The Giants
Posted on
April 10, 2021 by
Chris Cairns
The world's most-read Scottish politics website
-
About
Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)
-
Recent Posts
- 11-28
- 11-25
- 11-23
- 11-22
- 11-18
- 11-17
- 11-12
- 11-09
- 11-06
- 11-04
- 11-03
- 11-02
- 10-29
- 10-26
- 10-26
- 10-21
- 10-19
- 10-16
- 10-13
- 10-11
A tall tale
Wee Books
Video
Probably a robbery
Transphobia
DRoss – projecting stupidity through the Armed Forces.
When an English MP not an English MP I don’t know but George Galloway does, so he says. F*cking idiot respect man.
Always look forward to early Saturday morning such an uplifting point in the week.Well done again Chris,fantastic.
I just love your war on words Mr Cairns:-)
Opinion polls now suggest that Alba now seems unlikely to gain any regional list seats in the election for the Scottish Parliament. So far, only one of 5 polls (Panelbase) shows a percentage vote share (6%) that gives Alba a chance of winning seats. While Sturgeon is quite clearly posing as a supporter of Scottish independence while doing everything in her power to procrastinate on this matter, sadly Alba now looks unlikely to provide the supermajority to drive it forwards that Salmond and others hope for.
I thought that from the beginning, work to remove all trace of Sturgeon and her pack of hyenas…….Start over!
What rhymes with Tank and stands on one?
DRoss – Excess waste material.
How apt.
Trying various TV and Radio Stations but I’m being haunted.
Have a look at the link below and see the person they claim you couldn’t have done withou?
link to facebook.com
@daodao
The only way Alba will achieve anything is by abandoning the tactic of crawling up Sturgeon’s backside and become a party in its own right. They need to go on the attack and drive voters from the New SNP and the greens or else they will become a footnote of history.
I’ve lost respect for Salmond how we went from saying Nicola Sturgeon wasn’t fit to be FM and that Scotland was too corrupt to be independent (as did Jim Sillars, Robin McAlpine and anyone else who paid attention) to now saying none of that matters as he desperately tries to suck up to her.
It seems to me that like many people who are let down or abused by friends and family Salmond is unable to process that Nicola Sturgeon was never his friend because to do so would harm his fragile ego. Sturgeon is a manipulative narcissistic psychopath who has used every single person she has ever known and in Peter Murrell she found a like mind. Salmond is someone who desperately needs to be liked and it is now seriously affecting his judgement. As someone who was once ripped off by a close family member I found the best way to deal with it was face the reality of the situation, accept the person was a twisted bastard, get my revenge, wash my hands of them then draw a line under it and move onwards and upwards leaving them behind. That’s what Salmond needs to do because this continual begging for acceptance from a person who tried to send him to die in jail is pathetic and undermines all the claims he previously made about her.
As my granny used to say,
`if you can no longer fight wear a big hat`.
Baldy galloway – Tory enabler.
Daodao – You wish ( if that’s you mr murrell I’d start having porridge for breakfast).
I would also suggest you tell nicola to start backtracking on the hate crime and genderwoowoo if she wants to keep her seat (Although I doubt anyone will believe her).
P.S. Great cartoon Chris.
I’ve seen no sign of AS ‘begging for acceptance’
Your amateur psychology stinks, Shocked. Don’t give up the day job.
Well, IF the ALBA party fails to do well, then for the first time, I will be bitterly disappointed in the YES movement.
How sad to witness another limb of our mighty 2014 juggernaut left emaciated and withering under Sturgeon’s interminable nullity.
One question occurs to me, which I’m surprised nobody has asked, (or maybe they have and I’ve missed it), but when did the SNP become aware that Sturgeon left the legal profession under a cloud and on the point of being struck off? Seems extraordinary that such an indelible black mark on someone’s conduct and integrity would survive vetting, especially for higher positions in a political party.
Rather begs a question about the SNP’s vetting protocols, – coincidentally the access point for the smear campaign conspiracy against Alex Salmond.
@SR
Explain the volte face then. From causing her of serious criminal conduct to now saying she should be FM and trying to become allies with her again.
Face the reality of the situation, he’s embarrassing himself… as coincidently you do on here every single day, sturgeonite.
I cannot understand the Scots obsession with Galloway.
Politically he was yesterday’s man in the 1990’s.
Is it something to do with the I’m a Celebrity TV show or am I missing something.
Breeks says:
10 April, 2021 at 8:32 am
Rather begs a question about the SNP’s vetting protocols, – coincidentally the access point for the smear campaign conspiracy against Alex Salmond.
AND a further process notably abused and exploited by the Wokeratti to rig candidacies and agendas…
We all appear to hold great aspirations for Alex and Alba
to free Scotland from 2 corrupt governments but the U.K. media
and the somewhere over the rainbow Independence Party are
hindering and slandering at every opportunity of which there are many.
So how are the public and real independence supporters reacting to their
Crowdfunder and membership offers?
Well the Crowdfunder if £15,000 short with few days remaining and only
900 people have bothered to put in even the smallest donation.
You really do get nothing for nothing and you have got to give to get!
link to crowdfunder.co.uk
Shocked says:
10 April, 2021 at 8:32 am
@SR
Explain the volte face then. From causing her of serious criminal conduct to now saying she should be FM and trying to become allies with her again.
Face the reality of the situation, he’s embarrassing himself… as coincidently you do on here every single day, sturgeonite
Clearly you’re not a politician.
OR if you are indeed a politician you are behaving as an ‘agent provocateur’.
I don’t think it will work on this particular political monitor.
Mr Salmond has had barely two weeks. Even a week is a long time in politics, they say:-).
I suggest that you shouldn’t be so quick or so optimistic about your chances of being able to write off those who really do want independence.
A week is a long time in politics.
Anyone giving up on Alba this early is suspicious.
As a rule I do not grieve anyone over threescore years and ten but do acknowledge any good they have done and tend to ignore the bad for the sake of those close.
Nicolas Witchel is earning his corn and too late for the bucket as I now entered the dry boak stage.Surprised by some eulogising but realise there is a demographic they have to suck up to but some like oor Angus Rob make Witchel jealous.
Galloway is a has-been, a broken relic from a bygone age. He didn’t move back to Scotland to protect the union – he wanted the free prescriptions and bus pass!
ALBA has been in existence a matter of days..i’m told someonr opined that a week is a long time in politics. We shall see.
However, the royal propaganda card is being played.
No time for sentiment.
Shocked, if you see that as “begging for acceptance” then perhaps you should revisit your own experience as you don’t seem to haven gotten over it.
Reminder: Alba’ Womens Conference today at noon. Only biological females need apply, link to albaparty.org
Denise Findlay has a great write-up on why women should fight for their rights before they’re taken away completely, link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Pay nae heed to some of the trolls above… Alba will do very well.
The polls are coming out thick and fast right now because they (those opposed to independence) want to crow that ALBA have yet to make major inroads. But it has been less than 2 weeks so far too early to ascertain impact.
I reckon the polls will show a marked shift toward ALBA by the end of this month.
The British State is certainly out in force here already this morning.
Let’s be clear. The British Establishment absolutely NEEDS SCOTLAND’S WEALTH, and will stop at nothing to maintain London’s grip around Scotland’s throat.
Furthermore, Scotland’s First Minister is wholly committed to the security of the British State.
I recall the two US politicians talking on camera (deliberately/staged) after GG had torn the US Senate Committee a new arse.
They were saying that they had ‘achieved what they set out to achieve’ – meaning they had successfully called a sitting Government Politician from a foreign country in front of a US Senate Committee to answer to them, indicating fealty/acknowledging their authority.
A precedent was set.
Well done GG – fucking halfwit.
If Alba fails to break through then it’ll be down to the Scottish people being either too lazy to get off their collective arses to vote for it, too stupid to see it’s a lifeline to get independence back on track, or too weak to stand up to the ‘oh he must be guilty of something’ brigade.
If that riles some peeps so be it. This is last chance saloon either grab it and be the activists you once were or let the powers that be sideline and smear the one hope that the independence movement has. Your choice.
If I was still living in Scotland, I’d be not rolling over on this – this is a fight worth fighting. Don’t let polls get you down, get educating your close contacts.
And oh the irony that NS wants to grandstand in reconvening parliament to give gushy tributes to a man and family that were matey with the worst paedophile in UK history, Jimmy Saville, but ping someone’s hair – send them to the gallows!!!!!
Shocked says:
10 April, 2021 at 8:32 am
@SR
Explain the volte face then. From causing her of serious criminal conduct to now saying she should be FM and trying to become allies with her again…
Because she’s a crooked petty liar and a crook who wriggled out of being sacked for malpractice, “again” , but Alex Salmond has the sense to understand there are bigger issues at stake right now, like the prospect of a Holyrood Supermajority being able to reverse and undo Sturgeon’s brainless ineptitude and damaging precedent of affording Boris Johnson a Section 30 veto over Scottish Democracy, and put Scottish Independence back on the agenda. Because you can be damn sure neither Sturgeon nor her cronies have the brain power needed to figure it out for themselves.
What is needed is a time delayed hand grenade ( metaphor alert ) from off stage.
A wee word to the wise…
Some moderate concern about ALBA might be no bad thing if it gees folks up to get on and do something.
I’m confident ALBA is here to stay, and frankly, once it has it’s feet under the table, I hope it takes no prisoners.
I hope the Alba women’s conference goes ahead coz y’know we’re all in mourning an all that!!!! So I think this link is very apt – listen to this amazingly talented poet Aja fighting for women’s rights – she nails it good and proper.
link to grahamlinehan.substack.com
If the link doesn’t work go onto the Glinner Update to hear it.
@holymacmoses
I’ve got principles and stick to them and I respect others who do the same. Politics is not an adequate excuse for such a volte face and it leaves it open for people to now question everything Alex Salmond claims was done against him. The criminal corruption of the New SNP is so much bigger than politics.
The reason I detest sturgeon so much for what she tried to do to Alex Salmond is not because she did it to him, but because she could do it to anyone and if she did it to him just imagine what she would do to you or I. That is why Nicola Sturgeon should never again hold public office and it’s why once her hands are removed from the levers of power she should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and face a lengthy jail term.
My prediction for the election is either a SNP majority based on the constituency vote alone or a SNP informal coalition with the greens, with the greens just being nodding dogs as they are now. Alba will achieve nothing because outside of the hard core nationalist element there is no reason to vote for them because all they are offering is more Nicola Sturgeon and rather than I expected Salmond to do, start up a genuine nationalist opposition the SNP, he’s just set up SNP2 with different badges. Just like ISP or AFI, waste of time.
@breeks
As usual you miss the point. I’m a lawyer, I know how corrupt and incompetent Nicola Sturgeon is and I know the party accepted her mumbled excuses about the law society investigation into her.
There are no bigger issues in any country than the rule of law and justice. Without them you have nothing. A new country built on the foundations laid by the criminally corrupt New SNP will not be free, it will be an extremely dangerous place where critics of the party will need to tread very carefully and freedom of speech will be banned. What price freedom. Scotland would become the new Belarus, I don’t want any part of that.
Before Sturgeon “retired” from the legal profession a female (FEMALE) client had to endure years of abuse from her partner because Sturgeon did not file a restraining order, neither did Sturgeon file the paperwork for legal aid ( it was found at the bottom of a filing cabinet when her replacement took over the case).
Sturgeon has never apologised to that Woman. She should therefore not stand for office since she has failed to apologise for that. She let her down badly. Mental and physical abuse suffered because she did not do her job and protect her.
Only the English editions covered the story. Funny that!
@scozzie
It will be down to Alex Salmond failing to offer an alternative to the SNP. To your average Joe in the street there is no reason to vote Alba. Pretending the majority of Scots are hard core nationalists who put independence first is a fallacy. Salmond should have gone on the attack against the SNP and the greens. He still has time to do that.
@stuart Mackay
I have got over it (I bet many others wouldn’t) my point was to share my experience of what is the best way to deal with something like that and that is what Alex Salmond needs to do.
Independence is a long road, Alba is just the next turn in that road.
If it gives the Unionists a bloody nose out the gate all well and good, if not then at least it’s a start.
SNP1 Alba2
Stuart MacKay @ 8:50am
“Only biological females need apply”
I’m old enough to remember when just saying “Women’s Conference” would have been enough.
Shocked says:
10 April, 2021 at 9:13 am
My prediction for the election is either a SNP majority based on the constituency vote alone or a SNP informal coalition with the greens, with the greens just being nodding dogs as they are now…
Aye. And what does that deliver but another 5 years of stagnation and impotence from a weak and incompetent SNP Government firmly under the thumb of Westminster while Scotland bleeds?
Scotland NEEDS a supermajority to regain control over it’s right to hold unfettered referendums and plebiscites which is the right of a Constitutionally sovereign people, – the very Right which Sturgeon’s cowardly capitulation and acquiescence forfeited to Westminster!!
Alex Salmond’s strategic masterstroke hands the keys of Democracy back to Holyrood and gives Scottish Democracy a constitutional lifeline, but Uber-genius Sturgeon throws a tantrum saying she doesn’t want them. She has her eye of hung Parliament shared by SNP Transextremists and Green Transweirdo’s loving her own greatness to the max, with the dumb-fuks in the YES movement writing cheques to pay the bills but getting NOTHING in return.
Do you not think it’s mighty queer for the Unionists and SNP to be so mightily content with the status quo? … that and destroying Alex Salmond.
Shocked says:
10 April, 2021 at 9:21 am
To your average Joe in the street there is no reason to vote Alba.
Says an SNP automaton who patently doesn’t understand what a supermajority actually is.
Well I’ve read all the doom and gloom about polling, getting a few seats etc etc.
My money is on ALBA coming through strong in the last few weeks and achieving polling above 15% at least.
Remember that saying ” If you think you can or think you can’t, you will probably be right”
OR
As oddball would say ” What’s with the negative vibes”
The polls are always wrong. (or they lie, take your pick).
The royal propaganda is in full swing. But for the royal arselickers this is just a taste of what it is going to be for them when that big big day comes.
I am not as shocked as Shocked appears to be as he is shocked in a way that makes me shocked that Shocked is shocked.
SNP1 and Alba2 ie Con SNP list Alba leads to a better denouement and a damn sight quicker than demolition and rebuild. Sheesh,I see em!
Shocked @ 9.13pm
I don’t doubt for a minute that the Alba party fully intends to be an independence party contesting constituencies seats in the future.
I could be wrong, but I think setting up a party with the EC to fight the constituency is a bit more complicated than the List and requires some serious backing of $$$$$. Someone more knowledgeable can advise.
So given AS had to wait until the ‘let’s string out the inquiry for 2 years to the bitter end’ fake inquiry had reported, then they were a bit hamstrung.
I love his ‘in it to win it’ attitude – others might have said ‘this is a hill too hard to climb’ given the timing of all these events that he has had to see through to the end. But not AS.
I know we have a few Scozzies and Sciwiks on this site. One thing I admire about the OZ/Kiwis is the ‘give it a go’ attitude. AS has that in spades.
If Alba hadn’t of came along, we’d all be well depressed by this coming election. He’s asked for the grassroots to get behind it, he’s putting himself out there front and centre and taking all the hits and smears. The least independence supporters can do is get out the and spread the word in support of Alba.
Heaver,
The polls have been weaponised for years, instead of a measurement of people’s thoughts and intentions they are used to influence.
Heaver,
Sorry, I meant to add that I agree with you.
Super cartoon, made me laugh.
A wee question re the lists.
Can anyone confirm/correct
A party puts forward List candidates, and sets them in an order that can then not be altered or shuffled about?
And one way or another Nicla and Swinney (and possibly the others) have got themselves placed at position number 2 on the list?
If so, they have maximised their chances of winning the list seat position (should they fail to take the constituency seat).
So, what happens if they win the Constituency seat – does their list seat position, become null and void, does list seat candidate number 1 come back into the running and get it, or does number 3 get bumped up the list, and take it? Anyone know.
I don’t suppose it becomes Null and void – by it would be useful to know for certain, really not something a party should be doing if it does – they are supposed to Maximise representation, not maximise those and such as those getting elected. However, I don’t know.
So, Position number 2 on the list, and why its really the position that gives them the best chance of being elected.
2016 figures (roughly, from memory):
Mid Scotland
SNP 9 Contituency seats won.
List votes SNP 120,000 Tories 73,000, labour 51,000
Round 1 120,000 divided by ten – new total 12,000
SNP with a figure of 12,000 will be nowhere in the running until round 7. Step up SNP list candidate number 2. In 2016 12,000 was not enough, but in other areas I think the greens got the last seat on similar (maybe just a wee bit higher) numbers.
Why this is important, is a lot of folk want to vote tactically to get Nicla out (me too by they way), and they see that someone else is at number 1 on the SNP list and are thinking that’s good, we have a chance to oust her.
But DeHont is a bugger.
One thing is certain. On the list vote, the vast majority of previous SNP votes, now need to go to Alba, not just to ensure maximim Alba representation, but to ensure the SNP bigwigs don’t get 2 bites at the cherry and game they system to their own benefits.
Likewise if, getting elected on the Constituency seat, means being placed on the list, and then winning that seat also, the seat becomes enforced vacant. That is a policy that the party members need to know about and put a stop to.
Anyway – List vote – Alba – yes, yes, yes.
If only there was a word that rhymed with “hat” to accurately describe Mr Galloway.
Shcked @ 9.21pm
But Alba can’t – they’re just a list party. For any chance of them getting seats they need the SNP to take the constituency (which they will do anyway). The only way Alba can go toe-to-toe is once they’re in parliament. That’s when you’ll see them take the SNP head on.
That’s why the supermajority concept is appealing, get the most independence seats elected, then go in hard to hold the SNP to account.
If, as claimed by the great majority of the secessionists posting on here, you all knew that Nicola Sturgeon was no good, why didn’t you say something before now? The tone now seems to hinge on a claim that she is (or was) in the final analysis a bent and incompetent lawyer, so now it’s time (see what I did there?) to not only vote against her, but at the same time not vote for her at all. How are you going to swing that, as she seems to be careering toward her third term as FM? A possibility not afforded to American Presidents, btw.
Is the answer really to put all your electoral eggs in the basket of the Kaledonian Komeback Kid, whose ahistorically named ‘Alba’ party is only going to be seen as yet another gimmick to draw in the seemingly endless reserve of the credulous we accommodate in our port, benighted land?
Shouldn’t you be considering how to persuade the greater majority of the Scots electorate who do not support your secessionist prospectus, to be prepared to do so, instead of taking comfort in the vituperative, politically sectarian invective you weigh in with at every opportunity? Otherwise you’ll get nowhere.
Just as an aside, I’ve taken to watching France24 news, as both BBC & Sky piss me off. A report on the demise of Prince Philip, who was inarguably a notable British public figure, said that the death was received differently by people of differing views. Their first interviewee? A Scots guy, woolly hat & shades, with the practiced mumbling of the ‘hard’ Scots accent, claiming that the death meant nothing in his life. I could have sworn it was Sean Clerkin, but I’m not certain. Their second interviewee? A younger Scots guy, well spoken, refined Morningside accent, limply & self consciously giving the nod to ‘racism’, while stressing the need to balance it against the whole of his life.
Is this how we want the world to see us? Needlessly, ostentatiously dismissive on the one hand or oh-so right on and emollient on the other?
ALBA conference for women’s concerns is online via zoom.
Quote from site.
[Any woman can join in to listen to our discussions which will cover gender-proofing all our policies to ensure women are front and centre in all our policy considerations.
This will be an all-women safe space event.]
Aside from questioning the need for such a thing at this time, the stuff about all-women safe space given the virtual nature of the «event» seems curiously superfluous and not a little wokey.
BTW: Zoom is a Chinese platform about which there are «safety» concerns.
ALBA, do stick to the brief!
and the politics needs to go on 24/7, regardless of who has died.
John McNab says:
10 April, 2021 at 9:58 am
If, as claimed by the great majority of the secessionists posting on here…
Jesus wept. Scotland CANNOT secede from the UK .
The UK is not, and never has been Scotland’s mother country, and if Scotland left the Treaty of Union, it would NOT create a Continuer “UK” state, there would be no UK state.
Has the penny dropped yet?
I turned on the TV to see what was happening in
the world but almost every channel is spewing out
gallons of gloss about a man who retired about 70 years ago.
Having to watch Sponge Bob Square Pants to avoid it but
I fear he’s going to mention him any minute.
I gave up and went out for a drive that took in 2 Digital Billboards.
Both permanently showing a picture of Philip and his date of birth and death.
That must cost an absolute fortune.
It shows just how rich the suppressors of the Scots are!
The thing with George Galloway and the US Senate is a bit misleading because most people are aware of the bit where he stood up and gave it tight to the Americans and yes, that was great but if anybody bothered to watch the rest of his appearance, he settled down and became evasive, surly and uncommunicative and really did look like he had something to hide.
Breeks,
I’m sure that particular penny isn’t going to drop for him any time soon.
I haven’t had time yet to read all the comments so apologies if this has been posted already. 12 o’clock today is the ALBA Party Womans Conference. Attendance is on ZOOM and is open to all women. You don’t have to be a member link to albaparty.org
«John McNab» is obviously an AngloBot.
A John Buchanish Scotchman type bot, not quite in the first flush.
@breeks
What on earth are you slavering about. I’ve gone from someone who voted SNP in the past to as anti SNP as you can get.
I understand that a new country built on corrupt foundations is dangerous.
I know that on current showings Salmond’s strategy is going to fail. Sturgeon will not work with him and either her and Patrick Harvie or her alone will be calling the shots. Without eroding SNP constituency support and removing the Sturgeon cabal Salmond will be nothing but a sideshow. Salmond has had years to get his plan in place, Alba appears a rush job essentially copying George Galloway plan to ride on Sturgeon’s coat tails. He needs to get out of the nationalist bubbles like here and spread the word on how unelectable Sturgeon is or else he faces electoral irrelevance.
I will be voting tactically against the SNP in the constituency and I may abstain on the list, not decided yet, I may vote tactically there as well. One thing is for sure no SNP or SNP/Alba votes from me, my principles won’t allow it.
Yes , for the negatrons – suspiciously- talking down the chances of Alba in the coming H.E , the point is …..whatever the outcome in May we’re going to need a Party capable of not only advancing our cause of Independence, but to protect us from the ravages of Westminster/Tory rule , something New SNP are totally incapable of , so fixated are they on Identity Politics buffoonery , we’re virtually defenceless currently . In fact , not only do we need a Party to protect us against the historic Unionist enemy , we need a counter to the lunacy of one Party that supposedly had our interests as a priority ie the SNP, anyone with a functioning intelligence can see that Party has been mangled beyond all recognition , of repair .
So , ALBA , not just for May , for the foreseeable .
@Famous15 says:
10 April, 2021 at 9:42 am
I am not as shocked as Shocked appears to be as he is shocked in a way that makes me shocked that Shocked is shocked.
Thanks for that! Made I larff.
” or repair “
Growth of 3% a week means 20+ seats for ALBA.
That means #Supermajority = negotiate independence.
Wi a wee bit o luck Nicola Sturgeon might not get back in. She’s the union gatekeeper. With her gone, the union’s gone.
A list MSP can stand down at any point and the next on the Party list automatically becomes a MSP e.g.
Conservative Regional MSP Douglas Ross resigned as Highland and Islands MSP after being elected as MP for Moray in June 2017. He was replaced by Jamie Halcro Johnston at Holyrood.
A SNP top ranked list candidate, if elected, could resign on Election Day to save a “name”.
Another reason to vote ALBA on the list.
Galloway is a grifter.
He gets found out every where he goes and alienates everyone. The voters of Bradford West got his number very quickly and turfed him out on his arse. That campaign he ran there really showed him up.
He then made a complete prat of himself running for Mayor of London.
Now he senses a new grift, playing the union card back in Scotland and doing so as regional party like ALBA. The guy is shameless.
He has been doing it so long he thinks he can get away with anything. This latest move to supporting tories is proving a little trickier than he thought. Who is George Galloway indeed.
He’s the Twat in the Hat. A very vain man, as the hat shows every single time you see him.
ttomanboi says:
10 April, 2021 at 10:18 am
«John McNab» is obviously an AngloBot.
A John Buchanish Scotchman type bot, not quite in the first flush.
This is what passes for persuasion, is it?
Potential wedge issue between Sturgeon and her wokies, perhaps?
Old white cis male being slobbered over by FM? Anyone got a sledgehammer?
Breeks says:
10 April, 2021 at 8:32 am
“but when did the SNP become aware that Sturgeon left the legal profession under a cloud and on the point of being struck off?”
No idea about the SNP but it was common knowledge in the legal profession over 15 years ago – my cousin (criminal solicitor in Edinburgh at the time) told me about it in the early 2000s.
I think her comment at the time was “she’s so negligent not even a free solicitors practice will keep her on” (Govan Law Centre IIRC).
Breaks at 10.08am
You’re not often right, but you’re wrong again:
Secede (verb)
withdraw formally from membership of a federal union, an alliance, or a political or religious organization.
“the kingdom of Belgium seceded from the Netherlands in 1830”
The United Kingdom is Scotland & England in union. If one drops out there is no United Kingdom.
Very simple, but one party and its establishment would be subject to considerable loss of international face.
@ TheSNPLeftMe says:
10 April, 2021 at 10:21 am
A list MSP can stand down at any point and the next on the Party list automatically becomes a MSP e.g.
Conservative Regional MSP Douglas Ross resigned as Highland and Islands MSP after being elected as MP for Moray in June 2017. He was replaced by Jamie Halcro Johnston at Holyrood.
Thanks for that. What happens if the name is numbered somewhere in the middle of the list and the candidate before them was knocked out.
So, as per my previous example – the ‘name’ is on the list at number 2. Number 1 is knocked out in the first round.
The name gets elected on the Constituency and so stands down from the list.
Strictly speaking ‘next on the list’ to take up the seat one by position number 2, would be number 3 on the list… or is it at the discretion of the party?
Sorry to be pedantic (and I have looked on the EC to try and find the rules and regs) its just I’m sure someone (good few months ago) stated that the parties had to put candidates into numbered positions, and could not then shuffle them about to suit themselves.
In any event, putting Nicla and Swinney at position number 2 on the list – has given them first chance to be elected on the list, going by 2016 figures.
Which explains why Swinney did not get shuffled up the list to positin number 1, in Mid Scot area when Eva Comrie decanted to the Indy Party Alba.
O/T
Utterly scunnered about the wall to wall BBC coverage of the death of a 99 year old?
Complaint form attached.
link to bbc.co.uk
We know there are THREE reasons NS will not agree with ALBA, They are … fear. jealousy and spite.
Is it safe to turn the wireless on again yet?
Yesterday, I maintained media isolation till teatime, switched on Radio 3, got the tail end of something pleasant, then the announcer said “and that was the Portuguese Suite, driving in to work earlier I noticed the Portuguese Embassy flag at half mast….” Off again.
pls advise.
The sun is shining.
Alba clearly is busy organising policy etc.
Given what everyone has been through, with Covid and Brexit, and Covid jags, spending heaps of money and shoving his death down our throats, along with Union Jacks aplenty is not going to go down well with our electorate.
Still a Britnats gonna do what a Britnats gonna do.
@ Daisy
As I understand it, the Party ranked positions aren’t knocked out in each round. The first ranked candidate for a Party picks up a list seat when the Regional list vote share for that party (after constituency divisors) comes into play in any particular round.
Tony Benn, whose name Galloway drops effusively with monotonous regularity, often spoke of two types of politician: the signposts and the weathercocks. In which category would a certain former Europhile, a founder of Scotland United and a man who said he should be shot if he ever supported the Tories be placed?
John McNab 10:18
Oh pull the other one, your not in the least up for «persuasion».
The depth of Tory Royalist England is such that today’s
Daily Hail has to pour 38 pages of Philip grief before getting
on to core duty of SNP and Scotland evil.
I burst out laughing with this snippet-
The 400 islanders of Yaoh-Nanen saw Philip as a God
as when they sent him a War Club, he sent them back
a picture with him holding it.
Pigs, bullocks and chickens are now being slaughtered ahead
of a weeks mourning.
I believe it involves a great deal of Bollocks.
@Effigy
Couple of pics of the cuffs on his most dapper evening wear appear to suggest that he went from Lieutenant 70 years ago, to Admiral of the fleet. Irrespective of how it was achieved, his keen sense of humour marks him out as one of the truly good guys who probably would have been only too keen for Scottish independence if those planning it had only had the presence of mind to organise it in such a way that his wife got to be longest serving British monarch for all time and the currency adopted to compete with that of the bank of england had adopted the profile of Duke of Edinburgh as its symbol of trust..
That said, and setting aside how he managed to survive the car crash a few years ago, Pete Roberts comment on previous thread raises the rather intriguing question of who the head freemason might now be – and on what authority.
Don’t let anyone put you off voting SNP 1 and ALBA 2. I fail to see how ALBA can be a failure when it’s membership overtook the LibDems only a few days after Alex Salmond announced it’s existence. It will be difficult for me to vote SNP 1 now, believe me, but I’ll do it.
As for the polls, I stopped believing them in 2014. When push comes to shove, particularly regarding politics, all of the media including polling companies will do as they are told. After all the very existence of the British state itself is at stake here. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want.
Former Tory Minister Alan Duncan has published a book
where he passes opinion on those he worked with.
It seems Edwina Currie called John Major a C**t.
Boris described as a stain on the UKs international
reputation, a selfish ill-disciplined shambolic clot.
Mrs May a frightened rabbit, a cardboard cut out with
sub zero social skills.
Gove is a unctuous freak, a whacky weirdo.
He has many more correctly labelled that we well know about.
Unctuous is such a wonderful descriptor for the raptor in question.
The Brit establishment will milk the recent demise for all its worth. The monarch may be encouraged to abdicate, there will be a coronation for her son and 2021 has been designated as rejoicing over Brexit year. The system is clunking the old gears. Sentimentality will tsunami its way over the vax’d populace, grateful to be allowed the privilege of going out into the world albeit still muzzled and physically distanced.
Alas there is no rationalist vax for mawkish emotionalism.
John McNab @ 9.58am
There were plenty of us calling out our concerns on NS since before Brexit and certainly after Brexit. The problem was Stu’s BTL, was at the time, inhabited by SNP cultists (who’ve in the main defected to WGD) so voices got shut down.
But make no mistake there were peeps trying to highlight that NS had no intention of delivering independence.
Probably the most diligent was Colin Alexander and he got pelters day in day out, but I think in hindsight he’s been pretty on the money for most of it.
There may be a medical reason for George Galloway’s peculiar fizzog but on the other cheek it is mibbes he keeps a wasp or two to chew when being orational .
Just sayin,for balance.
Daisy
I was under the impression that when Eva left the SNP and joined ALBA Stefan Hoggan-Radu shot up to No1 from somewhere around 7th? because he is disabled and in our constituency 1st place is reserved for a disabled candidate. I’m not sure but wasn’t John Swinney always 1st on the list in previous years? When this happened I did wonder what would happen if Nicola loses in the constituency but SNP get a list seat and Rosa Salih has to step down for some reason – I would imagine another BAME candidate would have to get the No1 position. Why have the new NEC rule otherwise? I might have this all wrong though…no doubt someone will know for sure!
Anyone using the word secessionist is no friend of Scottish independence. Lately, I’ve seen the word used a lot, particularly by those seemingly on Scotland`s side.
Error..2022 is the year of the Great Rejoicing jingofest.
An outfit in Glasgow is keeping the UJ flying for Scotland…yaye!
Read about it here.
link to aproxima.co.uk
@ Daisy Walker
Once the allocation by D’Hondt ranking is made and MSP position awarded the seat order does not matter. If the Cons win 3 seats, Labour win 2 etc to Holyrood then that will maintained. It is a good reason to have several candidates on the list.
The ranking list for 2016 was submitted for Highland and Islands and the conservatives maintain 3 seats regardless of resignation, retirement, death etc. PROVIDING the submitted list has another name. If the Conservatives had only put three names on the original list then Ross could not have resigned that seat.
This is why Labour and the Tories put up 6 or 7 names. You need at least 4 even if you think winning two seats likely.
Roughly, the era of Sentimentalism (analogous to the nowtimes) gave way to the Romantic era, via the French Revolution.
Must share this touching piece from the team responsible for celebrating England’s vote to quit the European Union.
«Our team has displayed humility and sensitivity to work and exchange ideas as a large group, to be open but to share their experience without fuss or ego. This will be a life changer for many of us. It really will lead to massive personal change and the chance to do something that affects wider society.»
— Angus Farquhar, APROXIMA ARTS
and this choice morsel.
We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in our bid to deliver the Scottish thread of FestivalUK*2022.
A European project delivered in a pro-European country.
Oooooops!
Have posted this a few times since it was published but it’s always worth a re-read, and a great antidote to the barrage of sycophantic fiction we’re all enduring.
link to nytimes.com
Medidi
The NEC passed a motion on which they were advised was illegal and open to challenge.
The motion put BAME and disabled at the top of the lists in those areas deemed for that category.
Several woke candidates immediately classed themselves “disabled”. They do not have to meet any official classification or standard.
It is interesting that several candidates with serious and recognised disabilities did not abuse the system and refused to rank themselves above others.
An insight itself into Woke standards. Self ID sex and self ID disabled – easy
Nice one Chris, I had great respect for Galloway at one point, his performance at the US Senate was masterly, his endeavours to aid the Palestinian people is admirable, his compassion to bring a young Iraqi child to Scotland for medical treatment of which he paid for, was exceptionally compassionate.
However Galloway’s intense hatred of Scottish independence, and his new found love for the Tories, and ultimately the establishment, has left a sour taste in my mouth, and he will end up on the wrong side of Scottish history when the dust settles.
Meanwhile folk are sick to the stomach with all this nauseating coverage of Phil the Greek, but this is what happens when a foreign country owns your terrestrial media channels.
link to thenational.scot
John McNab says:
10 April, 2021 at 10:30 am
Breaks at 10.08am
You’re not often right, but you’re wrong again:
Secede (verb)
withdraw formally from membership of a federal union, an alliance, or a political or religious organization.
“the kingdom of Belgium seceded from the Netherlands in 1830”
No, I’m not wrong.
Scotland cannot secede from the UK, because secession would leave the UK to continue as the UK, but the UK would no longer exist. The end of the Union is the end of a bilateral treaty; two sovereign equals in, two sovereign equals out… No secession.
I’m not sure that recalling the Scottish Parliament on Monday to listen to turgid encomia about Philip is even legal. Parliament is not in recess, it has been dissolved for an election. We no longer have MSPs, we have candidates. The FM and her cabinet are still in place, so that the country can function, but only they hold office. Several dozen of the last lot of MSPs have already retired. Ken Macintosh isn’t the Presiding Officer now.
Cenchos 11:25
Sentimentalism, the ultimate weapon in the authoritarian armoury.
See how it got us all obediently and safely through the pandemic…..(irony).
In the name of the Mask and of the Distance and of the staying Safe, amen!
For anyone who is demoralised about polling of Alba or the crowdfund, you’ll probably know that you can contribute through the website, which is separate. I contributed there, not on crowdfund. We know they have at least 5000 members and I’d assume it’s much higher now. I’ve volunteered for local activism and not been contacted yet, so I’d assume there will be more activity soon (once everyone has recovered from the shock of a 99-year-old that we never met dying).
“Is the answer really to put all your electoral eggs in the basket of the Kaledonian Komeback Kid, whose ahistorically named ‘Alba’ party is only going to be seen as yet another gimmick to draw in the seemingly endless reserve of the credulous we accommodate in our port, benighted land?”
John McNab, is obviously seeking to get a rise out of folk in here, if he’d spent a bit less time polishing his queen Elizabeth picture at his work station and a bit more time on Scottish independence and our struggle to dissolve this horrendous onesided union, he’d have realised that the Kaledonian Kid is the only person with form when it comes to holding an indyref in Scotland, and ergo he’s a proven politician who actually wants to bin the ball and chain that is Westminster for good.
Grand National Party Tips-
SNP- Cabaret Queen or Any Second Now
Labour- Definitely Red
Tory- Acapella Bourgeois
Lib Dem’s- Talk is cheap
Alba- Give me a copper
Greens- Cloth Cap
Shocked
Beware of Gell-Mann Amnesia. Every day here there are examples of the MSM and the Yoons spinning tall tales about how Resistance is Futile and how we’re going to stay assimilated forever. Everybody has a good laugh. But yet when the tall tales start about Alba or anybody else who might oppose the current status quo, suddenly it’s all true.
link to epsilontheory.com
So what if Alba don’t make it in May. It’s time to dust off and get ready for the next attempt. The conversation has already changed with #BothVotesYes, 1 SNP, 2 Alba 2, #supermajority, and my personal favourite “the glacialists” (Salmond, I thank you from the core of my being for that one). Compared to the stodgy Scottish not-Nationalist Party this is a hurricane of fresh air. All that’s needed is the will to make it happen.
Given your respect for the law I’d have thought you’d have your sleeves rolled up and your against the wheel try to get things moving.
If you sit at home, nothing’s going to change. No matter how bad things get, with inaction, they can always get worse.
Alba is the only party many of us will vote for, people within SNP are with Alba. When NS is gone that puts SNP and Alba in a very powerful position if they get the MSPs. NS is fighting for survival, when they turn on her its going to be quick and vicious, she knows its coming, she needs SNP to be propped up by the Greens for her to stay in power. Thats a view I am putting forward.
I feel sorry for the folk who live near Edinburgh castle today, for they’ll need to endure hours of gun fire from the Scottish castle in a tribute to a foreign consort from Corfu known as Phil the Greek, who lived an extraordinary extravagant life of luxury at the taxpayers expense for the best part of a century.
Yeah I agree with some in here that ALBA will do much better than we think come May 6th, however the old chestnut of fiddling with the postal votes is really the only way that the establishment can do ALBA down.
Is IDOX and ex-Tory Peyer Lilley still involved in the Scottish process?
Stuart Mackay @ 8.50am
‘Denise Findlay has a great write-up on why women should fight for their rights before they’re taken away completely,’
– By voting for the SNP !
I’ve noticed in the last week she’s trying to get round this conundrum by trying to explain why it’s safe to vote ‘snp1alba2’. It simply isn’t and she would gain far more respect by being honest that this strategy is a huge gamble.
Remember after the vote in 2014 when we were all so deflated, the first public meeting was ‘WFI’ in Perth where hundreds of women turned up to re-ignite the campaign. It was glorious, it really picked me up.
And when I say women, yes, I mean biological.
How we have fallen.
Effigy & 8.40
The average donation so far is £39.18p, not bad IMO
@breeks
Yes you are wrong again. You fundamentally misunderstand what the UK is and make the same mistake so many who don’t want to or simply cannot understand the situation make. You slaver on about sovereignty and suchlike but most of what you say is fantastical nonsense with no basis in reality.
Legally the act of Union dissolved England and Scotland and a new country called the United Kingdom of Great Britain was created. The United Kingdom is not a union between countries, it is one country and if a part decided to leave the rest of the UK would continue to exist.
I’m pro independence but that is the legal position… and therefore it also means that if independence was rammed through without taking the whole of Scotland with it there is a chance the parts of Scotland that wanted to stay in the United Kingdom would do just that. That means that a referendum won by a whisker or an attempt to unilaterally declare independence would likely lead to the partition of Scotland. The way to get independence is to prove we can do things better, that is something hardly anyone seems to grasp and it is something that Nicola Sturgeon and her cabal have completely failed to do. Salmond was on the right track before 2014 but if you look from when Sturgeon took over public services have got worse on almost every measure.
So after 7 years of stagnation and disaster by Sturgeon it is time to clear out the SNP from power and start again, a rushed attempt at independence will likely fail and lead to the break up of Scotland. I don’t care if I upset anyone by saying that but that’s the way I see it and I was supporting independence when people like Craig Murray were trying to become Lib Dem MP’s and suchlike.
If we dwell on negativity and a hatred of all things English, we are attempting to establish a nation on what we are not rather than what we are.
What I despise about the SNP is that they have made what we appear to be as corrupt and incompetent. In other words, they have stolen our national identity.
Scotland used to be considered a bastion of free speech and justice built upon the principles of the enlightenment but we are now thought of on the international stage as a rather squalid backwater. More Zimbabwe than New Zealand.
What struck me about AS’s testimony at HR was that he still believed in the institutions that had been corrupted and attributed responsibility to those in charge rather than Scotland per se.
I hope that this is true and that the cancer of corruption has not infected the whole state.
Personally, I would prefer to postpone independence until we can ensure that justice will be served in a nation state and I know that will make me an enemy of many on this site, but would you seriously give enhanced powers to NS, Swinney et al?
Seriously???
A vote for ALBA is literally a vote for Scotland.
No Probs.
Slàn leibh an drasda!
@stuart Mackay
I can’t even understand half of that.
My issue with Salmond is that Alba, that should have been a long planned operation with years in the planning to take on and replace the SNP looks like a rush job with no plan beyond supporting someone he was calling corrupt and a criminal a few weeks ago. That doesn’t wash with me, I know what sturgeon has done, as does anyone who reads wings, and I cannot condone voting for her or her party on any level. Sturgeon needs jailed, end of, as do every other corrupt bastard who was involved in the Salmond situation and any other corruption she has been involved in. The fact she is even standing for election shows how utterly screwed up Scotland is. It is a bad joke.
RepublicofScotland Why? Edinburgh voted 61% against independence in 2014 and to stay in the UK.
If it was Yes voting Glasgow you might have a point, not Edinburgh
DJ @ 11:17 am
“Anyone using the word secessionist is no friend of Scottish independence.”
Correct, the facts of Scottish sovereignty and the Treaty of Union ensures that Scotland is neither Quebec or Catalonia; secession or UDI does not therefore apply to Scotland.
A treaty-based alliance agreement may be ended by any signatory party to it, according to the European Court of Justice, and may be effected by the decision of a majority of a country’s national representatives. ALBA’s #Supermajority strategy to commence negotiations for Scotland’s withdrawal from its UK alliance therefore complies with international law.
I put on the news to see if it were possible to keep
this grief fest going. It is still going.
Thousands of soldiers and sailors all across the country and colonies
supporting many 41 gun salutes?
Perhaps if they had a 21 gun salute outside the palace he lived in
it might have saved enough to make less soldiers redundant, give them
proper equipment when entering illegal wars and maybe even give proper
support for those physically and mentally handicapped through service.
Commentators filling in with the age of the guns, where they served, history of
the regiment, how the shell is loaded, who its triggered?
So fascinating I’ll need to forgo watch the paint drying in the kitchen.
Excessive to the most absurd degree.
Republic of Scotland 11:50
Please…there is some measure of Greek, albeit via Egypt, in my DNA. the DoE could not even claim that…
He hated Greece and by extension probably its people.
He was a fine specimen of the Danish German princeling type.
May he, however, RIP.
Congratulations to Whitburn’s Band, The Snuts
for making the number one slot with their debut album.
What is it about Whitburn as its hone to International star Lewis Capaldi,
TV winner Leon Jackson and songstress Nadine Shah?
@TNS2019
I am with you. We can’t build a country on rotten foundations.
Effigy says:
10 April, 2021 at 8:25 am
“Trying various TV and Radio Stations but I’m being haunted.”
Sick of it. Even 4 extra, which never has news bulletins, has been switched over to churn out the same shite as radio 4. Upside is I watched a DVD that I had in my collection but hadn’t seen. Notes on a Scandal, with Judi Dench. Quite a good film.
Stuart MacKay + 1320
Exacterooni.
Bear in mind the metacontext Scotland sits in, because no man is an island unless his name is Madagascar. We’re in an increasingly unstable global order (politically, economically, culturally, demographically) that’s changing in ways few would have predicted 10 years ago, unless they preferred tinfoil chapeaus and hand-photocopied their own newsletters. TPTB are trying to clamp down on the implications of this with an upswing in woke authoritarianism and completely unsustainable spending splurges that would make John Maynard Keynes shit his breeks in terror. This is a sign of weakness, not strength. Nassim Taleb talks about fragility – the entire system is built on Fraggle Rock. All it takes is an itchy trigger in Ukraine, or a boating mishap in the Suez, or a bad flu from China to create ripple effects that shake the entire planet.
Crises spell opportunities. The future is democratic nationalism, because it offers the only sustainable context for social stability. It took a while for the Scottish public to lose patience with Labour, it won’t take as long for the SNP to be found out – they’ve already been found out by people who are paying attention.
Alex Salmond is 66 years old and just one man, scorned and covered with scars. But he’s not feeling sorry for himself, he’s still fighting, with his last ounce of courage, for Scotland. Our host has been subjected to some of the vilest slanders, legal unfairness, and censorship I’ve ever seen. Does he give up? No, he fights like Rocky.
How can we look at these examples and do less? It should shame us. To live as a man means shouldering the heaviest burden you possibly can bear, otherwise we’re not living, we’re just killing time. Don’t stop to count your enemies and never tell me the odds – get up and fight, ya lazy bums!
@ Daisy Walker
Swinney got the largest % of votes in the members’ vote for candidates for his region so in the normal process he would have been No 1 on the SNP list of candidates. However the NEC Wokies decided in their unwisdom that they would reserve 1st place in certain regions for disabled candidates and in others for BAME candidates. This is how Graeme Campbell became No 1 on the SNP’s Lothian list despite not living there and achieving only 2.2% of members’ votes. Eva Comrie in Swinney’s region got 1st place because she was the disabled candidate with the highest % of members’ votes. When she resigned from the SNP the disabled candidate with the next highest vote became No 1.
“Anyone using the word secessionist is no friend of Scottish independence.”
I’m warming to the term “anti-colonialist”.
Feeling more like a colony under Governor General Sturgeon and her merry band of cozy-devolutionist troughers.
Perhaps women in Sturgeon’s constituency could consider getting a hold of some of these stickers from Kelly Jay Keen and putting them in their windows for election time:
link to standingforwomen.com
I would add to them – “Destroyer of Scottish Independence”
Thanks folks for the info re DeHonte
Msdidi re, ‘I’m not sure but wasn’t John Swinney always 1st on the list in previous years?’
He probably did, but the numbers were different then. As I’ve said before, every time one thing changes on DeHonte, everything else changes also.
Eg 2007 and 2011 the SNP did not do so well on the Constituency vote and absolutely needed the list vote seats to make up the difference.
That was when both votes SNP came into being, and it was valid at that point.
I don’t know what the numbers were in 2011 (and sad as I am, I am not going to look them up, even I have my limits), but for the sake of argument, if the 3 big parties all took similar amounts of Consituency seats, and roughly similar numbers of List seats (compared to the 2016 almost double) then in round 1 list seat counts, the Division number will be similar across the board.
For the sake of argument – say SNP 2, Cons 2, Labour 3, LDs 2 on the Constit vote,
And say (comletely made up) on the list, SNP took 80,000, Tories 70,000, Labour 50,000 and LDs 25,000.
Those numbers would be divided by 3, 3, 4 and 3 respectively.
Round 1, seat 1 would go to SNP’s first candidate on the list.
2016 – the SNP became List Seat victims due to their sweeping the board on the Constituency Seats. The division figure is huge – If you take an average 120,000 on the list, but win 7, 8 or 9 Constituency seats – that 120,000 is near enough divided by 10, bumping it all the way to the bottom, especially on the first round.
I did average out what the votes in each region on the list were in 2016. Again, this is from memory, but it gives a rough working.
On averge, on the list, the SNP took 120,000 – next highest (and in some areas it was labour, others tory) was 73,000, third highest 50,000, forth LDs) 20,000 – the greens were sitting around 17,000.
If you are currently a candidate sitting at number 1 on the SNP List, then you are almost guaranteed to lose if SNP sweep the board on the Constits votes again.
The only way you get that seat, is if Nicla or Swinney win the Constituency seat and graciously stand down from position number 2 on the list (if it wins) and gift it to you.
2016, and current opinion polls showing SNP set to take nearly all the Constit seats creates a ‘prefect storm’ not usually available on this voting system.
Anyway – DeHonte sucks.
@Shocked,
Baloney. The very title of the Queen in Scotland should tell you there are major Constitutional barriers to the UK replacing Scotland completely rather than a Union.
Certainly if the Monarchy had been declared as of the whole UK back then,that may be important today. However they could not because of the principle of Scots Sovereignty.
You might not think King James and his successors have considered this, but most certainly they did but could not change it.
Shocked says:
10 April, 2021 at 8:25 am
@daodao
The only way Alba will achieve anything is by abandoning the tactic of crawling up Sturgeon’s backside and become a party in its own right
Reply
No! Alex is going the right way about things. He will attract more voters with honey than with vinegar.
The damage Nicola has done to her public persona is severe, her bitterness towards the man who escalated her in politics hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Alex is a statesman, Nicola is an imposter.
I hope people will not lose hope & renege on SNP1 & ALBA2 for the list.
People bottled it in Sept 2014 & have regretted it since. Please don’t bottle it this time.
Alex is a great political tactician. Have faith in him.
I remember when we in NZ entered the Americas cup as a small nation. They said we couldn’t win. We had Russell Coutts as skipper & Paul Buttrose as tactician. We beat the Americans, took the cup home.
” I actually as a real estate agent sold Russell Coutts family home that he grew up in as a boy. There was a room of the garage that had carvings of small boats he sailed in as a laddie.
What I’m trying to say here is.. If you want to succeed in gaining your independence, go with the tactician who can outsmart the opposition. That to me is Alex Salmond.
For all those desperate to see the back of NS but willing to be negative about Alex Salmond and Alba may I ask the following questions:
1. Have you taken more action than he has over the past month?
2. Are you presently bringing any legal proceedings at your own expense against the Scottish government to try to expose what has been going on?
3. Did you form a new party to try to achieve independence?
4. Do you have a coherent strategic plan to bring about the change needed?
If you can answer yes to all the questions I would dearly like to hear from you. If you can’t, please support the best chance of getting rid of the nightmare in Holyrood.
@alf baird
And another one who doesn’t understand what the UK is. Salmond’s strategy is a nonsense designed to appeal to people who do not know any better. If he builds a party on a lie it doesn’t bode well for the future.
We have seen something similar with Sturgeon who has been lying about her career before she even got a start in politics, she has now told so many lies she doesn’t care.
Some 25 years ago, I was coming out of Fir Park, Motherwell, following a Scottish Junior Cup semi-final. This had been won by Glenafton Athletic, setting them up for a final against Auchinleck Talbot.
Emerging I met two members of the Cumnock Juniors’ committee, so, feeling mischievous, I asked them who they would be backing in the final – the team located two miles north of them, or the team located five miles to the south?
One of them answered immediately: ” I want an atomic bomb dropped on the centre circle at Firhill, right at the kick-off, to take-out as many of both sets of bar stewards as possible.”
This Holyrood Election is a wee bit like that for a genuine Independence supporter, say an ALBA supporter.
Do you want an atomic bomb to wipe-out the “Wheesht for Indy” faction in the SNP, AND the “No-way to Indy” Unionists? Ending up no better off.
Or do you vote SNP 1, ALBA 2, then hold the SNP’s feet to the fire to force them towards Independence?
Seems a no-brainer to me.
@bob Mack
Go read the act of Union, it isn’t very long and it’s effects could not be clearer.
I would not be surprised if alba is added to the list of proscribed organisations.
All this talk of sedition and treason will see you in the same camp as isis.
@ StuartM says:
10 April, 2021 at 12:26 pm
@ Daisy Walker
Swinney got the largest % of votes in the members’ vote for candidates for his region so in the normal process he would have been No 1 on the SNP list of candidates. However the NEC Wokies decided in their unwisdom that they would reserve 1st place in certain regions for disabled candidates and in others for BAME candidates. This is how Graeme Campbell became No 1 on the SNP’s Lothian list despite not living there and achieving only 2.2% of members’ votes. Eva Comrie in Swinney’s region got 1st place because she was the disabled candidate with the highest % of members’ votes. When she resigned from the SNP the disabled candidate with the next highest vote became No 1.’
Whether it came about by accident, or by design, currently the Number 2 slot on the SNP list is much more likely to secure a seat at Holyrood, than the number 1 slot, unless the number 2 candidate is also the constituency candidate and goes on to win that.
Call me a cynic, but even if they never thought of it themselves, I doubt its an accident that Swinney and Nicla not only booked themselves 2 bites at the cherry, but ensured that second bite was likely to be the only list bite going.
HYUFD @2.08pm.
Two points, is a majority of Edinburgh still opposed? and is Edinburgh predominately monarchist or not?
The former I doubt, and if that’s true, the latter doesn’t matter.
@merganser
Yes he did all that, then bottled it and said “vote for Nicola”.
You will not turn people away from the SNP by avoiding the truth in the vain hope they will lend you a vote out of kindness. You need to tell these people exactly how corrupt and dishonest Sturgeon is and what the disastrous consequences of that lying criminal being returned to power are.
@ Shocked
You seem to be a bit of an idealist. No harm in that, as an engineer I also dislike seeing crappy compromised structures that don’t function properly. When I built bespoke hybrid gearboxes I have to ensure every one of the hundreds of components meshes correctly and are shimmed within the tiny allowable tolerances so the box functions properly. At 8000rpm if any part is wrong, you have oily metal soup in seconds and everything is toast. It has to be right.
But the reality in politics and our society is that nothing is perfect or true, we have to work with the hand we are dealt, and also require to acknowledge the cards held by other players in the game.
Aye, there are clearly issues in Scotland, just like there are in every other place on this planet. (mind that Westminster isn’t exactly perfect…)
These issues won’t be changed overnight, they will take time to resolve, and the only way to do that is to start the gradual process of getting folk into positions of influence and control to initiate change for the better.
It frustrates me greatly that quite so many Scots still seem to think the current setup is the form of governance that best serves their needs.
We need to work and show that we can do things better, and that is something that has clearly been lacking in recent years.
I feel sorry for the passing of George, he was like an old slipper, comforting (for some) to always be around, completely useless and ineffectual, but this 24/7 is grating the nerves. Hope they bury him with his hat.
Now this Philip, what’s an ageing old fart from a bygone era, who doesn’t even live here, doing sticking his nose into our political arena? He represents the interests of foreign powers and even shares DNA with the Russian royal family ffs. Someone should tell him to butt out.
BBC Scotland held a leaders’ debate at Pacific Quay on 24th March 2016 at the start of that year’s campaign for the Holyrood elections. Six leaders took part, including Scottish UKIP’s David Coburn. Coburn was in that BBC debate representing a party that had never won a Holyrood seat. If the BBC were happy to have a seatless party take part in a leaders’ debate in the last election then they must include Alba in debates for this one.
Republic of Scotland Given Edinburgh voted No by a bigger margin than the Scottish average in 2014 and Scottish polls still have it 50% 50% on independence Edinburgh almost certainly remains opposed. After all the only SLab MP in Scotland is in Edinburgh as is one of the 4 Scottish LD MPs.
54% of those who oppose independence want to keep the monarchy even in an independent Scotland to 22% who want a republic, so Edinburgh is firmly monarchist. It is Yes voters who want a republic, 56% of Yes voters back a republic, 30% want to keep the monarchy
link to dailyrecord.co.uk
Scozzie Says 10:55
And oh the irony that NS wants to grandstand in reconvening parliament to give gushy tributes to a man and family that were matey with the worst paedophile in UK history, Jimmy Saville, but ping someone’s hair – send them to the gallows!!!!!
Reply
Lizzy & Philip have a lot to answer to. It will only come out after they are both dead.
link to thestudentroom.co.uk
Shocked
I can see people having some reservations on SNP 1 but,
Who are you personally voting for on 6th May? If not at least Alba on list then not sure why you’re bothering to mix it here?
HYFUD
Can you explain that Maths to me. 50/50 therefore Edinburgh is certainly opposed to Independence. Write it down first if that helps.
@dan
Yes I am an idealist, I don’t want to build a Barratt home that falls down in 10 years, I want something done right that will last.
@robbo
Prob Labour to try and take out the sitting SNP MSP and not sure about the list. I would have been Alba but after Salmond’s crack backing of Sturgeon I can’t bring myself to do it. Might just abstain on the list, I haven’t looked at the full candidate list tbh.
Ottomanboi says:
10 April, 2021 at 10:35 am
The United Kingdom is Scotland & England in union. If one drops out there is no United Kingdom.
Very simple, but one party and its establishment would be subject to considerable loss of international face.
Not quite. The United bit comes from the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland in 1801.
And if & when the people of Northern Ireland exercise their right under the Good Friday Agreement to join their southern neighbours, what will the remaining 95 or 96% (depending on intervening Caledonian events…) be called? Probably still the United Kingdom – life is too short to change names unnecessarily: Scotland remains Scotland despite the loss of Berwick upon Tweed.
Of more interest is what an independent Scotland would be called.
HYUFD @12.48pm.
When Scotland leaves this union, and it will, a vote will be taken on whether to continue to support this foreign monarchy. Auld Lizze will be gone soon so the affection that some felt for the monarchy in Scotland will die out with her.
I’d imagine that Scots by then won’t want to fund a foreign country’s royalty, the money will be better spent on Scots.
@shocked
A loyal Labour man trying to help the cause.
Red @ 12 23
Your whole post is excellent , to save space I have I have only re-posted this section
” Alex Salmond is 66 years old and just one man, scorned and covered with scars. But he’s not feeling sorry for himself, he’s still fighting, with his last ounce of courage, for Scotland. Our host has been subjected to some of the vilest slanders, legal unfairness, and censorship I’ve ever seen. Does he give up? No, he fights like Rocky.
How can we look at these examples and do less? It should shame us. To live as a man means shouldering the heaviest burden you possibly can bear, otherwise we’re not living, we’re just killing time. Don’t stop to count your enemies and never tell me the odds – get up and fight, ya lazy bums!”
100% agree my friend .
Ref the MSP’s getting recalled to Holyrood to ‘mourn’ PTG…
I understand they were kept on wages over the prorogue election period, in case of Covid emergency reasons…. but I’m wondering if that was on a ‘call out fee’ basis. IE no call out, no fee.
I’m also wondering if there’s a ‘recall to duty’ special part to the fee.
Greedy Bams. They really do think we’re all zipped up the back.
Shocked @ 12.36pm
He’s not building a party on a lie – he’s building a party on politics. He knows full well he cannot fight an election against the might of the SNP who still have a massive cohort of support. What he’s asking for is independence voters to vote for Alba to maximise the Yes vote.
For a lawyer you seem rather a purist which I would have thought is quite an odd thing in your trade, no?
.
Chris, thanks for the ‘Toon 🙂
It would be a touch of light relief to do a caricature of the influx of rabid Trolls Stuart is having to suffer on Wings lately.
For those uber-trolls who waste their lives trying to get a rise out of sane Wings folk with their BTL comments condemning Alex Salmond and Alba with 50 Shades of Yoon carp and today’s wreck-thread-theme from Yoon/Sturgeonite Troll lying about polls. NOBODY can be at all certain what Alba may achieve. This is because the D’hondt LIST system added to the margin-of-error in all polls could mean the difference between Alba getting 8 MSP seats and 20. Margin-of-error makes polling the hyper-sensitive LISTS predictions with + or -2% varitions redundant, feckless and impotent for Holyrood LIST seat guesses. A bit like RightHandJob, Shrecked and BO-Farts. All a waste of skin, carcass and oxygen-thieves.
However, I have SNP friends from two neighbouring constituencies to my old SNP branch and we got chatting via video-link. One friend had changed their social media avatars from SNP 1&2 to…
SNP1
ALBA2.
We did an experiment and went through our branch SNP members as we still maintain a strong desire for Scotland to become independent. A surprising amount already had ALBA2 on their Avatars. Privately, many “get” what Stu., Alex and Alba are trying to do. Common sense then takes over,.. maybe lose max 4 SNP MSPs on the LIST, or more likely make 22 Tory/Lab/Lib Yoon MSPs redundant. No brainier. ALBA2 YES.
It is so noticeable two weeks into ALBA launch that three of us got together and we worked out that ALBA2 is already at 11% in the SNP branches.
None of us have quite figured out the psephological importance of that, but I reckon the Zombie Yoon Apocalypse with all these living-dead Amadans that joined Wings during the past few weeks such as BO-Farts are way off the mark writing-off Alba so soon.
Alex said about IndyRef1 that it peaked too soon. Mind the 55% YES for Indy mid-September 2014 and Cameron carping himself. Then wheeling out Gordon Brontosaurus Yoon Gimp and the lying VOW to claw back a few percentage points to NawBags.
Well Alex ain’t making that mistake again.
Besides when a certain baldy “beard” bloke gets handcuffed and remanded in custody about a week before poling day. The Dreghorn Dirker’s tractory will gain sufficient social media wildfire that she will find herself doing a Tony Blair tribute act and leaving politics like shit through a YoonGoose for fear of doing a bit of bird a HML Corton Vale.
Now how would that affect the Alba votes?
GIRUY YOON GOONS.
SNP1
ALBA2
Shocked says: at 12:54 pm
“Yes I am an idealist, I don’t want to build a Barratt home that falls down in 10 years, I want something done right that will last.”
Absolutely, so we need to begin the process of clearing the s(h)ite and digging out the structurally unsound rubbish, so we can then create more robust foundations to build on.
We can’t do that if we don’t have any good workers on the site.
The electoral system for this upcoming election is what it is, so we use that tool in the most efficient way to get decent folk into play.
Aye, it’s no doubt a dilemma for a great deal of folk for various reasons, and that in no small way is because so many folk have been sucked into this whole emotive and divisive identity / personality bullshit which is the usual divide and rule crap that stops our country moving forward.
@robbo
We don’t have reservations we have principles and will not vote for criminals.
Many of us are not voting for any one as we are not followers of democracy.
I predict people have better things to do with their time than turn out for a fake parliament election in the early stages of a pandemic.
The average person has not even heard of the alba party.y
Shocked says:
10 April, 2021 at 12:54 pm
@dan
Yes I am an idealist, I don’t want to build a Barratt home that falls down in 10 years, I want something done right that will last.
———————————–
If you don’t own the land on which you build your dream house…. then don’t expect to be in it for very long.
The current corruption in Scotlands leading institutes is terrible and scary – and since its being used to spike the Indy movement, not the Unionist one, I’m pretty sure the ONLY way to getting it fixed is by gaining Indy.
I also cannot think of a more able, and more Motivated person to employ the broom to clean it up, than Alex.
It seems that Salmond is making very little headway against Sturgeon. Unfortunately she is on course for a big win. I’m afraid the referendum can will be well and truly kicked down the road as a result.
When Lizzie meets the grime reaper where can escape to from the royal arselickers?
@ Al-Stuart re ‘We did an experiment and went through our branch SNP members as we still maintain a strong desire for Scotland to become independent. A surprising amount already had ALBA2 on their Avatars. Privately, many “get” what Stu., Alex and Alba are trying to do. Common sense then takes over,.. maybe lose max 4 SNP MSPs on the LIST, or more likely make 22 Tory/Lab/Lib Yoon MSPs redundant. No brainier. ALBA2 YES.’
Superb news Al… and do you know the best bit, ALL the calculations/potential gains for Alba are based on the (average) 120,000 former SNP List votes converting over to Alba, and once they are over 6% they start gaining seats.
This election is not about converting former No voters over to Yes (although that is always worth doing) – its about getting Indy parties and supporters to put Indy 1st, 2nd and 3rd on the agenda and get it done.
There was a fair bit of talk previously about how to heal the rift. This is doing it, very much time for folk to walk the walk, in fact no time now for anything else.
@HYUFD 12.48 pm
You seem long on assertion and short on actual evidence bud. While is is true that Edinburgh voted No by a fairly big margin, it also voted to stay in the EU by an even bigger margin. Both of the yoon MPs owe their seats to British nationalists in those seats voting tactically to defeat the SNP. There is nothing to stop the monarchy being retained after independence if that remains the desire of the majority of Scots: the Queen is also Queen of Canada, Australia and NZ.
Given the many changes politically and economically since 2014, I think it would be a brave person who tried to predict – on scant evidence I imagine – how Edinburgh voters will have changed in the 6 years since #indyref1. As an Edinburgh Central resident, I’ve certainly spoken to many people who were firm No voters in 2014 who have switched to Yes, almost all on the basis of brexit. A few other staunch unionists are now persuadables. I’ve heard of none going from Yes to No. Subjective experience of course, but in the absence of reliable polling evidence specific to Edinburgh, what else do we have?
Fraser MacKintosh says:
10 April, 2021 at 1:20 pm
When Lizzie meets the grime reaper where can escape to from the royal arselickers?
Southern Ireland might be a good bet.
With regard to Alba being on 3%, even if accurate (which it might not be), remember that the poll is conducted on a national basis, but the vote will be counted regionally. This renders the 3% figure meaningless. It is impossible to conclude from it anything at all about the number of seats Alba will end up with.
The only poll that could give any kind of indication of the number of parliamentary seats Alba would gain would be one which distinguished between how it is doing in each of the 8 regions. There will be some regions where it will be polling higher, and in others lower than the averaged-out 3%.
It would be very strange indeed if Alba was polling 3% uniformly across all 8 regions of Scotland at the same time. This is a virtual impossibility. For a start, it is to be expected that it will be polling less than that 3% overall average in the South of Scotland and the Highlands. In which case, it will be polling more than that 3% in some (if not all) of the other six regions.
Even if we had a poll which indicated the voter-intention results on the list vote region by region, the number of seats Alba is likely to gain will finally depend on how people vote on the constituency vote.
For a poll to give an accurate forecast on the eventual make-up of Holyrood after May 6th, if voter-intentions remain the same, it would have to be conducted on a region by region basis for both the constituency and the list vote. Is anyone conducting such polls?
Even if there are such polls (which I doubt), for the results they reach to be transformed into actual reality on May 6th, voter intentions would have to stay completely static between now and then. That, too, is highly unlikely.
In fact, it is especially unlikely in regard to the Alba vote, as a list-only Party.
Those who have already decided to vote Alba will not be changing their minds in regard to their List vote, although some may still (wisely or unwisely) be unsure about what they are going to do with their constituency vote. Therefore, if the Alba vote share budges at all – and I think it will, as more and more people get to know more about it – it can only go upwards.
Meanwhile, it is not just a distortion but total tripe to conclude that Alba would get no MSPs if, nationally, on average, it polled 3% across the country. Those who sell you that pup want you to believe it, so that you give up on your intention to vote Alba. They are trying to game YOU – so, DON’T LET THEM! How many MSPs a list-only Party gets does NOT depend on how it is polling nationally.
How its vote share is spread across the 8 different regions is a key factor for list-only Parties which is not taken into account in polls conducted on a national basis. There are also other important factors which such polls omit, all of which can have a crucial effect on the eventual outcome for a list-only Party like Alba. Too many such factors, in fact, as to make projected results in terms of MSPs anything other than guess-work.
Don’t let gamesters put you off from voting for whatever Party you genuinely like best, and want to see represented to maximum effect at Holyrood.
@ Shocked.
Nice try, but Alex Salmond hasn’t just done them, he is doing them all now. Alex Salmond has never bottled anything. I’m sorry you don’t see the reason for him asking people to vote SNP1. It is not through capitulation. It is causing the maximum grief to NS that he has suggested this – look how (more) deranged she has become since he asked for this.
Also, at this early stage of the new party it is essential to have a strategy to give it the best chance of success in the forthcoming election, and show people a commitment to, and a way to achieving independence.
Once his toe is in the door you will see the fireworks you wish for. The fuse is lit – try not to blow it out.
Wull you are correct in your analysis, the comres tables are available and they do indeed show that Alba is stronger in some regions than others, the North East and West regions being strongest for Alba at the moment.
Who knows how well Alba will fare next month? All I say at this early stage to the ggloating yoons and wokies trying to convince us we got nay chance is: Beware the shy Alba voters!
From his recent comments, I think Alex Salmond has now accepted the indyref policy is flawed and there’s more than one escape route for the people of Scotland.
Backing the SNP might seem stupid at first sight. But, I think Salmond is reading the room and playing the longer game. His message all along is that the problem is with a few individuals, not the whole Scottish Establishment, not the whole SNP.
Salmond wants the parliament YES vote maximised via constituency SNP MSPs and List Alba MSPs, even though, in the short-term, it appears to be giving the greater advantage to Sturgeon.
But, I think he believes the Scottish Colonial Establishment are turning against Sturgeon and that after the election, sooner or later the Establishment will make it clear they want Sturgeon gone.
Salmond wants a strong, united indy movement for what would come next.
The SNPleftMe I can explain basic Maths to you yes.
Edinburgh voted 61% No in 2014 to 55% No across Scotland, Scotland is still around 50% No, so you would expect on the same swing Edinburgh to be at least 56% No
10 April, 2021 at 12:41 pm
@merganser
Yes he did all that, then bottled it and said “vote for Nicola”.
You will not turn people away from the SNP by avoiding the truth in the vain hope they will lend you a vote out of kindness. You need to tell these people exactly how corrupt and dishonest Sturgeon is and what the disastrous consequences of that lying criminal being returned to power are.
Reply
That will happen from someone overseas, but will not be said on this site. WOS should be protected at all cost.
I could easily see this election being a Holyrood version of 2017 for the SNP. For all the talk of nailed on SNP victory, I can’t feel any enthusiasm at all for it beyond the cult members. If they are so very numerous, then fine, but there is no buzz about this election at all. Turnout will be everything, but what reason is there to vote? To reward Nicola for being less bad at corona briefings than Boris?
I don’t think the SNP turning on Alba has been very smart, but we’ll see. Its pretty obvious Labour are trying to frame the SNP as the nasty party. Sarwar has nothing to prove in this election, and is coming over as a pleasant family guy, unlike bitter, angry Nicola, who has nothing positive to say whatsoever, and Humza who seems unable to wipe the sneer from his face these days.
Shocked @ 12.04pm
Well why don’t you and all yer lawyer mates takes a stand and fight from within the justice system; coz your trade has been shown up to be as corrupt as all the other Scottish institutions.
Maybe your band of purist lawyers can take a stand against the possible eradication of trial by jury. That would be a nice start.
Maybe you and yer lawyer mates can call out the corruption of COPFS and the Lord Advocate – that would also be a nice start.
So don’t pontificate on what you think Alba should and shouldn’t be doing when your industry looks like it’s as corrupt as a criminal syndicate. Clean the muck out your own industry first before throwing shade on the Alba party’s political strategy.
Reading about the flood of sycophantic hyperbole engulfing all the schedules, it occurred to me that those who watch the soaps, who might also include royal watchers, might actually become irritated by their favourite viewing being swamped by this mandatory coverage.
So, why might they gave done this, perhaps risking the undercurrent of discontent it could cause in the usually placid and unengaged? Well, probably because they think that they can accept vague rumblings among the ruminants who can return to cud chewing once normal service is resumed.
The real purpose is to to demonstrate power to those who are outside the elite establishment, those who are vaguely or robustly republican in sentiment. Annoyance caused to them is deliberate. It is to emphasise your impotence. You can almost see them smirking, with the implied question, “What can you do about it?”
The royals are their representatives and is why they cram the airwaves and press with news about the royals and return to ostentatious Victorian levels of ‘national mourning’. We can remonstrate about it but can’t change anything and the more vulgar and exaggerated it becomes, the more we are confronted with our helplessness.
No wonder Nicola Sturgeon joined in the ‘national’ wallowing; she understands its purpose. It’s the blatant projection of power, dressed up in sanctimony, of course. She intends to annoy those very independence supporters who also dislike her cosying up to Hillary Clinton and other war mongers, who see her confederates making overtures to MI5 and her MPs who show bovine acceptance of Westminster power and their place in it.
The SNP changed before our eyes and changed utterly. (Why does Orwell always come to mind?)
Republicof Scotland Given Sturgeon will be re elected FM and has said she will never contemplate a UDI unlike Salmond once Boris refuses any legal indyref2 or change to the Union, which he will, Scotland will not be leaving the UK while Sturgeon remains in power in Scotland and Boris remains in power across the UK.
Plus the Queen is related to Mary Queen of Scots through the Stuart line and Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James 1st of England and VI of Scotland and grandmother of George Ist
Once a lonyal member of SNP member, no longer, because SNP have let me down, I wont be giving both votes SNP …wasting the list vote.
Its SNP1 Alba 2 for me!
When’s the Alba Men’s Conference?
Luigi says “Beware the shy Alba voters!”
Was wondering about that myself.
@HYUFD 1.40pm
Salmond hasn’t advocated UDI, you’ve made that up. Boris can refuse a S30 Order, but it’d be down to the courts to decide the legalities: they have yet to do so. Neither you nor anyone else knows how they would find in a case relating to whether Holyrood can hold a referendum without “permission”.
Boris and the britnats may be able to refuse to change the union at the behest of the Scots, but they can’t refuse all constitutional change: for example they can’t do a lot to stop plebiscitary general elections, which is why the concept is both powerful and scares the shit out of unionists.
Presumably if Scots preferred to restore the “real” Stuart claimant to the throne, they could easily do so once indepndent. The only reason the Saxe Coburg Gotha dynasty is on the throne is that hundreds of other claimants with better claims than the Honoverians were excluded for being Roman Catholics after the death of Cardinal Henry Stuart in 1807.
The current most direct Stuart descendant is also the titular King of Bavaria.
Aunty Flo, it’s on the 20th of June – better book early as it is likely to be over subscribed.
Andy Ellis Even if the courts say Sturgeon could hold a referendum it could only be advisory, Union matters are reserved to the UK government under the Scotland Act 1998 which created Holyrood. Boris will just ignore it as the Spanish government ignored the referendum the Catalan nationalist government in 2017 held then.
Sturgeon has then said she would not even try to declare UDI as the Catalans did, so Boris has nothing to fear from Sturgeon, as long as she stays FM in Bute House with the perks she is not bothered.
If Bavaria became independent from Germany and wanted to restore the monarchy there may be a case for him to be King of Scotland too if it was independent by then as a Stuart but that is all theoretical
@Scozzie – ‘Well why don’t you and all yer lawyer mates takes a stand and fight from within the justice system; coz your trade has been shown up to be as corrupt as all the other Scottish institutions’.
It’s not very often that you and I agree, is it. However, on this occassion, you have said what I and many others are thinking.
The problem for Alba is the entire MSM including the National are running it down by constantly attacking Salmond calling him a sex pest and an egotist unfit to lead a party while talking up the vile Sturgeon.
How on earth do you get a positive message out to the public as to the benefits of voting Alba on the list against the relentless torrent of negativity directed at the party.
A bit o/t
After reading a few posts all I can say it steady , it’s only been a few weeks and access to the MSM is pretty limited it’s working a bit slower than a lot might hope for but it is causing concern especially from the SNP management.
The games up and they know it people won’t be continually fobbed off with the same excuses that they have had for the last 6 years their patience has run out .
What will be obvious right up until polling day will be the UK media assisting Sturgeon they see her as the steadying tool to be used a known entity that they can cope with they know she won’t upset the apple cart or indeed push for independence .
Any new enterprise takes time and it might be a bit of a problem time wise for ALBA , just now they are not just attracting flack from Unionists they are being hit from all sides the SNP management who are positively shittin themselves because of the new kid on the block that’s got a hold of their ball and won’t give it back,
Last but not least the SNP cultists who have swallowed the Indy ref2 carrot from Princess Nicola getting through to them is as hard as trying to convince a rabid unionist ,
So please don’t give in before we have even started the Village people over on WGD are doing anything they can to discredit ALBA Christ and they apparently are on the same side although it’s hard to believe suddenly Alex is the spawn of the Devil and anyone who supports him is a unionist in disguise and Stuart Campbell is a MI5 plant , yeh and these fkrs believe this shite .
There have been many instances in previous Holyrood elections when the Greens, the Lib Dems and the SSP won a list seat with less than 6% in a region, sometimes with as little as 5.2%. 6% is just a rule of thumb and is not a must.
I live in the USA. Have just received a letter from the SNP for a donation. I havn’t been a member for years. I havn’t lived in Scotland for 45 years. I will send it back ,and tell them you are too late Nicola, I just gave Alba 50 pounds, so you are out of luck. Please don’t ask ever again.
Are they so desperate for money? I have only ever gave the SNP the price of membership, and that had to be mabey 20 years ago. Never renewed. I was a member for 1 year.
Please help if you can, link to crowdfunder.co.uk
Socrates MacSporran
First time I have read calls for an atomic bomb to be dropped on political opponents in Wings BTL. Is this the first time it has happened ever, or have I just missed previous occurrences?
I have a vague idea it was Terry Pratchett who wrote of the Scots being permanently at war with their passionately hated lifelong enemies, the other Scots.
@ kapelmeister at 2.04: “5% has won list seats”.
James Kelly, “Scot goes Pop” points out that 2.6% has won list seats – Tommy Sheridan and someone else whose name I can’t remember.
@McDuff says:
10 April, 2021 at 1:56 pm
“The problem for Alba is the entire MSM including the National are running it down by constantly attacking Salmond calling him a sex pest and an egotist unfit to lead a party while talking up the vile Sturgeon.
How on earth do you get a positive message out to the public as to the benefits of voting Alba on the list against the relentless torrent of negativity directed at the party”
By being proactive instead of waiting for the magic wand wave that will never come.
Print off that article about the SNP’s financial fiddles and give to neighbours and friends (or email it to them). Let them see what’s going on.
Let them know about the GRA reforms madness and the danger it poses to all women (biological and trans)
Then remind them there’s only one party that will put a stop to this – the one being vilified the most. Whereupon the pound coins will drop in them.
My wife and I have both joined Alba and will be casting our votes in the West of Scotland Regional Ballot. I left the SNP over 15 years ago after campaigning for them since 1970. The party I loved and believed would lead my country to FREEDOM has sadly deteriorated to something beyond belief.I hope with all my heart that Alba will be the catalyst towards the birth of a FREE and Independent Scotland.
Many years ago a senior citizen badly crippled by a horrific accident, stuggled to his feet in front of our small group of activists, he was clearly in pain and called out to us and declared…”I may be broken and hurting, but if you sons and daughters of Scotland will rise to free our country I will rise with you, let us stand proudly and together.” George and many others like him have sadly passed on before Independence and sadly the fault lies with the leadership and direction of the SNP.
Of course Alba is young, may not win all the list seats they should but this can be the start of the road to true Independence. Each individual must vote as their conscience tells them, for my wife and I…Alba.
Correction – it was 2% for Tommy Sheridan and 3.6% for a Green seat. James Kelly tweet 7th April.
This is a very big thank you from me to the ALBA PARTY for having their WOMEN’S Conference today , It was wonderful to be a part of it and it was great to hear from strong WOMEN who are standing up for WOMEN’S rights .
Thank you to all of the speakers , # Vote Alba 2
Is Scotland the only country in the world where a majority of the population want the wealth from their natural resources donated to the neighboring country?
Just asking.
@Rikali
Your quaint notion of ‘countries’ and your attempt at being smart on the internet has been observed and noted.
Just sayin’
sarah @2:18
Yes, that is an interesting point from James. Although he was referring to a party’s national list vote percentage. To win a list seat you still need a bit more than 5% in a region, with 5.2% being the lowest anyone’s ever been elected on. As I said earlier, there have been many occasions when a party has won a list seat with between 5.2% and 5.9% in a region.
HYUFD.
Reasons why Scotland should stick with the UK? Reasons why Scotland should not become an independent and sovereign state like little Iceland or Estonia or Malta or bigger Denmark, Switzerland or Austria? Can you oblige?
The empire and its insular core is exhausted and passé. The raison d’être for the Union is faded into history and only sentiment and nostalgia feeds it. For the young the Union is akin to Austria Hungary or the Ottoman empire or the Soviet bloc. It belongs to another country.
Captian Yossarian @ 1.56pm
Haha I don’t really remember us ever having a ‘set to’ on here. But mibbie my brain is like scrambled egg. But glad we agree most lawyers are cockroaches, except Dangerfield he’s a good yin.
masslass @ 2:04
That sounds like full on, need to avoid jail, at all costs, panic mode from someone within the SNP.
Someone needs to find a half mill pronto!
@daisy walker
So Alex Salmond is going to clean up the corrupt SNP by campaigning for them to be re-elected.
@Ottomanboi
Far too many reasons to list.
Countries and democracies were a temporary phase and are being replaced.
This website is full of old people who still watch TV and are stuck at the stage of politically constructed national identities.
Salmond is an old white guy who is viewed as a relic by young people and represents the past. Galloway is much the same.
Scotland still puts up rastafarians like campbell as the voice of black scotland. Most black people in scotland are actually africans and predominantly muslim.
The working class are given junkies like Darren Mcgarvey as an example of bad boy come good. He is obviously not well.
Voting SNP is akin to cutting off your nose to spite your face. St Nicola will be rubbing her hands in glee.
@scozzie
It is not lawyers whose are corrupt, it is the SNP and the people who vote for them blindly without thinking about the consequences.
Anyone who claims to love animals and is crying over the Duke of Edinburgh, a man who spent his entire life murdering them for fun, catch yourself on.
Anyone who claims to be anti-war and is crying over the Duke of Edinburgh, a man who militarised his own family and made huge profits from the armaments industry, catch yourself on.
Anyone who claims to be a socialist and is crying over the Duke of Edinburgh, a man who spent his entire life at the top of a right-wing gang of multi-billionaires in a country were hundreds of thousands of kids live in abject poverty, catch yourself on.
Anyone who claims to be anti-racist and is crying over the Duke of Edinburgh… What can I say? You’re a tw**.
Sounds like the Alba women’s conference was a great success.
😉
.
For Heaven’s sake.
I understand the pressures on poor old Paul Kavanagh at WGD “taking a step back” But he put his head above the parapet in the first place and others of us are nearer the final furlong without having to leave our self-indulgent sympathy-fest running to 852 comments with the big PayPal button at the bottom.
Unlike Paul, I’ve donated thousands to the SNP and following it’s takeover by the Sturgeonite McWokeists, stopped donating money to the SNP. Every time an SNP McWoke or £600k SNP thief-denier irritates me I donate another £20 to ALBA 🙂 Given a terminal diagnosis I will take NO lectures from WG Duggers.
Paul knew what he was doing when he started his WGD business as an Indy Blogger. That is his job. He makes money out of it. He was great at the beginning, but this wilful blindness damaged his reputation and for Paul to stand by and watch an innocent man framed with 3 years oh Gell and a long prison sentence as a Sword of Damocles was unforgivable. Sorry Paul but you crossed the rubicon.
Worse, Paul aligned his money making Blog to go along with the miscreants framing Alex Salmond and that is an utter disgrace. Fortunately, Paul has done the right thing and taken a step back by putting his site on a sabbatical. But he left his money making cash register open.
He SHOULD switch off that comments thread now as it has transmogrified from sympathy to excrement.
Exhibit A…
Did you know everyone on Wings is in self-proclaimed TAM THE BAM’S little black book of gerrymandered imprisonment and death sentence (aka Covid custody for the shielding folk). TAM BAMPOT appointed himself Witchfinder General against BTL commenters on Wings Over Scotland. TAM THE BAM patrols each Wings thread compiling TAM THE BAM’S “LIST” like some form of SNP Oberleutnant. Once the 1984 Hate Crime Bill receives Royal Assent, TAM will be applying for a community land purchase grant to buy an Internment Camp for 90% of the posters on Wings Over Scotland.
TAM you really are a BAM because you’ve admitted to breaking three laws I know of and I shall have no hesitation in seeking infraction proceedings against you IN THE REAL WORLD if you continue your illegal hate fest.
TAM, it’s time you and the weirder WG Duggers hung up your tin-foil hats, stopped typing drivel onto the internet from your bedroom in your skiddy underpants and got a proper job for example.
Some of the WG Duggers need to look in a mirror. They are OBSESSED with Wings. We are all vile here at WoS. The aggression towards Wings BTL etc., from a large lump of Duggers is every bit as bad as what they allege is being lobbed in the direction of a Sturgeon-apologist who stood by and watched attempts to put an innocent man. I’ve not been on WGD for ages since Paul failed to understand forensic analysis at Wings and the fact Sturgeon is likely to receive some of the legal karma on her lawyer’s desk as the carp she dumped on an innocent man with her Borgen fetish.
A few brave people on WGD still try and explain to the mind numbingly dim grizeboard types at WGD what the Sturgeonite McWokeists have been up to. Might as well try and put toothpaste back in the tube. Bunch of Amadans.
ONE OF THE BETTER WG DUGGERS…
Very helpfully placed this clear explanation (Colin Alexander – thank you Colin)…
————————————–
“Based on the 2016 figures:
South Scotland is the only Region where it *might* make sense for some indy supporters to vote SNP on the List, rather than Alba.
Everywhere else in Scotland:
Vote SNP ( constituency vote)
Vote Alba ( List vote)
For Scottish Independence
—————————————————————————————————————————–
In 2016:
SNP: 953,587 List votes = 4 List SNP MSPs
Main Unionist Parties: 1,079,425 List Votes = 46 List MSPs
3 SNP List MSPs were elected for South Scotland
1 in Highlands and islands. (5 Unionists were elected with less votes than it took to elect the 1 SNP MSP
—————————————————————————————————————————
Check the figures for yourself:
link to bbc.co.uk
END QUOTE
‘Truth springs from argument amongst friends’
– David Hume
“So Alex Salmond is going to clean up the corrupt SNP by campaigning for them to be re-elected.”
Exactly. The same insanity you read here describing Scotland as a subjugated colony of England. Has there ever been a colony like this in history which has such an influence not just on the “coloniser” but the rest of the world?
That we are now a nobody with all the things we were most famous for in the past in the gutter is not the fault of England for they share the same fate. Now Scotland is famous for perversion in every sphere – the children of Wendy Alexander.
Read the bigots here whom detest the union but who would give it all away to the EU. I can take those who want self determination , those not ruled by mammon, who want nothing to do with the EU but are happy with the common market. Spare us from the ones have hate in the heart against England but who have no qualms about playing Judas and selling themselves for the EU thirty pieces of silver.
RIP Prince Philip and for his indefatigable public service.
There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse.”
-David Hume-
MaggieC
Well come on, give us some details. Are we going to see a decent turnout from women for Alba? Was there anything that needs fixing? Is there more agreement from women on independence or are they still too wary of the SNP? etc. etc.
@Shocked – ‘It is not lawyers whose are corrupt, it is the SNP and the people who vote for them blindly without thinking about the consequences’.
Politicians should have nothing to do with lawyers. They ask them for advice from time to time and then that’s it.
If lawyers make corrupt decisions, then it’s the lawyers that have made them. It’s not the SNP.
@ masslass
Yes, they are that desperate for money.
Since at least the 2nd quarter of 2020 they’ve not being paying the branches their 25% share of members’ subscriptions – that’s subscriptions for 2019 let alone 25% of whatever came in for 2020. They also have been begging members to renew their annual memberships early, Lately that has become as much as 3 months early! Plus there are suspicions that the SNP are running a large overdraft but the CEO Peter Murrell (Nicola Sturgeon’s husband no less) refuses to produce accounts to the Audit and Finance Committee of the NEC, leading to 3 members of the AFC resigning in protest.
All of this points to an organisation in severe financial crisis, yet Murrell & Sturgeon won’t come clean with the membership and admit the problem – undoubtedly because they’d have to resign. And this is just meeting the day-to-day operating costs of the Head Office, let alone finding the 1.5 million they claim they’re going to spend on May’s election!
The immediate cause of the cash crunch is almost certainly a major decline in membership as members are resigning in droves. Yet actual membership numbers are another of the SNP’s secrets.
For those not old enough to remember Wendy Alexander and how we got to where we are today:
link to news.bbc.co.uk
Jack McArthur. 3:27pm
Enough of the Scotch exceptionalism and its undertones of ingratitude. As an ethnicity Scots are on a par with Kurds, Arabs, Armenians, Greeks, Syriacs (of which I am one) who were conquered or annexed by the Ottoman sultanate and found jobs, mercantile, political and diplomatic within its structure. Scotland’s annexation by England, for that was what it de facto was, gave opportunities to some individuals which did make them rich. However, they got rich as pseudo Englishmen. The country that bred them got crumbs but the real meat went to London and those in its orbit.
Culturally Scotland made scant contribution to the system. English law, custom and habit prevailed as did the English language. British, English it’s all the same, an English box with Scots, Welsh and Irish allowed to play in the corners, as long as they played nicely. Hoots mon, look you boyo, bejaibers!.
You would have thought, given the writings of Craig Murray, Gordon Dangerfield and the intervention of David Davies that Sturgeon would already be dossing down in a Windsor Group Hotel. The fact she is not proves the truth is simply not cutting through, for whatever reason(s). I suspect this election is a bogey and will need a concerted effort between now and the next GE to breakthrough.
“The oppression of the poor must establish the monopoly of the rich, and that profit is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin”
Adam Smith
@Ottomanboi
“Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.”
Winston Churchill
“Culturally Scotland made scant contribution to the system”
Sometimes its best to keep mouth firmly shut.
@ Daisy Walker at 12.31 and 12.41
From the later of those two posts:
From the earlier post:
I really hope you don’t feel I’m getting at you, Daisy, but that – and a few other things you’ve said on this thread – is just wrong.
Firstly: re the order of the candidates. Once the list is submitted to the Electoral Commission, it cannot be altered. As someone explained, when Eva Comrie moved to Alba, her place was taken by Stefan Hyphenated because he is disabled (genuinely). Otherwise, Swinney would have moved up one.
Secondly: unless the number 1 candidate is elected to a constituency, that person will take the first list seat their party gets. So it can never be the case that the number 2 candidate has a better chance of getting a seat.
Thirdly: if a candidate is standing in a constituency and wins, that person is automatically removed from the list (they can hardly get two seats!); there’s nothing “gracious” about it.
There is no “elimination” of candidates. If I’ve understood you, you think that if Party A is allocated the first list seat (ie their number 1 candidate becomes an MSP), all the other parties’ leading candidates are eliminated. That is not the case.
The first list seat a party wins goes to its leading candidate (unless that person is a constituency victor, in which case the next non-constituency-victor is elected), the second goes to its second candidate, and so on.
If an elected list MSP stands down, his/her seat goes to the next person on the list as it was at the time of the election. New names can’t be added; that’s why no-one replaced Margo (she was a list of 1) and why Michelle Ballantyne would not have been replaced if she had resigned rather than defected to Reform – she was the last on the Tory list in South Scotland.
Shocked says:
10 April, 2021 at 2:50 pm
@daisy walker
So Alex Salmond is going to clean up the corrupt SNP by campaigning for them to be re-elected.’
By voting SNP 1 and Alba 2 – it keeps the numbers of SNP Constituency seats high. High numbers of SNP Constituency seats means they don’t take any List seats (as per 2016) – leaving those who support Indy and who are reluctant to believe anything about the SNP corruption – free to vote, in good conscience for Alba – and Max the Yes.
Its sort of a damage limitation excercise – elect one to ensure you don’t get any more of that ilk and are free to vote for Alba.
A good representation of Alba candidates within Holyrood – acting in good faith and genuinely pursuing Indy does 2 things
1/ it highlights any and all lack of progress by Nicla and co – which becomes morally and electorially indefensible
2/ it provides a viable alternative for those elected reps within the SNP to decant to.
Corruption cannot continue in the presence of – lack of support and numbers, genuine opposition asking hard questions, an escape route for members who are not corrupt.
If not Alba then who? is going to clean up the corruption in the SNP – they have spectacularly failed to do it themselves.
I’d resepectfully suggest electing Alba is probably the only way the corruption within the SNP and Scot Gov is going to get sorted – it certainly seems to me, like a realistic start.
That the deHondte system means we have to vote counter intuitively in order to get what we want. Is because the De Hondte system is a bugger.
@captain Y
The lawyers are only doing what the politicians tell them to do, have you not been paying attention this last few years?
@HYUFD 1.55 pm
1) “Even if the courts say Sturgeon could hold a referendum it could only be advisory, Union matters are reserved to the UK government under the Scotland Act 1998 which created Holyrood.”
Not true I’m afraid. There is considerable legal and constitutional argument about the matter, which is why Martin Keatings is currently testing the matter in court. This is – as many of us have argued – something the Scottish government could and should have done immediately they received the first “Now is not the time response” from Teresa May.
It’s true that the Scottish Government can’t force Westminster to do what it wants, in the sense that Scotland can’t dictate terms to the whole UK, the corollary is that the UK can’t impose things on Scotland. The previously accepted Sewell type convention that was held to apply (i.e. that Westminster would not refuse to grant something Holyrood had a specific mandate for) appears now to have been abandoned by Westminster. That fact has profound constitutional implications, which few people – including you it seems – fail to recognise or admit.
Westminster may have made changing the constitutional order a reserved matter, but that doesn’t mean it can ride roughshod over a specific mandate given to the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish people without a corrosive effect on the currently accepted constitutional settlement.
From a political perspective, whether the courts agreed that any Holyrood held referendum was only advisory is largely beside the point, since the Westminster doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty will always mean that a British nationalist administration in Westminster will insist (à la Madrid versus the Catalans) that Scots are only “allowed” independence if London graciously agrees via a S30 Order. Much the same could be said of the UK “granting” independence to Canada, Australia and New Zealand (or any other colony) incidentally: Westminster could legislate tomorrow to declare the independence of all such places illegitimate, but nobody would take a blind bit of notice.
2) “Boris will just ignore it as the Spanish government ignored the referendum the Catalan nationalist government in 2017 held then.”
Sturgeon has then said she would not even try to declare UDI as the Catalans did, so Boris has nothing to fear from Sturgeon, as long as she stays FM in Bute House with the perks she is not bothered.”
Scotland =/= Catalonia. The situations, altho’ they have some commonalities are distinct. In the end of course, neither Madrid nor London can indefinitely veto the self determination of a people under their rule.
The right to self determination may not be unlimited nor is it automatic, but it IS a jus cogens in international law, and is not subject to the permission of the larger entity, nor is it subject to veto on the basis of a constitutional prohibition (as Madrid argues is the case with Catalonia or any other autonomous community in Spain), or other factors such as territorial integrity, history etc.
I agree Sturgeon has little to fear from Sturgeon, or from a Scottish Government which tacitly accepts a British nationalist veto, but Sturgeon and the SNP may not always be the ones deciding. The SNP is not the whole movement: recent events and the upcoming elections may not leave Sturgeon in the commanding position she feels is hers as of right.
3)”If Bavaria became independent from Germany and wanted to restore the monarchy there may be a case for him to be King of Scotland too if it was independent by then as a Stuart but that is all theoretical”
It is indeed theoretical. Franz the Duke of Bavaria is on record as regarding the claim as purely theoretical, but there again if Scotland does become an independent state, it is up to the Scots people to decide who should be their head of state.
They may opt to retain the current arrangement, they may feel at that point that a republic is preferable for their “new” status, or they may decide that if they do want a constitutional monarchy they should have the most legitimate claimant rather than the current replacement whose family jumped the queue due to the religious bigotry operative at the time.
Alternatively, we could ask someone else to be become our royal house as the Swedes did with the French Marshal Bernadotte when the Vasa dynasty died out, or like the Norwegians who asked a Danish Prince to become their King in 1905. How about Edward and Megan….? They’re currently looking for new opportunities. 🙂
@daisy
Dearie me. Voting SNP 1 means they will get a majority without the list, that means no one else will get a say.
Not voting SNP 1 will firstly decapitate the sturgeonites out the party and also ensure that those SNP MSP’s left in the party have to make deals with others to do anything. That is how you hold the feet to the fire, voting SNP 1 is the complete opposite of that and giving the criminals who run the SNP a free pass.
Robert Hughes – thank you
I doubt very much if “shocked” is a lawyer. Whether true or false he has now been added to my list of people to scroll on by. He talks mince! Breeks tried to tell him but no he had to know best! Where’s Robert P with all his links when you need him. This will have to do link to grousebeater.wordpress.com ALBA Party Womens conference was brilliant. Stuart has a new post up that tells a bit about it #ALBAWomen
@msdidi
Oh I sure am, as for breeks he comes across as a ranting fantasist, just the sort of person who cost us the ref in 2014. Fantasy doesn’t wash with the general public, only the truth.
@ Crazycat – I really appreciate your detailed explanation.
I’m sorry I got it wrong. I did try and find the exact rules and regs from EC but failed.
So thanks for that.
So, that’s one theory completely wrong. Can’t be right all the time though.
Shocked canny be a lawyer because he would be charging the REV for all his posts
– they do nothing for free.
Shocked.
In various posts he says Alex Salmond has bottled it by asking people to vote SNP1, and pretends not to understand the reasoning behind it.
Alex Salmond is suing the Permanent Secretary of the Scottish government, Nicola Sturgeon’s main ally, and someone just reappointed by Sturgeon for another two years. This at his own expense. Is this the action of someone who has bottled it, or given in to Sturgeon?
He has also asked the police to investigate the criminal leak of information from someone in Sturgeon’s government to the press. Do you think he would have done this if he had in some way capitulated to her?
Has ‘Shocked’ begun to understand the answers given by Daisy Walker for this tactical voting?
The SNP have lost their way by being so badly led by the rotten apples at the top. They may not all be beyond salvation, but it will need a big effort to get them back on track, and SNP1 ALBA2 is the first step on the way.
If people genuinely cannot bring themselves to do this(or have good reasons for voting for another party e.g to get a particular person out of office, ) that’s fine, but do not pretend it is because Alex Salmond has somehow bottled it and given in to Sturgeon, because that most assuredly is not the case.
Daisy Walker says,
“In any event, putting Nicla and Swinney at position number 2 on the list – has given them first chance to be elected on the list, going by 2016 figures.”
I don’t know about Swinney, but it has been mentioned at least a thousand times here that Sturgeon at number 2 on the list cannot get in on the list if she is defeated in her constituency:
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.)”
Rev. Stuart Campbell says (Rallying to the banner),
“If you believe Sturgeon is a block on independence it’s a very rational position.”
I trust that unlike ROB from AYRSHIRE you at least can understand what the Rev. Stuart Campbell has said.
Shocked says,
“Dearie me. Voting SNP 1 means they will get a majority without the list, that means no one else will get a say.
Not voting SNP 1 will firstly decapitate the sturgeonites out the party and also ensure that those SNP MSP’s left in the party have to make deals with others to do anything. That is how you hold the feet to the fire, voting SNP 1 is the complete opposite of that and giving the criminals who run the SNP a free pass.”
To bring your argument to a logical conclusion:
1. Don’t just stop at abstaining or spoiling the ballot – vote tactically to defeat the SNP candidate in the constituency.
2. But do that only for the most obnoxious SNP candidates like Sturgeon, Swinney, Yousaf, Robertson etc, especially those who are unlikely to get back on the list.
3. Give the list vote to ALBA wherever you are voting.
That should give us the desired result: Lots of ALBA MSPs, no SNP majority, the corrupt lying criminal SNP MSPs out.
Like you wish, the remaining SNP puppets will be forced to make deals.
If they make deals with ALBA, we move forward to independence.
If they make deals with the unionists, they will be exposed and ALBA can go for all of them next time.
Alex Salmond has given us a Plan B but we can be even smarter and turn it into a Plan C.
We must not follow the SNP 1 / ALBA 2 mantra universally, but adapt it to Best solution 1 / ALBA 2.
Abstaining from voting ALBA 2 doesn’t make any sense to anyone genuinely interested in independence.
Even Mia has come round to accepting that.
The one who was loudly advocating SNP 1 & 2 has remained completely silent about her list vote after the launch of ALBA.
@Ottomanboi@3.59: a most excellent summary of our subaltern status. You seem to have annoyed some people 😉 .
Incidentally, I have French in my family and my brother’s father in law served in their army in Syria in the Thirties. He fell in love with Syria, its people and its culture but was disgusted by the colonisation of a beautiful and ancient country by shallow and grasping French imperialists. When he returned to France he eventually became a communist after spending WWII as a maquisard and suffering very much for his troubles on both counts.
God knows what he would make of the beautiful country of Syria now.
3.51pm StuartM
2.49pm A hundredthidiot
Thanks to both. Explains a lot StuartM. The people at the top have a lot to hide.
I couldn’t log in today as I was busy
But bugger me (no pun intended) I truly fear for my wee granddaughter, wee soul is sound asleep and unaware of what crap is going to be unleashed upon her
I hope these bastards rot in hell
Carol Neill, I feel much the same .
I wonder what exactly would be the charge sheet of someone accused of child abuse under the auspices of the SNP/Green policies ?
Would the charge of child abuse exist at all?
The deranged appear to have taken over.
Kcor says:
10 April, 2021 at 7:36 pm
Shocked says,
Quote:-
“Dearie me. Voting SNP 1 means they will get a majority without the list, that means no one else will get a say.
Not voting SNP 1 will firstly decapitate the sturgeonites out the party and also ensure that those SNP MSP’s left in the party have to make deals with others to do anything. That is how you hold the feet to the fire, voting SNP 1 is the complete opposite of that and giving the criminals who run the SNP a free pass.”
To bring your argument to a logical conclusion:
1. Don’t just stop at abstaining or spoiling the ballot – vote tactically to defeat the SNP candidate in the constituency.
2. But do that only for the most obnoxious SNP candidates like Sturgeon, Swinney, Yousaf, Robertson etc, especially those who are unlikely to get back on the list.
3. Give the list vote to ALBA wherever you are voting.
That should give us the desired result: Lots of ALBA MSPs, no SNP majority, the corrupt lying criminal SNP MSPs out.
Like you wish, the remaining SNP puppets will be forced to make deals.
If they make deals with ALBA, we move forward to independence.
If they make deals with the unionists, they will be exposed and ALBA can go for all of them next time.
Alex Salmond has given us a Plan B but we can be even smarter and turn it into a Plan C.
We must not follow the SNP 1 / ALBA 2 mantra universally, but adapt it to Best solution 1 / ALBA 2.
Abstaining from voting ALBA 2 doesn’t make any sense to anyone genuinely interested in independence.
Even Mia has come round to accepting that.
The one who was loudly advocating SNP 1 & 2 has remained completely silent about her list vote after the launch of ALBA.”
—
Absolutely spot on.
I’m sorry but I cannot grasp why AS has held out an olive branch to the SNP/Sturgeon.
It makes NO sense to become a bit player against the SNP at the SP unless it is nothing more than hubris or economics…
However the SNP created Alba and the SNP hate Alba that much is clear already.
This is exactly what non-Nats have had to endure during the SNPs time in power.
Lies
Smears
Hatred
Division
How does it feel to see your reflection?
wee monkey says,
“I’m sorry but I cannot grasp why AS has held out an olive branch to the SNP/Sturgeon.”
If we consider it very carefully, it is a challenge rather than an olive branch – co-operate with ALBA to deliver independence or you are exposed as unionists.
AS cannot single out SNP candidates not to vote for, but we the people can and must use our brains to get the best result out of the available possibilities.
The most obvious one is to vote for Labour (Sarwar) in the Glasgow Southside constituency to get Sturgeon out.
Anyone who opposes this is either dumb or a secret Sturgeonist.