will cause another round of defections.
Daisy Walker says:
27 March, 2021 at 4:37 pm
“If anyone is in contact with Eva Comrie for the Mid Scotland and Fife area… and if that area includes Crieff and Comrie area I have some, well 3, big local issues she should know about and have a plan to deal with”
I just let her know
As for who can vote in idyref2
Said it back in 14’ only those wha can say TISABRAWLIGHTMOONLIGHTNIGHTTHENIGHT Without pausing for breath can vote
Simples (smilie thing)
I’m guessing 8 seats for ALBA.
SKY NEWS
Ms Sturgeon do you have a minute for a quick word ?
Yes I ,ooh eh sorry we have Alex Salmond live so we need to cut it short.
in the background we hear it was that fkn Jury did we not pay them enough , mah whole weekends ruined that fkn Salmond fkr I was going for lunch as well , Frank yer fkn fired , bloody men that’s the problem too bloody many of them that’s why I married that auld egit Murrell he’s another useless tosser that can’t keep to a simple bloody script I told him to ditch the fkn phone Christ useless .
And now back to the studio I believe we had some background interference sorry about that
Was I live ? were you still broadcasting you didn’t record that last bit did you , oh Jesus that’s it I really am fkd now bloody men again , how much to loose that last recording , come on how much will it take ? , These Scottish mugs will never miss a few pounds of their money , come on how much , listen I don’t have time to haggle how much .
George Wood @4:30
“I know the arithmetic behind it and I know the SNP have to do well in the Constituencies for the plan to work, but I just don’t think I could vote for the SNP with the current leadership.”
Same. Swore blind I’d never vote for Sturgeon, but I know the better the SNP do on constituency votes, the less they’ll pick up via the list, and the more the other pro-Indy parties will benefit.
The other problem – do I vote ISP or ALBA?
I couldn’t make the ISP member’s zoom conference this afternoon, so will wait for news as to what went on.
Aaaaarghhhhh!!!!
What to do???
Sturgeon and her cronies really are thick aren’t they? All they had to do was welcome another pro-indy party to the fight to gain independence. Instead they come out screaming and kicking. When do you think it will dawn on them that they are going to need the support of ALBA. I cannot wait for that day because you can guarantee Alex Salmond will tie them up in knots.
i want to know more about sturgen/balmoral hotel!there is nothing worse than being given a little snippet & then left dangling mr rev.!is there no way you can sneak us a little nudge nudge wink wink,it was”nt me.my mind is working overtime as i dangle.
Site quite slow today, lots of traffic?
Robertson must see this but his attitude if fuck independence
just get more of subservient colleagues on the gravy train.
Thanks Rev, fully exposes SNP attitude of party before country,
Westminster’s voting system to ensure large Unionist presence
in Holyrood and the desperate need for another Independence Party
to utilise the loophole of a two pronged attack.
Andy says:
This guy Ross Greer does nothing to endear himself to his electorate does he?
He’s not exactly your baby hugging politician?
He’s more like and looks like Beaker from the Muppets!
No mention of a reasonable scenario of the Greens vote being split in half by Alba, with each taking 5% of the list votes, and letting the unionist parties in by the back door.
A reasonable scenario, at that.
Ho hum!
Been an exciting few days. Things seem to be at the most energised they’ve been for several years. Someone putting some proper pressure on the cosy cosy SNP/Green alliance is long overdue.
I think Kenny Macaskill is going to be on Sophy Ridge tomorrow on Sky News, judging by a tweet from her.
@Benny Nevis-Hill says: 27 March, 2021 at 5:00 pm
“[Ross Greer] looks like Beaker from the Muppets!”
Come to that, Patrick Harvie’s a dead ringer for Dr Bunsen!
Robert Knight , ISp are now a busted flush, nobody except a few diehards will ever have heard of them so its a wasted vote, i feel for Colette Walker, she has put her heart and soul into setting up the Party but the ISP has been overtaken by events like AFI, best thing would be for ISP to stand down, hopefully then those Candidates that chose to join Alba will stand on the Alba list.
But for this to work folk have to hold their nose and vote Snp on the constituency, i have to hold my nose twice, once for SNP and second for the odious candidate they have chosen.
But If your an Independence supporter then it must be done.
Nicely put, Daisy, thank you for your reply.
You’ll need action on absentee landowners, and not just those owning grouse moors.
I shall wait and see.
I see that Rosa ‘I can see around corners’ Zambonini has cast off her shrinking violet persona to give us the benefit of her wisdom.
Seems to hate the Alba Party more than the Tories for some reason.
Dan @ 4.17 pm
It does strike me that both the SNP and ALBA are seeking support from a common Social Democrat independence supporting pool of voters, hence SNP 1 & ALBA 2. There are however a large number of soft No supporters who presently vote for unionist parties. They will never vote for Social Democratic parties. The ISP can grow the overall Independence vote by attracting these voters. About 20% are soft No voters and ISP has no competition. I hope they keep going.
GRUNT says: at 5:00 pm
“Site quite slow today, lots of traffic?”
Was just going to post the same. Very slow loading pages for me today.
Does anybody know where Alba party posters can be downloaded?
Ta.
So which is it, SNP? Alba are either a meaningless sideshow who won’t get any votes, or a dangerous threat to the indy parties at Holyrood? I’m confused why you are saying both.
Obviously the truth is they only threaten unionist MSPs, and fat SNP pensions/comfortable indolence.
I see some others on here feel like I do. Bumza is my SNP candidate. I can’t vote for him. I just can’t. He is arguably the biggest nonentity mug imaginable. Who could be worse? Don’t answer that.
My plan: vote labour, who have a chance of unseating this idiot, and vote Alba on the list.
If I had a credible SNP candidate I would vote for them but I don’t.
I’m a bit of a technophobe and can’t find it , anyone have any knowledge of how many members Alba now has ? Not asking for a friend
Apparently the Lib/Dems and Labour don’t want to team up with the Tories.
“The
@ScotTories
offered to cooperate and work with pro-UK parties against the new threat of an indy super-majority.
In just 3 hours, Labour and the Lib Dems have refused.
They won’t come to the table. They’re not serious about stopping the SNP and indyref2.”
link to twitter.com
@ Pipinghot
I’m totes shit at IT but you could just right click on, then save the image you want, then print it out after resizing to your dimensions.
The blue background will be heavy on ink use though…
There is a pic on this page.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Very slow for me also, was going to post the same thing. Takes an age to reflect a comment after to hit submit.
I suspect this place is roaring with traffic, absolutely mobbed.
I was in great difficulty about voting for the snp before today and I am horrified at the responses from Sturgeon. Blackford – instead of thanking the former Justice Sec for his contribution to the snp indy and wishing them well they are sulking and prancing hopefully off the stage. If Alex does well in the forthcoming election let Alba stand in the constituency seats as well next time and wipe the crowing Sturgeon out of office and take all her gender nonsense with her.
Salmond is not perfect but just look at who else we presently have in office and think of some on the greatest past leaders eg Churchill and what he has done pales into insignificance. As for the women I am sick of hearing how badly they have been treated – they have been used and abused far more by Sturgeon and Evans.
Pac man. I think we should go with Salmonds plan as he is a real Nationalist whereas Ms Sturgeon canny be bothered with kind of thing. And besides if Nicola hates the plan it may have some merit.
Ta Dan. Will try.
A contributor on WGD really wants to think carefully before he clicks on enter that allows other people to read what he’s thinking or in the case of one particular poster , not thinking .
What exactly should Alex hang his head in Shame for ? Just in case you might have missed it a predominately women Jury found Alex INNOCENT of all charges against him I know your Saint Nicola also has the same opinion as you she obviously is rejecting the verdict ,
Paul who hosts the platform you are spouting total pish on , might want to avoid any attention that your comments invite when you along with others on that site post remarks that are bordering on slander , not my opinion the opinion of a friend who makes his living chasing people just like you all mouth and very few brain cells .
The unionist media are not having a party because Alex has returned they’re shittin themselves because unlike your useless Nicola they are scared of him , scared because he’s unpredictable and not under control of Westminster , most of us will be dead before St Nicola gets off her arse and does what she’s supposed to and that’s not pandering to guys that dress up as women .
The contributors might want to heed what Paul has said and that was to cut the Snide remarks Alex Salmond is urging people to vote SNP at every opportunity what more do you people want , he’s totally behind the SNP and a big win at that , but it’s still not enough for some folk is it .
In my view the new Alba party is good for the Greens. I am pretty certain there are lots of independence supporters who (a) didn’t know that an SNP list vote is basically wasted (b) will now find out because of Salmond but (c) don’t like Salmond much – and will thus vote for the Greens. I think it is the Tories and Labour who have most to lose…
Ahh, with a bit of white paint to add an “ALBA”, I’ve got the perfect covid safe campaigning equipment that I knocked together when the virus kicked in. 🙂
link to twitter.com
@Fishy Wullie 4.27pm
Blood and soil nationalism is not the answer. Nativist requirements – apart from being a REALLY bad look – are probably impractical anyway. What you’re proposing is the very antithesis of civic nationalism. Presumably your “Scots born” criteria would include the 800,000 Scots born folk outside Scotland? How many of them are convinced unionists do you think? How about the roughly 400,000 English born folk living in Scotland?
Most sensible folk wouldn’t stand for it. I’d actively campaign against and vote against any party or movement proposing it. I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone. How would that help your numbers?
link to nrscotland.gov.uk
O dear I fear I may just have lost a friend by joining Alba , hey ho
I guess some of the SNP management are adopting the Donald Trump method
I never liked him , he was usless , we never got on , he embarrassed the party , he won’t be missed , it’s not before time they left ,
Everyone Trump ever worked with when they fell out all the venom and spite followed he rubbished everyone ,
Blackford remember him “Scots won’t be dragged out of Europe ” Blackford has just emulated Trump that’s exactly how Trump would have reacted .
Well done yah fat hunt
Brawbrichtmoonlichtlichtthenicht. I was taught that my my very English maths teacher at school many moons ago. If you live in Scotland you vote in Scotland if you don’t live here you don’t vote here. There is no contention no problem that’s all. Of all the pointless things people can argue over……
@Christian Schmidt 5.36 pm
I can’t see many people who might be thinking of voting for Alba deciding to vote Green instead. The Greens are rightly seen as being lukewarm on independence, and are if anything worse than the SNP on gender woo-woo as the high publicised othering of Andy Wightman showed.
The Greens and the yoons are all having meltdowns because they see their cosy sinecures disappearing. The Sturgeonista Loyal in SNP are having aneurisms because they know a large slice of their support – and probably some of their representatives and activist base – is in the process of defecting to a “real” independence party.
Revenge is a dish best eaten cold. There aren’t enough thermals in the world for Nicola at present. Good!
@ Andy
I accept you want to label me a racist. that’s fine, but i wasn’t talking about arithmetic, ie if I was living in Wales or any other country voting on their independence from an imperialist state I would abstain on the basis that it’s none of my business, it’s for the people of that country to decide and I would consider myself a guest,
English people cannot do that in a Scottish independence referendum because they have a vested national interest no other nationality has it doesn’t make them bad people it just makes them human
Pixy – I watched Alec Salmonds speech introducing his new party. It seems the overall strategy of a ” Super majority” is geared towards a demand for a Section 30 from the UK Government.
Westminster is never going to allow another referendum, ever again, on any issue, if they can help it. The British establishment is still leaking liquid rage out of every orifice that the plebs got Brexit after all the important and rich people forbid it. The lesson they’ve drawn from that unfortunate outbreak of democracy is NO MORE REFERENDA.
I have no idea what Alex Salmond’s strategy is, but it’s likely born out of necessity. Due to the timing constraints, it would probably be logistically difficult and a huge drain on resources with little return for ALBA to stand in constituencies in just a few weeks time. I think the tactical messaging from Alba is a reflection of what’s realistically achievable in the short term.
The list is low hanging fruit, so they’re reaching for that. If nothing significant changes (eg. Nicola’s departure and a clear out of SNP leadership) I assume the current olive branches to the SNP will be withdrawn by the next election, given the SNP are burning them. Then we’ll probably see a different message to “SNP 1 / Alba 2”.
The SNP are extremely unlikely to do anything more than demand Section 30 and then shake their wee fists with mock anger when it’s denied. But first things first, we need people who are actually serious about independence in the Scottish Parliament before anything can begin to be done.
@Fishy Wullie 5.54pm
If I’d wanted to call you a racist bud, I’d have called you a racist. I think you’re advocating a policy and position that is profoundly wrong, regressive and stands in stark contrast to everything civic nationalism stands for. That doesn’t make us allies, but it doesn’t ipso facto make you a racist.
Scotland isn’t New Caledonia, or Estonia post USSR occupation. Why should my pro-indy English born wife be denied a vote or say in Scotland’s future since we now live here? Why should tens of thousands of Scots born folk, who may not have lived here for decades, or have any intention of taking Scots citizenship, be entitled to a say? Why should EU nationals or Commonwealth nationals who have lived here for years and contributed to our country be denied a say in its future?
Good luck selling that on the doorsteps bud. You’d get a flea in your ear if you tried it at mine!
Fishy wullie. 5.54pm
I never called anyone a racist wullie.
Have you got your names mixed up maybe?
I see wullie.
It was Andy Ellis.
Understood.
How would ALBA’s chances for list seats change if the SNP constituency vote collapses and is taken by the unionist parties?
No “supermajority” for independence, no overall control, but more ALBA seats than SNP seats?
That would be my preferred outcome.
For the record, I do not consider the SNP criminals and chancers as pro independence.
If they were, there was never a better time to achieve independence than 2016-2019.
Red
The British establishment is still leaking liquid rage out of every orifice that the plebs got Brexit after all the important and rich people forbid it.
How the hell can you post something so idiotically stupid?
Am I reading this right?
The Billionaires and the Bankers paid for the whole Brexit campaign to
ensure the EU couldn’t stop their tax avoidance schemes and money
laundering.
Are you seeing millionaire ex banker Farage as a people’s champion?
If Boris and Gove head up Brexit then you know there is nothing for the plebs other than
a flag to wave as their job, house and human rights all disappear.
It’ll be ironic that Scotland ditches its Green MSPs just prior to hosting COP 26. Hilarious.
WeeChid says:
27 March, 2021 at 4:34 pm
“Clavie Cheil says:
27 March, 2021 at 4:24 pm
“Is there a contact number for Alba Party or a working contact email? I had a friend join but he didn’t get a receipt or a membership number. I hope somebody here can help out with this.”
Maybe a daft question but has your friend checked their junk mail? I got two or three emails but one of them, the one with the membership receipt, went into the junk mail.”
——————————————————-
I had him do that but he says there is nothing from Alba Party in his junk mail folder. I know my receipt went to my junk folder first and i had to retrieve it from there also.
I have heard this afternoon that the Alba party was subject to a cyber attack that allegedly could be traced back to SNP. Dont know if that is a factor.
The trick Sturgeon done on us was to hold us in suspense, right up until Jan 2020, when she was going to give us her big Indy/Brexit speech.
She conned the lot of us.
And by that time it was too late to get out of her stranglehold she had on us.
A confidence trickster of the highest order.
Long may she rot in Hell.
Instead of calling themselves the Alda party, they should have called themselves the “yesterday’s men” party!!
Vestas says.
“The sooner the Robertson family depart Scottish politics the better the country will be.”
Is Robertson’s wife Jennifer Dempsey standing anywhere on the list or in the constituency?
Does she have any disability (maybe short sightedness needing glasses or colour blindness) which would entitle her to be at the top of a list?
I used to be aggrieved every time the Tories jeered and laughed as soon as Blackford got to his feet.
Now I get why.
He’s a useless windbag.
Manny Singh (yes I know but needs must) on Twitter
link to twitter.com
SNP has a fake website called albaParty.scot & it is redirecting visitors looking for albaParty.org to official SNP site
Get the word out.I got caught out on it yesterday
Robert Graham – no, it’s worse than that.
Donald Trump applied the verbal hairdryer to anybody who slagged him off first. Ungracious as he can be, I never saw him lay into anybody who hadn’t called him some variation of tiny handed orange Cheeto Hitler Russian spy man first.
The SNP are smearing people who haven’t said a bad word about them, although they easily could.
Alex Salmond is literally asking people to vote SNP, and Nicola Sturgeon has responded by insinuating he’s a rapist.
This is nothing like Trump, it’s like Nicola’s American idol Hillary Clinton. Staggering entitlement combined with an astounding lack of self awareness. Also a spookily similar penchant for money and not remembering things under oath.
I think it is totally the correct thing to do to offer this olive branch to the SNP in the form of vote SNP1 / ALBA2.
It that is rejected over the coming month then I am just as happy if we revert back to ANYONEBUTHESNP1 / ALBA2.
It is up to them at this point.
We’d all be holding our noses in a vice like grip to vote SNP1 to get a supermajority but if that means having to kiss Sturgeons ring in any way whatsoever it is a total deal breaker.
If that was the case I’d be just as happy to go longer term and tactically vote against the SNP at the constituency vote and vote ALBA on the list and the chips fall where they may.
.
Col says:
27 March, 2021 at 6:15 pm
It’ll be ironic that Scotland ditches its Green MSPs just prior to hosting COP 26. Hilarious.
.
Which will highlight that politics is a tropical reef of prey, predators, parasites, and builders. The Scottish Greens having newly identified as parasites, therefore we are well rid.
Just a bit of idle musing on my part, but if I have the maths about right ALBA would need a swing of about 3% of the vote to replace the Greens, which seems eminently realistic. Does anyone here reckon that being kingmakers the price of propping up a minority SNP administration might be Sturgeons head on a stick?
Kenny MacAskill
ALBA MP
Parliamentary privelege.
Only if he would reveal the messages between the conspiring criminals.
That’s 24 hours since I asked this on Twitter:
‘Who *in your opinion* is the most committed to achieving independence for Scotland?’
1005 votes cast –
Alex Salmond. 67.3%
Nicola Sturgeon. 32.7%
So there you have it. Not scientific in the slightest, but interesting all the same.
“A confidence trickster of the highest order.
Long may she rot in Hell.”
Well at least we agree on that Andy
Test
Angus Robertson really does still believe the SNP can win in Edinburgh Central.
Mug.
I suppose he has to lie about List Votes as part of the deal to get the selected spot as SNP candidate.
I wonder how he’s feeling about being asked to pay twice for what he thought was a done deal?
I cringe when I see a party leader and husband as chief executive officer control power to ensure they stay there.
But they should remember if you shoot at the king make should you do not miss.
Kcor
Where is the lunatic he is going to STILL vote SNP 1 and 2?
All this ALBA worshipping that is going on must be too much for the little puff cake.
She simply melts at the thought of me campaigning for Scottish Labour to take the seat of Nicola Sturgeon.
Where for art thou, you little misinformed Sturgeon fanatic?
Effigy – yes, you read correctly.
Virtually the entire British establishment was 100% in favour of Remain, including:
* The Prime Minister
* The vast majority of MP’s at Westminster
* The vast majority of the Lords
* The FTSE 100
* The Confederation of British Industry
* The Bank of England
* The Church of England
* The Civil Service
* The judiciary
* Academia
* Every big charity
* The BBC
* Sky News
* Most of the newspapers
* All the slebs (except, what, Michael Caine?)
Farage is a complete outsider, that’s why he hasn’t been awarded with any gongs. What billionaires and bankers are you thinking of? Aaron Banks? Come on.
No, Brexit wasn’t a plot by top-hatted toffs, twirling their waxed moustaches while sitting on piles of £50 notes and plotting to oppress the poor. It was a political insurgency from people firmly outside the “elite”, a slightly more polite version of Wat Tyler versus the barons.
Obviously Boris and Gove want to make it work for the establishment. They’re establishment men who saw their opportunity when Cameron agreed to a referendum. I doubt they expected to win. And the establishment overall didn’t want Brexit, and is still angry about it.
Westminster would rather eat powdered glass than risk another plebiscite. David Cameron thought, after getting the results he wanted in the Proportional Representation and Scottish referenda, that the third one would be a skoosh. He was wrong, and a result of that is that they’ll never agree to *allow* us a referendum.
So we’re going to need a better plan.
I can’t agree with all the folks who want Sturgeon unseated.
Wait,wait till I explain
I want to see her (as first minister of a minority government) standing up looking at Alex and all the Alba members at FMQT every week as she is asked what is happening to the Indy preparations.
OK. it is a bit juvenile but I can’t help my dreams of karma.
Fishy wullie
Good man!
She probably wouldn’t burn down there anyway.
For others who may have missed it, here’s link to the Newsnight/Faisal Islam interview with Alex Salmond.
(NB Their ‘zoom’-style connection was a bit dodgy at times.)
link to youtube.com
Good posts, Red, keep it up.
Mac @ 6.25pm
Voting for Sturgeon’s lot on the constituency ballot is a bridge too far. I appreciate it would be eminently sensible if we were talking about 2 decent pro independence parties but we are not. The new kid on the block, Alba, is but Sturgeon and her group have corrupted governance and law and order in this country and are guilty of gross criminal acts committed out of fear of the return of Alex Salmond to politics. They have cost the Scottish taxpayer millions through vindictive prosecutions and incompetence. They have embezzled £600,000 of funds donated to fight the next referendum which they had no right to touch, much of which was donated in good faith by non SNP members. They preside over a disreputable party imposing unwanted, ridiculous policies on the public and they are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.
Why on earth would I vote for them? Thanks to the intervention of AS and others it would appear that a potential meltdown at the HR election for the SNP will be avoided and they will stay in power. Will they thank AS for saving their bacon? If Alba do well and have a reasonable number of MSPs we may avoid the curse of an outright SNP majority and perhaps Alba will be able to mitigate some of the SNP policies but they will be junior partners in a coalition with Sturgeon ruling the roost for another 5 years. To me that is unacceptable. I want her out of power now and I want a proper legal enquiry into what she has done with the aid of Swinney, Wolffe, Evans, Loyd and others and I expect to see them all do substantial jail time for their crimes.
They are being given a parachute by AS and do not have the grace, decency or intelligence to admit it. I do not for a moment believe AS is turning the other cheek but, being the statesman he is, he is putting his country first. I can admire that but not aspire to it. For me it is NO votes SNP until the evil in their midst has been eradicated.
John Jones. 6.49pm
Sturgeon would be a permanent stumbling block to Independence.
It’s better to try and get her eliminated from Holyrood all together.
She has no intention of working with Alex Salmond.
There are now 4 Independence parties in Scotland and 3 Unionist parties With the d’Hondt system are we not better with the ISP party sticking around because their votes would not be recalculated giving them a chance of at least one list seat
Before Alba being around, snp 2 was a very slight forlorn hope for a bit of list success, now there’s just no point whatsoever in Snp2. Anyone who knows the system must recognise the hopelessness of the idea.
Mia says,
“The cynical in me thinks that losing to Sarwar is precisely the back door exit strategy the powers that be have designed for a totally discredited Sturgeon and the back door entry for Robertson. I am such a cynic that I even think that is the very reason why they put Sarwar in that seat.”
If ever there was a conspiracy theory, this has to be it.
Serious question to Mia:
Do you still intend to withhold your list vote (“no plebiscite promise, no vote”) or have you now decided to give it to ALBA?
For your information, ALBA are not fighting this election as a plebiscite on independence.
100% of posters on this site seem to agree on list vote for ALBA.
If you are not one of them, at least make your position clear, so posters can judge how seriously they can take your comments.
See how the SNP careerists are shifting it about Alba party.
The midlothian SNP MP careerist, gravy train, wee pishart, brown noser, otherwise known as owen thomsom, re tweeting Kirsten Oswald again.
Sturgeon in full melt down snear campaign against Alex, who’s laces she couldn’t tie.
They are bricking it alright. Momentum is with Alba party!!
1+2=0
Dan says:
27 March, 2021 at 5:13 pm
GRUNT says: at 5:00 pm
“Site quite slow today, lots of traffic?”
Was just going to post the same. Very slow loading pages for me today.
__________
And for me too! Suspect it’s down to traffic overload. All those folk who can’t stand WOS eh? LOL!
Nicola Sturgeon’s continued personal attacks on Alex Salmond are beyond the pale. She is entirely without decorum and lower than a snake’s belly.
However, you can’t keep a good man down and Alex Salmond is a beacon of hope in these dark times. The SNP are clearly rattled. They really don’t like not having things all their own way.
Although I understand the argument, I can’t in all conscience bring myself to vote for the SNP. If there is no alternative to the SNP or the Unionist parties in the constituency vote then I will spoil my ballot.
@ ian murray at 6:54 pm
Multiple Pro-Indy parties standing on the list is not ideal.
First of all because there is a need for a unified campaigning message in the very limited time we have available prior to the election, which is exacerbated further by covid restricting door to door campaigning.
Also, if multiple Pro-Indy parties stand in a region then the surplus votes for one cannot be transferred to another party after a seat is allocated. This means there is potential to lose out on a further seat because the 2nd votes are not pooled between different parties.
The Pro-Indy party concept was heavily discussed a year ago and all these aspects were suggested and known way back then. KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid was and is the acronym that requires to be adhered to for Maxing The Yes vote.
I have voted SNP all my life , since the late 70’s. I want independence first and foremost. For all their faults they have always been the only hope of achieving this.
In my opinion, an ideal situation would be the SNP having an overall majority of seats, with ALBA having as many as possible after that. If they don’t win this election independence isn’t going to happen in my lifetime – hopefully I have 20 years left!
In the comments, there are very few, if any, attacking the Britnat parties – ie the enemy. Incredibly there are one or two hoping Sarwar unseats Sturgeon.
Andy says,
“The unique Constituency of Glasgow Southside is the seat of the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon.
I will do everything I can to stop Sturgeon ever reaching Holyrood.
I will be campaigning for the people there to vote Labour 1 and ALBA 2.”
I wish you total success.
Even if ALBA policy is constituency vote for SNP, I want all SNP Ministers to lose their seats, and Robertson to fail to win his.
SNP 1/2 has gone back to WGD. Let her be.
Elmac, I don’t disagree.
If I was in Sturgeon’s constituency there is not a snowballs chance in hell I’d be voting SNP1.
Same for Edinburgh Central or wherever it is Robertson is standing. No chance I’d vote SNP1 there either. And there are a few others… ALBA voters need to use their judgement.
If over the next month the SNP attack ALBA relentlessly (and the last 24 hours suggest they will) then obviously screw them.
We go back to SCREWTHESNP1 / ALBA2 and by the time the next election swings by… i.e. Westminster… we are ready to vote ALBA1 / ALBA2.
If the SNP don’t want to save themselves then I am sure as feck not going to stand in their way.
The SNP are showing themselves to be spiteful brats. If only they would use that emotional drive positively, they may actually get around to doing something for the benefit of Scotland… such as scraping the Council Tax and replacing it either with zero tax or a limited tax according to ability to pay. Christ, why are we taxed, taxed, taxed, and then taxed on taxes? Nothing to show for all that loot looted from our earnings.
Elmac says on 27 March, 2021 at 6:52 pm – Regarding Sturgeons Nasty Party:
“They have cost the Scottish taxpayer millions through vindictive prosecutions and incompetence. They have embezzled £600,000 of funds donated to fight the next referendum which they had no right to touch, much of which was donated in good faith by non SNP members.”
Can anyone tell me the date, or as near as possible, when the SNP held their £600,000 fundraiser for the “indy war chest”? Did this take place *after* it was known they messed-up and cost themselves £500,000?
Anyone who wants Sturgeon to lose her seat is an enemy of Scottish independence.
“Angus Robertson really does still believe the SNP can win in Edinburgh Central”
Maybe he is privy to some information we are not. I mean, if corruption of the calibre displayed by Sturgeon, Evans, the Lord Advocate and the Crown agent could be airbrushed from the Hamilton and parliamentary inquiries, I am sure the same forces that ensured that would happen can help Robertson win the seat and airbrush whatever votes in the way for other candidates. Didn’t they say that they are not going to count votes during the weekend? Well, then. Plenty of time to ensure he wins the seat. If they managed to hijack the NEC in order to block the best SNP candidate out of the seat, ensuring he wins it cannot be that difficult.
Right so everybody knows that every SNP seat lost, corrupt as they are
is a seat for the U.K. Union and it’s demand to ensure Scotland is England’s
to control and abuse?
I’m dreaming of SNP just short of a majority where Alba can hold them to ransom
and actually get on with Independence and standing up for Scotland.
Never has and never will a vote for a unionist party do anything for Scotland!
On that note, corrupt Sarwar, who was held second best to that Dick Leonard by his party,
has said Labour will build Scotland’s NHS?
Labour has been in charge of NHS Wales for 21 years and its even worse that Tory England’s NHS
Scotland has the best performing NHS for many years.
So let Labour run it and get corrupt PPI hospitals and schools with massive interest rates
and a 3rd rate service.
No thanks very much!
kapelmeister says,
“Sturgeon has completely given up on civil discourse. Her repeated attempts to smear Salmond only reinforce peoples’ suspicions that she was the prime mover in the attempted stitch-up.”
There is no doubt whatsoever that she is the Criminal in Chief who tried to jail Alex Salmond on false charges, and squandered millions of pounds of public funds in the process, not to forget the renewal of contract and big payrise to the one who did her dirty work for her.
The buck stops with Sturgeon, not with Evans, as the latter will soon reveal in court.
Contrast the witch with the incredible dignity shown by Alex Salmond.
Flowed man or flowed woman?
Calum says:
27 March, 2021 at 7:11 pm
“I have voted SNP all my life , since the late 70’s. I want independence first and foremost. For all their faults they have always been the only hope of achieving this.”
Except that independence no longer appears to be their goal and hasn’t been since the current cabal took over.
@ Ian Murray re ISP…
If the Britnat / Nicla and co cannot get rid of Alba/Salmond – and that looks unlikely, then they will go all out in other ways to scupper a Supermajority for Indy at Holyrood.
That means – hitting the self destruct on their own Constituency Candidates, so that they become unelectable.
And they cannot afford to start doing that until after 31/3/21 when new candidates cannot register and existing candidates cannot swap parties.
SNP Candidates for the Constituency need to ask themselves ‘how much am I loved by Nicla’, and if they are not incompetent, raging personality disorders, fully on board with the gender woo woo, and with no drive to actually obtaining and pushing for Indy – now might be a good time to jump ship – before being pushed.
I believe ISP and those from AFI if willing should look to see what Constituency seats are being contested by SNP Gender Woo woo, weak on the Indy front, Nicla fav’s – and stand as Constituency candidates in those area’s only.
Wednesday 31/3 is the deadline for registering. Even if half a dozen seats are contested – but really strongly – it could be a very powerful and good thing. And it could save / win the supermajority for Indy.
Of course once elected to an MSP seat – they could swap parties then to bolster the supermajority – and argue that Indy is an SNP core issue – but it would not be a good look and would give Nicla a stick to beat that the MSM would utilise fully.
Red,
No that is not correct.
The majority at Westminster were for remain.
Calum says:
27 March, 2021 at 7:23 pm
“Anyone who wants Sturgeon to lose her seat is an enemy of Scottish independence.”
Anyone one who wants her to win is a science denying misogynistic misandrist.
There – two can play this game.
robertknight says: at 12:38 pm
“They don’t like it up’em Captain Mainwaring, they don’t like it up’em!”
Actually…
😉
Mia says,
“I guess what you mean if she was ejected from Holryood.
Well, equally, would anybody really miss Sarwar if he was denied a seat in Holyrood?
Why keeping Sarwar when you can eject from Holyrood Sarwar and Sturgeon at the same time?”
You know perfectly well that Sarwar will get in on the list anyway.
Let me quote you none other than the Rev. Stuart Campbell:
Rev. Stuart Campbell says (Scheming on a mirage),
“It’s much the same as the Glasgow Southside situation. You’re not choosing between Anas Sarwar and Nicola Sturgeon – Sarwar is top of the Labour list so he’s getting in no matter what happens. What you’re effectively doing with your constituency vote in Glasgow Southside is choosing between two SNP MSPs – Sturgeon or Roza Salih. If you’d prefer Salih, vote Sarwar on the constituency paper.)”
Why are you deliberately misleading voters?
Kcor re ‘Serious question to Mia:
Do you still intend to withhold your list vote (“no plebiscite promise, no vote”) or have you now decided to give it to ALBA?
For your information, ALBA are not fighting this election as a plebiscite on independence.
100% of posters on this site seem to agree on list vote for ALBA’
I cannot answer for Mia (plus she reasons out her own opinions very well anyway). But I was also of the No Plebiscite Indy vote, no vote – standpoint.
What has changed for me, is that I trust Alex, if he had not been serious about Indy there would never have been Indyref 1.
And he made it very clear – a Supermajority at Holyrood represents the Sovereign democratic will of the people of Scotland – and they cannot ignore that.
It is the principle that Breeks and others have been making for a long time. It is, in effect, the mandate and our Sovereign will, in action. Direct routes don’t get any straighter than that.
He also said achieving Indy by a democratic vote – he did not specify it to an unobtainable ‘gold standard’ S30 Indyref2. ‘a vote’.
The problem I have with SNP 1 is that I love women, have done all my life. Was fortunate enough to be raised in a household of 4 women (Mum, Gran and two aunts) with dad and granddad working all hours and consequently remote. I’ve had partners and broken hearts and made mistakes and it all hurt – love does doesn’t it? Grown now and old, I have a wife, son, daughter in law and two female grandchildren.
Regretfully my local SNP MSP voted for the hate crime bill and no doubt will do the same on GRA.
I have no issue with Tran sexual people, they have gone through their own type of mental and physical hell to affirm themselves and should be supported by all of us.
My issue is with misogyny, the SNP have failed women on it with their one sided hate crime bill, they preferred to side with what I call “Hybrid T’s” (neither one thing nor another) and their associated supporters.
NO. I will no betray my women folk.
SNP 1 is not on, spoiled paper for the first and hopefully last time in my puff.
You make my point WeeChid.
Calum @7:23
“Anyone who wants Sturgeon
to lose her seatis an enemy of Scottish independence”.There, fixed it for you.
You’re welcome!
🙂
Re Stoker @ 7.20pm
I assume the £500k you refer to is the costs awarded to AS following the collapse of the judicial review. I may be wrong but that cost fell on the Scottish taxpayer, not the SNP. Just another 1/2 mil their incompetence and corruption has cost us.
I mean, what a post this is. Well said Vicky.
link to twitter.com
@Calum 7.23pm
Utter nonsense. Sturgeon is now beyond the pale for many of us. I’d happily see her – and quite a few others in her coterie – ejected from office and if possible prosecuted. The biggest obstacle to independence right now is the SNP, not the feckless British nationalists branch office parties in Scotland.
I neither want nor expect an SNP majority. They are a clear and present danger to independence, to good governance, and to our basic civil rights. Anyone who wants them to have a majority isn’t someone we should be making common cause with, but someones we should shun for the regressive anti democrats they are.
Still amazed after all tgese years that even some indy supporters don’t understand how the Scottish Parliamentary elections work.
Andy Ellis says:
(…) The biggest obstacle to independence right now is the SNP, not the feckless British nationalists branch office parties in Scotland.
I can’t remember the last time I read something as objectively moronic as this. It’s almost the most perfect example of making up some bs to try and sound knowledgeable.
ramfineday says:
27 March, 2021 at 7:40 pm
NO. I will no betray my women folk.
SNP 1 is not on, spoiled paper for the first and hopefully last time in my puff.
I’am looking for something that hits the mark for a spoiled for all to use in solidarity with their disgust of the SNP leadership !
Brian says:
27 March, 2021 at 7:53 pm
Still amazed after all tgese years that even some indy supporters don’t understand how the Scottish Parliamentary elections work.
Being on here at the point when the WOS commentators realized they have to vote SNP to make Eck’s plan work was pure comedy gold.
“You know perfectly well that Sarwar will get in on the list anyway”
No, I do not know that, actually. I am hoping ALBA gets enough votes to stop him getting via the list. What we need is an independent candidate in the constituency to stop both him and her getting in via the constituency ballot. I think that candidate could be somebody like Mr Sheridan. He is both a well known pro indy activist and also a socialist. If anybody can hoover up votes from both labour and SNP is him.
Interesting. So Eva Comrie was first on Mid Scot & Fife regional list, but as she moves to Alba. Stefan moves up and is now ranked 1st.
link to twitter.com
link to twitter.com
What I don’t understand about all this “Supermajority” business; Is If it is so easy for a Constituency Party to form a duplicate different party for the List, then why don’t all the parties do that?
As this is surely a vulnerability in the D’Hondt system.
ramfineday says:
27 March, 2021 at 7:40 pm
NO. I will no betray my women folk.
… but you’ll vote for big Eck?
It’s been good to see so many indepence supporters energized, up for it, ready to fight for their country, after all the apathy the SNP had created – people planning to spoil their constituency vote and maybe vote ISP/AFI on the list.
Suddenly, the game is now on! SNP1, to help ALBA’s quest for list seats, ALBA2.
The Scottish system is weird. Designed by Tony Blair’s Labour, with the help of other Westminster parties – I don’t know how much input the SNP of the time had but apparently they went along with it, on the principle that “something, anything, is better than nothing”.
Anyways, Lab envisioned to always be in power in Scotland, helped by the LibDems. Comfortably keeping the SNP out.
That all changed in 2007, when Alex Salmond led the SNP to become the largest party in Holyrood and formed the first independence-supporting Scottish government. (Changed the name from “Executive” to “Government”. Also tried to separate powers by ditching the Lord Advocate as a minister in his government – Nicola Sturgeon invited the Lord Advocate right back in!)
Anyhoo, Alex Salmond achieved the unachievable in 2011: an SNP majority on a system designed not to give an outright majority to any party.
Times are different now.
Nicola Sturgeon lost that majority in 2016 and her government are held hostage to the Greens, the strongest advocates of redefining women as anybody (read: men) who feelz that way; strongest advocates of denying female (of the biological XX variety) victims of sexual assault to request a medical examiner of their own sex (of the XX variety); strongest supporters of the SNP’s Humza Yousaf’s Hate Crime Bill, which affords more protections to casually cross-dressing men than it does to women.
Apparently Nicola Sturgeon and Patrick Harvie had already been in talks about forming a pseudo-pro-indy coalition government after the election. With ministerial positions for selected Greens.
In drops the bomb. Alba Party on the list. Home for all the indy supporters feeling disenfranchised by the direction the SNP has been taking since 2014.
The Alba Party’s pitch – max the indy vote – makes sense because of the weird Scottish system.
Are they gaming the system? Yes, of course they are! The Westminster parties designed this system, now reap what they sowed. ha ha ha!
What I don’t get is the SNP, and the St Nikla cult, getting their knickers in such a twist. If the aim is independence, surely the more independence supporting MSPs, the better?
Unless the first priority isn’t independence but to brag about a million wasted votes.
The Alba Party is recommending people to vote SNP on the constituency, therefore minimizing the SNP’s chances of getting list MSPs. (And seeing some of the woke horrors on top of SNP lists, that’s a good thing!) Then vote Alba on the list to maximize independence-supporting MSPs in Holyrood.
This endorsement might actually see the SNP constituency vote holding up – many were ready to spoil their ballots but now have a reason to vote SNP1 – the SNP should be on their knees thanking the Alba Party! 😀
The Alba Party would be replacing mostly unionist party MSPs. Maybe a Green or few, maybe an SNP MSP or two. But if the common aim is independence… why is that so bad?
Unless it’s all about Nikla and her ego and big (wasted) SNP numbers.
People can only vote within the system they’re given. The Scottish system gives Scottish indepence supporters, if they use their votes wisely, the chance to deliver a Scottish Parliament with MORE independence-supporting MSPs, percentage-wise, than there is support for independence.
If Holyrood was fully proportional representation, this could never happen – the UK insistence on FPTP constituency seats and the related political culture may come to bite them in the arse.
Anyway, this election just got interesting!
@ian murray says:
27 March, 2021 at 6:54 pm
“There are now 4 Independence parties in Scotland and 3 Unionist parties With the d’Hondt system are we not better with the ISP party sticking around because their votes would not be recalculated giving them a chance of at least one list seat.”
First up, there’s not four independence parties, there’s fourteen which have renewed their registrations faithfully year after tortuous year:
In order of foundation, they are
1. Scottish National Party – est 1934
2. Scottish Green Party – est 1989 (‘officially’ since 1990 though)
3. Scottish Socialist Party – est 1998
4. Free Scotland Party – est 2004, rebranded as Restore Scotland 2021.
5. (Scottish) Solidarity – est 2006
6. Scottish Democratic Alliance – est 2009 – (whose second registered emblem the ISP appear to have stolen)
7. Scottish Libertarians (2012)
8. Scottish Democrats (2015)
9. Red Party of Scotland (2018)
10. Scotland Unhyphenated (!) (2018)
11. Independence for Scotland Party (2020)
12. Alliance/Action For Independence (2020)
13. Scotia Future (2020)
14. Scotland’s Independence Referendum Party (2021)
15. Alba Party (2021)
Of the above, the SNP, SSP, FSP/RS, SL, ISP, SF, SIRP and AP have all confirmed they’re standing – Solidarity stood down for AFI which in turn stood down for the Alba Party.
That still leaves us with ten.
If we discount parties 6, 8, 9 and 10 as dead in all but registration, and 4 as just Brian Nugent’s latest Shetland soapbox, that leaves us with eight.
SNP, Greens, SSP, Libertarians, ISP, SF, SIRP and AP – one of those I know for a fact is on the verge of stepping down in favour of the AP, but you’ll find that out in due course. But will any of the remaining seven see sense?
Daisy Walker says,
“I cannot answer for Mia (plus she reasons out her own opinions very well anyway). But I was also of the No Plebiscite Indy vote, no vote – standpoint.
What has changed for me, is that I trust Alex, if he had not been serious about Indy there would never have been Indyref 1.”
Are you now giving your list vote to ALBA?
Mia’s “opinions” seem designed to mislead posters here.
Is she now giving her list vote to ALBA or is she still withdrawing it (“No plebiscite, no list vote”).
I don’t care what she does with her votes, but at this moment in time she should not be deliberately misleading posters (and also regarding Sarwar, see above).
beflox says:
27 March, 2021 at 7:58 pm
Brian says:
27 March, 2021 at 7:53 pm
Still amazed after all tgese years that even some indy supporters don’t understand how the Scottish Parliamentary elections work.
Being on here at the point when the WOS commentators realized they have to vote SNP to make Eck’s plan work was pure comedy gold.
——-
Was it? Why would that be?
Did you not say you’ve joined the alba party. If so, for what purpose?
Mia says,
“No, I do not know that, actually.”
Now you know.
Or do you not trust the Rev. Stuart Campbell?
Rev. Stuart Campbell says (Scheming on a mirage),
“It’s much the same as the Glasgow Southside situation. You’re not choosing between Anas Sarwar and Nicola Sturgeon – Sarwar is top of the Labour list so he’s getting in no matter what happens. What you’re effectively doing with your constituency vote in Glasgow Southside is choosing between two SNP MSPs – Sturgeon or Roza Salih. If you’d prefer Salih, vote Sarwar on the constituency paper.)”
Hi Red,
Sorry, I was in the middle of something.
The recurring theme on the list was the rich in the money.
who were all for the status quo tax dodges or the likes of
the BBC who are of course Westminster’s propaganda channel.
Brexit was of the rich for the rich by the rich.
robbo says:
27 March, 2021 at 8:04 pm
Did you not say you’ve joined the alba party. If so, for what purpose?
That question has literally nothing to do with what I posted.
Beflox @ 7.55pm
You did not analyse or offer any evidence to refute any part of the comment by Andy Ellis before reaching your conclusion. I think that meets the criteria required of a moron.
Elmac says:
I think that meets the criteria required of a moron.
No, it doesn’t.
@Elmac
If you google back past posts of Beflox, you’ll see it’s just a troll looking for “bites”.
Mark Boyle says:
27 March, 2021 at 8:08 pm
@Elmac
If you google back past posts of Beflox, you’ll see it’s just a troll looking for “bites”.
That’s not exactly accurate – it’s just amusing to come in here and witness first hand how stupid the majority of the people on here are. Simple as that.
Tommy Sheridan standing as an Independent in Glasgow Southside on the Constituency first vote.
That’s a pretty bloody good shout.
Indy folks who cant bring themselves to vote Sarwar might go TS, which could certainly dilute her vote enough to let Sarwar in (although, I would take Tommy any day of the week) and NS out of Holyrood.
I’d even consider fronting his deposit.
Mia says,
“I am hoping ALBA gets enough votes to stop him getting via the list.”
But you ARE NOT VOTING FOR ALBA, right?
I don’t care whether you do.
But why are you deliberately misleading voters?
Mark Boyle @ 8.08pm
You are correct but it does go against the grain to ignore offensive idiots. Will try harder.
There seem to be real problems contacting Alba. After joining on Friday which took quite a while I got an email thanking me for joining but no membership number. I have tried replying but all I get is a message that “the Domain Name System (DNS ) reported that the recipients domain does not exist. Tell their email admin it appears that their domain isn’t properly registered at their domain registrar. It’s likely that the recipients email admin is the only one who can fix this problem”
Jockanese Wind Talker says:
27 March, 2021 at 6:41 pm
Angus Robertson really does still believe the SNP can win in Edinburgh Central.
Mug.
I suppose he has to lie about List Votes as part of the deal to get the selected spot as SNP candidate.
I wonder how he’s feeling about being asked to pay twice for what he thought was a done deal?
Does anyone know how he got on with his crowdfunders, he had one on twitter and another on facebook ?
Kcor says,
To make it perfectly clear to Mia:
Rev. Stuart Campbell says (Scheming on a mirage),
“Sarwar is top of the Labour list so he’s getting in no matter what happens.”
Or do you still see some ambiguity in that statement by the Rev. Stuart Campbell?
Effijy
You couldn’t be more wrong. I know plenty of well off folks who are losing money hand over fist due to Brexit – and it hasn’t even bit properly yet. And we have the hangover of covid to face yet.
Sorry, Eff, like it or not, this was the common man with fuck all to lose smacking the establishment right in the mooth.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve had their fill of democracy!
We will all pay for Brexit. Rich and Poor.
Elmac says:
27 March, 2021 at 8:12 pm
Mark Boyle @ 8.08pm
You are correct but it does go against the grain to ignore offensive idiots. Will try harder.
Yeah, try harder. Here’s a tip – it’s called “listen and learn” rather than “listen and just think of something to say in reply.”
Daisy Walker @ 4:03 pm
“I’ve also met far too many genuinely nice English people that go blind, deaf and dumn when it comes to taking very good Scottish jobs, and then recruiting fellow Englishers to the next ones available.”
I discovered a similar ‘practice’ whilst working in the ‘Scottish’ higher education sector for some 25 years, which helps explain why barely 10% of academics at some of Scotland’s elite universities are Scots.
This phenomenon was described by Prof Michael Hechter as a ‘Cultural Division of Labour’ within the UK ‘Internal Colonialism model’. It is also a function of a smaller populated country advertising all its best jobs in the far larger populated neighbouring country next door.
As Aime Cesaire wrote that:
“..no one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either..”
James Barr Gardner @8:13
Angus Robertson crowdfunder Target 0k -so far – £4,610
Thought I would pop in for a quick look here and on Twitter. That was two fucking hours ago… 🙂
Once thing appears to be a certainty this May – the Greens are screwed.
As someone has already posted similar earlier, I’m beginning to wonder if someone has done a deal with Labour and Lib Dems. A three-way coalition is not unheard of.
I know it’s early days, and party leaders are setting out their “visions”. But I have a nagging suspicion.
beflox says:
27 March, 2021 at 8:06 pm
robbo says:
27 March, 2021 at 8:04 pm
Did you not say you’ve joined the alba party. If so, for what purpose?
That question has literally nothing to do with what I posted.
———
I think it’s very relevant actually. Did you ,or did you not say on here yesterday that you had joined the alba party?
There’s a lot of very long time Indy supporters and very long time posters struggling very much with the idea of sanctioning a vote for the SNP at this time and , will I’m sure make their decision nearer the time.
What ALEX has said is not “comedy gold” as you put it, but a strategic decision but it’s also but a real struggle with SNP
voters on here after events of the past few years and their conscience .They will make their decision based on facts nearer the time I’m sure.
“comedy gold” it is not!
“Do you still intend to withhold your list vote”
No. I will be voting for ALBA. I was listening very carefully to what Mr Salmond said yesterday and he clearly stated that an independence referendum is just an strategy. Not THE strategy. He mentioned other possible strategies, like the plebiscite or, if I heard correctly, taking the legal case in an international court. He was all the time talking about delivering independence, not pushing the SNP to deliver a referendum. If I remember correctly, he also stated that while he thought the S30 was the best option in 2014, this is no longer 2014, things have changed and what was good then it is not necessarily good now anymore.
If you go to their website, within the tab of “supermajority” this is what they say:
“The #Supermajority will be the only mandate needed to begin negotiating Scotland’s independence as a parliament, rather than just a party”
I have also noticed that Mr Salmond’s party does not water down the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath like the pathetic Sturgeon did last year. Mr Salmond was at all effects saying that a vote for his party is a vote for independence. That kind of commitment to independence is the commitment I have been looking for since that disgraceful speech delivered by Sturgeon on 31 January 2020. That kind of commitment is something I can definitely align with.
He also explained that for better or for worse, we need to give legitimacy to whatever strategy Parliament chooses to deliver independence. And that means a supermajority. I do not think a supermajority is necessary but I can understand why he wants it. I also suspect that a superb tactician like Mr Salmond has another reason under his sleeve to ask for the supermajority, not just in terms of convincing Johnson, but rather in convincing somebody away from the boundaries of the UK so that is something I can also align with.
On that basis, I will be delighted to cast my vote for ALBA in the list.
With regards to the constituency, I am afraid I am not sure yet and I will need convincing. I hear Mr Salmond and that we need to vote for the SNP OR a pro indy party in the constituency in order to get this pro-indy supermajority. But the truth is that I am still too hurt for the total contempt Sturgeon and her acolytes have shown for our mandates, for our rights, for justice, for democracy, for our sovereignty, for loyalty, for women and girls and for our right to self determination.
The corruption Sturgeon’s government has displayed in the last few years, the way they foisted on us that hate bill and the GRA nonsense and the malicious prosecutions is not something I can morally or ethically ever align with or endorse. Therefore I am struggling to commit to cast my vote for the SNP. I am not ready for that just yet. I am still very much hoping there will be an independent pro indy candidate in my constituency I can vote for.
Does that answer your question?
.
Beflox.
I just read your comment about Andy Ellis being a moron. I like Andy. He writes a lot of common sense. He is a decent person. I would like to buy Andy a pint one day.
Where as you Beflox are an Amadan and a troll.
Be like Andy 🙂
This thread and others are polluted with Beflox and a HUGE amount of “new” members from Jacksons Entry. Your ad hominem attacks on Andy and others here are so obvious. You lack class, you have no wit. You are 100% without intellect nor ability to debate. You even say that Wings Over Scotland is comedy gold and seem to think this is a humorous quip. Twatt (is a village in Orkney).
Beflox, did you not read the title of this thread nor it’s contents?
You appear to be Comedy Crap. Perhaps Comedy Clap.
Do you not understand that the “Gold” here is the British Establishment infiltration of the SNP being exposed in the next six weeks and converted into votes for the Alba Party? Along with the imminent exposure of Nicola Sturgeon as a plant, a women’s right killer (TERF Gold), or just an over-promoted actress?
All of which is about to set the Scottish political scene alight with DECENT debate about HONEST politics.
How? From a nation within which you will find a large and growing percentage NEED somewhere to place their vote other than empower the Sturgeon McWokeists nor the Labour nonentities nor the Willie-Dem Fibbers, nor our Tory Coloniallist overlords and our Governor General Sir Douglas Ross OBE, CBE, RTAC.
Stuart, PLEASE can we have another treat? A lot to ask for since “The Lifeline” was announced and we’ve all gone a bit post-war demob happy. Please can you let us know the Wings Over Scotland site visitor stats! I know they should be around 150,000 per month, but would bet a bottle of that weird gin you tipple that there are at least 900,000 site visits to Wings Over Scotland this month?
As for the growing number of new Beflox trolls trying to infest Wings, Beflox, you have been outed as a slithering troll who thinks the lives of Scottish people who care about honest democracy is pure comedy gold.
Please just fuckity fuck off dear chap. Belfluck off.
Seriously Stu., I will donate £250 to Wings to buy a WordPress website theme plugin that allows Wingers to do what they can on Twitter. That is to MUTE or make INVISIBLE the trolls on a Winger contributors account AND another £100 donation if you could buy a WordPress internet site plugin so those of us blighted by IPad autocorrect can go back and EDIT the errors and typos from our BTL contribution.
Effigy
Who said anything about Labour running the NHS?
Jesus God.
You do the over dramatic thing a bit too much.
I am campaigning for the Labour candidate in the Constituency of The First Minister of Scotland so she loses her seat.
If it was Humpty Dumpty who had the most credible chance of taking her seat, I would be campaigning for Humpty Dumpty.
I think sometimes you just kid on you are a brainless numbnut.
You know what I am doing, you just don’t want your beloved Nicola losing her seat.
You are one of those who say,
“I know Sturgeon is an absolute bastard but…”
Just the same as the “Proud Scot But…” Brigade do.
Your trouble is you are stuck in a 2013 time warp.
You need to get yourself up to speed with what had been happening over the last six years.
@Papko,
i think under electoral commission rules you can`t field a B team,
a new party cannot be affiliated or be seen to be affiliated with another party,
if EC thought the `Allapphha 🙂 party` were just SNP in disguise trying to soak up the list seats they would not allow it,
anyhoo the yoon parties don`t get many Constituancy seats so setting up another party for the lists wouldn`t help them.
i think.
although as we know rules don`t mean sh@t in Scotland.
Stupid question maybe, why didnt a majority of Snp mp’s/ msp’s abolish the D’Hondt system. As like in when they had 56 mp’s representing Scotland, do as they should have done, not do as they were telt by westminster.
hundredth said –
“Sorry, Eff, like it or not, this was the common man with fuck all to lose smacking the establishment right in the mooth.”
Down here in England, I had a feeling that all previous protest votes having been ignored, this was more kicking against the traces. I recall a Labour MP saying previously something like – ‘Oh you always get mid-term protest votes, we just ignore them. Get that stitched, said the electorate.
They had ‘£350M for the NHS’ as justification, too.
And before anyone replies, f**k the supreme court.
Beaker 8.21pm. Thats ok, let that poisonous reptilian fm do any deals she likes with the unionist parties. At the following GE the Alba party can then declare it a plebiscite election for Scotland contesting every seat from orkney to the borders.
@Beflox 7.58 pm
You patently wouldn’t know objective reality if it jumped up and bit you in the arse.
The SNP has no desire to deliver independence in any reasonable timescale, nor does it have a plan to do so. Even if it did, those currently in charge are complicit in everything we’ve seen go wrong recently. They can’t be trusted, nor can the membership, which has signally failed to clear out the Augean stable which is the leadership and activist base.
Still….gradualists gonna gradualise. There’s none so blind as Strugeonista loyalists.
That’s what I’m saying.
The rich and powerful wanted Brexit for them.
They knew it would be a disaster for us plebs so the Cummings
and Media journalists were tasked with coming up with all the
£350 million per week for the NHS crap.
Yes they got the majority of the votes but there is Jack shit in it for Joe average.
The rest of the world is independent so it’s obvious we should but there is so much
Money in keeping us chained they just can’t let us or common sense free.
It’s well worth their millions spent on propaganda owning newspapers, TV and Radio
as it returns billions.
It the plantation owner assuring everyone that the slaves just couldn’t survive without him.
Some of the slaves believed him and some didn’t have the courage to question him.
Well Barak Obama got a pretty big job and made a success of it even with the odds against him.
So can Scotland.
BBC headline all day has been ‘”Significant questions” over Salmond election bid’, parrotting the smears from Sturgeon.
If you feel that this is an unwarranted attack on a man found innocent in court then the BBC have a ‘Complaints’ page at link to bbc.co.uk through which you can ask them ‘What are those significant questions?’, ‘Why are you repeating Sturgeon defamatory harassment of an innocent man’ and ‘Why does the BBC refuse to accept Salmond’s innocent?’. You can also provide further feedback on your thoughts regarding their coverage, and, as complaints should be actionable, do something like invite them to remove that article entirely and post an apology instead.
But maybe it’s just me that thinks this is a horribly biased and political headline and story for them to be posting.
Well done Kenny MacAskill. Westminster is now irrelevant to the struggle for Scottish independence. The real battle is in Holyrood and having tried and tested fighters like AS and Kenny to lead the fight offers the whole independence movement renewed hope. Both me and my wife Gail have now joined the Alba party and we will do all we can to promote their electoral challenge. Let’s Max The Yes and elect more independence advocates in place of useless unionists. The SNP 1 / Alba 2 call is now the embodiment of Both Votes Independence. Stay as positive as possible throughout the campaign. Bring the independence supporters who give SNP their 1st & 2nd votes over to our side through persuasion and civil argument. Don’t stoop low to the level of SNP cult abuse.
OK, this is what I think is happening.
They are looking to remove ALBA from standing.
These fuckers think they can make it up as they go along, so nothing would surprise me.
They are also quite unhinged, hysterical, in fact.
Blimey. Kirstein Rummery. She seems nice…
Some of her tweets are beyond the pale and are really nasty smears on Stu, Craig Murray, Alex and Tommy Sheridon. Awful stuff. Hope she removes it as it’s absolute poison.
We all want Indy. Wtaf is all the nastiness about?
If the SNP have taken an ALBA Party web domain, is it beyond imagination that those who are looking in vain for their acknowledgement of joining ALBA have actually joined the SNP?
@ Kroc
I will be voting Alba on the list. Sorry if I never made that clear before.
As I live in John Swinney’s Constituency – and I am raging about the corruption with ScotGov that I feel he has contributed to – can I vote for him on the Constituency vote?
Before Friday that was 100% no.
Alex is making me rethink. And there still is a chance that another decent Indy candidate may stand on the Constituency vote here – in which case they will almost certainly get my vote.
I think Alba’s plan of SNP 1 and Alba 2 is very, very good. I also think there is room for tactical voting on the Constituency vote – not across the SNP board but in certain areas, for certain ‘leaders’ – and that polling nearer the time, might well inform who to vote for then.
My fear is if we get a Supermajority with an unchanged SNP leadership remaining elected – they will do all that they can to obstruct, delay, prevent any and all attempts to push for Indy in spite of Alex’s best efforts.
I would not put it past Sturgeon – if re-elected to go into coalition with Labour and or libdems – rather than Alba – if it came down to it.
MacLam says:
27 March, 2021 at 9:22 pm
If the SNP have taken an ALBA Party web domain, is it beyond imagination that those who are looking in vain for their acknowledgement of joining ALBA have actually joined the SNP?
————
Well if this the case it would fraud i expect along with deception and I’m sure electoral commission would be keen to have a look maybe?
From twatter
‘I imagine Gordon Brown is being defrosted just now ‘
Killer laugh!!
My preferred option for spoiling a constituency ballot – if required – will to be to wrte
REDACTED
Across the names, and a single line scored through all the boxes.
Sylvia says:
27 March, 2021 at 8:20 pm
James Barr Gardner @8:13
Angus Robertson crowdfunder Target 0k -so far – £4,610
Thanks Sylvia,
I think between the 2 crowdfunds he was hoping to raise £15K, less than 1/3 after 3 weeks. It does not seem to bode well for him in Edinburgh.
Stoker @ 7.20
I have an e mail from NS dated 13/3/2017 titled Scotland’s Referendum finishing with the words:
“The success of our campaign will rely on the hard work and good will of tens of thousands of ordinary people across the country.
Be part of it. Make a donation today.”
Then there are another three e mails about Scotland’s referendum and T.May taking us up to 28/3/2017 when NS sent out this e mail titled Scotland’s referendum wins Holyrood backing and finishing with this sentence:
“What kind of Scotland do we want to be? Support #ScotRef and donate today.”
Then it jumps to May 17 and she is asking for funds for the 2017 General Election which cost T May her majority and scuppered NS’s plans – if any- for a referendum then.
I think that might be the bit your looking for – in which case it is before the Salmond stuff begins to take shape.
Didn’t he hint at standing in the 2017 election and wasn’t that the trigger for the accusations etc.?
Maybe someone else can confirm that was the timescale for the Referendum fighting fund.
While I will always welcome Alex Salmond’s return, what I’d like to know is – and I shall bow to the superior knowledge of Wings and its regulars here – just how effective could Alba be, if the SNP were to somehow scrape a majority on their own, or god help us all, if they could cobble a majority again with The Greens?
If Alba don’t hold the balance of power, then from what I can see, the best they could do is expose the SNP for the time-wasting charlatans they are over the next five years, which will only benefit us when we get to vote Sturgeon and co. out in 2026? Is there another scenario in this outcome?
Richard Thomson SNP MP for Gordon whining on Twitter that we must not vote for Alba as it would be seen as ‘gaming the system’ and unfair to the unionists. The formation of a new indy party is really shining the spotlight on just how little commitment to Indy exists among SNP representatives.
Re: Scott Finlayson’s comments.
Thinking of rugby, do Wasps have a B team?
Meg Merrilees,
I remember it was Keith Brown out with the begging bowl (indy fundraiser) not sure of the date though, 2016???
” James Barr Gardner says:
27 March, 2021 at 9:41 pm
Sylvia says:
27 March, 2021 at 8:20 pm
James Barr Gardner @8:13
Angus Robertson crowdfunder Target 0k -so far – £4,610
Thanks Sylvia,
I think between the 2 crowdfunds he was hoping to raise £15K, less than 1/3 after 3 weeks. It does not seem to bode well for him in Edinburgh.”
================================================================================================
I can remember him talking to me at length on my doorstep when he came canvassing for votes in Moray way back in the day when the SNP was a Nationalist Party. He isn’t that man any longer. I used to live in Edinburgh Central at one int and if I was still living there I couldn’t vote for him after what he has said about Salmond and the Alba Party.
It pains me to say it but Angus Robertson is beyond the pale now as far as I am concerned.
@ Stoker 7.20 pm – this might help.
16th March 2017 Terrible May officially rejects NS S 30 / IR2 request. ‘Now is not the Time.’
4th May 2017 – Scottish Local Elections
8th June 2017 – Terrible May calls a GE and wins.
AS loses his seat.
NS takes IndyRef2 off the table. Now is not the time.
A marked difference in her attitude is seen.
‘Not until the Terms of Brexit are Known becomes the mantra.
13th June 2017 Not sure if this is correct date?- Ref-Scot taken down at £482,000 of £1 million target – no accounts published for same – which is a contravention of Electoral Commission rules, and extremely bad practice. Terms and conditions of the fund raiser were that it was specifically to be Ring Fenced for the next Indy Ref, and not used to fund day to day SNP party expenditure.
The Brexit deadline time line is I think November 2018 ish.
Mark MacDonald MSP in Aberdeenshire area, faces allegations Mid 2017 of sexual harassment. Full enquiry revealed he had texted a female co-worker using the word ‘dingied’ and auto correct changed it to ‘fingered’ – in his text he told her of this and made a joke that it was a good thing he’d checked before he sent it. Forced to resign Nov 2017
July 2017 (source Civil Service World) HM Revenue and Customs confirm the go ahead on a new Civil Service Hub to be built at Waverly St, Edinburgh to staff 11 Civil Servant departments – 3,000 positions. 20 year lease taken out. Artisan the contractor.
August 2017 Police Scotland drop / close the enquiry into Michelle Thompson MP (she lost her seat in the GE earlier). No charges ever brought against her. It took Police Scotland from Sept 2015 – August 2017 to establish she had not committed any crime!!!
**** check date/yr 30th August 2017 Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans meets with Civil Servant Unions to attempt to gain support against AS.
Both Pete Wishart – October 2017 and Tommy Shepherd (Tommy did this in a public talk, as far as I can tell he was the first person to run this up the flagpole, since then he has kept his head down on this subject (his background is old/new labour) start to talk about ‘not until after Brexit and the hard effects are felt, should we go for IndyRef2’. PW is fully supported in this view by John Swinney.
October 2017 ScotGov begins review of complaints policy. Aamer Anwar makes allegations of ‘ticking time bomb’ ‘catalogue’ of sexual harassment at HR.
AS new ‘procedures’ get drafted and put into action….
There is an interesting poll on at the moment of this gentleman’s Twitter. He’s an Indie type but clearly not a supporter of either Mr Salmond or Nicola Sturgeon
@M_Bizquits
For those of us worrying about FAKE ALBA sites as mentioned further up this Thread:
The Lifeline article yesterday on Wings has a large ALBA blue connector at top of article.
Just CLICK on it. It’s genuine.
@Chris Downie – no expert either but I’d say that you’re partly right; holding the balance of power would be best, but also the effect of Alba is to push the SNP to focus on indy so there’s less of a nuanced message and therefore a potential get-out after the election e.g. yes, we said there’d be a referendum but we need to do x, y, z first and wait for the best moment. I guess it’s a kind of “nudge” effect.
Richard Thomson SNP MP for Gordon
link to twitter.com
Down pointing backhand indexExactly this. Even if a supermajority could be created, it’s unrepresentative & as easily dismissed as a non-majority.
Unionist MSPs get in because people vote for them. Change that by changing minds, not by gaming the system & giving folk reasons not to respect the outcome.
Quote Tweet
Andrew Wilson
@AndrewWilson
· 7h
I joined @theSNP when I was 16 – 34 years ago. I was politicised by CND then the steel and poll tax campaigns. They were all things done to Scotland and unfair democratically because of a Westminster “supermajority” for the Tories for decades. Supermajorities are anti-democratic.
Show this thread
————
Really Mr?
Unionist MSPs get in because people vote for them? You don’t say Robin ? of Batman (bangs head frustratingly on desk)
Isn’t that the whole point of a political party – to get people to vote for you? Enough people vote, you win seats.
The SNP really need to get a bloody grip of their entitlement bullshit.
@ Meg merrilees at 9.42
The 2017 election is when he lost his Westminster seat. Any “hints” must have come later, in another context.
(The only e-mails from NS in 2017 that I’ve bothered to keep – I was on the mailing list as an occasional donor, never a member – are from June and September. The first explains why the GE has caused her to back off from a referendum and how she’ll talk to us again once the Brexit negotiations are over; the second is waffle about her wonderful plans for government, including the setting-up of a national investment bank!)
Contrary says:
27 March, 2021 at 9:39 pm
My preferred option for spoiling a constituency ballot – if required – will to be to wrte
REDACTED
Across the names, and a single line scored through all the boxes.
Genius!
A. Bruce @8:13pm
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a big table of addresses that converts names like http://www.albaparty.org into the IP address, namely 162.159.128.45. Changes get made to the DNS table where the domain name is registered and then that gets copied across the internet to all the other DNS servers, for example to the one that your internet service has. Usually it happens in a few hours but sometimes it can take a long time.
Sounds like either there’s a problem with your internet service provider OR somebody didn’t set up the DNS records for sending emails correctly.
In either case, wait a day or so and it should sort itself out.
Andy Ellis says:
“The SNP has no desire to deliver independence in any reasonable timescale”
Stating this as fact is a complete nonsense.
“Still….gradualists gonna gradualise. There’s none so blind as Strugeonista loyalists.”
You’re an idiot. Seriously …
@beflox 10.20pm
Says the man big on assertion, but coming up empty on actual analysis and argument. That’s us all convinced then…..
…so, tell us the SNP’s Plan to deliver indy. So far it’s looking like unicorns for everyone after the British nationalists unaccountably do just what we ask. And you accuse me of talking nonsense, for stating the overwhelming probability?
You reek of Sturgeonista loyalism. How’s that working out? She and her cronies seem to be having a bit of a meltdown. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch….
@Mikey d
Holyrood can change the Electoral system under the 2016 Scotland Act, but it needs 2/3 of MSPs to agree
The pursuit of indy over anything else got us into this mess. Any idea that sturgeon is the victim of a UK plot to destroy indy and salmond have been put to bed with her actions in the last few days.
Voting SNP 1 is now nothing more than wheest for indy. Like many people I can not and will not vote SNP ever again.
It is not just sturgeon. The majority of that party are not innocent nor unwilling participants in this plot to destroy salmond.
Al-Stuart says:
27 March, 2021 at 8:30 pm
.
Beflox.
I just read your comment about Andy Ellis being a moron (…)
In fact, I didn’t say he was a moron. You just did. I said his comment was moronic. So, the fifteen or so minutes you spend composing the rest of your idiot rant was wasted. Never mind.
Sunday Herald; ‘Glitch reveals names of thousands who signed up to Alba’s website’.
@robbo
Yes I saw Andrew Wilson’s tweet.
He’s the guy who wants to give the Bank of England monetary policy committee and the city of London a supermajority over Scotland’s economy.
Kcor says,
“Do you still intend to withhold your list vote”
Mia says,
“No. I will be voting for ALBA.”
“Does that answer your question?”
Yes, it does.
Your “No plebiscite, no vote” demand was utter nonsense as the list parties would have been lucky to get even 10% of the vote.
I am glad you have seen sense – voting ALBA despite ALBA not meeting your previous repeated demands for having plebiscite in their manifesto.
Hi Chris Downie at 9:47 pm.
“If Alba don’t hold the balance of power, then from what I can see, the best they could do is expose the SNP for the time-wasting charlatans they are over the next five years, which will only benefit us when we get to vote Sturgeon and co. out in 2026? Is there another scenario in this outcome?”
If Alba achieve a decent outcome in the impending Holyrood election, they could then start building public perception of their existence for the next Westminster election (2024?), where they could put up constituency candidates. Having AS as leader, I see as a definite plus, publicity-wise.
Some more defections from the SNP wouldn’t go amiss.
Things are gonna get interesting over the next couple of years…
Mia says:
27 March, 2021 at 2:51 pm
“The SNP may well not be led by NS – not if she loses to Sarwar”
Your comment that we could get rid of both of them is unlikely to hold up. While NS could be toast if she loses the constituency (even if she jumps the queue for a list sea she still might not get in) Sarwar is pretty much assured a seat on the list if he’s front runner -we are not going to be able to keep ALL of the unionists out.
@Benny Nevis-Hill says:
27 March, 2021 at 5:00 pm
“Andy says:
This guy Ross Greer does nothing to endear himself to his electorate does he?
He’s not exactly your baby hugging politician?
He’s more like and looks like Beaker from the Muppets!”
For the avoidance of doubt, I am not Ross Greer, nor do I look like him or the real Beaker 🙂 I am slightly accident prone however. I have a “suite” reserved at A&E…
Glen Clova says:
27 March, 2021 at 10:30 pm
Sunday Herald; ‘Glitch reveals names of thousands who signed up to Alba’s website’.
Just as well I used a vpn and a fake ID. It does all look a bit amateurish.
Ach, just noticed this tweet. Sad news. 🙁
Graham used to post btl on here. Met and chatted with him a few times. He was a good guy and excellent photographer.
link to twitter.com
Link to his site for those that may wish to browse through his pics.
NB. I am not sure if Graham managed the website and sales himself, so best hold off placing any order until further info on whether sales will continue is known.
link to ghgraham.com
Hi Andy Ellis
Is using the word “Sturgeonista” your answer to everything? Asking for a friend …
Apologies, I forgot the square brackets earlier:
[REDACTED]
Would be my preferred spoiled ballot, across all the names.
Mia says,
“With regards to the constituency, I am afraid I am not sure yet and I will need convincing.”
Irrespective of how you vote in your own constituency, what convincing do you need to support a tactical vote for Sarwar to make Sturgeon lose in her Glasgow Southside constituency?
Or would you like Sturgeon to remain an MSP and therefore SNP leader?
Tommy Sheridan is not standing. In fact I had suggested he stand long before you did.
For your convenience, I again quote the Rev. Stuart Campbell:
Rev. Stuart Campbell says (Scheming on a mirage),
“It’s much the same as the Glasgow Southside situation. You’re not choosing between Anas Sarwar and Nicola Sturgeon – Sarwar is top of the Labour list so he’s getting in no matter what happens. What you’re effectively doing with your constituency vote in Glasgow Southside is choosing between two SNP MSPs – Sturgeon or Roza Salih. If you’d prefer Salih, vote Sarwar on the constituency paper.)”
Would you prefer Sturgeon over Salih?
Daisy Walker says,
“@ Kroc
I will be voting Alba on the list. Sorry if I never made that clear before.”
Ok. Now that Mia has also said she will vote for ALBA, that makes it 100% of independence supporters posting here.
Very promising indeed. Something we couldn’t have dreamed of just two days ago.
Despite ALBA’s “supermajority” position, my preferred outcome is no overall control, but more ALBA seats than SNP seats if at all possible, or at least the maximum number of ALBA seats possible.
And I certainly want all SNP Ministers to lose their seats, and Robertson to fail to win his.
Stuart MacKay @ 10:18pm
Thanks for the info Stuart.
Watching Sturgeon on TV today she doesn’t appear too troubled by the emergence of the new party. I think she will keep peddling the line that Salmond is still a wrong un ,even though he was acquitted by the jury. I suppose she believes in the old adage,that if you throw enough mud,some of it will stick. She seems relentless in her character assassination of the man. Politics is indeed a dirty business.
I agree
I think there is many of us and this has to be a good thing, keeping others on their toes
WeeChid says:
27 March, 2021 at 4:34 pm
2Clavie Cheil says:
27 March, 2021 at 4:24 pm
“Is there a contact number for Alba Party or a working contact email? I had a friend join but he didn’t get a receipt or a membership number. I hope somebody here can help out with this.”
Maybe a daft question but has your friend checked their junk mail? I got two or three emails but one of them, the one with the membership receipt, went into the junk mail.2
============================================================================================================
Aye he eventually found it. Not in his junk folder but his “spam” folder. Thought I would alert others to this in the process.
We are of a generation who like receipts at least.
@Daisy Walker
I had a little look at the Anwar allegations a few weeks back.
As far as I remember, the allegations about goings-on in the Scottish Parly only surfaced as a result of an Exclusive Interview Anwar gave with Paul Hutcheon which was then published in the Sunday Herald (if memory serves).
Think about that…an exclusive interview. How exactly does that come about in this particular instance? No doubt an innocent coincidence in timing but a more paranoid person might see a convenient story with just the right amount of suggestive detail coming out at just the right time to suit certain interested parties.
I would invite people to go and find the article because others with far greater knowledge than myself might find parts of the text illuminating.
The wee brass necked gargoyle has flipped her lid. FYI, Alex Salmond has no ‘significant questions’ to answer. He has spent the last two years of life answering all the questions the legal profession could throw at him, and been found innocent. Of course she just leaves her insinuations hanging, as if it is ‘fact’. He has done a round of interviews and answered every question. Were they not ‘significant’ enough for you. Oh, I forgot, you are a failed lawyer. Maybe that explains your ignorance before the law.
As a matter of fact the people who actually do have significant questions to answer are you, and the two Liz’s. You have all spent the last two years avoiding serious questions, refusing the inquiry evidence, redacting stuff that would get you in trouble and ‘forgetting’ large chunks of what you did in your taxpayer funded jobs.
The arrogance is enough now, you bam. If you can’t argue policy and indy, then just leave the adults to do it.
There is, at least from some posters, a rather unfortunate anglophope nativist, blood & soil, vibe abroad tonight. It’s been called out by others before me but all the same it’s very unappealing.
Particularly the idea that English “Settlers/Colonialists” should not be allowed a vote on Scotland’s future.
FFS, if you chose to live in Scotland,then where-ever you come from, you should be allowed to vote on what happens to Scotland.
I’m happy enough to encourage others to vote snp 1, but I can’t do it myself. I’m in Glasgow Cathcart and I absolutely refuse to vote for the little self-absorbed backstabber James Dornan.
I wish someone would give us a reasonable alternative option for first votes. Dornan won that seat with a poxy 16k votes. The Tory and Labour candidates are no-hopers. There’s an opportunity here for someone to beat them all.
All the Salmond/ALBA haters out there, your absence is noted.
And these same people will have the utter brass neck to stand at a Wings Stall and tell the passing punters how much they done to promote the ideals and principles of Rev Stu and Alex Salmond, when in reality they done nothing of the kind because they detest the two of them.
These Chancers fill their buckets with the money of the unknowing public, all under false pretenses.
Then it’s the usual “one to you, one to me” routine.
You know who you are…
ahundredthidiot – thank you.
Robbo, quoting Andrew Wilson:
They were all things done to Scotland and unfair democratically because of a Westminster “supermajority” for the Tories for decades. Supermajorities are anti-democratic.
I see Andrew Wilson hasn’t gotten any wiser as he’s gotten older, guy was always an off-puttingly unctuous speccy geek who gave the impression he thought of himself as the smartest guy in the room (an opinion nobody else shared).
Obviously this is isn’t even an argument in the sense of honest people saying things they believe in good faith, it’s more like Artie Ziff from the Simpsons unconvincingly pleading with Marge not to tell anyone about his wandering hands for the sake of “the town”.
But I enjoyed pulling the wings off Daddy Longlegses as a wean (don’t judge me), so let’s have a quick stab at it anyway.
No, supermajorities aren’t “anti-democratic”, when they’re literally democratically elected in free and fair elections. It wasn’t the popularity of Margaret Thatcher (in England) that led to Scotland’s disenfranchisement during the 80’s, it was the fact that we’re in a political union with a much bigger country that outvotes us.
You’d think a guy who’s been in nationalist politics for 34 years might know this. And of course, he does. He’s just lying and hoping you’re too hypnotised by his amazing Tefal-headed brilliance to notice.
But I think his following tweet gives the game away:
We have to win it as the antidote to, and antithesis of, populist Brexit Britain. Not aping it
Anybody who rails against “populism” – the dangerous idea that politicians should do what voters want, instead of sticking two fingers up to them and doing what the establishment wants – is not on your side.
Because the opposite of populism is unpopularism, which is exactly what the SNP stands for.
The Hate Crimes Bill, the Gender stuff, the illegal discrimination against people on the lists because they’re white or male or able-bodied – these things are all wildly unpopular. But the SNP feels entitled to do it anyway. Why? Because fuck you, that’s why.
The purpose of democracy is to allow for peaceful transitions of power and governance based on broad popular consent. But something’s gone skew-whiff in recent decades, and the political class has gotten it into their pointy little heads that they can keep serving up shit sandwiches to the electorate, and make them eat it. Forever. So that it doesn’t really matter who you vote for, the agenda remains the same.
There’s nothing more anti-democratic than that.
And that, by the way, is how you end up getting Brexit, Trump, and all the exciting happenings still to come as the disastrously stupid, short-sighted and self-serving decisions Western elites have been taking for too many years start manifesting in serious political, social and economic crises. Adam Smith told us there’s a lot of ruin in a nation, but he never claimed it was infinite.
They think we’ll all just sit there and take it like good little boys. That we won’t werewolf and go wild. But as B. Turner Overdrive tried tae warn ye, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
What larks, Pip!
Reading most of the comments here it seems you are doing exactly what you have criticized krankie’s fetishists for doing – “wheesht for indie/ just get indie done and we can sort out the rest later….”. Is Alex going to repeal the hate crime bill?, Stand up for women’s sex based rights?, Pander to the sexual deviants?, Never call fotb interlopers as Scottish as me?, Do not allow them to vote?. Also, have you considered that him running new party is to dilute the vote just enough that there can’t be a referendum during next parliament?.
You must be thinking of a different Guardian to the one I read. They love the SNP. Adore Nicola Sturgeon. Brexit hating, Tory hating, opposed to Boris Johnson (not surprising, as they loved Labour, until the Labour Party in Scotland vanished and reappeared as the SNP). They are feminist, anti TERF and love a party that is actually anti working class, and pro woke middle-class.
When Salmond was lambasting Blair they loved him, but it’s Nicola’s turn now. You wouldn’t know, if you only read the Guardian or the Beeb, what was going on with the parliamentary inquiry, or the whole sordid scandal as it looks as though the SNP decided to knife Salmond. As a long term member of the Labour Party, it galls me that, apart from your goodself, I’ve had to read the Spectator to find out what’s going on in Scotland. The accusations by the ruling SNP elite didn’t have to be true – were Kamenev, or Zinoviev or Bukharin really guilty in the show trials? so don’t believe Sturgeon’s pleas of friendship and long career together. That didn’t stop Stalin in the 1930s and I don’t suppose it will stop the SNP now.
I am a Unionist, and hope the Scots stay in the Union. But it’s a choice the Scots have to make. But if the Scots do go for independence, please, please reform your institutions first.
What the enemy is saying.
The National twitter:-
link to mobile.twitter.com
@ PhilM
I don’t think there was anything accidental about the timing in any way.
Scotland is a village – I’m quite sure Anwar is friendly and willing to do favours for some in the SNP.
In fact I suspect wheels got put in motion back in 2015 when 56 SNP’s went to London.
That’s when the civil service Hub in Edinburgh got the OK, that’s when the Michelle Thomson ‘scandal/not’ was implemented (both she and Tasmina were professionally close to Alex – both got ousted), that’s when NS recruits Leslie Evans as Permanent Secretary, that’s when all the 56 SNP MP’s refuse to vote to bomb Syria.
One year later, NS brings the Lord Advocate back into the Cabinet, after Alex had deliberately separated the posts.
Not accidental when you look back at it.
I cannot bear Alex Massie and the slanderous bile he spouts about Salmond. It is also beyond irksome to constantly hear about women being let down. I don’t like women being let down either but fgs look at the facts. It’s willful ignorance on the part of the press in both Scotland and the rest of the UK.
Neale Hanvey defecting to Alba, per Sky News on Twitter.
Calum. I’ve read some of your comments and I feel I must offer you some advice.You see people who support Nicola Sturgeon are known to have a predeliction for Onanism and I believe that may be because Sturgeon fans watch too much online porn..Do you know that pornography is very bad for you. It usually engenders a false sense of what a woman is in the mind of the observer of porn. I believe this may be a problem in the SNP as they don’t seem to have any time for Independence but all the time in the world to hawk themselves to Unionist Media like a right old bunch of wankers.Do you see our dilemma Calum?
Look at the state of Nicola Sturgeon today – judging by those bags, she only had about 2-3 hours sleep last night:
link to bbc.co.uk
” limey says:
28 March, 2021 at 12:08 am
Neale Hanvey defecting to Alba, per Sky News on Twitter.”
=========================================================================================================
Is that confirmed or just another rumour?
” L.U.T.B. says:
27 March, 2021 at 11:47 pm
There is, at least from some posters, a rather unfortunate anglophope nativist, blood & soil, vibe abroad tonight. It’s been called out by others before me but all the same it’s very unappealing.
Particularly the idea that English “Settlers/Colonialists” should not be allowed a vote on Scotland’s future.
FFS, if you chose to live in Scotland,then where-ever you come from, you should be allowed to vote on what happens to Scotland.”
============================================================================================================
I dont have a problem with the settlers who will vote Yes but I do have a problem with the 80% who would vote No to keep us down. Oh and my father was an English Socialist Shop Steward who was voting SNP before the end of his life. My old man would have told the Tory and UKIP voting white settlers to GTF and he was a quiet man who preferred a good book to anything!
Cough cough Fergus me tit.
Have you or one of your clones not said that already! You aren’t to good at this trolling lark. Age 11+3/4 me thinks.
Today has honestly been one of the best days I have had in a long time. I have had a spring in my step and a virtually orgasmic glow running through me!!
Sturgeon is a tyrant; her vision of Scotland is East Germany with better scenery. There is now virtually no way that she will win a majority. She will be at the mercy of another party and thanks be to God that party will be a pro-independence one led by a man who loves his country and its people first and foremost. A formidable politician with skills and dedication.
What’s more the whole dynamic of the election has been utterly upended and rather than a dismal coronation of St. Nicola of Covid hard questions will be asked. Good.
The leadership’s response has been as arrogant as I would have predicted. They would do well to remember that old adage, “pride comes before a fall!”
I am interested in the Balmoral story, I can only recount the story of my nephew who once served her lunch without any acknowledgement.
Sturgeon will do anything to kill Alba off. If Parliament was still open, she’d be looking at introducing policies to prevent It from taking part in the election. I wonder if that was a factor in the timing of the announcement.
We should expect more lowlife antics from them in the next few days. We all know what they’re capable of.
They’re raging.
AYRSHIRE ROB/robbo/
Which part of my post don’t you like?
And what do you mean by ,,Troll?
I seem to be upsetting you with something I am posting.
Can you tell me what upsets you and I will stop posting anything similar in future posts.
And is this all you have to offer to tonight’s debate?
You would have been better going to bed.
Stay off the cheap stuff, you poor wee fragile snowflake.
Confirmed
Neale Hanvey MP and Lynne Anderson Equalities Convenor move from SNP to Alba. (from Neales twitter account).
That’s a very good point actually!
How about Nicola pretends that she stepped
back and Evans and Lloyd can break the law
again and toss well established and respected
protocol in the bin before employing Crown Prosecutors
to build an extensive police team to make up stories
about how Alex can’t lead a new party?
If there is any stink about it they just need to refuse access to the
government documents, redact them, make them top secret, refuse to
name anyone involved or just say it’s a conspiracy story.
No. You would never get away with that!
” Daisy Walker says:
28 March, 2021 at 12:36 am
Confirmed
Neale Hanvey MP and Lynne Anderson Equalities Convenor move from SNP to Alba. (from Neales twitter account).”
———————————————————————————————————
At this rate they will have more MPs than the Fiberals.
I will call out any of the Chancers who stand at a Wings Stall and have done nothing to contribute to the debate on here.
If I know them to be Wee Ginger Duggers I will call them out as hypocrites who are taking money off of punters under false pretenses.
You know who you are.
@ Big Jock 27 March, 2021 at 2:04 pm
“Anyone want to bet Angus McNeil might be going to Alba!
It would make sense for him”
Can’t see that happening , Western Isles is a small constituency
that traditionally votes SNP , can’t see the old codgers moving from that voting position ever so don’t think McNeill will risk his safe position, even he isn’t that stupid.
Cherry taking time out ? Why ? Just to keep Her head down ? As Alba doesn’t seem to be a well kept secret she must have been sounded out weeks ago already, already stated she won’t be moving ? Can’t see Her flipping back again.
A Person, it gets better.
“Scotland has the highest rate of Covid-19 infection in the UK”, according to an article in the Herald that I just read.
They wanted this election to be about her glorious handling of the pandemic. 10 thousands Scots died quite needlessly and now we have the highest rates of infection in the UK, but that’s basically all they have going for them (providing you stick to comparisons with Boris and Trump).
Her record in government, on Brexit, drug deaths, education, indyref2, coronavirus, the Salmond debacle, and much more, is nothing short of disgraceful.
Yesterday on here I quoted Audit Scotland who revealed that the SNP tried to force them to change their assessment of NHS Scotland’s plans and levels preparedness for the pandemic… it’s hard to imagine us being more badly prepared but the SNP wanted them to say otherwise.
Outside of trying to frame Salmond and the attempted cover-up, the only things they seem to have put any serious time and effort into are GRA and the Hate Crime legislation.
Of course, Alba offers us a glimmer of hope. That we are reduced to celebrating a mere glimmer is entirely down to the deranged priorities of Nicola Sturgeon.
Even now, I’d be glad to see the British Government close down Holyrood. It would take a year or two for us to reconfigure and organise, but we’d probably have a better chance of independence if Holyrood was closed down. We’d at least be left with a more honest fight.
The Rev’s in-box will be filled with the usual Grasses.
AYRSHIRE ROB draws you into an argument, then goes greetin tae the teacher.
If I don’t return you know who stuck me in.
@Effigy 28 March, 2021 at 12:41 am
“That’s a very good point actually!
How about Nicola pretends that she stepped
back and Evans and Lloyd can break the law
again and toss well established and respected
protocol in the bin before employing Crown Prosecutors
to build an extensive police team to make up stories
about how Alex can’t lead a new party?
If there is any stink about it they just need to refuse access to thegovernment documents, redact them, make them top secret, refuse toname anyone involved or just say it’s a conspiracy story.”
FFS , turn the clocks forward, take your medication and go to bed.
Beflox.Maybe for you pornography may be a good distraction to save from posting defamatory comments online. To all other SNP staffers I say desist. Look the Devil in the eye, so to speak, and pray. Down evil snake monster begone with wicked wanker. There. That should help.
Wankery sorry. My device can’t spell.
Clavie Cheil says:
28 March, 2021 at 12:19 am
I dont have a problem with the settlers who will vote Yes but I do have a problem with the 80% who would vote No to keep us down. Oh and my father was an English Socialist Shop Steward who was voting SNP before the end of his life. My old man would have told the Tory and UKIP voting white settlers to GTF and he was a quiet man who preferred a good book to anything!
—————–
Reading is good.
But only allowing a vote who agree with you is out and out facism.
Reading is good.
But only allowing a vote to those who agree with you is out and out facism.
I see Neale Hanvey is now an Alba MP, not bad for a party started a few days 😀
Although it appears that the new Alba MPs will not qualify for short money
the SNP will surely lose 2 MPs’ worth of both general funding and travel expenses. Perhaps that is contributing to their annoyance.
2L.U.T.B. says:
28 March, 2021 at 2:09 am
Reading is good.
But only allowing a vote to those who agree with you is out and out facism.”
================================================================================================================
I guess Kippers/Tories like you who like to keep us down might know more about that than I do.
So my American wife, born and bred in Brooklyn, NY and who has visited Scotland twice in her life, has just said to me, that “it wouldn’t be right if I joined, would it?” I suggested she reviews the policies when they are published and she can make up her own mind.
I have previously told her what happened to Alex Salmond and she is disgusted by his treatment. The message is spreading far and wide. One person at a time is all it takes.
“Alex Salmond is a gambler. It is what he enjoys doing. But this is not the time to gamble with the future of the country.”
Nicola Sturgeon
Has she turned unionist or what?
Margaret Ferrier MP would have nothing to lose by joining ALBA especially after the way the SNP treated her….
Covid 19 disaster yet the Sturgeon and her Cult would rather attack another Indy Party and AS than the Tories for committing mass murder. SNP no longer has any moral backbone.
link to bmj.com
A police investigation led by Police Scotland’s Economic Crime and Financial Unit are now involved.
SNP chief executive Peter Murrell refused to give members of the party’s Finance and Audit Committee access to the party accounts following a pledge to spend £2.1 million on the upcoming Scottish elections. This publication revealed last month the party’s National Executive Committee has committed £600,000 towards “preparations” for another independence referendum.
I have just watched Friday’s Broadcasting Scotland which I have supported financially for 2 years. The show was hosted by Gordon Ross with 2 female guests who attacked Alec Salmond. I have decided not to support B.S. any longer if it’s just going to be a vehicle for the SNP.
Alec Salmond may indeed be a “gambler” but he is a very good one. Sturgeon doesn’t mind employing Unionist rhetoric. What a Turncoat.
I guess Neale Hanvey will be in for some abuse.
West Scotland and Glasgow analysis next please.
Especially on how to rid us Patrick Harvey, Ross Grier and the other Genderists.
West Scotland and Glasgow analysis next please.
Especially on how to rid us of Patrick Harvey, Ross Grier and the other Genderists.
I campaigned for Neale when the SNP booted him out 3 weeks before the 2019 election and it was great to get him elected because of that.
Neale was an independent when he won his seat so it probably made it a bit easier for him to join ALBA.
Any up-dates on the membership yet?
A friend joined last night and he was around the 3000+ member
@James Barr Gardner says:
28 March, 2021 at 4:15 am
“A police investigation led by Police Scotland’s Economic Crime and Financial Unit are now involved.
SNP chief executive Peter Murrell refused to give members of the party’s Finance and Audit Committee access to the party accounts following a pledge to spend £2.1 million on the upcoming Scottish elections. This publication revealed last month the party’s National Executive Committee has committed £600,000 towards “preparations” for another independence referendum.”
===========================================
James, excellent news! Do you have a link to the source of that quote?
Another day goes by and the BBC still have Nicola Sturgeon bad mouthing Alex Salmond as their lead story.
Nicola has good friends in high British places (and I don’t mean Andrew Wilson)
Sunday Herald story on ALBA glitch.
link to archive.vn
With Sturgeon moving into full and open attack Alex Salmond mode her anti independence agenda is now clear.
Sturgeon is a Brit operator. Anyone who was a true nationalist would welcome a super majority at no expense whatsoever to SNP seats.
It is a win win and she aligns with the Tory – Brit attack.
Flushed out now for all to see.
A Person says:
I am interested in the Balmoral story, I can only recount the story of my nephew who once served her lunch without any acknowledgement.
Reply
If Sturgeon continues with the denigrating of an innocent man, she might have a lot of her dirty laundry aired in social media.
The Balmoral hotel saga & also the story that she put an injunction the news papers not to print.
I’m overseas so can reveal, though I won’t be doing the story that has the injunction on here on WOS.
It’s up to sturgeon to pull her head in & stop attacking Alex.
She recons he’s not fit for office. Well she needs to know that what she hides, is far, far worse than being proven innocent in a court of law.
If your reading this Nicola. Be warned.
If polls begin to show the new party gaining traction, it would be a shame if the election was cancelled, COVID, you know.
I think people do not realise what is making NS so mad.
There is also the prospect of defections AFTER the Holyrood elections.
Say NS starts her previous treatment to an elected MSP like Michelle Thomson or the ghastly children in Stirling pile onto Joan McAlpine after being triggered by NS.
Do you think they are going to stay in that party and not join Alba?
The worst nightmare is loads of pro-indy candidates getting elected as SNP MSPs on the constituency… and then defecting to Alba.
Alba could even overtake the SNP in Holyrood if lots of things come to light. But it is a good thing that the SNP are genuinely for indy, have not been stealing money from members and their leader has NOT been involved in anything dodgy at all… [*]
[* sarc]
Basically, the Alba Party stops NS from being a petty dictator. I can imagine this is sending her over the edge. Witness her recent interview in which she talked of AS being a “gambler” (with the distinctive laugh she gave at the Committee hearings when she was bad-mouthing him).
Garrion says:
27 March, 2021 at 1:26 pm
I began to gauge how potentially effective, in terms of achieving independence, anything is by how patronising, condescending and dismissive the Guardian is about it.
At least you know where you stand with the sclerotic and rheumy outrage of the Tory rags.
I hold a special loathing for the liberal/metropolitan left, because they claim to be progressive.
Where’s the like smiley??
Any MP worried for their career over whether to switch from SNP to Alba, by implication is also worried what independence would do for their career.
Re Margaret Ferrier. No thanks. We don’t need bumbling idiots in the party.
Mr Bonobo says:
28 March, 2021 at 8:41 am
Any MP worried for their career over whether to switch from SNP to Alba, by implication is also worried what independence would do for their career.
This is very true! Particularly with the midlothian MP careerist
Kiwilassie…. what’s the back story of ns and the balmoral hotel?
Cal you tell what you can without going g too far to get wings and others in trouble?
@ Elmac on 27 March, 2021 at 7:43 pm
Correct! It was after i submitted my comment i realised my mistake & remembered that was a bill Scotland’s taxpayers are responsible for. Thanks anyway for the correction.
__________
@ Meg Merrilees (9:42 pm) & Daisy Walker (10:06 pm)
WOW! Thank you both so much for those very informative replies. Very helpful indeed!
Apologies if i’ve missed any other replies. Quickly trying to catch up this morning.
So Neale Hanvey joined Alba last night but nothing on BBC Scotland news website yet, still highlighting Sturgeon’s ‘serious concerns’.
Re the Anti English/Scots comments on here.
Please stop it
Most of my English neighbour’s vote SNP.
It is one of the reasons they moved here.
I would imagine most of my Scots neighbour’s do not vote SNP.
@ Kenny
Aye, that’s pretty much the conclusion I came to as well, and may explain the rather hostile reactions we are seeing from quite so many in the Party, like this…
link to twitter.com
Having sat back and watched the various media outlets as well as the likes of Sturgeon, Wishart and Blackford’s reactions since the announcement of Alex and the new party it’ seems clear to me that they are all seriously worried by it.
I said a few weeks ago that Alex, Jo Cherry and Kenny MacAskill should stand against the likes of Sturgeon, Swinney and Yousaf and force them on the back foot, well I think that the SNP hierachy are well and truly on the back foot and for the first time since 2014 are actually going to have to work hard to keep the gravy train going.
They are having to watch the membership desert, try and fund an election with less money coming in as well as try and keep the lid on the recent inquiries as people are actually looking past the headlines and asking questions.
Jo Cherry taking time out is interesting, was she asked to jump ship but is unsure or is she sitting tight knowing Sturgeon’s day are numbered ready to step in when the brown stuff hits the fan.
Interesting times for the Murrells, money problems for the election, worry about someone jumping ship and perhaps drop emails/ communications held from the inquiries or even worse the courts to land them in it and potential unemployment.
-Hatuey-
Yup, her handling of covid is the only thing she has going for her but all it boils down to is “better manner of telling people to stay at home than Boris Johnson”, not exactly the highest bar; in fact her handling of it has been diabolical compared to almost anyone else.
It actually goes to show how unionist a mindset so many in the SNP have: “Sturgeon is corrupt” “aye but so is Westminster”, “sturgeon has handled covid badly” “not as badly as Westminster”; as though this one international gangster state with a medieval system of government and a bonkers economic ideology is the only possible model.
-Kiwilassie-
Might be a job for David Davis! And yes who knows what is lying in reserve about Sturgeon?
-Mr Bonobo-
Very good point.
-Harry Macaye-
Agreed, whatever the rights and wrongs of how Ferrier was treated, she did something that 99% would disapprove of, having her join the party would make it look cranky.
@ Kiwilassie on 28 March, 2021 at 8:13 am
Can i have your permission to tweet a very short edited version of this direct to Sturgeon on both her official & personal accounts?
I sent a warning to her yesterday that she’d better reign in the bitterness enveloping her party brats etc saying that the tide would turn against her & the SNP if she didn’t.
I’ve decided i’m giving her & the SNP until The Alba Party announce their candidates at the start of April to grow up & start acting like mature politicians or i’ll actively start campaigning against them. And they’ll get eff-all from me.
Neale Hanvey MP has switched to Alba. Don’t blame him for a minute. How he was treated by the SNP in the run up to his election was a disgrace.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Wouldn’t it be funny if enough SNP MPs defected to make Alba the 4th largest party in parliament instead of the LibDems who have 11.
Kenny – absolutely spot on. Also the potential for List MSPs to resign from the Party and sit as Independents, aligning with Alba on votes.
Doesn’t take too many of them and you don’t have enough people to back you as FM, do you?
No wonder NS looked like she hasn’t slept.
Lynne Anderson who was the SNP Equalities Convener and thus a former SNP NEC member has joined Alba too.
Not that the SNP will miss her since they brought in Equalities polices without actually involving her /sarc.
This coming election’s principal issue is not super-majority but whether Sturgeon & Murrell’s muddy boots will still be in Bute House.
There is plenty of time for Independence, the first step is to build the team. The fewer votes Sturgeon’s SNP gets, the less power she has. She needs to be voted out, either directly or indirectly. If she was removed by her party members for failing to win the election, that would be justice.
The last thing anyone in Scotland needs is Nicola Sturgeon on the steps of Holyrood on 7th May saying the result of the election was a’ringing endorsement of my leadership’.
Throw her out, starve her of votes
@pandapaws
It would be even funnier if enough SNP MPs defected to make Alba the 3rd largest party in parliament instead of the SNP.
Prior to Alex starting Alba, I was ready to spoil my Constituency voting paper, and vote for one of the alternative pro-independencfe parties on the List.
However, I can see the sense in holding my nose and voting SNP on the Constituency vote, and Alba on the List.
But, from the way the likes of Sturgeon and Wioshart are continuing to bad-mouth Alex, this SNP constituency vote is still not cast in stone.
I can understand the Yoons going full-on “Stop Salmond,” he is after all the one man in the Independence movement whom they truly fear – but, SNP high heid yins. Their failure to see the bigger picture and recognise another pro-INdependence party, demonstratest, for them, it’s all about power for Us, and not so-much about INdependence.
What a shower of losers.
Later this week, Thursday I think, Alba are publishing their policy manifesto which people can sign up to watch online.
Unfortunately I can’t due to other commitments.
However, I’m hoping that we see some new approaches as this is a new party. Top of the expectations are preservations or reversals of gender and hate crime bills, a firmer commitment to climate change issues and I hope a different approach to dealing with the media.
I hope the new party are more combative in dealing with journalists, highlighting inaccuracies, poor research and correcting falsehoods. This may mean politely ‘hi jacking’ interviews.
I’ve moaned about this for years, but think of it this way – if someone arrived in Scotland knowing nothing about the politics here. Do you think after reading the newspapers or hearing TV/Radio journalism they would vote for the Alba party ?
Of course not.
Likewise in 2012-2014, how many people decided to vote Yes by BBC Scotland journalism ?
Then how many voters said No after reading or hearing the same BBC output ?
If the media are against you, you have nothing to lose. Be polite, but don’t give them a free run.
Any other policy favourites people are hoping for ?
It really has to be said that the SNP are the new Orange Order in Scotland in terms of tolerance and understanding.
Kenny performed well on SR today, but why the hell did he repeat the idiocy of a return to the EU?
If we are to rid ourselves of the “Bitter Tendency” in Holyrood, repeating this mantra which alienates all conservative Nationalists is counter productive.
I want to see a properly free Scotland, trading freely with the rest of the world and NOT performing the the tune of an undemocratic bunch of villains in Brussels, from whence came all the mad woke initiatives which bedevil our society.
Lothianlad…maybe worth following Alex Cairnie on Facebook for his Govan expose.
tartanfever – “Any other policy favourites people are hoping for ?”
I hope they are clear about anyone who thinks people can change sex is dumb. Unspeakably dumb.
However I have left the SNP after 34 years of membership. And joined Alba.
I wish the decent people left in the SNP luck in trying to argue with the wokeratti science-deniers and the carpetbaggers.
I can see Alba replacing the SNP within a year – especially if we’re clear and unequivocal regarding the genderwoowoo nonsense.
Thanks jimuckmac
To Socrates, of course they don’t see Alex’s Party as another ally in the fight for independence, they see it as a real and present danger to their criminal grip on power.
I hope Alba concentrates on cleaning up the mess made by the coven, separating powers and explaining to the people of Scotland exactly how independence is going to work in practice. It will take facts and figures as well as National Pride to deliver Independence.
Skip_NC says:
28 March, 2021 at 2:28 am
So my American wife, born and bred in Brooklyn, NY and who has visited Scotland twice in her life, has just said to me, that “it wouldn’t be right if I joined, would it?”
Yes it would, very much so, we could do with a bit of good old Brooklyn grit and streetwise.
Welcome Mrs Skip_NC
“what convincing do you need to support a tactical vote for Sarwar to make Sturgeon lose?”
There is no convincing you could ever try to get me to vote for a mediocre, opportunistic, overtly anti independence political puppet to get rid of a dishonest, disloyal, corrupt, vindictive covertly anti independence one. Let me remind you that Sarwar’s branch abstained in Sturgeon’s VONC. In other words, Sarwar and Sturgeon are in the same team.
You don’t vote for dumber to get rid of dumb. You don’t vote for a unionist to get rid of another so they can continue putting obstacles to independence. You vote for a pro independence candidate to get rid of both unionists and progress independence.
As I said above, unionism is not the alternative to corruption. You can chose to reject both.
“Or would you like Sturgeon to remain an MSP and therefore SNP leader?”
Nope. I want her ejected from Holyrood. I want to see her as a civilian, without parliamentary privilege and protection so she can be prosecuted for the corruption she instigated in our government and democratic structures and for the waving of the ring-fenced money.
“Tommy Sheridan is not standing”
And that is a real shame. It is certainly our loss. I think he is a wonderful candidate and the right person to beat those two hypocrite wnkrs.
“In fact I had suggested he stand long before you did”
I never saw this as a race. You are trying too hard to demonstrate pro-indy credentials. Why is that? Fear that you may not be perceived as such?
“For your convenience, I again quote the Rev. Stuart Campbell:
Much as I respect all what Mr Campbell say, and much as I acknowledge he is hardly ever wrong in his predictions, I would never advise to vote for an overt unionist to get rid of a covert
unionist impostor pretending to be pro independence to fool the electorate. I would advise to either spoil the ballot or voting for a pro independence alternative to get rid of both.
“Would you prefer Sturgeon over Salih?”
Sorry, I do not know who Salih is. What I want to see is all four Alba candidates or as many as they chose to put in Glasgow entering Holyrood. I want to see Sarwar, Sturgeon, Yousaf, Robertson, Swinney, Rennie and Harvie being given their p45s and I would love for Mr Sheridan to be voted back in to where he belongs, Holyrood and fighting for our rights and independence, having two political scalps hanging from his belt (metaphorically speaking, that is).
Kenny @8.32: “(Nicola Sturgeon’s) nightmare is loads of pro-indy candidates getting elected as SNP MSPs on the constituency… and then defecting to Alba.”
An excellent point, which is doubtless part of the reason for her spiteful, panic-ridden response to the founding of Alba. Yet apparently Salmond has questions to answer, despite her having avoided all the difficult ones directed at her during the inquiry by having lapses of memory or not having the relevant information to hand.
Six more weeks of her futile rage is not going to be good for her, or the SNP campaign.
That Herald story re the accidental Data Breach – unless they have permission… are the Herald themselves not also breaching DPA by publishing some of the ‘confidential’ names to?
And why is it, when a highly confidential, ongoing complaints investigation document, within the highest office of Government gets leaked directly to the press – tumbleweed.
But an accidental computer glitch on a first day opening is front page news.
Oh, I remember now, one rule for ‘them’ and another one for us. Doh.
Still good of them to give us an indication of membership numbers 4,000 they say, on the first day. Wow.
A good article.
link to holyrood.com
akenaton – Scotland voted 2 to 1 to stay in the EU. You got a problem with democracy?
Has anyone asked Sturgeon yet why 2 of her MP’s don’t believe staying in the SNP is the best way to achieve Independence? Has she been asked why women from her NEC believe women’s rights are better protected with Alba than her own party?
It would appear Sturgeon has copied a tactic from the Unionist’s. Anything that happened was always “SNP Bad” Sturgeon is now in ful deflect mode and is left with “Salmond Bad” as she doesn’t want to answer the real questions.
Still needs to be SNP 1 Alba 2. Alba sucess depends on SNP winning the constituences so hold your nose and vote SNP on the constituency*
*does not apply to voters in Edinburgh Central where anyone but Angus applies.
On the same day that the 4% pay rise was announced so was this
link to gov.scot
I believe Nicola has some “serious questions to answer”
The sheer volume of bile being thrown at Alba this morning by the mainstream press is quite a sight to behold. No coherent criticism, just screaming abuse. It’s like 2014 all over again, except this time the leadership of the SNP are on the Sam side as the masses ranks of the unionist media, saying the same things.
I am so bloody pleased with the past 48 hours. I thought they had got away with it- ALL this repulsive behaviour- and that the only thing that could stop them from turning our country into a colder version of Cuba might be the fucking Tory party ffs! Now they are on the run! Salvation is at hand!
@
gullaneno4 says:
28 March, 2021 at 9:15 am
Re the Anti English/Scots comments on here.
Please stop it
Most of my English neighbour’s vote SNP.
It is one of the reasons they moved here.
I would imagine most of my Scots neighbour’s do not vote SNP.
Dear Gullaneno4 – well done, you gave me a laugh first thing on a Sunday morning.
Not since Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear was saying, ‘its not fair, people calling us sexist, of course we employ women, who do you think pinned my microphone on before I came on stage’.
And Jeremy for all his faults is at least Funny.
So well done you. Loved it.
Sunday Times shows Alex Salmond on Times radio 11.00am
Will Nicola listen in with her coffee and croissants
Daisy Walker says:
28 March, 2021 at 10:18 am
That Herald story
———-
Hopefully some solid numbers will come through in a few days and we’ll see where are. Actual numbers though, unlike the 10’s of thousands that apparently have signed up to SNP. They must have literally half million members by now.lol
By that reckoning maybe that will cover the missing 600k eh? lol
Heaver, Scotland voted for the UK to remain in the EU. The question of whether an independent Scotland should join the EU is different and should require a second referendum.
Once out of both Unions the voters might decide that they want to retain the max sovereignity.
Anyone know what overseas papers reported the Balmoral case
Scenario-
A hung parliament, Sturgeon’s SNP have lost a bucket load of seats because the voters are disgusted with Nicola’s poisonous cabal.
Parliament requires a first minister to be selected within 28 days, otherwise a new election called.
When the moderate SNP MSPs see the way the tide has turned, most of them jump ship to Alba. AS can then put up candidates to stand in both votes, and Morrell & Sturgeon left high and dry with their debts and shame.
Willie says:
28 March, 2021 at 7:43 am
With Sturgeon moving into full and open attack Alex Salmond mode her anti independence agenda is now clear.
Sturgeon is a Brit operator. Anyone who was a true nationalist would welcome a super majority at no expense whatsoever to SNP seats.
It is a win win and she aligns with the Tory – Brit attack.
Flushed out now for all to see.
Yup. It’s hard to disagree with that.
Even if you’re not a fan of Alex Salmond, can I ask those people to please, take a moment to set your prejudices to one side and be objective enough to recognise that after months of criticism of us, Rev Stu, Barrheadboy, etc coming from the SNP, and casting aspersions about our commitment to Independence and stubborn unwillingness to “wheesht for Indy”, in 24 hours, Alex Salmond has effortlessly turned the tables, and it’s suddenly the disgruntled SNPrs who are now required to bite their tongues to avoid putting a Pro-Independence supermajority at risk.
The shoe is suddenly on the other foot, they’ve been outplayed, and they don’t like it. You are spot on Willie, they’ve been ”Flushed out now for all to see..”
Cast your mind back to 2013 \ 14, when DevoMAX was threatening to split undecided voters by offering them a seductive middle option. Want more powers but not sure about Indy? Vote DevoMAX and get the best of both worlds. Remember that? The best of both worlds.
Alex Salmond knew and understood the Unionist’s Bain Principle, (where they’d rabidly oppose everything and anything put forward by the SNP), and thus, when Alex Salmond suggested putting DevoMAX on the ballot, he KNEW they would froth and the mouth and demand a binary referendum. The Unionists “won”, and were jubilant at putting Salmond’s option down. But, the Unionist’s “victory” in not having DevoMAX on the ballot thus neutered the DevoMAX option, so YES didn’t haemorrhage undecided voters with a half way house compromise. DevoMAX was dead in the water, and the Unionists were jubilant about doing it… and Alex Salmond smiled.
Alex Salmond was running rings around the Unionists back in 2013 / 2014, and if anybody can out-think the UK Establishment and secure Scottish Independence, it is that man Salmond.
I find it difficult to convey the difference in leadership calibre between Alex Salmond and Sturgeon, without sounding like a Salmond sycophant, but by any rational yardstick, the gulf between the two is simply immeasurable.
If you still cannot see that difference in calibre, be in no doubt, the UK Establishment certainly can. They will stop at nothing to remove Alex Salmond from the chessboard, and I’m afraid you’ll have to ask Sturgeon why she is so bitterly determined to help them do it. Good luck getting an answer.
Hi Heaver, I’ve been anti EU for very many years, voted against in the 70s and OUT in the referendum, all based on my Nationalist views. Freedom.
Over the last few years EU policies have been proved to be acting against any country striving for proper Independence, so there is no excuse to continue to use “Sturgeon’s device” any longer.
Additionally and thankfully, the EU is in the process of disintegration and this will result in many smaller nations competing in the trade sector.
We best be prepared!!
The presence of Alba virtually guarantees a pro-Indy majority unless the SNP constituency vote goes through the floor. So let’s make sure it doesn’t go through the floor, but there are three constituencies where I think supporters of independence should vote against the SNP candidate: Glasgow Southside, Edinburgh Central and Tayside North. Yes, even if it means voting for Sarwar or Fraser- sorry, needs must. (In Edinburgh I don’t honestly know who I’d vote for, I enjoyed that Bonnie Prince Bob character’s video but don’t know much about him and am a bit sceptical).
Imagine we got a parliament with a pro-Indy majority but without the three politicians who would have the power to thwart that majority! Three politicians up to their neck in dirty deeds!
This is why Joanna has not defected. She is waiting for Sturgeon to fall then she will take over.
The father of child poverty is Tory Westminster.
With parents in minimum wage jobs at one point
only earning 70 or 80% of their wage with furlough.
One of the many reasons Scotland has never given the
Tories a majority in 66 years and counting.
It’s England’s working class who repeatedly put people like
Boris and Thatcher in power and Scotland gets what they
impose on us.
Having £2.5 billon cut from Scotland’s budget and negating the disgraceful
Bedroom tax for the disabled makes it difficult for Holyrood to tackle this properly.
Heaver
Scotland voted 55% to 45% to stay in the UK. You got a problem with democracy?
I’m with Akhenaton on this one. You don’t get to cherry pick which referenda results you will abide by and which ones you will reject, just because it allows you to gerrymander something that suits your preferences.
If or when we get an Independence referendum that delivers a Yes for Independence, I want a follow up referendum that will settle the newly independent Scotland’s relationship to the ongoing slo-mo car crash that is the EU.
If the people of Scotland want their shiny new independent politicians to all troop off to Brussels, where they can rubber-stamp decisions made primarily to benefit Germany and France, that’s fine. But I would prefer that the leaders and decision makers of an independent Scotland be working solely for the people of Scotland and be accountable only to the people of Scotland. That’s what independence means to me.
The “Independence in Europe” mantra was dreamt up by third-rate incompetents who did not and still do not have a scooby about how to run a thriving first-world democratic economy in the 21st Century. With a great sigh of relief at having dodged a bullet they hope to hand the entire problem over to Brussels and bank their fat salaries while preparing the occasional press release about “fighting Scotland’s corner”.
Scotland deserves much, much better than that.
Kirsty Strickland putting much more passion into her anti-Alba rant in the Observer than she ever did in the cause of independence. The next six weeks will be very lucrative for Sturgeon’s media poodles with the unionist rags demanding as much bile as they can muster against Scotland’s genuine indy party.
I don’t think that the FMs ‘handling’ of Covid is anything she can hide behind. Even Sturgeon’s role as PR smoother descended at one point into a misandristic rant against AS which undermined the Scottish jury system.
Look at the numbers of people who died in care homes. Compare to other countries of a similar size, or larger. Scotland’s death rate, whichever way you count it, has been terrible.
‘Vote Sturgeon Because She Handled the Pandemic Slightly Less Badly Than Boris‘ doesn’t seem like a very good election slogan.
BBC points out that in Westminster there are now more ALBA MPs than Scottish Labour MPs.
-Cenchos-
Correct. Her handling of the pandemic, compared to most other countries, has been abysmal. But then again Nicola Sturgeon is pretty abysmal in general.
Margaret Ferrier worked very hard in her constituency for years.
Prior to her original victory as an MP we had a puppet English Labour
man sent up here to a safe seat.
I never heard of him or anything that he did in or for the constituency.
I didn’t even know he was English until a couple of weeks before the election.
He just spouted the London Labour script and picked up the money.
When kicked out he landed a very well paid job in the nuclear industry of all things.
Yes, Margaret made a big mistake in travelling up here from London.
What she did was no worse than what Dominique Cummings did but he continued to be Boris’
puppet master. No worse than Prince Charles bringing Civid up to Scotland
but one rule for Scotland.
I’d also say that the majority of us have not adhered 100% to the guidelines and
we know that not having symptoms doesn’t mean you don’t have it and spread it.
Margaret is in here 60’s and I’d predict will be forced to retire at the end of her term as an independent.
For me, one mistake doesn’t wipe out years of hard work but let those among you who have not
sinned cast the first stone.
Her morality and priorities stand head and shoulders above Boris’, Gove’s, Patel’s etc.
Alex did more to shore up the SNP vote on Friday than the last 2 years of Sturgeon and co.
Seriously – how many, myself included, had recently decided not to vote SNP 1 or 2, because of their corruption and lack of Indy push – after voting for them all their lives?
Rather a lot.
Then Alex comes along – SNP for the Constituency, Alba on the list = Supermajority for Indy. Boom.
I’ve been saying it all day yesterday. Now look at the newspapers.
If they cannot take Alex out of the game – and that looks unlikely.
Then their plan B needs to be about scuppering the Supermajority, and that means self sabotaging the SNP Constituency vote.
That defamatory headline by Nicla today about Alex. Nicla is many things, buts she’s not stupid.
Who is that headline aimed at? No voters? They never liked Alex anyway, are they now going to vote SNP on the basis of that Headline? Don’t think so.
That headline is aimed fair and square at SNP voters in ordr to scunner them from voting for her and her party.
The game is afoot folks. ISP, AFI – get round the table and get ready to stand up and be elected on the Constituency vote. Go local and electable, choose your seats carefully, don’t go for every one, concentrate on the ones you really can win. Save the day folks.
Folk talking about the EU question, I believe ALBA will and should take the EFTA route. The EU needs some robust debate. I personally don’t believe it’s an optimal arrangement for iscotland.
The SNP and the greens state that it is a given that we will be part of Europe, yet it doesn’t tie in with the policies of either party.
Shug says: 28 March, 2021 at 10:33 am
I downloaded a VPN which allows you, in the case of news items, to get geographical restrictions. I couldn’t find anything about this where I searched on google.com (if you type this in normally it reverts to google.co.uk with UK specific restrictions)
It does seem strange.
“ If they cannot take Alex out of the game – and that looks unlikely.
Then their plan B needs to be about scuppering the Supermajority, and that means self sabotaging the SNP Constituency vote.”
Yes this is very much how it looks. Also, in just about every twitter advert there is no mention of independence. Be very interesting to see how their manifesto is worded..
Scottie Dog @11.11
‘The EU needs some robust debate’
Exactly, but who here trusts an SNP government to actually do that ?
Current SNP thinking is not only to stop debate, it’s to actually dismantle the groups and apparatus of debate.
Debate is not allowed.
Have the overseas newspapers reported something about the Balmoral Hotel incident. If so what country / what paper?
I do hope she never set fire to the curtains (wee joke for the older members here).
I haven’t got a clue what its all about.
A little known fact – no-one is allowed to even ask if Superinjunctions are in place on a person for whatever reason.
I’m not sure the law anticipated a case where the question to ban is: Just how many Superinjunctions have you got in place protecting your arse Missus?
They’re not cheap by the way, about £200,000 a pop and I think they last for 18 months before needing to be renewed.
So, all together now: To the tune of where have all the flowers gone.
Where has all the money gone
Long time ring fenced
where has all the money gone
far, far away…..
Alba is about the grassroots. It needs to always be about the grassroots.
The first thing I want Alba to ask, when someone gets the chance, is “what happened to all that money the grassroots put into the ring fenced fund?”
Where’s our money?
Nobody has asked that. Journalists in this country should be ashamed. If that was any other party, it would be all over the news. That tells you a lot about how cosy the SNP is with the MSM.
The SNP didn’t just join Better Together, it leads Better Together and the attacks on Alba represent Project Fear 2.0. The pledge to a Section 30 represents their marriage vows…
@ Daisy
These were from a few weeks back.
link to twitter.com
link to twitter.com
If there’s panic now, what’ll it be like when she takes all the MSPs across the floor to Alba – and remains FM in any event.. 🙂
@Effigy.
Sorry i dont agree with your earlier post. The father of child poverty , and poverty in general is the british labour party.
Child poverty was going through the roof near the end of the term of the last uk labour government , and poverty in general , labour and poverty are like the chicken and egg scenario……what came first.?
We had labour incharge of glasgow for 80 years , and the party of scotland for nearly 50 years , and they had poverty in scotland through the roof while throwing the blame at the tories at westminster.
Everywhere that labour party get in , as the northern english have recently realised , they drag down into the gutter feeding the people on a diet of lies innuendo and utter cac while throwing the blame at the tories snp and anyone else they can think of.
Labours motto , jam tomorrow ,and blame the tories.
Twin cheek os the same westminster arse as the conservatives.
I’ve just listened to an excellent discussion between BB and Iain Lawson on Roddy’s Scottish Prism podcast. It looks like new members are joining in droves, even local SNP and Yes groups. It seems that there’s a lot of big things going to happen in the next 2 or 3 days.
Disappointed in the greens today. They jumped on the ‘AS bad’ bandwagon and lost any chance I would vote for them. I say this as someone who’s top priority is a habitable planet for my son.
Scotland can set an environmental example to the world as an independent country or it can serve as a hydrocarbon tinder box under the tories, yet the greens have shown little in the way of a push to independence. They are either strategically inept or don’t really believe in a climate emergency (which is very real)
@ScottieDog 28 March, 2021 at 11:25 am
“ If they cannot take Alex out of the game – and that looks unlikely.
Then their plan B needs to be about scuppering the Supermajority, and that means self sabotaging the SNP Constituency vote.”
Yes this is very much how it looks. Also, in just about every twitter advert there is no mention of independence. Be very interesting to see how their manifesto is worded..”
Sturgeon has just offered the NHS 4% wage rise , now offering free computer giveaways and yet the campaign has hardly begun, yet only weeks ago they were begging for more WM money. Of course there isn’t going to be a Indyref2 from Sturgeon as she needs WM to keep on funding all the free giveaway bribes in exchange to keep Her in power, the Piper has to be paid in return.
If Nicola Sturgeon is indeed hiding something shady that happened at the Balmoral, then she’s got quite the brass neck for continuing to smear Alex about having “questions” to answer. Careful where you cast stones! I have no idea what it is about, but something serious seems to have occurred. There seems to be a big cover-up effort underway.
If the British establishment have something on her, then she is completely compromised. Talk about “super” leverage – you can kiss independence goodbye folks. It would explain how the MSM seem to be giving her any easy time of late. Why trash her if she is already in their pocket?
Even if a politician is for indy, many are sociopaths and don’t really give a crap either way. Number one priority is looking after Number One. I’m not saying NS is definitely a sociopath, but she well could be. If it means indy delayed by ten years, the country trashed, bled dry, so be it, as long as Number One is protected.
John says: Scotland deserves much, much better than [the EU]
Amen.
I was there, Gandalf. I was there when the SNP went all in on the Independence in Europe strategy in the early 90’s. In those days most Scottish people thought you were a crank if you mentioned independence. The world was a very different place – Ireland was booming, Scotland was barely treading water after the economic meltdown of the 80’s and Black Wednesday, the newly minted European Union still had a very light touch. The Euro was still a bright shiny thing that belonged to the future and was supposed to usher in a wonderful period of prosperity. People thought Mr Blobby was funny.
Independence in Europe was about threading the needle between wanting to leave the UK, while still reassuring normies we wouldn’t turn Scotland into some kind of hermit kingdom where people have to boil tree bark for their tea.
Made sense at the time.
The EU isn’t what it was, it’s a lot bigger and more powerful at the expense of smaller members. The Euro hasn’t benefited ordinary people, it’s been a jobs-killing nightmare for the peripheral countries. Democracy is basically DOA when it conflicts with the bankers, as Syriza found out.
Ireland no longer seems like something we’d want to aspire to. It’s afflicted with familiar problems – a corrupt political class gone woke and feral that’s mainly concerned with servicing multinational capital, property developers, and business’ insatiable greed for cheap migrant labour. The Irish used to sing about being “A Nation Again”. They don’t anymore. Too embarrassed.
A large minority of Independence voters, something like 1 in 3, voted to leave the EU. Probably not because they were hypnotised by slogans on buses, or flegs, or the dubious charms of Michael Gove, or the Toad of Toad Hall wheezes of Nigel Farage. But because they see the EU for what it is.
Scotland free, or a desert! As someone once said. We’re not too wee, too poor, or too stupid to survive without being absorbed into globalist schemes run by people who don’t even live here.
akenaton;
Yes, but it’s not just up to you is it?
I thought that we already had a vote on remaining in the EU?
Didn’t we vote to stay in it?