This is not a mistake
The Tories might be evil, but they’re not idiots.
They do think YOU’RE a bit dim, though.
Because firstly, even if that HAD been a careless slip-up, it would mean nothing to them. Even partially-alert readers recall Ruth Davidson’s insistence after the 2016 Holyrood election that Westminster shouldn’t block a second indyref after the SNP won a clear mandate for one.
That position was swiftly abandoned and so would the one tweeted today be. But that, of course, isn’t the tweet’s purpose anyway.
The Tories know that almost all Yes supporters are going to vote SNP on the constituency ballot on Thursday. That’s priced in and there’s very little they can do about it. What they worry about is the list, which is where nearly all their seats come from, and in which they could be massacred if SNP voters voted for other indy parties.
So the Tories (and Labour) want as many SNP list votes as possible, because they know that nearly all of them will be wasted votes which only deliver Unionist MSPs. The SNP only got four seats on the list in 2016, and that was from 42% of the vote – significantly higher than the 36-37% the SNP are polling currently.
The other thing that scares them is the thought of the SNP being reliant on another party that actually has a viable and active plan for delivering independence. The Unionist parties have just survived five years of an SNP/Green indy majority which didn’t take a single step towards another referendum, and they’re pretty confident that they’ll survive five more years of the same, since nothing has changed.
The Alba Party, however, aren’t in the game for cosy seats and salaries. Many of their candidates have given up cushy SNP careers and put everything on the line for a real shot at independence. Unlike the SNP and the Greens, they actually do scare the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems.
So it’s massively in the Tories’ interests to try to fool SNP supporters into thinking they should give both their votes to the SNP, on the basis of the ridiculous fantasy that Boris Johnson would cave in if the SNP got a majority by themselves. And going by the state of social media in the last few weeks, they might actually be right that SNP voters are dumb enough to believe it.
The only vote that frightens the Tories is a vote for Alba. It frightens them because it threatens to cut their healthy tally of 31 seats in half at a stroke, and it terrifies them because they think it might actually bring independence uncomfortably closer. If unsubtle tricks like this can get enough SNP voters to waste their list votes on Nicola Sturgeon’s motley crew of no-hoper list candidates, the Tories will celebrate long into the coming weekend.
Already finding it hard enough voting snp on constituency, never mind the list,without question, that’s going to Alba.
And going by the state of social media in the last few weeks, they might actually be right that SNP voters are dumb enough to believe it.
To be frank, the past 3 years have proven beyond any doubt that people as a whole are unutterably, incontrovertibly, irredeemably thick. They will believe anything at all on no evidence, or even firmly against all the evidence. They will believe a lesbian and lifelong campaigner for LBGT rights has suddenly become “homophobic” just because someone on Twitter says they are (they will believe thousands of such lifelong, left wing campaigning women have all become right wing bigots on the say so of the same random Twitter account). They will believe the most scrutinised man in politics is a sex offender, despite the evidence of a 2 year police investigation puling in hundreds of women, and all the publicity, pulling in absolutely nothing whatsoever (hence ending up with a small cabal and claims of “hair pinging” being what end up in court).
People appear to have lost the ability for rational thought. This Thursday will bring the evidence of how widespread that confederacy of dunces really is within Scotland. I’m hopeful but not holding my breath.
We really need to get down to business.
Alba Party are being airbrushed out of the ‘Scottish’ media circus , to suit all the pro BritNat clowns and it’s massively important that social media makes as big an advert for Alba as possible or the uninformed are going to vote for President Sturgeon and all her unionist list pals will be right back on another 5 years of shite for us and expenses / pensions for them.
We can do this.
We really need to.
The only reason I’ll be bothering to turn out is because of ALBA – or ISP if they’d been on the ballot.
As for the rest of the useless invertibrate jellies, they could whistle if it weren’t for AS advocating SNP 1 ALBA 2.
I’d best get to a polling booth before breakfast as placing an X in the SNP box on the constituency paper will have my stomach contents on the rebound.
Alba got my list postal vote. I hope all the YES activists do the same.
Going by the messages and posts on Facebook all the YES activists I know are voting Alba in the list
That’s all we can realistically hope for is that the ALBA party somehow return enough MSPs to break the unionists status quo, a bonus would be to decimate the Greens who don’t want independence and hate real women.
Of course there’s still quite a few voters who still believe that SNP 1&2 is the right way forward, ironically they’re hurting the indy cause instead of helping it, ignorance is bliss as they say.
A nightmare scenario would be for the SNP to have a big enough majority to govern by themselves, and for their vile gender enablers the Greens to do really well.
I can only hope the ALBA party exceeds our expectations, even with the BritNat media blackout.
It is basic arithmetic and anyone who votes SNP on the list is clearly deluded, or independence isn’t their priority.
I don’t think the conservatives are evil people, like the majority of the SNP hierarchy.
When we eventually get Independence there will be many conservatives who are not unionists lending a hand.
I would describe myself as a “social conservative” but only voted Tory once to ensure freedom from the dreaded EU.
Conservatives make better friends than enemies.
Looks like the unionists are trying to game the system. Absolute bounders they are.
Col says:
3 May, 2021 at 6:37 pm
Looks like the unionists are trying to game the system. Absolute bounders they are.
———————————————
Its a jolly prang old boy. Tally ho!!!!
———————————————
akenaton says:
3 May, 2021 at 6:35 pm
I don’t think the conservatives are evil people, like the majority of the SNP hierarchy.
When we eventually get Independence there will be many conservatives who are not unionists lending a hand.
I would describe myself as a “social conservative” but only voted Tory once to ensure freedom from the dreaded EU.
Conservatives make better friends than enemies.
—————————————————
Leave the wacky stuff alone please. Tories dont make friends with anybody for heavens sake. They would sell out Scots Indy in a flash for English Gold. Have you learned nothing from history old sport?
ALBA on the list here x 2
SNP on constituency x 2 and only because our candidate, Elena Whitham, has been a good SNP councillor and appears to be strong on the right policies that mean something to ordinary people in Scotland i.e. housing, green innovation, women’s issues and she is vocal on independence
She is favourite to take the seat and if she does, I will be sending my congratulations along with my hopes that she will not be getting drawn into the vice like grip of the Dix-In-Knix collective and forgetting what she was elected for
One minute I am confident about ALBA seats, the next I am hoping and praying that if they only get one, it is Alex Salmond’s and I can tune into FMQs (Pronouns : What/Independence) and see him back where he should have been all along. When I voiced such an opinion, Mr Barrhead Boy seemed to think my pessimism was unfounded and that I would be pleasantly surprised with the ALBA seat count- my dreams are in his hands for now, I hope they never die
‘Mon the ALBA
It is beyond me that there are supposed indy supporters who just can’t see through this both votes SNP scam.
For the first time in 7yrs we finally have the opportunity to get Indy back at the top of the agenda and typical of Scotland we have the leader of the biggest supposed indy party who turns out to be a closet unionist and an indy movement so badly divided (by the same leader)
that you just know this will be like 2014 all over again.
Wha’s like us right enough.
Our Electorate must be the thickest in any Western democracy.
They hear STV headlines about Sturgeon brill and Salmond bad and think that is gospel.
And the only reason they hear the STV headlines is because that is the channel Emmerdale is on.
Then add in the Covid Queen on our screens during Covid, it’s easy to see where the hard of thinking, mostly female electorate get their ideas from.
I would say about 80% of Scots are Political idiots.
They think Salmond is in prison serving time for multiple rapes.
Then, out of the blue Salmond appears on their television screens, the ask, “I thought he was in Jail”
So if Sturgeon survives Thursdays Poll, she is going to find it simple to bat off any critisism from Salmond at FMQs.
She will push through her Perverted reforms and you can all say goodbye to Independence.
Don’t Vote SNP, especially in Glasgow Southside Constituency Vote.
Sarwar 1 ALBA 2
Don’t let the SNP Freaks get their majority.
Oh come on, even you guys must have notice that things have changed in the last three hundred years :0).
The class system has all but gone, Socialism has been discredited except in the heids of a few auld commies I spent a few years in the YCL when we thought we could make a brave new world Fidel, Che an’ aw that. John Mclean fur god;s sake, ah dont take lectures on ancient history…..ah wis therr!
@ clavie chiel.
Geez peace will you?
The tories face you in the field , while labour put their arms around you and stab you in the back.
Labour have stabbed too many people in the backs once too many times , which is why the party is in the state its in just now.
The english brexiters hate them , bearing in mind 62 % of labour constituencies voted brexit in 2016 , and scottish indy voters hate them for stabbing scotland in the back in 2014 , as well as their long inglorious history keeping scotland in their precious onion.
I fink its you that needs to learn a bit of history.
Labour are about to get an electoral drubbing across the nations of this island.
The party of anti democratic betrayers and middle class london centric champagne socialists.
Well done for highlighting this typical Tory trickery which is maybe not obvious to a large part of the electorate as Cath and others have alluded to. Have postal voted SNP 1 Alba 2!
@ eugene henderson.
What you really mean is you need the scottish electorate to be thick and have selective amnesia regarding labour.
Thankfully the plebs wisened up to your despicable party a long time ago , and its catching in northern england now too among the red wall.
SNP 1 ALBA 2.
Seem like everyone knows about a referendum other than the Sturgeon and Harvie.
Current polling estimates for Southern Scotland are SNP 5+1, Con 3+2, Lab 1+2, green 0+1, Alba 0+1. SNP list votes wasted here too.
akenaton says:
3 May, 2021 at 6:35 pm
“Conservatives make better friends than enemies”
Aye, right. Befriending One Nation Tory Fascists is definitely not on the cards
Scots will soon have the feeling of belonging to no Nation.
Sturgeon is draining any bit of pride we had in our country out of us.
“Where were you born?”
“Eh, that soggy bit of land to the north of england”
I suppose we could become a UN Colony for Perverts and Chicks with Dicks.
So all is not lost, yet.
I think the reason folk are so entrenched in the ‘both votes SNP’ mantra is that THE SNP keep telling them to vote like that.
If the SNP said, ‘SNP1 and your list vote to another iParty because it’s no longer 2011’ I think the sheeple would comply.
You’re battling waves of cognitive dissonance in yon soshal meja right now.
There’s no talking to them. They’re to busy singing ‘La,la,la,la…’ with fingers in their ears.
Tam the Bam. 7.01
The man with no balls and no spine.
The SNP keyboard warrior Freak.
Still waiting on you facing up to the Rev.
I’m an easy target Thomas,,,the Rev is a different kettle of fish.
Not a peep from you regarding the Rev telling you NOT to vote SNP.
Is the Rev also a Labour member?
And I am campaiagning tactically against Sturgeon, the only party I have been a member of was the SNP, but no more, not while that Freak Sturgeon is running the show.
THOMAS, are you that fruit loop Al Stuart, or AYRSHIRE ROB.
Very similar levels of IQ.
So I might rejoin on Friday, if Sarwar can win Glasgow Southside Constituency Vote.
I bet you SNP membership would shoot through the roof again if Sturgeon was defeated on Thursday.
@Helen Yates says: 3 May, 2021 at 6:55 pm
It is beyond me that there are supposed indy supporters who just can’t see through this both votes SNP scam.
As the late Jim Mitchell said, “Never underestimate the stupidity of the general public, for they will break your heart time and time again.” Lord knows he saw it often enough at elections.
THOMAS POTTER says:
3 May, 2021 at 6:23 pm
Alba Party are being airbrushed out of the ‘Scottish’ media circus…
Something tells me that ALBA will not be airbrushed after Saturday this week……..
Jeannie, all conservatives are not Tories or Unionists. Jim Sillars describes himself as a social conservative and campaigned against the homosexual marriage legislation.
Except for the industrial centre belt where politics were ruled by the corrupt Trade Unions, Scotland was once a very conservative country and I see traditional values as being important to most Scots.
The SNP on the other hand are real scum with no morality or social values to speak of.
Eugene henderson 7.27
I would rejoin the SNP if Sturgeon lost her seat on Thursday.
But not until.
There are many thousands of Tories, Labour and Libdem voters who vote SNP at the Holyrood election all the time.
They enjoy the so called Freebies.
But the same people wouldn’t touch Independence with a barge pole.
I think that the majority of voters don’t care about the day to day workings of the Scottish Parliament or the policies that don’t directly affect them. They mostly get their news from telly and to a lesser degree these days, newspapers. Unfortunately, as we know from experience from the first Indyref the oldies (of which I am one) are the very ones who will be guided by what they see on the BBC (I don’t have a licence), so they’ve got Nicola telling them that Alex is still guilty and they must vote for her twice. I remember in 2014 talking to a woman whilst out walking and she said “I can’t stand that Alec Salmond , I’m voting no”. A lot of people really are thick and they don’t have the brain capacity to think logically about their country’s future. Looking forward to seeing if social media has made a difference to this year’s result.
https://archive.is/o2ypd
New Yorker article referred to in
https://archive.is/jcqLr
More ’77’ trolling crap:
(1)’The class system has all but gone’?..
How about ‘ 1 in 5 working age people (20%) in Scotland are living in poverty 13% of pensioners in Scotland are living in poverty 58% of people in poverty and 70% of children in poverty live in a household where someone is in employment’
(source C.A.P.G.).?..Ain’t the Union just great eh?
According to the Sunday Times?
Billionaires linked to Scotland have increased their wealth in the past year, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, to be published on Sunday.
The 11 billionaires were worth an estimated combined £17.245bn, an increase of £1.038bn in the past year.
Glenn Gordon, the Jersey-based tycoon behind distillers William Grant & Sons, and his family were named as Scotland’s richest for the sixth year in a row.
His family has more than doubled its wealth in six years to £2.882bn.
Robert Watts, compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List, said: “Many rich listers are this year nursing big losses due to the uncertainty over Brexit, turbulence on the stock market and the enormous change sweeping through our high streets.
“But more than half of our Scottish Rich List have seen their fortunes rise over the past 12 months – that’s a higher proportion than other parts of the UK.”
People with Scottish connections account for 82 of the 1,000 UK list’s richest people.
Presentational grey line
Scotland’s richest
Glenn Gordon and family – spirits – £2.882bn.
Sir Ian Wood and family – oil services and fishing – £1.763bn.
Mohamed Al Fayed and family – retailing – £1.7bn.
John Shaw and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw – pharmaceuticals – £1.689bn
Mahdi al-Tajir – metals, oil and Highland Spring water – £1.66bn
Trond Mohn and Marit Mohn Westlake and family – industry – £1.602bn
Thomson family – media – £1.401bn.
Philip Day – fashion – £1.2bn.
The Clark family – of the Arnold Clark car dealership – £1.178bn.
Jim Mellon – property and finance – £1.1bn.
Jim McColl, of Clyde Blowers – £1.1bn.
Presentational grey line
Rising profits for William Grant & Sons group, which produces whisky including Grant’s, Glenfiddich and The Balvenie as well as Hendrick’s gin, has seen huge returns for the founder’s great-great-grandson Glenn Gordon.
Mr Gordon has overseen a £310m increase in the family’s wealth in the past year, with profits up by 14.4% at their Banffshire-based distillery.
Oil magnate Sir Ian Wood is now in second place on the Scottish list this year, after a £51m increase in his wealth to £1.763bn.
He retains a 0.9% stake, worth £33.7m, in energy company Wood Group, which he founded and ran for 50 years before retiring in 2012.
Through his family’s foundation, Sir Ian gave away £40m, 2.27% of his wealth, to charitable projects in northeast Scotland, other parts of the UK and Africa.
Identifiable wealth
Glaswegian John Shaw and wife Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw – whose wealth stems from the Bangalore-based pharmaceuticals company Biocon – moved from second to fourth on the list after their estimated fortune dropped £67m to £1.689bn.
The Thomson family, who were originally in shipping but now run the Dundee-based Beano publisher DC Thomson, have grown their wealth by £49m to £1.401bn and sit seventh on the list.
The full rich list is published in a 156-page edition of The Sunday Times Magazine.
It reveals the wealth of the 1,000 richest people in Britain based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies.
It excludes bank accounts, to which the paper has no access.
Your hero Sarwar is further down the list, but he’s in there with all the other capitalist greedy selfish people who are not part of any class inequality whatsoever and apparently no longer exists according to you.
(2) ‘John Mclean fur god;s sake’ …….as if you actually knew who he was you squaddie imbecile.
And as for the parliamo Glesca impersonation:
(3)’ah dont take lectures on ancient history…..ah wis therr!’
You could have added ‘Och Aye the noo’ while you at it and I mean you are really ‘AT IT’.
it’s just pathetic and demonstrates just who and what you are, a fraudulent trolling paid Unionist interloper.
akenaton says:
3 May, 2021 at 6:58 pm
“Oh come on, even you guys must have notice that things have changed in the last three hundred years :0).
The class system has all but gone,”
That’ll be why the current crop of Tories are trying deperately to claw back any concessions made to the working class in the post war settlement.
They will never change – they are barstewards.
@Eugene 7.49pm
You realise that lots of those folk are in the roughly 22% who have switched from No to Yes from 2012, right….? The Yes campaign of 2012-14, realisation that the Vow was a lie and brexit have delivered a bloc of former unionists who haven’t changed their mind back to No….why might that be do you think?
Wonder what will happen when we finally have a party that has the balls to force another referendum or plebiscitary elections? 🙂
Snatzis game the system, Yoons game the system.
What a fabulous system.
I don’t go in for personal abuse on an internet forum, but I know all about John Mclean who was dedicated man and wanted an Independent Scotland but you would not have like to live under the Stalinist regime envisaged by Mclean Sturgeon or Swinney, or for that matter my pals in the YCL and CP before “the Tartan Tories” brought independence back into the public perception.
Regarding my writing, if you met me you would know that the Glasgow dialect is my way of talking to everyone high or low, I only learned how to write competently by reading a few books after years of manual labour, something I might recommend to your good self along with a few lessons in social discourse.
I think the trolls outnumber us tonight!
The most leaflets I get through my letterbox at election time are from the tories. And I’ve been bamboozled about their angle, until now. I assumed they were just playing to form & being lying toerags by harping on about an SNP win meaning a second indyref. Which observers of this site are well aware is most unlikely. So why did they keep saying ‘Stop the SNP, stop Indyref2’?
This post explains it perfectly. To the uninitiated or disinterested voter, it gives them just enough to place the idea, so that both votes SNP types will waste their list vote accordingly.
Grudging applause. Credit where its due.
Forgive me, but Lochside mentions poverty, poverty like class no longer exists…..I remember poverty in Argyll in the fifties.
What we have to day is “relative poverty” a different animal aw thegither.
So Lochside, if you’re under 70 you’re talkin’ pish.
What I don’t understand about all this is even if every SNP voter voted Alba on the list, and by some miracle of the D’Hondt system, one million Independence votes translated into 87 MSP’s say.
All it would mean is that one million Unionists were disenfranchised, and they would still turn out on indyref2 day and spoil the party again.
SNP high command knows this, they know they are going up against the same granite that ended the dream the last time, and spite of all they have the same old argument for 2014.
Turnout is key, if it hovers round 50% as per normal for Holyrood, it wont sway anybody.
Imagine if the SNP had withdrawn all of its list candidates and supported an SNP 1 Alba 2 election strategy.
I would be that Alex would have done that if he was FM.
“Leave the wacky stuff alone please. Tories dont make friends with anybody for heavens sake”
I don’t think akenaton meant Tories per se. If I understood his comment correctly he meant conservative-minded people eg people opposed to unnecessarily changing existing gender laws etc
A large contingent of whom contribute to Wings and support Alba.
Quite correct Fred….Thanks .
For God’s sakes folks, I am as scunnered as the rest of you with our politics in general and that wretched first minister in particular, but that is no reason to be full of such negativity towards our country. It is a beautiful place full of good people which has given much to the world.
Papko, in 2014 Yes started on 30%, but finished on 45%. If Indyref 2 Yessers start at 45%, they will finish well into the majority.
Everyone knows this, apart from you, seemingly.
Vote Sarwar!
Aye right! He’s a total muppet.
The Labour septic tank has nearly dried up. He’s the last chunk to bob up to the surface.
That daftie who keeps posting pish on his behalf under different names needs new material.
@Papko 8.55pm
Thursday will probably go down in history as an opportunity lost. The “ideal” outcome for those disillusioned with the current government is Alba holding the balance of power and managing to use that position to force the pace, preferably via ensuring plebiscitary elections. With a half competent or committed government it’s eminently possible.
The fact is however that this outcome is pretty unlikely. The electoral system makes it hard to achieve, the SNP is still led by a bunch of ideological zealots which the ordinary membership show no inclination or strength to change, and Alba has had very little time to make an impact: it badly needed – and still needs I think – the likes of Joanna Cherry to make more of an impact.
As some of us have been saying for a while, we have 5 years to do better: if we can’t manage that, we might as well accept the game’s a bogey and wait a generation for the younger generation to deliver indy, though who knows what that’d look like given some of the Twitler Youth roasters we see around us today.
We desperately need to see the SNP leadership being ejected: if not Alba needs to accept we have to face the SNP down. When the SNP leadership doesn’t deliver, either its disillusioned support is up for grabs, or with luck new leadership will see sense and cooperate to ensure plebiscitary elections. We can but hope….
I am not arithmetically challenged.
Compare and contrast the Tory PPB to defeat indy and Alba’s cunning plan to rescue indy.
My conclusion is SNP1 Alba2 is still the best chance of restoring a path to indy in my lifetime.
For those who relish discord,this means I DO disagree with the very Rev Stu Campbell.
I think this is the correct analysis, and no other commentators have picked up on it.
You can see it working quite well already, lots of SNP types tweeting it with #bothvotesSNP.
The Tories reinforcing Big Nic’s campaign message, who would ever have thought it.
Boris says people are not interested if he asked for Tory supporters
to pay for child minding services for his latest Bastard.
I’m interested!
He never is willing to qualify he only has 6 children?
Is that insurance should others crop up for a newspaper payday?
A third of Scots living in poverty and Bojo had £1,000 rolls of wallpaper
in a £200,000 makeover of free prime accommodation.
And the poor man is himself a multi millionaire.
We must have a second decade of austerity and half of Scots living in poverty
to help him heap up even more cash and afford more children.
No need to vote Tory, just send all your money down South and let
England pick Boris as your leader.
@Minekiller says:
3 May, 2021 at 8:28 pm
Snatzis game the system
Wotsa snatzi? Snatzo was the Revillos’ record label.
akenaton says:
3 May, 2021 at 8:54 pm
Forgive me, but Lochside mentions poverty, poverty like class no longer exists…..I remember poverty in Argyll in the fifties.
What we have to day is “relative poverty” a different animal aw thegither.
So Lochside, if you’re under 70 you’re talkin’ pish.’
Au contraire, you troll entity are the one expressing urine, If you could read you would see the evidence I posted. There weren’t any foodbanks in the 50’s btw if you can remember that far back when you were an amoeba.
Relative poverty is poverty by any other name and you are a tory by any other name,
akenaton … Thank u. Respect! u (do) ken a ton.
c (u) lavie (just a) chiel: Show respect.
No need to agree with anyone.
Always need to respect each and every one1
90
Good grief, an old fashioned pro-independence Wings post !.
Stu must have escaped from custody and be on the run somewhere in the Welsh hills from his alien abductors.
I hope he can stay free long enough to constructively influence the election away from what the 3 Tory parties want.
Hi Papko at 8:55 pm
You typed,
“All it would mean is that one million Unionists were disenfranchised, and they would still turn out on indyref2 day and spoil the party again.”
With a pro-indy ‘supermajority’, why would there be any need for “indyref2”?
There is absolutely no need for what the yoons term a “wildcat referendum”.
If there is a pro-indy supermajority, defined in the Scotland Act 1998 as 2/3 majority, or 86+ MSPs, in the new parliament, then that parliament, if it gets that majority in a vote, can dissolve itself and hold a new election.
If the pro-indy parties, having in their manifestos for that election, that if they win 50%+1 of seats in the resultant parliament they will start independence negotiations with Westminster, win 50%+1 of the seats, then there is no need for a referendum. The election would have been the de facto referendum.
That’s why Alex Salmond wants a ‘supermajority’ – and that’s why Sturgeon is keechin’ ‘er breeks.
Her power over independence would be no more. If the SNP refused to play the pro-indy ball, they would be outed as a devolutionist party, only interested in power.
AS knows more about constitutional law than failed lawyer Sturgeon will ever know.
Cardigan Enright
The trouble is that Stu has been firefighting.
Alba is the only true Independence Party at the moment
https://caltonjock.com/2021/05/03/douglas-ross-i-am-my-own-man-and-i-am-not-accountable-to-the-people-of-moray/
Ross and the EU Referendum
Moray voted to remain in the European Union, albeit narrowly. The turnout was lower than is usual for the area. The “leave” campaign focussed their efforts on broadcasting a message that the European Fisheries policy would no longer be applicable to Scotland and all fish in Scottish waters would once more be landed at the ports of North East Scotland. A return to days of riches guaranteed.
Voters in Buckie, Lossiemouth, Burghead, Hopeman, and Cullen succumbed to the lies of the Leave campaign and strongly backed leaving the union.
But the residents of Findhorn turned out in strength and voted in favour of “Remain”, overturning the other majority.
Describing himself as a “reluctant remainer” he said his agricultural background had led him to disapprove of the “red tape” imposed by Brussels, stating: “I didn’t campaign in the EU referendum at all. I was a lot less motivated to persuade people to back “remain” than for Scotland to stay part of the UK.
I wasn’t convinced by the arguments to “leave” at that time, but I’m a democrat as well and I respect the view of the UK people. While I think there will be challenges to leaving the EU, I also think there are opportunities”. He professes to be a democrat and as such he intends to respect the view of the UK people. Note the play on words. But he is a Scottish MP representing the voters of the Moray constituency. His binding loyalty should be to those who sent him to Westminster.
Could some looking in from SNP HQ pass the note below to Nicola. She appears to have forgotten why she was elected.
Vision – A Fairer Scotland, A better Nation, Run by Scots for Scots.
The Mission – Independence for Scotland.
Mission is a general statement of how you will achieve your vision. … Objectives are specific actions and timelines for achieving the goal. Action plans are specific actions that need to be taken for reaching the milestones within the timeline of the objectives.
Well Nicola,
What are your Objectives?
What Actions will you take?
What is the Timeline?
Heaver. I actually think yes is starting about 48%. We only need 4% to make it happen.
So I have no doubt its there for the taking, but not with Sturgeon at the helm.
The SNP cannot in my view say SNP1 Alba2 as the Electoral Commission could cause them trouble by saying they are just one party.
My beef is the SNP go overboard and treat unionist parties nicer.
great (long) read –
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/05/webinar-with-michael-hudson-a-4000-year-perspective-on-economy-money-and-debt.html
– even the first dozen paragraphs will give you an oversight as to how things work at the high level.
Makes you wince tho; suppose we get over the line, somehow, then soon after Kate Forbes (- who is not stupid, a bad person, ignorant or uneducated) will be in a room with some City and Wall St types … probably to get eaten alive, out of her depth, and no amount of buffy the vampire slayer girlpower boosterism will fix it.
– a country with massive natural resources and a heavy export economy, will -somehow- find itself with a massive national debt and having to resort to austerity measures. You can count on it.
… but, but … I did what the man in the $5000 suit said was the right thing to do …
Now that there’s a party with a chance of coalescing the strong Indy support I will vote for it. Many others thought to do this but lacked the backing of serving/former MSPs and well known political figures. Those who value Scotland’s Independence tend to be more aware of the voting system and are likely to vote Alba on the list.
SNP should remember the lesson that Labour failed to learn ie ALL votes are tactical.
I’m doing exactly what the Rev has ordered his troops to do,
Don’t Vote SNP,
And, campaign for Sarwar to win the Glasgow Southside Constituency Vote and ALBA for the List vote.
So simple.
Let’s do everything we can to stop the Freak Sturgeon and the Freaks in her Party winning a majority in the Scottish Parliament.
If anyone has a problem with what I just posted, then take it up with my Agent, The Reverend Stuart Campbell, Wings Over Scotland, Bath, Engerland.
Eugene Henderson says: 7:27 pm
“I bet you SNP membership would shoot through the roof again if Sturgeon was defeated on Thursday.”
Absolutely spot on.
I for one would seriously consider rejoining the SNP if and Only if, Sturgeon was defeated on Thursday night.
Salmond could then become the senior statesman with the YES Movement in the Scottish Parliament.
“Heaver says:
3 May, 2021 at 9:14 pm
Papko, in 2014 Yes started on 30%, but finished on 45%. If Indyref 2 Yessers start at 45%, they will finish well into the majority.
Everyone knows this, apart from you, seemingly.”
That may be, so by that logic if a team scores two goals in the last 5 mins to make it 3;2, they will do the same in the next game ?
The ground is already saturated (it can take no more water and the rain that falls flows off), The polls have not changed much in 7 years and we will see if Thursday is any different.
Despite all the outrage on show on this site over the past few weeks – and 99% of it will have changed nobody’s mind, including my own – the SNP will win the election on Thursday.
And, with help from the Greens, who will win a fair number of seats by all accounts, the so-called “gender woo woo” policies will become reality.
So, given all of the above, why would anyone supportive of Scottish independence not vote SNP 1 in order to maximise the impact of Alba within Holyrood?
Judging by everything I’ve read and watched over the last day or two, Westminster and the unionists are scared witless of Alex Salmond and the emergence of an independence party seriously focussed on independence.
And a final point. How dare ANY unionist of whatever political persuasion tell the people of Scotland they are not allowed another independence referendum.
Keep slamming the door shut and another will surely open, sooner or later. SNP 1 Alba 2
What gets under my skin is the unionist strategy of denying a sovereign and democratic society a vote, rather than addressing the referendum and trying to win it.
What is that except a tacit admission they are cowards, so scared of losing that they will sacrifice democracy by avoiding the question being asked?
Their faith in democracy is evidently somewhat fickle when they will only engage with a democratic ballot, if and when they can win it. That hypocrisy is disgusting coming from politicians who only have a job because they were elected by the same process.
Worse still, it is fundamentally unconstitutional in a Scottish nation where the electorate are sovereign, and voting through democracy is the adopted method of articulating public opinion. Denying such a people a referendum is quite literally gagging the people to keep their voice silent. Any “politician” advocating such oppression should be impeached by the Presiding Officer for undermining our democracy and bringing Scottish politics into disrepute.
If you are a unionist, try pretending you have a modicum of courage, and enough faith in your United Kingdom that it can survive a vote without shitting its pantaloons.
Denying a vote is tantamount to conceding it.
Denying a vote being tantamount to conceding that vote ought to be Scotland’s argument against Section 30 too… if only Scotland had a First Minister who wasn’t a waste of fkn space.
Let Scotland vote, or we will formally assume Westminster has conceded the Referendum.
Vote Alba on the list and massacre the Tory and Labour list seats.
Vote SNP on the list and waste your vote and let the list Tory and Labour seats remain.
In 2016 the SNP got 4 seats for 953,600 votes whilst the unionists got 45 seats for 956,000 votes. And in 2021 the prediction is that the SNP will get zero list seats.
The message is crystal clear. Second vote Alba and massacre the unionist list seats. Time to wake the somnolent to how the list voting works.
And for all those unionists who would deny people the right to a vote, we should all remember that people died to get the right to vote.
Take peoples rights to vote away and people will die again. The right to vote is a prerequisite for a settled peaceful society.
Vote denial, democracy suppression, is a slide towards anarchy. No man has the right to stop the march of a nation, saying this far, and no further. We all need to remember that
Kevin McKenna
“The SNP have sucked all the joy from the Yes movement by turning on those who pay for their luxury lifestyles. At least Boris Johnson appears to have had the decency to spend his supporters’ cash on decent wallpaper.”
——————————————————————
Statement of the week for me, how f@cking true is that
If Alba Party has a “viable and active plan for delivering independence” then I have yet to see it. They certainly have the rhetoric. But then, so does the SNP. How that rhetoric translates into practical action, however, remains a mystery.
Obviously, they can have no effective political power in their own right. They are not going to be the party of government. Nor does there seem any possibility of them being part of any governing coalition. The best they can hope for is some leverage over the SNP. If there is a credible post-election scenario in which any number of Alba Party MSPs can have any significant leverage then I would very much like to know about it.
There my be other reasons for voting Alba Party on the regional ballot. But is you’re voting for them on the basis that they will bring the restoration of Scotland’s independence closer, then you are being duped.
I wonder if Nicola Sturgeon has anything to say about Tories ” gaming the system”.
If you lot give Sturgeon her majority, can any of you tell me how this is going to stop Sturgeon implementing her weird and wonderful policies?
Can any of you tell me how this in any way us going to give us the referendum we are all looking for?
Because from what I know of Sturgeon, she will totally ignore Salmond in the Holyrood chamber.
She will constantly remind him he hasn’t apoligised to the women he abused (Sturgeon’s words)
The media will have her back, the opposition Parties will slaughter Salmond.
So, ALBA with their five seats, are going to do nothing to further the cause of independence, and all Sturgeon will do is drag Scotland back into the stoneage.
The only winners being this Trans mob, who will have access to everything they want to enter.
So do as the Rev is advising, and don’t vote for Sturgeon/SNP or Harvie/Greens.
Yeah you’re right Peter, what’s the point, let’s just disband the Alba party and leave independence to Nicola,f@ck womens rights, she knows what she’s doing
And I will never Campaign for an independent Scotland on the back of. Sturgeon promise.
So I am finished marching up and down High streets for that little fraudster.
The only time I will have anything to do with the Yes Movement is when I see a date agreed by all relevant Parties, not on a Sturgeon promise.
I will do no more for Sturgeon, she is a born crook.
And the first time a young girl is sexually abused in a female toilet, I hope you loot stick your hand up and say,
“I helped that happen, because I voted Sturgeon back into power”.
Lochside at 7.53pm
Your cutting and pasting skills are all very well (btw that’s not really research) but you’re confusing ‘class’ with ‘wealth’. Must try harder.
Davie and others,
I don’t think Stu told you not to vote for the SNP, I think he just said he no longer felt able to offer any advice on who to vote for.
You may be misrepresenting him.
And the sad fact is, too many votes against the SNP on the constituency will result in their ultra-woke list candidates getting seats.
Another Scottish leaders debate tonight on BBC Scotland.
Ross, Rennie and Sarwar will talk more about an independent Scotland than the creepy fraudsters, Sturgeon and Harvie.
Sturgeon and Harvie make my fuckin skin crawl.
What an absolute car crash Scotland is at this moment in time, calling it a basket case is a massive under statement.
All thanks to the present leader, who is, for some crazy reason, going to be given another five years to fuck up anything she missed in her previous five years.
I see the New SNP trolls are revealing themselves, posting the same comments on this thread as others.
Panic must be setting in at Murrell towers.
As for this article, what else would you expect from DRoss.
Peter A Bell says:
4 May, 2021 at 6:10 am.
…..But is you’re voting for them on the basis that they will bring the restoration of Scotland’s independence closer, then you are being duped.
There were many who believed that YES should have evolved into a List Party to compliment an SNP majority all the way back in 2015, thereby squeezing out the Unionists from their effectively clear run of List Seats.
It made sense to many in 2015, and had it happened, maybe Sturgeon’s abandonment of Independence throughout these long years would have earned her more criticism than our rotten media, who are patently delighted with Sturgeon parking Independence up a Cul-de-sac.
If a List Party made sense in 2015, it makes even more sense in 2021, and those who don’t like the idea need to clarify whether they are hostile to a List Party or actually hostile to Alex Salmond’s List Party because they’ve allowed themselves to be conned by the smears and propaganda seeking to destroy Salmond’s reputation.
Sturgeon has been an unmitigated disaster for Scottish Independence without qualification, and her repeated, lamentable failure to seize opportunities to deliver Independence is perhaps on of the biggest reasons why we need ALBA to exist. Right now, I would happily keep ALBA and dispense with the corrupt SNP if forced to choose one or the other.
Securing a Holyrood Supermajority, an actual 2/3 pro Independence supermajority, was eminently deliverable and practicable, and for Sturgeon and her freeloading chums to snub ALBA and pretty much declare war on them is nothing short of scandalous, and constitutes proof that Sturgeon is a complete and total dead loss, with no interest in Scottish Independence.
This Election is the SNP’s last chance to take a look in the mirror and try to remember the reason it exists. ALBA went in to this Election extending the hand of friendship to the SNP. Next election, ALBA won’t content itself with List Seats, and the SNP will not get another free ride disingenuously exploiting Independence voters.
The Scottish Electorate has been duped, but duped by a shameless Nicola Sturgeon and a complicit and gutless SNP. It certainly isn’t ALBA who is duping the YES community.
I see the New SNP trolls are now advocating voting SNP1 to stop “ultra woke” list SNP candidates getting in.
This has to be the most hilarious example of bullshit desperation we’ve seen on these comment threads yet. One can only hope that New SNP private polling is showing that some decapitations are going to happen hence the panic in the New SNP trolls. We’re only a few days left to save the country and ensure that Nicola Sturgeon and the rest of her leadership cabal face the full force of the criminal justice system.
No votes New SNP is the only morally acceptable option, anything else is approval of criminality corruption, the erasing of women and the shovelling of life ruing drugs down the necks of our children…. And before anyone starts with their bullshit about independence, we all know Sturgeon has no interest in independence, only power, money and hiding her crimes. Scotland is but a stepping stone for this narcissistic psychopath as she sets her sights on a cushy number at the UN or EU.
Scotsrenewable,7.11am
Rev Stu posted this yesterday:-
“So we’re making a plea from the heart. Spoil your constituency paper, readers. For children, for women, for gay people, for Scotland and for kindness”.
So what he is saying is, don’t vote for the SNP.
It couldn’t be any clearer.
And he is also telling us to give ALBA our second vote.
That’s fairly conclusive, is it not?
Or am I reading what he said all wrong?
@Willie – 4 May, 2021 at 4:34 am
“And for all those unionists who would deny people the right to a vote, we should all remember that people died to get the right to vote.
Take peoples rights to vote away and people will die again.”
Well said Willie, I used to believe that pish too.
But then the penny dropped. Voting is free, and the only things you ever get for free are worthless. Our votes now mean nothing and are worth nothing.
Back when people were fighting for votes, the elites had to do what the voters wanted them to. Once everybody could vote, the elites countered that by ignoring what the voters tell them to do. Which is where we find ourselves today.
Still voting Thursday though, cos I want to see AS back in Hollyrood.
Spoil 1 Alba 2.
Interesting wee article:
“Transgender campaigners have too much say over expanding hate crime laws, says top judge.”
https://archive.vn/tw6Q1
Ah peter the quiter,
run along now and take some time out of social media. in fact go further and take time out from all media social or otherwise self aggrandizement you engage in.
If SNP1 holds up Sturgeon will carry on regardless, denying independence and pursuing her woke agenda, glorying in her renewed mandate.
If the SNP vote slips then she will have to think again and review her approach.
This is the only message she understands.
We need to send her homeward to think again.
The reason we’re all in this mess is that our lawyers have been got-at by Sturgeon and our legal profession is now non-existant.
In England or in the USA, following the Fabiani Inquiry there would have been a Police Inquiry and almost ALL of those appearing at the Fabiani Inquiry will now be in jail.
Build upon that and you have decent government. Allow that to continue and the chaos continues.
We keep saying that we cannot stand Sturgeon, that the administration is rotten and the message is no longer Independence; Why is information not getting through to the voters? I work among the general public every day, in their houses talking to families and I can tell you only a tiny minority know what is actually going on, those who study politics.
The vast majority are either Unionists or committed SNP supporters who have blanked any negative views on the working, of “the machine”. Mario Savio said back in the sixties…..
“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels … upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all! “
https://mobile.twitter.com/janela_x/status/1387496826958405641?s=24
And as usual absolute silence in response to this Tory claim?
Who is going to ask the Tories who sent them the money South in the first place?
Who is investigating the billions handed out to Tory supporters because they are Tory supporters.
Who paid Boris’s latest tarts £200,000 furniture bill originally?
Who is prosecuting Cameron for trying to pocket £60 million from tax payers.
Should we be teaching SMP MPs sign language as they don’t seem able to speak?
The Glenfiddich and The Balvenie are banned in this household after the Grant’s gave a brazenly open donation to the “NO” campaign in 2014. On a more serious note – I am indeed struggling to “hold my nose” and vote for the SNP in the constituency. I never thought I would ever have lived to say this – but those who “lead” the SNP are an utter disgrace. A disgrace to absolutely everything the party once stood for. To be quite frank – they are toxic. I have only ever voted for one other party – the Liberals – and that was by accident. But I’m afraid this Thursday I will have to make the break. The SNP left me – I did not leave the SNP. I know thousands of others have come to the same conclusion.
Does Scotland have a Mario Savio? Do we have a population that understands or is moved by his words? Because even through the decades, he was speaking for people like us.
Anybody know how Joanna Cherry is doing? All quiet on the Twitter front since she took a timeout, but that was over a month ago.
Hope you’re OK JC QC. 😉
She may have been a bad girl, but she’s still in Nicola’s gang!
She could have resigned and backed Alex publicly, but lifestyles come first.
Breeks @ 7.21
Good morning amigo . Once again you have articulated with uncanny precision exactly my thoughts n feelings .
The continuous smearing of Alex by the pathological liar Sturgeon and her performing troupe of bootlickers and circus clowns , spurning , as you say , yet one more opportunity to advance our cause is the most despicable behaviour I have ever witnessed , certainly from a Scottish politician .
Sooner or later a reckoning will come and she will be exposed as the duplicitous fraud she undoubtedly is .
Shocked that shocked calls trolls and shocked that Shocked seems to think that if you get paid,like him,for trolling,you are still a troll,sunshine,even if well paid.
Anything other than SNP1 Alba 2 is a gift to the Tories and even the woke!
The cunning plan is to get Alba influence into the indy movement and cleanse the SNP.
The main difference now apparent between the two main leaders of the independence movement seems to be character and personality. Nicola is a machine politician, Alex is not. One speaks the truth, the other spouts political correctness and mystification (waffle) and plots against others – i.e. a false persona.
Here is an illustration of the truth and a congenial honest personality, from someone with a sense of humour:
https://www.barrheadboy.com/scottish-prism-4th-may-2021-alex-salmond/#comments
Just keep posting on all social media,
`SNP is a wasted vote in the regional list,
4 seats from 1,000,000 votes last time,
got to be Alba,
keeps the red and blue tories out.`
MSM are trying to erase Alba so it`s up to true grassroots social media.
What Sturgeon is creating within Scotland is an overweight, lazy, boring society, where Politics is for others to deal with.
A society with no fight in them, no rebellious thoughts.
They just go with the flow
Their life is dominated by whatever content they have on their mobile phone.
Their tv viewing is taken up by Netflix, cooncil tv is out of the question.
They maybe soap opera addicts as well.
But there is absolutely no chance of them sitting through a News bulletin.
And it looks like the direction of travel for the foreseeable future.
I just can’t see mass Indy gatherings in the future in George Sq or in Edinburgh or Aberdeen in 30 or 40 years time.
Sad but true, imo.
Sturgeon has dumbed down Scotland.
And for proof, I give you the opinion polls.
It’s as if there’s a five year time lag with our Electorate.
The majority haven’t as clue what is happening and for the minority who do give a fuck, well all we are doing is screaming into a force 10 gale, no one can hear a word we are saying.
Just what the Sturge and Harv ordered.
And again tonight Alex Salmond debited participation in the BBC leaders debate.
Just like the Electoral Commission denying Alba its logo on the ballot paper.
Don’t let anyone be under any illusion that this is a functioning democracy. It is not a d we can see now how the police, the prosecution service, the state broadcaster and the electoral commission all coalesce against politics that they do not ike.
But those who deny democratic process, who malignly seek to rig elections, should realise that democracy is the antidote to anarchy.
And that is why the Americans introduced into their constitution the right to bear arms as a protection against a government that turned against them.
And the Government they feared…. was the return of the British.
Make you think too of how this week the Queen was marking the centenary of the creation of the British statelet of Northern Ireland.
@BDTT 10.49: “There is absolutely no need for what the yoons term a “wildcat referendum”.”
Quite so. Of course, it was Nicola Sturgeon herself who used that expression on 31/1/20, when she ran up the white flag to Boris and the penny finally dropped that we’d been had.
No wonder she keeps referring to the feminist notion of impostor syndrome.
@Famous 15
You are the “woke”, you are voting to cancel women, the ban freedom of speech, to shove life ruining drugs down the necks of confused kids, to endorse corruption, to give criminality a pass, to endorse theft.
I’d have more respect for you if you actually had the guts to own what you are. Instead we get this spineless display pretending to have morals and believing in justice and fairness yet you demonstrate time and again you are against all of those things. Perhaps you would be better at being the New SNP fox in the Alba henhouse if you had the intelligence to be a little more subtle and less transparent.
Clavie Cheil says:
Tories dont make friends with anybody for heavens sake.
On the other hand, they’re the only major party that haven’t (yet) given into genderwoo nonsense and aren’t happy to see women’s rights cast aside.
When the other largest parties are all OK with endangering the safety of more than 50% of Scottish citizens, you have to wonder what is going on with the world (or our corner of it).
So a nameless SNP spokeswoman has said that the SNP are disappointed that the UK government hasn’t acted more firmly on supposed Iranian interference with regards to the Scottish elections garnered by the Henry Jackson Society of all places.
The SNP spokeswoman added it was the SNP who led calls for the Russia report to be published to tackle any foreign threats to the UK.
Does this sound like a party that has Scottish independence at heart, or is it more like a party content to work as part of the UK under Westminster’s lead.
Why is the SNP making international enemies for Scotland at the behest of the UK.
I left Twitter because every Alba voter seemed sold on the idea that they somehow should vote SNP 1. Thereby encouraging an SNP majority.
Even this site doesn’t place much, if an, emphasis on how illogical and frankly ridiculous this is.
I never assumed that my side was any more intelligent than our opposition. But when I see that rank and file are failing to question this stupidity en masse.
It led me to just give up on politics altogether.
People are dumb as fuck. Unable to control their emotions sufficiently to address reason very well.
I’ll bet that if Alex Salmond is elected, Sturgeon/SNP will attempt to use every legal sleight-of-hand she and her legal teams and the courts can bullshit-up to get him removed, using an ’unfit for public office’ narrative or similar.
John McNab says:
4 May, 2021 at 7:09 am
Lochside at 7.53pm
‘Your cutting and pasting skills are all very well (btw that’s not really research) but you’re confusing ‘class’ with ‘wealth’. Must try harder’
What I posted was research illustrating the huge gulf in wealth distribution in this country. Wealth is distributed according to the rigidity or mobility of the social classes within that society. Both class and wealth can have broader definitions, but anyone with average intelligence would have grasped the significance of the data provided as being based on one of economic analysis.
Thanks for the cut and paste compliment, your own name is a Psy Ops example in the skill, being from an apparently oblique, but misspelled reference to an obscure John Buchan book ‘John MacNab’. The Scotch British Empire supporter and author.
If you are going to be snide ‘John’ try harder.
Seems it doesn’t matter anyhow what we do on Thursday.
The unionists can all keep howling at the moon on the west coast and the ones on the east will all be deid anyhow.
Good luck everyone- https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/nasa-asteroid-simulation-ends-in-unavoidable-disaster-for-earth/ar-BB1gj6aj?ocid=msedgntp
Davie170 @ 8.46 am
The majority haven’t as clue what is happening and for the minority who do give a fuck, well all we are doing is screaming into a force 10 gale, no one can hear a word we are saying.
Sums it up perfectly Davie.
akenaton @7.14am.
Its actually quite simple.
“He who controls the media controls the minds of the public.” ~ Noam Chomsky.”
A prime example is that according to morning news 13 million folk watched an episode of some tv show called The Line of Duty. Yet as you say quite a few Scots haven’t a clue as to what Sturgeon the Betrayer has done or will do. Or what Johnson’s up to.
I’ll bet that if Alex Salmond is elected, Sturgeon/SNP will attempt to use every legal sleight-of-hand she and her legal teams and the courts can bullshit-up to get him removed, using an ’unfit for public office’ narrative or similar.
I wouldn’t be surprised if getting rid of juries for sex crimes is one of their first acts and they then cook up some more claims with no pesky jury to stand in their way this time around.
Off-topic: Yesterday, Effigy posted that –
“100 years ago today the Northern part of Ireland was officially stolen by England.”
Being retired and enjoying a bit of research, I thought I’d check out (Welsh) Lloyd George’s cabinet at the time. Non-English members were:
Bonar Law ((Scots descent)
Edward Shortt (b. Co. Tyrone)
Arthur Balfour (Scots)
Walter Long (half-Irish)
Robert Munro (Scots)
James Ian Macpherson (Irish)
Lord French (Irish descent)
Lord Inverforth (Scots)
Sir Robert Horne (Scots)
George Nicoll Barnes (Scots)
Sir Eric Geddes (Scots parents)
Probably fairer to say that Northern Ireland was stolen by the British Establishment?
Eugene Henderson reckons “Our Electorate must be the thickest in any Western democracy.”
Its really not – you should try it down here. It was voters in the English Birdbrain Belt who gave you Brexit and Boris Johnson!
Jeezo oh, the French newspaper Le Monde referring to Sturgeon the Betrayer as “The Queen of Scots” in a profile of the SNP leader.
Mind you the original Queen of Scots, brought chaos and infighting to Scotland so maybe its a fitting nom, for the Betrayer.
It’ll be interesting to see how many SNP 1&2ers turn up outside polling stations on Thursday.
If they have any common decency they’ll make themselves scarce.
But the ones who do will have a tough shift – no way I’m walking past them without comment and I won’t be the only one. If their presence is supposed to influence people to vote for them then they should be able to provide at least one good reason why we should vote for them *at all* let alone on both ballots, and they know they can’t.
As for questions we could ask them? Where would one start!?
Whitehall wants SNP 1 SNP 2.
It’s their policy of ‘Strategic Patience’.
(until we give up…..)
Clothes pegs for noses.
SNP 1 ALBA 2
Paula 10.01
Very interesting but remember people like
Baroness Ruthless
DRoss
Cameron
Tony Blair
All played up on their Scottish links but all of them more than
happy to keep Scotland shackled to their Westminster cartel
If Indy 2 can’t happen until Covid is under control
I’d certainly say that having a few dozen new cases per week,
averaging less than 1 Covid death per day fully qualifies that.
Does Nicola think that Scotland should wait until the £2,5 Trillion
debt that England has accrued is paid off before we dare ask the question?
When does the count take place for this weeks elections?
PaulaJ@9.43
UK government has just dropped the Gender Recognition certificate cost from £140 down to £5.
NEVER trust a Tory.
Meant to add.
SNP1
ALBA2
In Eck we trust.
@Tam Fae somewhere –
Latest I heard is it’ll be Saturday morning before we get results.
If an argument details SNP faults then the conclusion to that argument should be don’t vote SNP.
Ian Brotherhood says:
4 May, 2021 at 10:30 am
@Tam Fae somewhere –
Latest I heard is it’ll be Saturday morning before we get results.
————
Ruth the mooth has to check them over first mind. If she’s not on baby sitting duties this weekend, of course.
No,no,no,no
Yes
SNP1 Alba2
Or the cunning plan does not work Stephen!
Do not be a Pete Wishart!
Grown ups understand the plan.
SNP1 Alba2.
A vote for the SNP is a vote for child molesters to gain access into female changing rooms and toilets.
If you are a woman with a conscience you would avoid Voting SNP like the plague.
Only women without a conscience and are thinking only of yourself, then the SNP is the Party for you.
Otherwise do as the Rev Stu has told us, spoil your Constituency vote, or vote tactically to oust your local weirdo SNP candidate.
Protect women’s rights, protect our children, don’t vote for the SNP.
Famous15
Well, all I can say is that it is a novel argument!
The conclusion doesn’t follow from the prior inferences.
In fact, every element of the argument would lead a person not to vote for the SNP.
Quite how this afterthought about putting a clothes peg on your nose makes a difference beats me.
Of course, joking apart, the clothes peg metaphor (at least I hope it is only a metaphor) is a request to suspend rationality.
Should we really vote for a party whose policies we profoundly disagree with?
And the supermajority argument doesn’t hold either.
The SNP leadership have said that they will not support a referendum and that they won’t speak with Alex or Alba.
As I see it, the best that we can hope for is Sturgeon and co voted out and a change of plan at the top of the SNP.
Market Force
I was a member of the SNP since the 1950’s and I never ever met an SNP member with these views.
I only resigned in 2019 over landownership issues but it would appear the party has gone to pigs and whistles since I left but I know of no conference motion supporting these views.
A proper conference will put the genie and Nikla back in the bottle.
SNP1 Alba2 for indy before I die!
Has everyone seen the National anti-Tory Indy poster campaign ??
see here https://www.thenational.scot/news/19275828.national-launches-new-digital-billboard-campaign/?action=success#comments-feedback-anchor
Anyone with out a subscription to the National is no serious about independence
Gary45% says:
4 May, 2021 at 10:28 am
PaulaJ@9.43
UK government has just dropped the Gender Recognition certificate cost from £140 down to £5.
NEVER trust a Tory.
Get yer gender certificates here. Two furra pound! Two furra pound! Ideal Christmas or birthday gift.
We’ve had three polls in the last few days, and the projections for SNP list seats are as follows:
Panelbase – 1 seat in Highlands & Islands, 8th place in South of Scotland
Survation – 2 seats in South of Scvotland, no 8th places
BMG – 0 seats, 8th place in Highlands and Islands
Usual caveats about size of sub-samples apply, but the logic is inescapable – in 6 of the 8 regions, SNP are nowhere near a list seat.
SNP1 Alba2
Highly Ironic.
Republicofscotland says:
3 May, 2021 at 6:31 pm
Quote :- “That’s all we can realistically hope for is that the ALBA party somehow return enough MSPs to break the unionists status quo”
Hahahahahahah.
Captain Yossarian says:
“….In England or in the USA, following the Fabiani Inquiry there would have been a Police Inquiry and almost ALL of those appearing at the Fabiani Inquiry will now be in jail…”
Yeah, yeah, England good Scotland bad. Away and lie in your pish.
Illegal war, anyone? Saville? Westminster Paedos? Willie McRae?
“…if SNP voters voted for other indy parties.”
That presumes the SNP is an ‘indy party’
Red says:
4 May, 2021 at 11:05 am
Gary45% says:
4 May, 2021 at 10:28 am
PaulaJ@9.43
“UK government has just dropped the Gender Recognition certificate cost from £140 down to £5.
NEVER trust a Tory.
Get yer gender certificates here. Two furra pound! Two furra pound! Ideal Christmas or birthday gift.”
The price of straw has fallen dramatically, go grasp some…
OT. TODAY.
“ALBA TELLS BBC “ALBA SHALL BE SEEN EVEN IF NOT HEARD”.
The BBC in Scotland is all lit up and surely gets the Message. With photos.
From Barrhadboy:
https://tinyurl.com/eas3hr9c
The Conservatives and SNP would have pretty piss poor campaigns without the threat/promise of another independence referendum.
Chris Darroch says:
4 May, 2021 at 9:48 am
I left Twitter because every Alba voter seemed sold on the idea that they somehow should vote SNP 1. Thereby encouraging an SNP majority.
Even this site doesn’t place much, if an, emphasis on how illogical and frankly ridiculous this is.
I don’t think the message the Alba party is trying to get across is aimed at people who’re totally disgruntled with the SNP – like most people here seem to be.
The message is not aimed at political anoraks but at people not very engaged in politics day-to-day but indy supporters, who’ve been thinking of voting SNP 1 & SNP 2 (or even SNP 1 & Green 2) out of habit. Not all indy supporters are vocal here or on the social media.
The AMS used in Scotland is a mixture of FPTP constituency seats, topped up by regional list seats to achieve a more proportional representation than pure FPTP.
It’s less proportional than pure PR systems used in most western democracies, but British voters (and I include Scottish voters in this) seem still very much attached to the British political culture of FPTP – your “own” local MP, “strong” one-party governments, “abhorrence” of coalition governments (the norm elsewhere), and regarding list MSPs as somehow second-rate and “not voted in”.
That’s a problem of parties determining the list rankings, CLOSED list system, not d’Hondt per se. Many countries use d’Hondt and an OPEN list, where the voters decide the ranking within a party list on election day.
The hybrid system (AMS) used in Scotland is notoriously difficult to predict and “game”, i.e. vote tactically in. Probably intentionally so. It was designed by Westminster to
a) prevent the SNP from becoming the largest party, let alone the majority party – they didn’t envisage other indy parties; also,
b) keep the electorate confused as to how representatives are elected – there are three types of elections in Scotland and all use a different method! Westminster = FPTP; Holyrood = AMS; local councils = STV (which is a form of PR).
Sorry, this is getting too long already. I’ll get to my other main point after some lunch.
Chris Darroch says:
4 May, 2021 at 9:48 am
I left Twitter because every Alba voter seemed sold on the idea that they somehow should vote SNP 1. Thereby encouraging an SNP majority.
Even this site doesn’t place much, if an, emphasis on how illogical and frankly ridiculous this is.
Back from lunch… BTW, Chris, I’m not trying to single you out but I think your comment raised so well many issues I’ve been thinking about that I’m using it as a stepping stone. Hope you don’t mind. 🙂
Where was I… ah, yes. The AMS used in Holyrood Elections is very hard to predict, therefore to “game”, vote tactically in.
Voting tactically is a feature of the FPTP system. In a pure PR system you can’t really vote tactically in any meaningful way.
You can try in an AMS, but you’d need accurate, up-to-date polling data (plus an honest “doorstop feel”) from each constituency within a voting region, collate that into the regional list vote polling data, do the maths etc., have a real finger on the pulse of the electorate…
Also, tactical voting (even in FPTP) only works if enough people do it, and people have their own reasons for voting this way or that.
It’s far easier to set out your vision and policies and advocate for them and explain them and hope people vote for you based on your vision and policies.
In an AMS, it’s extremely difficult to hit the sweet spot to maximise seats for your party/cause. How the constituency seats in a region fall affects how list seats in that region will be allocated. Basically, more constituency seats within a region = less list seats in that region.
Judging by social media, many indy-minded Scottish voters seem to think they need to vote for the SNP candidate in their constituency and then SNP on the list to get the list seat in their constituency as well. They don’t understand the voting region thing. The SNP, for some reason or another, are in no hurry to enlighten their voters. They’re just greedy – or afraid of some proper pro-indy opposition in Holyrood from Alba party MSPs.
The only time that sweet spot has been hit was in 2011, when the SNP, led by Alex Salmond, advocated “both votes SNP”. Back then the unionist parties, Labour in particular, was still strong. The SNP was not expecting to sweep the constituency seats, so needed “belt and braces”, needed to gain enough regional list seats to remain the largest party. They broke the system and gained an outright majority.
The situation is entirely different now. According to polling, the SNP (on low forties) are on course to sweep all or nearly all constituency seats. That means they’re on course for 0 to 2 list seats, the rest going to unionist parties, or the Greens, which are indifferent on independence, if not outright unionist, and very big on woke agenda and gender woowoo.
All the wasted SNP list votes could go to a truly pro-independence party, the Alba party, to displace unionist (and Green) MSPs and replace them with pro-indy MSPs not in thrall to gender woowoo.
Gary45% @ 10.28:
I believe the GRC requires that you’ve undergone surgery or hormone treatment, which at least shows more commitment than donning a skirt and self-identifying as a woman.
And, no, I’d never trust a Tory (or 99.9% of politicians, come to that).
Effigy says:
All played up on their Scottish links but all of them more than happy to keep Scotland shackled to their Westminster cartel.
I don’t disagree (and I hadn’t mentioned Lloyd George’s cabinet members who hailed from the US, Canada and elsewhere).
The point, I think, is that they represent a class, rather than a national identity. Even the few who had parents from the lower ranks were happy, once they’d achieved higher position, to play their part in keeping the proles (whether Scottish, Irish, Welsh or English) in their proper place. I suppose it might have had something to do with fearing that the Russian Revolution might have spread right across Europe?
Whatever, it always comes down to ‘us and them’, doesn’t it?
El mariachi, so by the back door, England is bringing in the Hate Crime Bill too. thats interesting
Scotland first then England, it must be one of those bills governments around the world like to hold against their citizens.
Cut out their tongues as stu says in next post,
So fed up of the Indy/No Indy campaigns. Both the SNP and the Tories know this is away to get votes. The SNP dangle the mandate carrot and the tories dangle the stop Indy carrot. Personally I’m not listening to either. I can’t hold my nose and vote SNP, they had mandate after mandate to no avail. I’m spoiling the constituency vote and voting Alba on list. The SNP doesn’t deserve our votes!
PaulaJ says:
4 May, 2021 at 1:55 pm
I believe the GRC requires that you’ve undergone surgery or hormone treatment, which at least shows more commitment than donning a skirt and self-identifying as a woman.
This. Sorry, mate, it’s all about no meds or knives for the middle-aged male people and their autogynephilic fantasies and fetishes. They self-identify as “transwomen”, are then somehow untouchable. Anybody who takes exception to their weird, even sexual advances, is a “hater”. A transphobe, a bigot. And in Scotland, you can’t even fight back because of the Hate Crime Act.
Self-ID is open season for every pervert. Open season for misogyny.
Now, most decent, ordinary transpeople are not perverts. But their lived experience has been appropriated in the worst colonial fashion by the way-too-wide trans unbrella by Stonewall and the nodding Scottish Government that does not represent a people but a lobby group.
As soo as I saw that tweet I said it was 100% intentional for two reasons
1. Exactly as Stu says. Minimise the impact of Alba, but also
2. They know that an SNP only majority is unlikely so they can then say “oh but we only said if the SNP get a majority. the rest of you do not count”
.
TROLL ALERT – TROLL ALERT
THE DISHONEST SOCK PUPPET ACCOUNT…
EUGENE HENDERSON
This matters because the ABUSIVE TROLL DERAILS EVERY THREAD to the point where folk have difficulty reading decent debate and posts BTL as the Troll’s inflammatory manure is splattered THROUGOUT EVERY THREAD on Wings Over Scotland.
WORSE because ALL of us here should have been able to concentrate on helping the Alba Party that have to deal with the GANG RAPING OF WOMEN ADVOCATE abusive Troll known as …
Eugene Henderson…
Also known as the following dishonest fake SOCK PUPPET accounts…
Hudson/Rock/kcoR/Gordon/Andy/Labour4Indy/PatrickJones etc.
The most simple giveaway is this disgusting RAPE ADVOCATE is his literary fingerprint: the ignorant use of three commas,,,
That is if you missed being abused by this Troll and called all manner of LIBELLOUS names along with grammar, typos and syntax ID this creep as one person.
Fortunately, some of us have the ability to have this piece of criminal filth tracked down and brought to justice.
If you are in any doubt about the FEAR this 77th Squaddie (or plain psycho) has, just wait 5 minutes and see his meltdown to being outed again with his latest SOCK PUPPET account.
BOGOF
Buy One Get One hundred Fuckwits.
——————————–
ORIGINAL POST…
Eugene Henderson says:
3 May, 2021 at 7:22 pm
Tam the Bam. 7.01
Eugene Henderson says:
3 May, 2021 at 7:22 pm
Tam the Bam. 7.01
The man with no balls and no spine.
The SNP keyboard warrior Freak.
Still waiting on you facing up to the Rev.
I’m an easy target Thomas,,,the Rev is a different kettle of fish.
Not a peep from you regarding the Rev telling you NOT to vote SNP.
Is the Rev also a Labour member?
Tactics for Thursday
Stuart McMillan 1
Chris for Alba 2
Not all SNP people are bad, we have a few great SNP people down here in Inverclyde, little Jim McCleod is an example, been disabled all his life, does grand work for the disabled, married and his wife is a real woman, he will not be happy with the way the SNP is at the moment, but as he and we know…
ALL THINGS MUST PASS……………. Alba for change
If your reading this Jim McCleod, I had a lot of time for your dad, the man was a gentleman, wish we had more like him today
How often do we hear that the new Scottish government must first of all focus on the recovery? I agree, but what is this recovery? Rebuilding Scotland after Covid AND Westminster rule – simultaneously!
@James 4 May, 2021 at 11:25 am
Yeah, yeah, England good Scotland bad. Away and lie in your pish.
Illegal war, anyone? Saville? Westminster Paedos? Willie McRae?
4 conspiracy theories right there , this is what is so badly wrong with the Indy movement ..lack of real knowledge.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/26/carl-beech-vip-paedophile-ring-accuser-jailed-for-18-years
Come with me to the philippines when all this covid thing is over and you will see real poverty at its basic level.
Pensions, free education, free health service, one good meal a day, decent housing etc etc etc, you don’t get that in the philippines.
Poverty in scotland, we live like kings here compared to others.
I am a pensioner, my house is paid for, I don’t own a car, I smoke and yes I do like my whisky, but in moderation.
I am well of with no debt, I don’t need foodbanks as I provided for myself all my life, nobody gave me anything, I got up off my arse and worked, even to this day I seldom watch any television as most of it is mindless pap.
You will not see me with a trolly full of lemonade and biscuits as I see on a regular basis in our supermarkets, we have become a nation of slobs, I am talking mostly of the young folk here, look at an obese young woman with her kids and you will see why her kids could turn out to be slobs like her, she is a bad roll model for her children, most of them cannot cook unless there’s a microwave oven in the house, I remember my late son Richard phoning me and asking how to make mince, and he was brought up the right way by me and his mom, gee wizz do they never remember anything .
Anyway, I am doing ok, but I do help others financially in the philippines, not wanting my back slapped for that, just saying its nice to be nice, if you have been lucky to make a few bob, give it away.
No pockets on a shroud
“The Tories might be evil, but they’re not idiots”.
This is the slogan of the Labour Party in England which appears to be no longer working in their Red Wall heartland seats.
Good for you David, before long I think you might be experiencing and influx of Scotties.
This place is becoming a shit hole full of the stupid people you mention.
If you listen to the likes of Willie heartburn Rennie about the SNP taking their eye off the ball while sitting on a large chair by the seaside you would be as thick as him.
He is the ultimate unionist tosser, he thinks people can’t scratch their arse and walk across the road at the same time.
Well I can tell him they can, cause I don’t know what it is but I seem to always get an itchy back end every time I cross a road, maybe its fear of the young guy in his car waiting for the lights to change and run over the top of me.
Ach, he might be doing me a favour if he did, I might throw myself under his car after thursday lol
akenaton
There are a lot of us already there, its as hot as a bakers oven, but the people are like most scots, brilliant to know, and always laughing even through their poverty.
Little tip, live near to the sea as I do, that breeze is a lifesaver lol
My brother in law lived and worked in the philippines as a chief engineer with a shipping line.
He came back to scotland a few years ago, we met at a wedding reception just after he came back, I asked him where would he rather be.
He never mentioned scotland. mmmmm
Hi folks, I’m not a nationalist but please be nice to me – I’m here only out of genuine curiosity about something that puzzles me. I’m not trying to make any sort of point – just to learn. After the 2015 general election Cameron brought in EVEL – an amusing acronym for “English Votes for English Laws”. This had been recommended by the McKay Commission in about 2013 and says that certain proposed laws at Westminster – in policy areas which are devolved in Scotland, Wales & NI – would be voted on only by MPs from English constituencies. To me this seemed uncontroversial, because why would any of you guys want Scottish MPs to be able to decide some law that only affected England anyway? Anyway, clearly I was wrong as I vaguely remember SNP outrage at the time, and yesterday I read on the Beeb website somebody giving EVEL as her motivation for voting Alba, along with her opinion that EVEL was an insult to Scotland. Anyway, as I mentioned, I’m not trying to change anybody’s mind about this, simply to understand it. Is anyone here similarly outraged by EVEL and if so please can they tell me why they find it offensive?
Hi Rick Lewis.
The problem is that although the Westminster Parliament is, supposedly, the parliament of the UK, it is, effectively, the English parliament.
That’s why EVEL came about.
We, northern barbarians, don’t accept the right of the de facto English parliament to tell us what we can do.
According to Scottish tradition, confirmed by the Arbroath declaration of 1320, the people of Scotland are sovereign, not the monarch. We can remove a monarch who betrays the sovereignty of the Scots.
Hence, we get a bit feisty when we are told by Westminster what we can, or cannot do.
Hi Brian, thanks for that. So does this mean your problem with EVEL is that it reinforces the link between Westminster and making laws for England, ie it makes it even more the case that Westminster is the English parliament as well as the UK one? What if EVEL was scrapped, but a separate Assembly or Parliament was elected in England just to vote on those devolved policy areas for England? Would that be better or worse than the EVEL arrangement?
Hi Rick.
I don’t believe the British/English establishment want a separate devolved English parliament. It could appear to dilute the power of Westminster.
It’s only my opinion but I don’t think the people of England want a devolved English parliament either, because they see Westminster as their parliament.
The Scottish and Welsh parliaments were established after referendums. How do you think the people of England would vote in a similar referendum – for or against?