The Hand Of Friendship
We’ll be honest, folks, we’re not 100% sure this is how you build unity.
But what uplifting and powerful alliances might we be missing out on?
“A few thousand”, eh? We were a bit surprised on Wednesday evening not to see BiS post more tweets and pictures from all these events that they’d made such a big deal about for weeks, so we went looking for evidence.
It really wasn’t easy. But we’re good journalists, and after a few hours of diligent and determined digging, and with a bit of help from some of our always-alert readers, we managed to find them all.
The big central “hub” event was in Edinburgh.
It’s fair to say it was rather less than mobbed.
But if you scrunched your eyes up a bit and took a very generous interpretation of some blurry pixels it was just about possible to say there were 150 or so people there at the busiest point. (We’ve tagged 100 in this image – click to enlarge.)
The next-biggest gathering was in Aberdeen, led by our old pal Fatima Joji.
It’s there if you look closely, honest. Bottom middle.
Cllr. Joji kept the dynamic and youthful crowd enraptured.
Let’s charitably say the crowd was 50-strong, so we’re up to 200 total.
Then there was Stirling. As far as we can tell nobody tweeted about this one or posted any photographs, but we eventually managed to track down a Facebook video.
We can get a pretty full count from that 360-degree panaround, and we make it 16. So the total is now 216, as we go live to Dumfries.
No pictures were posted of the crowd watching these festivities, but someone in the choir told us there were “30? Ish” and we have no reason to disbelieve them, so including all the performers let’s add another 50 to our running total, now at 266.
Back north, to Inverness.
That’s a hard count of 26, giving us 292 altogether. And lastly we beam up to Orkney, where “around 15 people gathered” to, um, watch a stream of the Edinburgh event:
But we’ll include them too. That’s a grand total, not of the “few thousand” claimed by Macintyre-Kemp, but just 307 of Scotland’s 5.6 million people (or 0.005%) turning out to rally for independence on a pleasantly balmy late-summer evening 10 years on from the indyref.
(BiS claims to represent 142 separate groups, so that’s about two people from each.)
And fair play to them. We’re not here to snark at the folk who showed up. We’re here firstly to warn people to take anything said by Gordon Mcintyre-Kemp, self-proclaimed chieftain of the “grassroots Yes movement” and self-anointed guardian of all Scottish political facts, with a very hefty pinch of salt.
(Mcintyre-Kemp is a snake-oil salesman preying on the gullible and desperate, has no detectable source of income other than BiS crowdfunding, and neither the company’s fundraisers or its accounts at Companies House – where it’s listed as “Dormant” – tell us anything about where that money comes from or where it goes, or how much he pays himself, so he’s clearly just naturally averse to giving anything away.)
But secondly we’re here to tell the indy movement something it’s needed to be told for quite a while now, which is this: it’s time to stop holding rallies.
Rallies don’t persuade anyone to your cause, but that’s not a reason in itself not to have gatherings. They can be spirit-raising social events where you meet intelligent like-minded souls and are energised and reassured about the fundamental merit of your cause and the talents it can bring to bear.
(Even at £25 a ticket, the capacity crowd at the IMAX last Saturday was more than showed up for all of BiS’s free events put together, which isn’t bad for a bunch of “has-beens” and “toxic forces”.)
But not when they look like this, and solely comprise people reading out barnstorming speeches of empty rhetoric written for a crowd of 20,000 but actually delivered to seven people in kilts, a couple of barely-pubescent “anarchists” with “TRANS VEGANS FOR A NET-ZERO PALESTINE” placards and a bored dug in a Saltire bandana.
When you struggle to pull a few dozen diehards together for a political viewpoint shared by almost half the country, the main thing that you achieve is to delight your enemies and dismay and depress your allies, because what that tells you is that while a couple of million people may still want independence, they think it’s so unlikely to happen right now that they won’t get out of bed for it, let alone embark on a massive campaign effort.
We’ve been gently making this point behind the scenes for a little while now, and are happy to note that the message seems to be finally getting through.
We must never stop working towards independence, because despite the many and manifest catastrophes of the current Holyrood administration, self-rule still remains the best possible future for Scotland.
But the public are sick and tired of hearing about it after the last 12 years, because they know it’s going nowhere at the moment and frankly it’s an irritation and an insult to their intelligence to pretend otherwise. And you get nowhere by irritating and insulting the electorate (as Labour are fast discovering).
We need to work QUIETLY for the next few years, actually putting the hard yards in on policy and strategy, and on purging or somehow bypassing the useless failures and charlatans who wasted the last decade but still have their hands around the throat of the movement, and the parasitic leeches who use the cause of self-determination to promote their own self-advancement and unrelated, unpopular pet causes.
So let’s stop embarrassing ourselves needlessly in public and make sure that the next time voters think seriously about independence, we’re properly fit and ready for action.
They have their place and time, but this isn’t it. Please, no more marches.
Working quietly for a few years and then being in position to take advantage of events accounts for the success of Reform UK.It could work for the secessionist movement too eventually. However at the moment even in Scotland Reform UK gets far more traction than these “rallies”.
“…purging or somehow bypassing the useless failures and charlatans who have wasted the last decade but still have their hands around the throat of the movement…”
Indeed. That is the key issue. Genuine support for the cause is united.
“Purging” can’t happen until 2026 – and may not happen due to the MSM being Unionist so the vast number of voters still won’t understand who not to vote for.
So “bypassing” the political establishment is the only way to go. Any ideas, Rev?
did you say –
“TRANS VEGANS FOR A NET-ZERO PALESTINE”?
sign me up.
Give me an AK, and 2 clips. RPG-7 if you have one.
Where do we start first – howsabout a pincer move from Byres Road/University Ave. to drive out the running dogs of the paper tiger anglo-american-zinist imperium from the John Smith centre for knife and fork studies / political donkey sanctuary.
I think I have a semi.
– a semi and a semi-automatic.
How many tourists were at the Edinburgh event?
Around that area you can’t move for tourists.
If I were a tourist I would certainly be filming it.
It would make the showing of the ‘holiday snaps’ more interesting. Eh no?
‘Business for Scotland’ creates yet another tourist attraction
Maybe those inclined to take to the streets to help the Indy cause could start going to unionist rallies… it’d prolly do more “good”.
The root problem is that Sturgeon destroyed everything, including the hope that inspired hundreds of thousands to go on marches not so long ago.
The only hope I have left is that people aren’t as predictable as we assume and at some point they will look at what’s going on and wake up. (They don’t need a leader or a political party to facilitate that btw [the Berlin Wall came down without any sort of leadership orchestration]).
It’s now officially progressive to hope that everything goes so pear-shaped that change becomes inevitable.
OMG. That is just so transphobic! 🙂
There is a conference in Stirling on Saturday 5 October to plan for the future of the independence movement. Contact Jason on indyapp.nyr@gmail.com for details.
No need for rallies at the moment. I prefer the simple old-fashioned approach. Saltire sticker on the car licence plate, blue and white “Independence” sticker on the back window of the car and front window of the house. No need for parades and pipes just silent ever-present reminders.
Get a couple of Saltire t-shirts printed – wear them when doing the shopping or the gardening. No need for conversation. You’re opinion will be advertised enough.
The grass ain’t going to be greener if you have a load of tourist trampling all over the grass.
Although it could be the grass around Holyrood is actually ‘AstroTurf’
There’s quite a lot of ‘AstroTurfing’ goes on at Holyrood.
Never mind the grass what you need is a ‘greener’ electorate.
“I’m not as green as I’m cabbage looking”
That kinda green!
Believe in Scotland have reached their appeal target of £60,000 after one week and have set an extended target of £90,000.
Happy clappy flag waving exercises will get us nowhere – the House Jocks politicians, at Holyrood which are blocking any movement on indy – can and have, just ignored them – or better still they’ve sent one or two, pretendy indy MSPs, to the marches to give-off the impression that they care about indy – when all they care about is getting your vote.
No – better to have two – or three – van loads of indy committed folk – who are mobile and can be outside a venue where these pretendy indy politicians are, to protest on how they have done nothing for the cause. This kind of exercise MUST be kept up for a period of time – so that when these politicians exit a backslapping venue – the first thing they see, and hear, is folk airing their treachery – it goes without saying that Bute House and Holyrood should be protested outside – every single day.
Sadly – Scots don’t have it in them to even do this task – we’re so apathetic – that we let an 80 year old Brian Quail – a retired teacher, lie down in front of nukes being transported from England to Scotland via our biggest cities – whilst the rest of us did nothing to aid him – or stop this dangerous convoy from England.
Sarah@2:57 « So “bypassing” the political establishment is the only way to go. Any ideas, Rev? »
_________
As one model, the new essentially crowd-funded, interview-based, MSM refuting, left-wing, LE MÉDIA TV station in France is an interesting venture —
https://www.lemediatv.fr/direct
« Vous rêvez d’une autre info à la télé ? Nous aussi !
« Déjà 296 419 € récoltés.
« ENSEMBLE, CRÉONS LA TV DU FUTUR ! »
Ted;
“…even in Scotland Reform UK gets far more traction than these “rallies”.”
Maybe that’s because ‘Reform’, being a bunch of right-wing Tory wankers are never off the ‘UK meeja’?
Is that ‘Kirsty with the Scarf’ in 2nd Aberdeen photo? In front of woman in yellow jaiket?
Anyone spotted ‘Milly Molly Mandy’ & his polyamorous molecule?
C’mon lets see who we can spot in the crowd?
” Yes. Well it started badly, it tailed off a little in the middle and the less said about the end the better! But apart from that, excellent!”
Media. Media. Media!
nation.cymru is a good model. A mix of current affairs from the British isles, with specifically Welsh politics, sport, music and broader culture. Political coverage has a mildly Welsh independence slant without shouting at the reader. Brings in a wider readership rather than catering purely to political anoraks.
Bandwidth on independent Scots media is actually diminishing (particularly with the sad loss of Iain Lawson and his Yours for Scotland, platform).
I believe an attempt to pool the efforts of some of prominent voices was made a significant number of years back and failed. Strong personalities, diametrically opposed political opinion on “cultural issues”, and frankly dubious motivation from a remuneration perspective don’t make this an easy task.
I’d willingly contribute articles on technical topics.
This could be a forum for discussion and positive policy development rather than just a negative, bitch-fest that comments sections so easily descend into.
The new trans heroes are riding in on rally grifters.
We had considerably more people at there on the launch of the Stirling Directive. And lots more opposing the Hate Crime Bill (though a lot were unionists at that one).
Gordon MK is for the SNP than many more Yes people are which is why his rallies are poorly attended. BiS is also a business he is running which aims to make money selling badges, posters, leaflets, t-shirts etc. So hardly a grassroots non party org like Salvo is.
I wouldn’t go near a BiS gig if you paid me.
And never let us forget the Catalans could be north of 1 Million peaceful people on the streets of Barcelona but it availed them of absolutely nothing.
We could wish to get that many in Edinburgh. I’ve had people say we should do it in London. Apart from being a burglar’s charter the cops in England will pull over all the buses for ‘checks’. The trains will grind to a halt for no apparent reason etc etc. Once we announce it the union will move against it.
We could paralyse central London every weekend for 6months and WM would just shrug their shoulders. just like the huge anti war rallies which sadly achieved nothing.
WM kens half of us want to leave. It kens and has ensured the SNP like the Irish party has been suborned and tamed.
Which is why we need Sinn Fein alikes like ISP & Alba (though Salmond’s approval is -47). ISP even stands on abstention for WM.
Agree with your analysis Stu. The Independence movement is like a sprinkling of iron filings scattered everywhere in need of a magnet to align them. Every cause under the sun but the real cause. 3 weeks ago I left Alba not because I don’t respect leaders like Alex or Kenny or the members, they have nothing to prove to me. But because political party machinery restricts innovative approaches and policy development. The magnet is strategic policies that answer the questions outstanding for ten years. Should have been the job of the SNP Government but we are where we are.
@ Fearghas M: I looked at the French tv link [in translation!] – thank you. It would be very useful to have such a station in/for Scotland.
We do have several broadcasters on-line but it’s not the same as a tv station BUT finance is the problem – there’s say 2 million independence supporters here whereas France has a far larger population to provide support.
I hope nobody at these rallies intends to play Scotland the Brave oan the pipes. That would be laughable.
Could it not be both?
The problem I see with expecting everyone to join in is not everyone knows about technical issues or policy development or are in the least bit interested.
I see no reason why you couldn’t continue to post your technical info & those who are interested/knowledgeable
could comment and those who aren’t can keep on bitchin’
Be warned there might be some who will be bitchin’ about your techinical topics.
It won’t be me. Cameron Brodie never bothered me but he definitely did some or maybe it was just one.
Can’t remember.
It could be me if you start bitchin’ about my posts otherwise as far as I’m concerned you can post technical topics until the ‘cows come home’ or Stu adds some technical terms to the banned list.
From the homicidal bitchin’ That goes down in every kitchen. To determine who will serve and who will eat.
Always great lyrics in Cohen songs. The above is from ‘Democracy is coming to the USA’. 🙂
GMK once berated me for saying that there would be no Indyref in 2023 as promised by Sturgeon. He said that “he was in the know” and that some “very high up and important people” had told him that it was “in the bag”.
He said that people like me have no clue about what is really going on and that I and others should listen to the grown-ups like him.
There is a way forward without politicians.
A few people using this blog often cast bricks and untruths about what Salvo/Liberation organisation is and what its purpose is. Blinkered and closed minded describes those views perfectly. Opinions without information. For instance Alba rejected the Salvo approach over two years ago for political reasons. My personal assumption was that this was because Salvo is outwith the Westminster bubble of rules. It uses and promotes Scots laws for Scotland. The sovereignty of the people.
The purpose of Salvo/Liberation is to create a liberation movement with members signing a declaration. Salvo is the active branch of the liberation movement.
The purpose of Salvo is to take the UK to the UN and international court to prove that Scotland is a colony and is so against UN guidance already acknowledged by Westminster. It has also carried out detailed research into the creation of the Union. This shows that legally there is no Union and that the UK is a fraudulent State. They are also working to educate Scots about our rights in law and in this’s so called Union. They have campaigns running for instance against Freeports. They will use law to get our freedom.
They are not a political party. They are a liberation movement working for independence. They have lots of members. Recently they have had open democratic elections for a committee to run the organisation and push specific avenues of action to promote the key objectives. They recognise that all political parties in Scotland with the exception of the ISP operate in a colonial administration using a foreign country’s laws and administrative procedures. They swear allegiance to a foreign crown and monarch. They cannot get us independence as the coloniser, England will not allow it.
It understands our rights. Scots rights not those illegally pushed on us from a foreign land.
To understand more read Doun Hauden by Alfred Baird and read the Salvo website in detail. The UK is worried about Salvo Liberation.
Andy Anderson: “Alba rejected the Salvo approach over two years ago for political reasons. My personal assumption was that this was because Salvo is outwith the Westminster bubble of rules. It uses and promotes Scots laws for Scotland. The sovereignty of the people.”
That’s why the establishment is worried about Salvo’s approach: it’s difficult to control when no malleable politicians are involved and there is no vote which can be fixed.
Of course, I’m sure the UK would seek to twist the arms of the UN or any international court asked to deliberate on Salvo’s case but that’s another matter.
George Ferguson
23 September, 2024 at 5:38pm
Agree with your analysis Stu. The Independence movement is like a sprinkling of iron filings scattered everywhere in need of a magnet to align them. Every cause under the sun but the real cause. 3 weeks ago I left Alba not because I don’t respect leaders like Alex or Kenny or the members, they have nothing to prove to me. But because political party machinery restricts innovative approaches and policy development. The magnet is strategic policies that answer the questions outstanding for ten years. Should have been the job of the SNP Government but we are where we are. (emphasis added)
That’s the approach that has been failing for the last ten years and more. The effort to find universally satisfactory answers to every question has been ongoing since the early days of the 2014 referendum campaign. It was Better Together’s most successful ploy. They knew they could not win the constitutional argument. So, they made the campaign about everything except the constitution.
While the largest part of the independence movement was preoccupied with making an entirely redundant ‘economic case’ for independence, barely a handful of people were left discussing the thing that the referendum was actually about.
Two things you need to know about this “answer the questions” strategy. There are no universally satisfactory answers. Any answer to any policy question is likely to be rejected by as many people as find it satisfactory. So, you’re no further forward.
And there are always more questions. Once you accept your opponents’ right to demand answers to every question, your opponent can quite effortlessly keep you occupied with a constant stream of questions while declaring that you haven’t satisfactorily answered any of the previous questions. Which is true, because no answer satisfies everyone.
The thing about questions is that they generate doubt. Or they aggravate doubts that already exist. The anti-independence campaign wasn’t ‘Project Fear’. It was ‘Project Doubt’. The fact that questions are being asked and that those they are asked of validate them by attempting to answer, make an issue questionable. It creates doubt. As does the fact that there is never a single answer. The Yes movement generated dozens of different answers to the same questions. Doubt’s twin sister, Confusion, arrives to help her undermine the Yes campaign’s credibility.
The Yes campaign seeks to restore its credibility by finding better answers to every one of the endless stream of questions, apparently oblivious to the fact that it was attempting to answer the questions which caused the loss of credibility in the first place. The public looks on and seeing only doubt and confusion, edges towards the comforting familiarity of the status quo.
It’s not better answers we need. It’s better questions. Independence is normal. It’s the Union which is anomalous. It is the Union that must be justified. The Yes campaign was fucked from the outset by the question on the ballot. That question made independence the contentious issue. An effective single-issue campaign cannot be built around a contested concept. Such success as the Yes campaign did enjoy cannot be attributed to those seeking perfect answers to contrived questions while undermining their own campaign by generating/aggravating doubt. Credit for that success goes entirely to the flag-waving masses who countered the doubt and confusion with highly visible displays of commitment and conviction.
If the ‘experts’ in the independence movement had just shut-the-fuck up about currency for ten minutes, those displays of certainty might have carried the day. There is no certainty in economics. There is only doubt. A constitutional question cannot be answered with a calculator.
#NewScotlandParty #EndTheUnion #NoSection30 #ScottishUDI #ManifestoForIndependence
@ Andy Anderson .
Succinct precis of where SALVO are coming from .
I agree ALBA’s rejection of collaboration with SALVO was , as you suggest , down to the former’s intrinsic attachment to the existing , manifestly corrupt & – from a Scottish Independence-aspiring perspective – utterly useless/counter-productive Political System/Structure .
They still labour under the delusion Independence will be achieved via Brit State imprimatur and by sending MPs to that Mother of all Establishment Nurseries .
It won’t . Ever .
Be good if WOS offered someone like you and/or Sara Salyers this platform to lay-out – as it were , unfiltered , what SALVO are about and what they’re trying to achieve .
It would go some way to dispelling the lack of understanding ( and willful misunderstanding/warped characterisation ) of that group’s thinking and objectives , what it’s about and , crucially , what it’s not about , eg seeking G.E/H.E electoral * success * .
@ Ruby . Only L.C could’ve come-up with the genius rhyming of ‘ bitchin’ ‘ and ‘ kitchen ‘ . Well ,maybe fellow lyrical master – Randy Newman – could have created something as brilliant 🙂
You make good comment Andy.
Salvo and liberation is on our side. They want independence and none should forget that. There are many strands to pursuing that objective.
Bickering is poison and we should not forget that. Yes aided and abetted by the then SNP was a great and effective movement. And it did have strands working together in common objective. In fact this journal blog plus wee blue book were fine examples.
Decapitating the SNP from independence, destroying independence leadership, introducing unpopular spoiler policies has caused the movement to stumble. But it has not killed the desire.
That is why we will ultimately win once we get the band back together.
Andy Anderson
24 September, 2024 at 8:58 am
There is a way forward without politicians.
There isn’t! Fantastical nonsense like this is a hindrance, not a help. Scotland’s independence will be formally restored by an Act of the Scottish Parliament. Or it won’t be restored at all. FFS! Let’s inject a bit of hard-headed realism into the debate!
The work that (among others) Salvo is doing is potentially valuable and almost certainly worthwhile. But there is no route to independence which bypasses Scotland’s democratic institutions.
Those institutions – parties, government, and parliament – have been captured by the ruling elites of England-as-Britain. The appropriate response is not to abandon them in the foolish belief that they are unnecessary. When something you rightly own and absolutely require is taken, the appropriate response is to seize it back. To repossess it! To take it!
That Scotland’s own political elite has failed and betrayed Scotland’s cause is beyond doubt. They will continue to fail and betray that cause if we let them. If we simply turn our backs on our democratic infrastructure, then we leave it in the hands of those politicians and hence in the hands of the coloniser. And contrary to the many fantastical ‘solutions’ that are being peddled, we can neither replace it nor proceed without it.
Follow the fucking logic!
We cannot have independence without the agreement of Scotland’s people.
We cannot demonstrate that agreement conclusive and decisively without a democratic exercise which will stand as the formal exercise or our inalienable right of self-determination. A proper constitutional referendum.
We cannot have a proper constitutional referendum unless legislation authorising it is enacted by the Scottish Parliament.
We cannot get the Scottish Parliament to legislate for a proper constitutional referendum because the power to do so (legislative competence) has been usurped and is being withheld by the coloniser.
We cannot restore that power (legislative competence) otherwise than by asserting it in defiance of the coloniser. Repossess it!
We cannot repossess it because our democratic representatives are a shower of self-serving cowards and ("Tractor" - Ed)s who will not take the necessary action.
We cannot take time to replace those self-serving cowards and ("Tractor" - Ed)s because every politician we put into the British political system is captured and corrupted by it.
We cannot escape the British political system that captures and corrupts our politicians because those politicians are more afraid of the British ruling elites that they are of us – the people of Scotland.
CONCLUSION: Make the politicians more afraid of us than they are of them!
“make sure that the next time voters think seriously about independence”.
Both sides. Focusing on independence misses the biggest reason for it in the first place – how badly the UK has been run for many decades. In the 90’s I read a book with the title of The Pride and the Fall:The Dream and Illusion of Britain as a Great Nation. It’s a title that doesn’t pull any punches and shows the attitude that will be needed if both of the reasons for independence are to be taken seriously.
Therefore both sides of independence need to be made. The positives for independence and the negatives of remaining in the UK. As has been said many times, there is little or no sign of a positive and realistic case for Scotland remaining in the UK. If there was, it would have already have been made. Instead empty phrases such as ‘strong shoulders’ are used, or insulting drivel such as this that the ‘UK’ isn’t too proud to engage in –
https://archive.ph/M4QkA
The argument against remaining in the UK is about how the UK is managed. So let the ‘UK’ make their case with their’falsehoods’ while Scotland does it by highlighting proven and positive realities. Spin is getting weaker as it becomes more self evidently bs or downright manipulative lying. It has a very long track record, as does the malicious actions of UK government’s –
https://archive.ph/zWXAk
The case for remaining in the UK is extremely weak and is becoming ever more so by the day. That needs to be made an equal part of the argument for independence. Conversely the case for independence is extremely strong. That combination makes for an incredibly strong case for independence. It’s time to get serious about both reasons for independence. The biggest risk to Scotland isn’t an uncertainty of independence, it’s the certainty of decline that will continue as long as Scotland remains managed by the UK. The former risk is minimal while the latter is guaranteed by a long track record of decline. Not a hard choice to make when both are looked at seriously.
Peter A Bell says
The thing about questions is that they generate doubt. Or they aggravate doubts that already exist. The anti-independence campaign wasn’t ‘Project Fear’. It was ‘Project Doubt’.”
I agree, Better Together Played a Blinder, scaring pensioners threatening Europeans, and NOT once did we hear SNP fight back on that…
Again in response to Adam Anderson.Saying.
We cannot have independence without the agreement of Scotland’s people.
Peter A Bell Replies with..
We cannot demonstrate that agreement conclusive and decisively without a democratic exercise which will stand as the formal exercise or our inalienable right of self-determination. A proper constitutional referendum.
We cannot have a proper constitutional referendum unless legislation authorising it is enacted by the Scottish Parliament.
We cannot get the Scottish Parliament to legislate for a proper constitutional referendum because the power to do so (legislative competence) has been usurped and is being withheld by the coloniser.
We cannot restore that power (legislative competence) otherwise than by asserting it in defiance of the coloniser. Repossess it!
We cannot repossess it because our democratic representatives are a shower of self-serving cowards and (“Tractor” – Ed)s who will not take the necessary action.
We cannot take time to replace those self-serving cowards and (“Tractor” – Ed)s because every politician we put into the British political system is captured and corrupted by it.
We cannot escape the British political system that captures and corrupts our politicians because those politicians are more afraid of the British ruling elites that they are of us – the people of Scotland.
CONCLUSION: Make the politicians more afraid of us than they are of them!
And my opinion for what it’s worth agrees with Peter A Bell, and HE like Salvo doing great work but also needs a party to back them up, has brought out a party of his own, NOT political, but a Party of people as members and a party that is member led..
NEW SCOTLAND PARTY, should be what every Independentista VOTE for, so that they REPLACE SNP & once installed as the largest party, THEY will not be bought off or warned off as they hold true to their Manifesto which is first and foremost INDEPENDENCE.. That is how we will scare the POLITICAL Parties and how we will get WM’s attention..By Voting for a truly MEMBER led party, a NEW Party, for a NEW SCOTLAND..
I used to be a regular reader of PAB but he took far to long to recognise that the Scum Nonce Party and sturgeon the betrayer of Scotland and Scots wasn’t going to get us independence,PAB refused to even discuss or talk about the GRRB or the HCB on his blog, he was an out and out snp and sturgeon apologist and sycophant for far too long
Far to many people put party or party leadership before independence, the messianic example of sturgeon was despicable she could do no wrong and for 10 years she was allowed to sell her bullshit and now look where we are
The same thing is now taking place with Alex Salmond he is now touted as the great saviour and the fabulous tactician
FFS he LOST the independence referendum in 2014 for many reasons the most important one he GIFTED our constitutional vote to ALL and SUNDRY in an attempt to look gracious and kind, and WORST of all he has vowed to do the same thing again
PAB maybe right that we eventually need a political party to negotiate our exit but Alex Salmond the great tactician who likes to MENTION our sovereignty now and again DELIBERATELY threw SALVO and ultimately Liberation.Scot out of the room, despite Sara Salyers message to the membership being heralded
Afaic Alex Salmond is a control freak similar to sturgeon it is his way or nothing ,his ignoring and isolating of SALVO and Sara Salyers highlights for me that he doesn’t want to share the glory with anyone, his constant begging to sturgeon and the snp for unity whilst she continued with her depraved and reviled policies yet ignoring the SALVO movement defies logic
Obviously “Believe in Scotland” is a joke, just a handful of self-appointed “leaders” with no actual followers.
Salvo and Liberation and ISP are the same.
They all routinely lie about their membership and support. Whenever these groups (that claim to speak for millions) are put to the test–an election, for example–they’re exposed for what they are.