The Great Hollowing
The wild thing about this poll isn’t the headline that six months after winning a massive landslide majority, Keir Starmer now trails Nigel Farage – leader of a party with five MPs to Starmer’s 411 – as the electorate’s choice for best Prime Minister.
It’s the little grey numbers sitting quietly at the bottom.
Because what they tell us is this:
– 50% of people who voted Labour don’t want the Labour leader to be PM.
– 68% of people who voted Tory don’t want the Tory leader to be PM.
– 70% of people who voted Lib Dem don’t want the Lib Dem leader to be PM.
And we really need to stop and take a moment to think about just how batshit crazy that is, because it’s definitely not a sign of a healthy, functioning democracy. Although of course we already knew we weren’t in one of those, because the most popular party in Britain – by an absolute country mile, with more votes than the next two put together – is “None of you useless tossers”.
The people of the UK basically don’t want ANYONE in charge. They don’t want to vote for any of its political parties and even when they do they don’t want that party’s leader in Downing Street. They’d probably prefer it if we made the winner of Love Island PM.
(And Scotland, which loves to think itself an exception, is no different.)
(Farage, incidentally, topped the YouGov poll in Scotland too.)
We know from history where these sorts of numbers end up. Mass disillusionment and contempt for the political establishment leads to “radical” solutions. (Imagine you were a US citizen and fell into a coma just 10 years ago, in the middle of Barack Obama’s second term, and woke up in the hospital this morning and switched the TV on to this.)
Yet still nobody will listen. Labour have foisted a bunch of ministers on the country who were categorically rejected by voters twice, in 2010 and 2015, but somehow slithered back into power a decade later on the grounds that the alternative had become even worse. “You thought Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband were awful before? Well, tough, because that’s all you’re getting.”
Meanwhile in Scotland, the SNP booted John Swinney out after a disastrous stint as leader more than TWENTY years ago, but for similar reasons he’s somehow back leading not only the party but the country, a couple of years after he himself said he was past his sell-by date and needed to make way for fresh talent and new ideas, and proclaiming his intention to hang on for another half-decade.
And just like Labour, their idea of inspiring the electorate with a hot new generation is to offer them all the failures that the voters told to sling their hook last time again.
Things can’t go on like this, because you’re really not going to like where it ends up. More of the same just won’t do.
And if you think that retreating to a stinky, threadbare old comfort blanket and voting to keep everything exactly the same as it is now is the way to achieve change, then you are very much part of the problem.
In fact, you – and all the other mudskulled droolwits like you – are the whole problem.
I think people want *someone* in charge of the country, just not any of the options. Shauny Boy?
james kelly is a thin-skinned whining hysteric (with an obsession with you)
– the kind of person who could cause a fight in an empty room and if alba booted him, it was probably the right thing to do
at least he found his way home
Kelly’s site is an unreadable mess of self-pity and self-righteousness. His obsession with Stu, who he laughingly calls HIS stalker, seems to dominate his every waking moment. Any attempt to point this out in the comments section is quickly consigned to the deletion bin à la Wee Ginger Dug. In fact, it’s becoming difficult to distinguish between the two.
Scotland’s Cause has not advanced one iota as a result of electing SNP politicians at all levels of government nor being a member of that party.
The supposedly SNP MPs, MSPs, Councilors and would-be pro-Independence bloggers are clearly on the make and on the take.
They are all part of the Independence Industry.
There are four council by-elections in Scotland this week: two Labour-held, one SNP, one LibDem.
Prediction: the Pro Indy parties (SNP sort of, Alba, et al.) won’t get 40% of the vote in the four.
Prediction: Alba (the pro-Indy microbe party) doesn’t average 2% in these four.
Well if it’s so confusing and majority are switched off to politics, what and where now for direction in these colonial states.
It’s only working for the corrporately corrupt elite.
I am a bit sceptical about the rise again of SNP from disaffected Alba supporters.
But nothing is going on in Scottish politics…
And nothing can be done until “justice” for Alex is delivered…
The reason Scotland is in this continuing predicament is because it’s being constrained by far too many egocentric individuals who refuse to work with each other because they stupidly hold the opinions that no other individuals have any worth as they are perceived as not conforming to the virtually unachievable ultra high standards put in place by others.
Heads up: A nation can only piss with the urethrae it has.
Sex Pistols – Problems…
link to youtube.com
Politics has become the cult of personality.
I think Swinneys tactic is to move away from this and the controversy that the cult of personality attracts.
Dull as dishwater and hide all the contentious stuff away back behind a “no-one can disagree” with soundbites policy like eroding child poverty.
Problem is, how do we know the contentious stuff isn’t just progressing quietly in the background and that THE policy the party is supposed to be about is either not talked about meaningfully or mentioned in such bland “says nothing” statements as there’s an election hoving into sight on the horizon that there’s nothing to judge him by meaningfully when nothing comes to pass.
2014 here really got people engaged.
The years since have just bit by bit turned off people to the extent of disenfranchisement.
After the 2016 Scottish elections & the Brexit vote I could not possibly see any way we could avoid another referendum. I then could not see how we wouldn’t then vote Yes. Westminster was a hamstrung shambles. For whatever reason, complete ineptitude, being totally compromised by the security forces or a one eyed gender inflected hatred of her predecessor, Sturgeon spectacularly succeeded in saving the union and punting the biggest issue in Scottish politics into the long grass.
It stuns me that supposed pro indy people still gush over her (Macdermid, Cumming (A, not D)).
It stuns me when people still display faith in the SNP. I really cannot fathom, why anyone who is pro-indy thinks that the SNP are in any way shape or form, a viable political vehicle that could achieve indy. Why anyone cant see ‘both votes SNP’ as a complete dereliction of duty to the pro indy cause. They are not a pro-indy party. AT ALL. They are a pro SNP party. And still folk seem to see some hope in people like Kate Forbes. Like she’s ever shown a single atom of pro-indy fight.
The latest by Scot Goes Pop falls into this category. I’m sick of retrieving my jaw from the floor. He just cannot be serious?
In what was a sea of indy flames, there is maybe now only one strong light left burning. You are as important now as you have ever been Rev, keep shining your torch!!!
Whilst Swinney might be “old” SNP the party he has found himself in charge of now is run by psychopathic opportunists and politicos from the Labour gene pool.
Bit hard on Trump, don’t you think?
Well, neoliberalism can’t surely persist into a 6th decade. Can it?
Belgium not only survived for a year and a half without a government they actually thriced during that time
But they didn’t have the UK civil service running the show.
Meanwhile, in Scotland, what government? – last I recall was when Alex was FM. We’ve certainly not thrived, except negatively.
Can I go with “none of the above”.
p.s. Why no representative from The Greens as PM 😉
I see in today’s National, that John Swinney has stopped the new SNP policy papers. I understand that they were pretty dull though anyway.
In 2014, or thereabouts, I read about seven policy papers published by Alex Salmond’s government. They were inspiring and forward looking, but I can’t find them now online anywhere. Anyone else on here remember them?
Has the National moved on from Gaza yet?
Ultra Nrn Ireland Unionist McKay says Independence is off the table for the foreseeable because of….Trump
I disagree
I think Trump would be happy to do a deal
We should watch Greenland see how that goes.
Plus Trump hates Starmer
What better revenge than having Starmer the one to go down in history as “loosing Scotland”
That was David Camerons fear
Not gonna lie, Trump on stage with the Village People put a smile on my face.
The pace of change happening in every part of the world is simply too quick for most Politicians/Governments. Most Government Ministers are clueless about almost everything, and it shows. By the time they have appointed ‘Consultants’ to advise them, or have set up the inevitable inquiry, all costing a fortune, events have simply moved on leaving Ministers in their wake and the shambles simply carries on until the next disaster is revealed. Sadly a lot of them are hidden from the public.
It is time that anyone standing for election has to have some life experience or qualifications. Looking at Scotland-working in a call centre did not really qualify Useless for being our First Minister. Sturgeon’s brief sojourn as a failed solicitor was of no help to anybody. What experience of the real world does John the redactor Swinney have? Other political parties are probably no better.
Would anybody really trust their doctor who had no qualifications or a plumber who had no experience? Practical realism has gone out of the window.
What an almighty mess we are in. I suspect it will get worse if it ever gets better.
I think Sophie Molly & James Kelly are one & the same person.
Similar hairlines.
I think if the mainstream media bsically ignored the politicians and what rubbish they spout until an election is due, we would all be happier.
Since they don’t even seem to have proper debates in Holyrood or Westminster chambers any more, there is nothing to report.
When an Act is being debated, report the proceedings honestly otherwise it is all unpalatable fluff.
That’s not the way it should be, but I can barely think of a single politician who understands the big picture of Anything.
None of them know how to get houses built, get jobs created, get criminals punished, get kids educated, spend tax revenues wisely, so I say strip their platforms off them until they show they are competent.
We really are screwed, just thinking of all the opportunities we’ve had since brexit vote
It’s cause oligarchy is choosing the inept, incompetent & corrupt fuds to be in charge. It’s only THEIR interests that are to be served. Not the dumb plebs who vote.
BTW Obama was no saint. He instigated much of the shit that’s playing out today. Including Scotland remaining chained to this warmongering shit show at Westminster that can’t afford a decent standard of living but have plenty of money to blow shit up in other countries at a cost of $billions to maintain a foreign country’s hegemony.
Next up, according to Aristotle LOL, full on fascism cause once the oligarchs fck up they send in a dictator & we see that already playing out in Europe where elections are just to be cancelled altogether or hobbled together by a chosen few already bought & sold. The wealthy are in charge & puppets doing their bidding don’t need much in the way of brains or care what the plebs think. Any that thinks they’ll be defiant can be flogged across all public platforms until such times as a replacement is found.
Who is actually surprised by Kid Starver? He was a backstabbing bullshit artist to even get the gig of Labour leader in the first place. Farage will be no different. Colonisers thrive on chaos & conflict & they’ve imported strife to cause civil unrest & clamp downs. Alternative media will be switched off too.
When too many people realise an obvious truth, the party is well-and-truly over. Too many people in their own way have now realised that elected politicians have no real power whatsoever and have become little more than the face-saving ciphers of international-finance. The toothpaste is truly out of the tube and people know that it can’t put back in again by voting for any of the political Parties on offer excepting Reform, which will become the receptacle of bitter disillusionment for many.
If people are really stupid/gullible enough to vote for frog face’s ‘Reform’ party they deserve everything they get.
Sadly the rest of us will also suffer.
Those little grey bits make forecasting the 2026 Scottish Parliamentary Elections difficult but Holyrood invited a sea change in direction some time ago. (10 years ago). Essentially that’s what is happening in the US. Our FM has the charisma of a Funeral Director and Starmer wouldn’t even cut it as a Funeral Director (With apologies to Funeral Directors) . The sea change started the minute Trump fairly won the US Election. Look at the consequences of his day one Executive Orders trailed during the Election campaign. An example, removal of DEI leglisation from the military has meant recruitment for the first time in years has reached its target for the coming two years. I don’t agree with all of Trumps policies but some of them are good. French and Raven (1966) outlined the basis of leadership. I can’t see any of these attributes in Holyrood. An MSP with around 5000 votes is trying to prevent a leader with 77 million votes not to visit Scotland. Time to put on the big boy pants which we haven’t done since 2014.
Reform are a Little Englander party. The fact that so many in the U.K. see Farage as a future PM may actually turn out to be the catalyst for constitutional and societal change that leads to Scottish independence.
As for Trump he is just a grifter. He doesn’t want to put $dollars into American pockets he wants to empty them for his own benefit.
So come election time, what to do what to do…
Constituency Vote: The Bucket of Sand.
Regional Vote: The Bucket of Sand.
Democracy in motion. That’s that sorted.
The quality of the people reflects the attractiveness (or lack thereof) of the job, both in Westminster and Holyrood. It’s a badly paid, potentially insecure job. You constantly risk being monstered in the media and have people shouting at you or attacking you in the street. Unlike say the 70’s and 80’s, your colleagues will include private school student politicians who think it’s all one big joke and only really want to get on the today programme. It’s therefore very difficult to get anything done or even to get anyone to pay attention to serious issues.
US President (2025):
“We will forge a society that is colour blind and merit based…
I will immediately sign an executive order, to bring back freedom of speech to America…
It will be the policy of the American government that there are only two genders – male and female”
National Post (2024): Scotland goes from ‘lassie’ and ‘laddie’ to 24 official genders:
“The Scottish National Party has come under fire for releasing a list of 24 genders that people can choose from…
This comes just months after its leader, John Swinney, went on record saying that he believed there were only two genders…”:
link to nationalpost.com
link to archive.ph
Scottish Government’s gender list (Note: not the complete list:)
We have reached the stage where politicians have stopped even pretending to represent their constituents, which should be their basic function. Instead they do as their party bosses tell them and they in turn obey the diktats of the Establishment (insert the various and extensive UK power groupings here, starting with The City, The Royal Family, the security services, the arms industry, etc, ad nauseam).
We now enter dangerous times, where fewer and fewer people vote because they have nothing to vote for yet politicians pretend the very low levels of popular engagement still give them legitimacy and authority. That way lies increasing social unrest and authoritarian crackdown from “government”.
I can only hope (perhaps in vain) that woke-infused Globalism and all its corrruption and perversity is on the slide (a process perhaps accelerating now by developing events across the Atlantic), has reached its peak and that people-based politics and the ordinary concerns of nations will gradually re-engage with the electorate in Scotland and in the rest of Europe.
As things stand, our main political parties are hopelessly compromised and corrupt and simply don’t deserve our votes.