Say What You See
Don’t say we don’t tell you, readers.
Because we do tell you.
We told you a year and a quarter ago.
(Remember that time when Humza Yousaf was First Minister? It happened, honestly.)
We told you again seven months ago.
And we mentioned it again seven weeks ago.
And, y’know, we’re always pleased when the mainstream press finally catches up with us. The Times had a comment on the matter from Prof. James Mitchell.
And gee, if only there was some evidence indicating the SNP had indeed accepted that “independence was off the agenda for the foreseeable future”.
The story came in the wake of an opinion poll suggesting that the winter fuel allowance cut had severely damaged Scottish Labour and put the SNP back ahead in the polls.
But the figures didn’t actually change the arithmetic in any significant way from our original post last June. They still show a Labour-SNP alliance as the only way to a viable government. The only remotely plausible other options would all fail to get across the line of 65 that lets an administration pass any bills:
LABOUR+LIB DEM+GREEN: 50 seats (15 short of majority)
LABOUR+LIB DEM+TORIES: 57 seats (8 short)
SNP+GREEN: 56 seats (9 short)
(We think it’s safe to discount any coalition that included both the Greens and the Tories – which in any event would still only command 59 seats – and teaming up with Reform would probably be too much for even Scottish Labour to contemplate. Similarly, even if the SNP could rope in both the Greens and the Lib Dems – a wildly unlikely proposition in all sorts of ways – they’d still only be on 64.)
So while Humza Yousaf has been booted out, everything we told you a year and a quarter ago still holds true, and is likely to still hold true whatever fluctuations there might be in the polls in the next 18 months. In the absence of spectacular unforeseen developments, neither of the two big parties have any credible prospect of being able to form a majority coalition with anyone but each other.
As Wings has painstakingly documented, the SNP have been doing the groundwork to prepare their supporters for this final betrayal for some considerable time, and they clearly now feel ready to send a canary into the coalmine to see how it goes down.
McDonald – someone absolutely no serious person believes has any true commitment to Scottish independence, and who has nothing to lose since being unceremoniously ejected by voters in July – was the ideal candidate, and he didn’t hold back, making clear that the proposal was to dump the idea for at least the next 10 years.
(He couldn’t stop himself saying “decade” over and over for emphasis.)
Frankly we’d still have a few quid on McDonald just outright jumping ship to Labour if he doesn’t manage to wangle himself an SNP list seat in 2026. But one way or another he’s absolutely desperate to be on their team.
We’d love to believe that view wasn’t reflective of the Parliamentary SNP as a whole. But the evidence has been building up and building up for a long time now, getting steadily more and more blatant.
And sometimes things are just what they look like.
What I see is a load of ‘Bisto Kids’ who are only interested in the gravy.
They would sell their souls for the gravy or a ‘kid on’ job as a professor at Glasgow University.
It would be great if we could all start identifying as politicians.
Want to be ‘Starmer’ or ‘John Swinney’?
The Holyrood colonial assembly has no direct relationship with Scotland’s constitution. Only a recall of our (1706) Parliament can get us out of the cul-de-sac. If you want to see independence on your 2026 ballot paper then write it for yourself. If you use big print then the candidates may learn something, when they are shown your de-faced ballot.
It’s probably time for the SNP to just do the honest thing and admit to itself that it’s really just a devolutionist party.
Most of the the usual suspects identified by Rev Stu would quite happily spend the rest of their gravy fuelled careers working on devo-max, or seeing what more powers they could prise from the controlling hand of Westminster.
A party which has now explicitly accepted the unionist veto on our self determination as the SNP did 2 days ago when it disgracefully voted against Ash Regan, is not a pr independence party in any meaningful sense.
Enough and more than enough of these milquetoast nationalists. We have to consign the SNP to the dustbin of history just as the Irish did with the IPP in 1918: nothing less will do.
We can’t afford a rump of slavish SNP loyalists warming their well padded arses in Holyrood or Westminster. For progress to be made we need to root them out and destroy them utterly as an electoral force.
and they clearly now feel ready to send a canary into the coalmine to see how it goes down.
Lead balloon?
But the question is what can we do about it?
Difficult question?
Any chance you can give us tomorrow’s lottery numbers Stu!!
We have to consign the SNP to the dustbin of history
How can we do that?
Well a coalition with a party who embrace genocide and neoliberal values should gut the party of all but its most blinkered voters. Reckon the tories will do well in 2026, unless they put forward Annie wells of course.
It remains to be seen if the remaining indy parties can attract enough votes to make a difference.
Andy Ellis 1.20
I agree with you 100% Andy. Sadly as you know if they only get a few constituency seats they will get list seats.
Ahem Mr C , people like myself , Mia & others have been mooting the prospect of * some kind * of alliance between the SNP and * Scottishishish * Labour for a few years now .
It increasingly seems like the only option left to them ( SNP ) to hold on to at least a modicum of power and as they’re virtually indistinguishable ideologically there would be nothing much for either Party to have to compromise on : except in the SNP’s case that bothersome identification with Independence . I am sure that little matter could be resolved without too much trouble , eg by saying Independence has not been abandoned , only suspended until …….rocks melt with the sun & every child in Scotland has been granted the right to free puberty blockers ( that part is already in bag ) and can change the parents they were assigned at birth .
Talking of slavish loyalists, I wonder what the eternal optimists in the WGD bunker are making of these recent clarifications of the SNP’s position? I mean if this doesn’t hit home with them then what will? I’ve tried to point this out to them but, alas, it seems that any message which is critical of the SNP in any way is simply swept into the bit bucket. Ach well…there’s none so blind and all that… 😐
If this does happen, and I believe you are right, Rev., it is the end of the velvet glove politics. I fear what might happen in the longer term. Independence is not going anywhere, but the SNP and Greens have, effectively, boxed it into a corner in the vain hope that they can contain it. In that, they are at one with the British State, except that the British State is a hundred times smarter than they are – and a thousand times more ruthless. Except against female humans, of course – the SG, that is – where it is the very vanguard of ruthlessness.
In any case, if Putin carried out his threat to launch a limited nuclear strike against Europe – and it would be Europe, not America, because America can wipe out Russia – and even though we are no longer part of Europe, we are resplendent with a crumbling nuclear weapons stock, and we would almost certainly be a target. If we could remove ourselves from the American anus for just a millisecond, we would realize that. Our subs are useless without American permissions. Any strike would be retrospective, anyway, with the Central Belt, our most populated area, gone in a vaporizing cloud and the rest of us chocking on the fallout, eventually with tumours the size of neeps.
This very scenario, folks, is the final price of the Union and all the ‘transwomen’ force-teamed with the real McCoy (MacKay, the Americans change everyone’s language), or, at least, any that are left from both sets, will be keeping the home fires burning, or, rather, the reverse, trying to put them out this time.
SNP have been a devolutionist party for several years.
Many of its members jumped ship from Labour when Labour were in meltdown.
Labour are the same disaster that they were when they were kicked out.
Smelling strongly of sulphur they are incompetent and corrupt.
SNP and Labour together in charge dear god save us all.
I could careless what the SNP is doing, SNP is dead and buried. When ever I get a chance to vote against the SNP I’ll do it.
Andy Ellis
I disagree I believe the New SNP would rather give powers back to Westminster. This lot would rather just sit in Holyrood talking to each other and leave Westminster making all the decisions but keep all the fringe benefits that come with the job. If you don’t have the power that no one can criticize you on your failings.
The Alba party is a busted flush and its leader would run back to the SNP if they asked, but they won’t.
I don’t care how many Bloggers or Indy supporters like someone if the general public don’t like you your never going to be elected. Eva got Double Alba’s votes in falkirk in 2024, if Salmond thinks he’s going to be the next messiah keep dreaming if the Alba party was going to do it it would have done it. Reform had a better performance than the Alba party and none of them even came to Scotland.
If we want the best for Scotland its time to move on from 1 the SNP 2 Alex Salmond who’s more interested in joking and 2 Sturgeon.
I couldn’t careless what the SNP is doing, SNP is dead and buried. When ever I get a chance to vote against the SNP I’ll do it.
It goes without saying – (though I’m saying it) – that we should not vote for the SNP, Greens, or unionist party at Holyrood – that leaves the ISP and Alba party – where you find their candidates – for me where you don’t find and ISP or Alba candidate in your constituency – it should be a case of spoiling your ballot paper.
The SNP has sold us out – lets return the favour coming voting day.
The SNP not interested in independence for at least a decade..
Very depressing.
At least that will see the qwerties effing off back to Labour now there is no imminent SNP drive to enable the qwerties to form independent Scotland in their mould.
Alba needs to up the ante and give independence supporters the viable political party to vote for that’s badly needed.
Maybe the couple of potential court cases will rehabilitate Alex Salmonds reputation as tarnished in public opinion.
Impeach the tr@itors.
That is all.
I campaigned with friends who were also snp members in the late 80s and 90s. Never ever, would I have thought that they would choose party over country!
They no lonmger are friends!
and THE SIR KEIR STARMER* BOT SAYS NO, NO, NEVER,
•assuming he survives the gathering local storm.
What is needed is a very big constitutional crisis where nats get really nasty and stop being kind to old relics.
The UK is, according to the vox pop, fucked anyway so what’s to loose by helping things along?
Opportunity in glitzy signage.
Btw. who owns the UK at the moment, India maybe?
Hate saying it but the Alba party will not break through as the public are just not going to vote for them.
Both Salmond and Sturgeon are toxic to the general public.
Who gets to be the canary?
Genuine question. Those who seem to think that ‘the public’ will not vote for Alba, ever. Why not?
The priority
https://x.com/IndyLassie/status/1837137097846558923
I am totally done with all these fuckers and would tend to subscribe to the Father Jack (Gore Vidal) point of view:
that the word “politics” comes from the Greek root “poli” (meaning “many”) and “tics” (small, blood-sucking insects).
Why people still vote is beyond me.
“Say what you see”
A. I see the reason why Operation Branchform remains stalled:
It seems the establishment still needs this limping SNP to block independence from 2026. Operation Branchform’s outcome might just finish the SNP off, terminating any value this version of the SNP still holds for the British state. I wouldn’t be surprised if the resolution of Operation Branchform is dragged until after the 2026 election.
B. I see political Autophagia
The con of the British state’s political set up in Scotland is voraciously eating itself up to preserve the union.
In science, Autophagia is a self-degradative cellular process aimed to economise energy at critical times during development and in response to nutrient stress (Glick et al, 2010, JPathol 221(1):3-12
Let’s transfer this to a political context.
What is the nutrient stress here?
The lack of pro-union voters, which means the British state’s signature three-party model can no longer be sustained.
Why is this a critical time of development?
1. Because status quo unionist parties are being challenged from within by Reform, which is also competing for the unionist vote
2. Because none of the status quo parties (and I include the SNP here) have enough traction by themselves to attract sufficient vote to ensure a unionist majority at Holyrood. This means the establishment will have to fabricate that majority.
How? By deception. They will openly drag the SNP to the unionist side so they can use any remaining pro-indy vote trapped under the SNP brand to frustrate independence.
3. Because infiltration of and exposure of the SNP as a devolutionist party has alienated the the pro-indy vote. An infiltrated SNP which is unable to attract the pro-indy vote, will quickly become worthless to the British state unless it swaps the SNP brand for one of its three status quo parties. The most likely candidate are the libdems, which are the ones currently attracting less vote.
4. Because the orphan pro-independence vote is quickly growing and is ripe to be hoovered up by any credible pro-indy party.
Some calculated that up to 700,000 previous SNP voters did not cast a vote at the last GE. If a new pro-independence party hoovers up that vote, that pro-union majority, even with the SNP on the union side, may no longer be feasible.
For any nationalist, the arrogance of labour towards Scotland and how it has mistreated it, (the McCrone report, stealing Scotland’s territorial waters or insulting us by calling us racists, for example) are unforgivable and unforgettable.
It is unthinkable that any serious Scottish pro-independence party would even consider allying with a nasty, anti-Scotland and pro-colonial English party like Labour whose only aim for Scotland appears to be to keep it as a prisoner of this toxic union so it can finish off the stripping of its assets for the benefit of England.
But we all know by now that the SNP has become Labour in all but name. By revealing itself as a devolutionist party and by voting against making the Holyrood election a de-facto referendum, this infiltrated version of the SNP is actively eating itself up.
While the SNP brand was perceived by Scottish voters as a pro-independence party, an infiltrated SNP was very useful to the British state to reign in, stop the momentum and (mis)manage the expectations of the yes movement. But, as an open devolutionist party, the SNP no longer has such use.
The only one use the SNP has left for the British state is that of openly contributing to the unionist majority. SNP-Labour alliance step forward.
An alliance between the SNP and Labour will be the kiss of political death for one of them. My hope is that it becomes the kiss of political death for both of them.
The entire political system in Scotland is eating itself up for the sake of the union. For instance, both in Ruthlergen by-election and in the GE, labour got an increase of vote in Scotland mainly at the expense of a sharp decrease of the tory vote. The British state is finding a way to concentrate the unionist vote into one party.
This makes sense, because the English dichotomy right/left is pointless in Scotland. Here, the only dichotomy that matters is indy versus union. Labour, tories and libdems are natural allies in Scotland.
If the establishment had to expose its infiltrated SNP toy as a unionist party by feeding it to Labour, it must be because even combining the tory, labour and libdem vote is no longer enough to ensure the pro-union majority. But this must be a weapon of last resource, because once Labour has “eaten up” that infiltrated SNP, one of the two, if not them both, will be finished.
I think Alf Baird might be right in that we might be approaching the last stages of the colonial process in Scotland. Certainly it does look like the ability of the British state to keep holding Scotland to ransom via political means with this fake democracy is coming to an end.
My question is what method are they planning to use when all this political autophagia ends and there is nothing else to “eat up”. Brute force? Military occupation? Fascist legislation?
Or are they going to drag us into another of USA’s self-serving imperialistic wars as an excuse to completely reset the political system?
I wouldn’t put it past them.
What we have to think now is what the best way to frustrate that plan is.
Clearly the best way is to have a party that can hoover up all that orphan pro-indy vote. But we are all so hurt, resentful for the sNP betrayal and have become so suspicious of another back-stabbing that trusting another political party is going to be very difficult.
Personally, I want to see clear and irrefutable evidence that such party is seeking independence. And I don’t longer mean just telling us how good independence would be. I already know how good for Scotland independence will be. I don’t mean the promise of a referendum pipe dream either. We have been stuck in that pipe for the last 10 years.
I want to vote for a serious party that is ready for the fight, that takes the gloves off from the get go and goes head on against the British state.
I want to vote for candidates standing on an abstentionist vote – no more nonsense of pandering to the game rules of the establishment and to the caprice of a foreign monarch.
If such option is not available, it will have to be abstaining from voting or ballot spoiling.
What I am not prepared to cast a vote for is more begging for permission from an entity that is a byproduct of the treaty of union that is therefore a subordinate to Scotland’s continuous consent, more excuses for procrastination, more pandering to the English convention of Westminster’s parliamentary sovereignty and more insisting in demoting Scotland to the status of Catalonia so as to avoid revoking the treaty of union.
I don’t care what those spineless parasites warming the seats in Holyrood, instead of representing us, voted for. They can stick their vote right up where the sun does not shine.
They have undemocratically forced us to wait for far too long, therefore 2026 must be an election on independence, one way or the other and they want it or not.
If they do not facilitate the opportunity, then we should simply grab it ourselves.
@Flying Iron of Doom 2.06pm
I haven’t looked at WGD for an age. Doubtless the bitter einders and Nicophants there still think all is well in the best of all possible worlds.
I’m not sure the Scottish electorate have the political smarts to do to the SNP what the Irish did to the IPP, but who knows?
I suspect there will be a rump of loyalists who are just not prepared to abandon ship: I honestly can’t fathom why Joanna Cherry insists on remaining in the party for example. Then again, I didn’t really understand why the few remaining adults in the room didn’t defect en masse to Alba when it was formed, when it might have made more impact.
I suspect we’d be in a better place now if more of them had grown a spine then, but sadly it was not to be. Folk like Angus McNeil and Ash Regan left it too late.
Given the current political outlook, I think many will echo Rev Stu’s take on things: I don’t think I could actually bring myself to support an independent Scotland governed by the SNP. Luckily perhaps that isn’t something we have to worry about, as they have vanishingly little chance of staging a political recovery.
The only real question is how quickly we can destroy the SNP as a political force, even if we can’t remove them altogether.
Spectacular unforeseen circumstances you say? Unseen by you because you have blinkers on when it comes to Salvo & Liberation.
I would put the UN Decolonisation Program riding into town banging heads together in WM & HR qualify? Because between now and the ’26 election there’s a good chance of that taking place.
And when people discover that ISP has been all over both Salvo & Liberation (our deputy leader was voted onto the Liberation Council) then the 8.75% our John Hannah got in the Armadale by election could be a gross under estimate.
I will take great pleasure informing everyone, on social media, on stalls, on doorsteps etc etc.
Where is moribund Alba with their leader on -47% in the polls? Nowhere to be seen, with the deputy chairman of the NE Freeport a prominent member and candidate they are nowhere on Freeports either which issue is gaining traction & Salvo are preparing a challenge to the contracts under Scots Law.
We can join no part of Europe/EFTA/EEA/CU/SM with these Freeports. Contracts are for 25 years, if we cannot challenge or neuter them then iScotland will be out in the trading cold. Thanks to SLab, Tories, SNP & blinkered Alba.
“Impeach the tr@itors.”
All of them! That has to include all of the Scottish MPs at Westminster for kowtowing to England’s MPs for three centuries and then some, without once considering that nothing in the Treaty or Acts of Union ever required them to in the first place.
It is Scotland’s MPs alone who carry and wield the sovereign authority of the Scottish half of the Union into the Union’s parliament to be deployed on Scotland’s behalf.
England’s MPs have no legitimate authority over Scotland nor over her MPs, and they cannot even speak for the Union on their own, because they simply don’t represent it; they represent only the English half of the Union. Their actual numbers are thus completely irrelevant to Scotland.