Both Labour and the Tories made use of the holiday season to sneak out bad news while those of us who are fortunate enough to have a roof over our heads and food on the table are stuffing ourselves and drinking too much. Just before Christmas a senior Labour source told The Guardian newspaper that they expect there will be a “pivot” in the new year on the party’s green pledges and that Starmer’s promise that his government will eventually invest £28 billion a year is unlikely to survive. There have already been reports, which the Labour party has denied that Starmer is poised to add U-turning on environmental policies to the long list of U-turns he’s already executed, all of which have shifted Labour further to the right.
Labour has already significantly watered down its original plan, which was to spend £28 billion a year on the transition to a carbon neutral economy. In June 2023, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a U-turn on the pledges to spend £28bn a year until 2030 on projects to fulfil Labour’s green promises. In an attempt to prove “fiscal responsibility”, she instead suggested that Labour would “ramp up” investment over time, eventually reaching £28bn annually after 2027.
Now it appears that the plan is to be diluted even more. The source told The Guardian: “Whatever ultimately happens will be a further watering-down of the position. This will be the Tories’ number-one area of attack, so [Labour] need to deal with it.” Some senior figures in the party reportedly want to drop the plan completely. Labour has already said that it will not revoke the oil and gas licences which the Tories are dishing out to the energy giants.
Meanwhile following widespread outrage, the Tories have partially reversed their decision to raise the income threshold for family visas to £39,700 a year. Instead the visa income threshold will now rise to £29,000 in spring with further rises delayed until after the likely date for the general election. No doubt this will be another example of Tory cruelty which Keir Starmer won’t undo.
Not to be outdone in the “Look how shit we are stakes,” the Scottish anti-independence media continues to scrape through the bottom of the barrel in order to find stories to attack the Scottish government. This Christmas’s performative SNP bad outrage came from the Sunday Mail, which chose to lead with a headline story on “woman with a job goes on a holiday she paid for with her own money over the Christmas break.” This story was brought to you by the newspaper whose last big splash was “man buys car, man sells car” as it attempted to stoke up outrage over the fact that Nicola Sturgeon’s husband has a nice car and doesn’t stand at bus stops in the rain hitting himself over the head with a big stick painted red white and blue. It’s Pulitzer prize winning stuff from a newspaper whose circulation has been plummeting by 16% a year.
An alternative headline for this story could have been “Scottish high tax payer can still afford a nice holiday” despite claims by Scottish journalists that they will have to flee to England because they’ve been impoverished.
The Sunday Mail chose to attack Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robison for having the gall and temerity to go on holiday after delivering the recent tough budget to Holyrood. The Sunday Mail, like the rest of the British nationalist press in Scotland, inhabits some parallel universe in which Scotland is already independent and where the budgetary decisions of the Scottish Government have nothing to do with squeezes on the Scottish block grant imposed by the Westminster government and where all spending cuts are “SNP cuts” but at the same time demanding that the Scottish Government spend more in order to mitigate Conservative policies.
“Optics are everything” sniffed the editor whose newspaper had manufactured the optics with loaded language like “shameless champagne-sipping Robison” had “jetted off” on a “luxury holiday” as though airlines have a special blimp with seats made from brillo pads that they use for independence supporting politicians who want to go abroad on holiday to a damp cave where they can drink pond water in a suitably self abnegating and puritan style.
In a sign that the newspaper feared that what we are supposed to call a story had damaged it more than it had damaged Shona Robison, on 7.45pm on Hogmanay the editor was forced to tweet out an unconvincing justification which was received with almost as much derision on social media as the original ‘exclusive’.
Meanwhile there were plenty of stories that the Sunday Mail could have splashed on its front page, but these were stories which highlight the corruption and dysfunction of this so called United Kingdom which the Sunday Mail is so desperate to keep Scotland a part of.
While the Sunday Mail was frothing about Shona Robison’s holiday, the Tories sneaked out the announcement that three of Liz Truss’s cronies have been awarded peerages. Truss spent spent 49 days as unelected prime minister, during which which she sent the pound plummeting, knocked 40% off pensions and forced mortgages through the roof. Her index linked pension has just been increased to £125,000 a year. She later blamed her devastation of the British economy on those well known socialists in the Bank of England and the international money markets.
On the day Liz Truss’s honours list is published it’s worth remembering that Keir Starmer was so panicked by her catastrophic tax-cut policy that he insisted that tax cuts were his priority as well. Branch manager Anas Sarwar joined in the right wing chorus. Meanwhile Jon Cruddas, an influential Labour MP, said that Starmer appears to lack a clear sense of purpose due to his detachment from his party’s traditions, Cruddas wrote: “Apart from his actual name, little ties Starmer to the ethical and spiritual concerns of Labour’s early founders, figures such as Keir Hardie and George Lansbury”.
Keir Starmer’s Labour party is Labour in name only. To all intents and purposes what Starmer is serving up is a rehashed version of the One Nation Tories. But you won’t find the anti-independence media in Scotland doing front page splashes on that.
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The Guardian newspaper that they expect there will be a “pivot” in the new year on the party’s green pledges and that Starmer’s promise that his government will eventually invest £28 billion a year is unlikely to survive. There have already been reports, which the Labour party has denied that Starmer is poised to add U-turning on environmental policies to the long list of U-turns he’s already executed, all of which have shifted Labour further to the right.
Apt I think to add at the top here a summation of my recent polling thoughts.
Labour are not doing well at all UK-wide. There has been no movement to them in 5 years. Understand this, and not the story the media is trying to sell you. The facts do not lie.
A deeply unpopular Labour won a majority in the 2005 election with the backing of just 22% of the electorate (35% of those that turned out). Shortly afterwards, with Labour support falling away in Scotland as Blairism was overwhelming rejected by Scots, the SNP were put in power for the first time. With the exception of desperate SNP voter tactical voting for Labour in 2010, Labour have never won in Scotland since 2007. Centre-right Blairism finished them.
Right now, polls show a deeply unpopular Labour with the backing of just 22% of the UK electorate. In Scotland, this falls to below 20%. Starmer has failed to win over any voters since 2019 with this right-wing agenda. He is hated both north and south of the border.
Labour only seem to be doing better in Scotland because SNP voters are either not responding to pollsters (a common mid-term problem when a party is perceived to be on the back foot), but will in due course, in which case SNP share will rise as the election approaches as per 2011 / 2015 / 2019. Or, many of these are are not planning to vote at all, unless e.g. voting means independence from hated English Labour / Tory governments Scots reject. Yousaf take note. I am in two minds about what would be best, as an SNP win or loss would make no difference; indy is coming for aw that. Whatever happens, the SNP need to make 2026 a defacto iref if they don’t make the coming UK GE one. If they don’t they will see Scots move, under PR, to parties that are offering that. That might even include a pro-indy Labour splinter party by 2026 due to Starmer’s attacks on Scottish Labour. The beauty is you can’t split the vote under PR. The Greens may have grown at the expense of the SNP on the list, but it’s not harmed the Yes movement. We shall see how VI pans out as we enter ‘election year’ according to the media.
In England, it is Tories who are either not responding to pollsters, giving Labour an overly inflated lead, but will do their Tory duty in due course. Or again these might yet not turn out, giving Starmer the keys to No 10, but with zero democratic mandate to govern. Here, I expect the Tory core to come out as they always do in the end, curbing the size of any labour majority, albeit both cheeks of the same skelped erse will be just as unpopular across the home nations.
Either way, the UK is in a total crisis of democracy and rebellions are brewing in every home nation. The end of Britain draws near. We could not be further from 1997 as I have highlighted in various recent posts. This is much more like January 2011 in Scotland where Labour riding high at 45% with the SNP on low 30’s a polling certainty to vote mirage. But the SNP cannot offer more of the same; they need to offer indy. Scots in majority don’t want MPs in London, and a lot of Yes voters may not vote at all if they can’t vote towards ending the UK by doing so.
Meanwhile, we can look forward to a right-wing Labour government slashing Scotland’s budget, ruining our economy by pursuing Brexit, building migrant concentration camps on our islands, while telling us England says no to iref2 ahead of 2026. This will be very interesting to watch if you support indy. Less so for Scottish Labour should they continue to back the union.
The climate shall agree to wait until Labour sort out the UK economy.
Agree mostly with what you say, but not voting in Scotland will not get us near independence, and we have to consider just how nasty the nasty BritNat parties and their media will be, the serious lies they will tell and of course, take into account who their pals are across the globe, who funds them and their campaigns, some who should be nowhere near political system in the UK but who are very much influencers, and very dangerous at that.
The people of Scotland don’t just need the SNP to tell them how much they are doing to improve the lives of the people, (against huge odds of the Westminster economic straight jacket), but they need reminding about how much Labour did the dirty on Scotland during their ten years at the helm at Holyrood. Labour sent £billions back to Westminster saying ‘nothing to spend it on in Scotland’. Then to add insult to injury, they then plunged Scottish councils into £billions upon £billions of debt for the forseeable future via Labour’s PFI scheme (scam), for hardly fit for purpose new buildings, the Edinburgh trams rip off, way over budget and again, vastly scaled down so as to be hardly any use at all to the city. Not to mention the fact that Labour ran GCC for decades and even took women workers to court to deny them equal. There is so much damage to repair as a result of Labour and Tory rule at UK level and at the Scottish parliament and indeed council level, that’s what the SNP is having to work to do, while balancing the books, and performing almost economic miracles to stop Scotland becoming a third world country, quite literally.
Now we have several councils in Scotland where Labour and Tories are in coalition, to keep the SNP out. All will be approved of by the Labour party HQ in London of course. It’s a general election, but Scotland needs to know just how duplicitious, scheming and conniving the UK Labour party is and they would take no prisoners should they gain Scottish seats at WM, they will ruin Scotland so much that independence really will be only a distant dream of what should have been.
Brexit could hardly have been a more significant message to Scotland, you get what England votes for even if it is catastrophic to your economy, human rights, workers rights, food protection medicines protection and your NHS etc. Brexit is effectively a huge democratic deficit for Scotland, and that must be drummed into people in the run up to the next GE.
There are many who voted no, fooled mostly by the Brit states’ lies and ‘project fear’ etc, in 2014, who were definitely not in favour of Brexit, and there is no way they can be seeing any benefit now to staying in the Uk, having been dragged out of the EU.
Great article WGD, all the best for ’24.
Re GCC I meant equal pay for women of course.
As an aside I was in Newcastle for a family wedding in November, and I was shocked at how the city is a total dive now having not been there for a few years. The streets are dirty, older buildings empty and visibly crumbling, so many homeless people, destitute. The buses hadn’t been running across all of the NE for weeks, shops were closing down, people were losing their jobs as a result, couldn’t afford taxis to work, the city was almost unrecognisable. What a horrible depressing mess. Labour council of course, and that will be the future for Scotland should Labour/Tories have anything to do with it. Vote SNP or be see your country reduced to being a total mess.
I would never advocate not voting, and as the SNP manifesto stands, I will vote for that. But I want vote on indy and asap. This is the last time I will vote for a party not standing on a defacto referendum plebiscite I feel. So the SNP risk my 2026 vote unless that’s the plan. We can vote for indy by this route and nothing is stopping us. We need to do so now before England leaves us a smoking ruin again like Thatcher did.
I see no more point in UK elections, just as most Scots do, and, it seems, half of England too right now. Nothing changes. Red or blue Tory. So I will not be voting to send an SNP MP down to London like that can achieve anything policy wise. It can’t. England’s establishment hates Scottish people and will never let them have any influence over UK government. To be allowed a role in UK governance, Scots must give up their Scottishness in favour of Britishness (a lower form of Englishness, and the most a Scot that wishes to be English can ever hope for). There will be no more devo, no special deal on the EU for us… Nothing. ‘Shut the fuck up jock scum or if you are not careful, you will not be voting in any elections at all going forward’ is where we are now.
The only thing worth voting SNP for in a UK election is to show Scots and everyone else that Scots are not giving up on indy. That and denying British nationalist leeches within our borders the cushy London jobs with expenses they so deeply desire.
I have voted SNP since I first came of age ahead of 1997. They need to be brave now and finish this. If they don’t, Scots will take matters into their own hands and you will see one or more parties willing to emerge (this won’t be Alba).
Even if current polling became a reality, and the SNP lost seats, it would not, in my mind, stop indy for that is not controlled by the SNP. They can just choose whether they wish to be the party that leads the movement or not, and if they don’t offer a clear and direct route, Scots will chose a party that will. And they will do this.
I can go with that S_S.
I don’t agree with not voting either. But I do believe that independence supporters might just sit at home if the SNP doesn’t make it crystal clear that a vote for them is a vote for independence.
I saw this happen in 2017 when the SNP insisted that their manifesto wasn’t about independence. Whole areas around me that were awash with Saltires and SNP posters in 2014 went mute, the SNP vote stayed at home and a Tory (Andrew Bowie) scraped through. I hope they don’t make that mistake again.
A reminder of what happened the last time Labour had the certain to vote support of just 22% of the eligible electorate UK-wide.
Which is exactly where we are now polling-wise.
https://archive.is/IvNoM
Key points from review of 2019 Labour election defeat
Corbyn leadership, Brexit policy and party structure among issues singled out
– Dysfunctional ‘toxic culture’ led to Labour defeat
– Ed Miliband: Let’s learn the right lessons
No lessons at all have been learned. The opposite has occurred. They have exactly the same number of voters backing them and are wandering round in a world of polling delusion as all they can see is the power and the pocket lining, especially Starmer, who wants Blair’s No 10 stint multiple millions and more.
Most days I check out the newspaper headlines in the supermarket – I never buy ! Almost without exception ( The National being the one ) they are full of Sh*t !
Stories abound about how sh*t the Scottish Government is , about how sh*t the SNP are , how sh*t are Scottish councils ( if run by the SNP ) , how sh*t are the ferries , the trains , the hospitals , the schools .
Of course , even the Scottish Parliament is sh*t – with the exception of politicians of the calibre of Baillie , DRoss and Sarwar , who receive plaudits for being aware of , and stating frequently , how sh*t are all things Scottish .
After perusing these headlines I quickly check my shoes in case any of this ordure has leaked from the pages and attached itself to my feet .
I cannot for the life of me comprehend why any self-respecting Scot would believe never mind actually part with money for this garbage ! Do they think by purchasing a Daily Express or a Daily Mail that this somehow means that THEY are not the target of this constant vile belittlement of their country , their Government , their people ?
And it is the People that are being targeted . After all , they were the ones who voted them into power – much to the frustration and anger of those who own these obnoxious propaganda sheets masquerading as newspapers .
An old Trade Unionist once declared that he wouldn’t wrap fish and chips in The Sun – I wouldn’t even wipe my ar*e with these ”newspapers” .
OT
Hidden in the midst of festivities, Gaza and Sunak’s rock follies, this from the UKDJ:
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/turkey-blocks-passage-of-two-former-british-ships-to-ukraine/
Total madness from the UK to try to facilitate such a move for the 2 Sandown class minehunters which it had sold to Ukraine. The 1936 Montreux Convention [1] is vital for many of the countries around the Black Sea and the Med.
The Tories having generally little or no regard for International Law is no excuse for flagrantly encouraging such a violation especially involving volatile Turkey. UK Defence Secretary? Grant Shapps.
[1] Briefly if 2 countries are at war their warships are not allowed through the straits past Istanbul.
Wise words. When you only have 20 odd % of the electorate backing you, with what must be an unfeasibly low turnout predicted (50%), you should not be doing a Scottish Labour and talking about a resurgence.
You should be asking why Labour is so unpopular after 14 years of the Tories (and the dastardly SNP in Scotland!). Blair managed to get 31% of the electorate certain to vote for him ahead of 1997. 20% in current polls doesn’t cut the mustard. What happens if another 10-20% of the electorate decide they definitely don’t want you in office, and turn out to say so at the ballot box? Say SNP voters in Scotland, Tories in England?
https://archive.is/89ECv
Labour’s poll lead could still collapse, shadow ministers warned
Labour’s poll lead could collapse in the weeks before the general election, the party’s chief campaign strategist has told shadow ministers, as he warned them not to be complacent going into the election year.
Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s director of campaigns, recently gave a presentation to the shadow cabinet in which he showed MPs what happened in the months before eight different elections from around the world. In each case, the clear favourite lost after their poll lead disappeared in the weeks leading up to the vote.
I suspect Labour won’t listen. They’ve won over nobody since 2019 because they’ve moved ever further right. In response, they will move more right and lose more voters.
Though his message appears to be dont raise taxes
“In Norway, the opposition Labour party led by about 20 points two years before the country’s general election but ended up losing after saying it would put up taxes if it won, in an attempt to improve the country’s finances. The party dropped about 5 points during the campaign, which was dominated by discussion about its tax pledge.”
Taxes need to go up for the richest 1% either via income or far better would be a wealth tax taking in all assets like savings, bank interest on savings and stocks and shares, where wealth is over 10 million or above.
According to TUC ..
If this was done on wealth over 3 million and tax is 1.7% it would raise 2.7 billion.
And rate could increase in bands to 3.7% for over 10 million in assets.
Total tax take would be 10 billion.
https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/modest-wealth-tax-richest-03-could-yield-ps10bn-public-purse-tuc-calls-national-conversation#:~:text=A%20further%20wealth%20threshold%20of%20%C2%A310%20million%20with%20a,of%20adults%20in%20the%20UK).
Starmers Labour will never do that let alone increase income and other taxes like rate on inheritance tax for above 10 million in assets.
Probably like tories more likely to scrap it.
Which would be ok if other taxes replaced it like sweden has done.
This will cost Lab and Con a few valuable votes.
https://archive.is/pokPU
Reform UK to stand candidates in each Scottish General Election seat
REFORM UK have insisted they will stand a candidate in every Scottish seat at the General Election.
At a press conference on Wednesday, party leader Richard Tice said that the party will look to fight the election in 57 Scottish constituencies.
Latest IPSOS Scotland had 1% UKIP and 1% Con, which combined matches Alba’s 2%.
Shona Robison can have a holiday if she wants. Just everyone else. Shona Robison has raised more monies and funding for Scotland in the Scottish Gov. A fairer distribution. Keeping to a manifesto.
UK Gov raised £731Billion in revenues + council tax. Spent £1090Billion. 2020/21. Less raised than the year before 2019/20. £817Billion.
UK Election May. Independence supporters would benefit by voting. For Independence supporting parties. Use it or lose it.
Daily Mail owned by Rothermere. A tax evading non Dom worth a £1Billion has plenty of travels. Funded by tax evaded public monies. Printing regurgitated nonsense.
What has changed is Devolution 2000. Better SNP Gov in Scotland like the people wanted. Have a manifesto and stick to it. A welcome change.
Not unionists /parties telling lies to get elected then doing the complete opposite.
Non descript political party leaders will lead to non descript results in the coming elections unless they pull rabbits out of the hat to sell their products
It’s why the Tories resurrected David Cameron, their last identifiable proven winner
The product must be packaged colourfully and attractively, what’s in the product is of much less importance than the advert for it
Who would you buy your used car from? Sunak? Starmer? Yousaf? well to be honest probably not any of them, so as a buyer looking for assurance in the product on offer it’s forcing people to look at political policies, and that’s really something the voters are bored to death of within minutes leading to *Ach I cannae be bothered wae it a* voter apathy
Identifiable winners are much more important no matter what their policies are than people realise
If we don’t like their faces we ain’t gonna buy
Sunak’s trying to sell us a shiny BMW that we know we can’t afford, Starmer’s punting a brown Volvo estate that he’s promised to polish and MOT after delivery, and Humza Yousaf’s only got a choice of a couple of careful owner hatchbacks that won’t get you noticed by the polis
As far as Scotland’s concerned Humza Yousaf is trying to sell us a product that we already have, unless he offers to remap and upgrade our hatchback that we can drive into the future on our own roads with full AA membership there’ll be no queue at the dealership to sign up to that purchase
Oh he’ll still sell enough hatchbacks to keep the SNP dealership going but we need really need that new car now or folk just won’t want to go anywhere in it
We don’t need Sunak’s BMW or Starmer’s old brown Volvo, we’ve been promised and had those before and they break down all the time costing us a fortune
We were sold a great car for ten years previously and we all wanted to go somewhere in that particular car
*Ach I cannae be bothered wae it a* voter apathy.
Funny you should ‘say’ that because recently I had a brief chat with a young delivery driver who actually said, “I can’t be bothered with the SNP because all they talk about is independence”. He did say he got his news from BBC Radio 2 beamed in from England!
Unfortunately, it’s all about personal perception. If you’re not an SNP/independence supporter, that’s how you choose to ‘see’ it. If you’re a Tory, all you ‘hear’ from Labour, whether fact or not and despite U-turn Starmer, is over-spending on services and higher taxes, anathema to the average Tory.
How do you get across on the one hand to the average, apathetic voter or on the other, the determined unionist voter in Scotland that independence is the only way for Scotland to flourish by highlighting the facts as often and as clearly as possible without boring the daylights out of them or turning them off completely. They’ve got to be encouraged to think for themselves. It needs clever psychology.
Because what we really need is a whopping load of “Aye, right enough.” voters.
Over 300 years of allowing other people to think for us and make all the decisions for us has turned Scotland and many Scots into an apathetic *blame them* culture, it’s why BBC Scotland and STV news share the same scripts for their news broadcasting, it’s that successful
Watch STV news at 6pm then turn to BBC Scotland at 6.30pm and you will hear the exact same stories using most of the exact same key words, how can this be when it’s supposed to be two entirely separate organisations?
When we hear people say “all the SNP ever talk about is independence”
that’s actually been statistically proven to be brainwashing by the unionist parties and the media and not true, because it’s actually the opposition who talk more about the SNP talking about independence than the SNP does, kinda proving that the folks who think that’s what they’re hearing are not SNP or independence supporters anyway
The most frequently used word by the SNP has always been *equality*
Unfortunately we are stuck with a biased media that does not support independence and wouldn’t even if the numbers for it doubled overnight, and the fact is most people hear the news they want to hear, they don’t actually listen to it or examine it, they believe it to be *near enough* the truth
It’s difficult to separate the news up your street to the actual news of the country as a whole
If there are bad things happening in your local area it becomes automatic that people will believe things are the same bad all over everywhere else, it’s easy media
Those anti independence people never seem to complain every time Sunak or whoever keeps talking about lowering taxes but they’ve never actually done it
We helped you during the pandemic *Yaay* they cheer then they quietly put up the price of fuel to eye watering levels then everybody’s car road tax over £60 quid to pay for it, and make a massive profit every bit as bad as their PPE scams
Am I right in understanding that Lab/Con/Lin politicians don’t take holidays?
Incidentally, decent employers force staff to take holidays. Makes them more productive if anything.
I saw this on X earlier and found it difficult to believe. Prof Robertson has looked at the data and calculated the value. We are bombarded with media announcements of “eye watering” costs in Scotland’s budget. Now this really is eye-watering.
Scotland’s electricity transfers to England are worth $365 billion per year
Scottish electricity’s no very good withoot they good English wires though
Unfortunately the calculations are wrong as the 20TWh is for a whole year and not per day.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/energy-statistics-for-scotland-q4-2022/pages/electricity-exports/
£4 billion a year is equal to 10% of the block grant. Whisky exports are £6.2 billion, which is equivalent to 15%…
Both minor Scottish industries. I mean how many people do you know who work in a distillery or in electric power generation?
Well it did seem too good to be true. However, it is at least £4 billion which is very much better than a £1.5 billion “black hole” in our finances.
What’s more, it seems we are also paying a great deal for the privilege of sending that electricity down south.
It’s certainly not to be sniffed at, £4 billion/year is £450,000 per hour every hour 365 days a year.
There are some things in politics best to ignore, if you don’t they make the news by not ignoring them
Things like: Ash Regan’s had an idea, or Murdo Fraser’s made a prediction
Wheesht! dinnae mention it
Not content with deluding themselves over polls which show Yes rising amongst ostensible unionist party voters – while these have not gained a single voter from Yes parties in recent times even with #financegate / #UKSCgate – the likes of Fraser are tweeting unweighted subsamples.
These people are aff their heids. Scotland going to elected more Tories than SNP on 50% Yes very worst case minimum? Whit?
I’m sitting here looking at CTV vs SNP share vs time and this says to me that SNP support could be at all time highs, assuming it retains its historic link to certainty to vote. It’s just the gap between CTV % and SNP % has closed. That suggests SNP up, but you’d not see it until CTV goes back up.
Come on Scots, it’s election time. Start answering pollsters. Get the finger oot. It’s time. Yousaf; you can be the first PM of an indy Scotland. Just give people a way to vote for it.
What is CTV?
Sorry, I have said before. It’s the people in the poll sample who say they are ‘certain to vote’.
It’s affected by sampling methods, and telephone tends to reach a higher number of CTV voters, but the consistent pattern across all polls, both here and in the rUK, is that CTV numbers are very low. Unusually so. It is not uncommon to have lower values mid term, and as the election approaches, this rises as people become engaged. But right now these are super low, and that’s the cause of all the big ‘trends’. It’s not voters changing sides.
Low CTV values can occur because regular voters are not responding to polls and/or people don’t think they can affect they change they want by voting. It’s very hard to tell which is happening to what extent as they can be interdependent. The rule of thumb is that voters of parties on the back foot tend to be less responsive, while those riding high are keen to. So in the past =, e.g. 55% SNP honeymoons was due to unionists on the back foot so not responding, inflating SNP, but now 32% Labour / 37% SNP is the SNP on the back foot (UKSC, Sturgeon resigning…), so SNP voters not responding as much, inflating Labour. In England, it’s Tory voters not responding / saying they are not sure they’ll vote.
Current polls suggest only a 50% turnout in England. That’s nuts low, and it means 43% Labour UK-wide is not due to support from voters, but because Labour 2019 voters are responding and saying they’ll vote (see a victory in their sights), while voters of e.g. the Tories (in England) and SNP (in Scotland are doing so in much lower numbers (more despondent).
Labour are not +10% on 2019. They are +0%. Only the same 20% of the electorate support them now as they did in 2019. That’s what you get when you correct for projected turnout (from CTV numbers).
There is no way the CTV numbers can remain this low, even if people are very despondent. As election time comes, expect big changes and it won’t be ‘swings’, just CTV numbers going up as people engage. Any rise in Scotland should favour the SNP, in England the Tories. Labour will fall sharply as this happens. Not because they are losing voters, but just because the SNP / Con are gaining these.
Certain To Vote
That was a quicker explanation. 🙂
Sorry – I didn’t see you had replied when I typed in my answer.
Fact of the day.
In the most recent Scottish poll (R&W, late November), which is the worst pollster for Yes/SNP, only 38% of the Scottish electorate desired to be politically part of the UK, sending British party MPs to Westminster.
But wait I hear you say, the poll said 48% No. Aye, but that is amongst those who say they’d go out and vote, the CTVers.
That 38% is also the only group prepared to go out and vote for unionist parties in the coming election for the union parliament. Labour have the backing of just 22% of Scots to rule Scotland from London.
Yes, in a poll that shows Labour apparently ahead of the SNP within error, which has Labour all excited, only 38% have any desired for Westminster rule, with an English Labour government desired by just 22%.
What happens if I am right and that the sample is missing SNP / Yes voters due to mid term blues / blows? When you consider that CTV for a referendum is only 68% with 61% CTV for a UKGE in this poll – both well below previous 85% (2014) and 68%(2019) figures respectively, it looks very like we are missing some ‘always vote’ voters. Since it’s SNP down in the polls with nobody else gaining from their drop (apart from the Greens a wee bit), the missing would need to be SNP, as discussed in the past.
This is dire polling for the union. But let the idiot britnats enjoy it. 🙂
Only this morning we heard on BBC Scotland about the massive swing to Labour in the Rutherglen by election suggesting that Labour would win the majority of seats in Scotland
Of course there was no massive swing to Labour in Rutherglen, all that happened was Labour collected around the same amount of votes they normally do and supported by Tory voters voting Labour won because the SNP voters didn’t turn out to take part in that election
That certainly does not equate to any kind if *swing* to anything other than perhaps apathy, or an event not considered important enough on the part of SNP voters to be bother voting on, only time will tell on that
Swing to Labour? Nah
For a swing, you need to have voters move from one party to another, net at least.
Labour got less votes in the R&HW by election than in 2019, and that’s likely with some tactical gains from Con. So they didn’t bring any SNP voters on board, which ties in with all polling.
That R&W poll at face value is the best one yet for Labour but shows that once again, within MoE, they’ve not net won over any Scots voters since 2019. Exactly like the case in England / UK-wide.
If CTV levels are constant, then VI trends will be swings. If CTV levels have been changing significantly, then trends may not be swings at all, but due to people not responding, or saying they are not sure they’ll bother voting. That’s what’s happening in Scotland and UK-wide. In such circumstances, it’s best to look at % shares of the voting electorate. That shows the real picture of whether a party is gaining or losing support. This shows Labour have got nowhere in 5 years.
This much is totally true. I am not wrong about this. We only get into hypotheticals based on past patterns when I suggest what might happen if CTV numbers rise again, as they have historically done ahead of elections. That I can only speculate on.
And we must keep in mind comparing SNP and Lab/Con/Lib for Westminster is apples and pears. Lab/Con/Lib voters in the main wish to send an MP to London because they desire complete or partial rule by Westminster. They want Westminster seats. That’s not the case for SNP voters, who don’t want any MPs at all. They seem to have desired some post 2014 when they accepted we were stuck in the UK for while, ergo try to have some influence. With no vow, Brexit, then the UKSC case, that’s over. The only reason they will turn out for Westminster elections is to vote for indy in some way. Ironically, the 2015 result – the best one yet for the SNP – was showing an attempt by many to ‘lead not leave’ rather than a demand for indy. It is SNP voters not wanting to vote in UK elections (unless these offer a way out) which shows a desire for indy.
So we have SNP voters only wanting Westminster titanic deckchairs if they can throw these over the side. Unionist voters want to sit and watch the ship go down on them.
Taking that into account, the key projected turnout value is how many people want to vote for British parties. That tells you about the state of democracy in the UK.
In England, this has fallen to 50% right now. In Scotland, it’s 38% in the best poll there is for unionists. That’s dire on both sides of the border. Westminster rule has never been this unpopular, and it’s not just us.
This is key to understanding the coming election and what might happen.
Use it or lose it. If Independence voters turn out to vote. It will be another SNP landslide. If people do not turn out to vote they have only themselves to blame. No one will listen to their complaints. Or their desire not to help Scotland and their fellow citizens do better.
Cutting ff their nose to spite themselves. Scotland can do better than having half the finances and revenues raised £50Billion+ decided by unelected unionists not elected or voted for in Scotland. Revenues taken and accured to Scotland with interest payments for worthless projects of no value. By unelected Westminster members from elsewhere.
Average turnout for elections. Council 40%. Holyrood 50% GE 60%. Referendum 80+%
EU Ref 2016 turnout in Scotland 76%.
Turnout in UK 72%.Less % in the rest of the UK turned out to vote.
Indy Ref turnout 85%
https://nation.cymru/news/welsh-somalilanders-full-of-hope-after-african-recognition-deal/
Welsh Somalilanders full of hope after African recognition deal
04 Jan 2024 5 minute read
Thousands of Welsh Somalilanders are celebrating an historic agreement with Ethiopia that has given their country formal recognition by another African nation for the first time, more than 30 years after it effectively gained its independence following a bloody civil war.
In May 1991 Somaliland – a former British protectorate in northeast Africa – broke away from Somalia following years of repression under the brutal dictatorship of Siad Barre. Since then it has established itself as a rare beacon for democracy in the continent, having seen a succession of peaceful transitions of power following properly conducted elections.
Until now, however, the country has failed to secure the formal recognition many believe it deserves. With the single exception of Taiwan, the international community has taken the view that Somaliland should reconnect with *the failed state* [My emphasis] of Somalia.
[…]
Former UK Cabinet Minister Gavin Williamson, who has campaigned for Somaliland to be officially recognised by Britain, wrote a post for X, formerly Twitter, that said: “We need to see urgent action and leadership from the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to ensure sovereignty for Somaliland. For far too long Britain has not done enough – at this watershed moment, the time has come for us to act boldly and resolutely.”
Another former minister, Lord Zac Goldsmith, said in a post: “This is fantastic news for the nation of Somaliland and its wonderful people. As a former Foreign Minister in the UK it was always clear to me that we would recognise its sovereignty once Somaliland was formally recognised by African nation(s). That is now happening and I hope the UK follows through. The case for independence is overwhelming.”
___________________
Do you here these “Former UK Cabinet Ministers” declaiming the same thoughts on Scotland and Wales? I think not … Funny (not funny), that …
No – in fact one immediately suspects an ulterior motive – so out of character is this. But I’m not familiar with Somali politics. Could it have something to do with China, hence Taiwan chipping in?
Sir Kid Starver on the campaign trail , his mantra appears to be ”Change , Change and more Change !”
Well , we know that he will keep this promise because he changed every pledge he made when running for the leadership of the Tor..Labour Party .
In fact the commitments in his speech today will probably be changed by tea-time .
He’s channelling Obama’s Hopey Changey thing. Idiots fall for it every time.
If you want an indication of how bad the Conservatives internal polling is for them, the fact that they have ruled out a May GE. The NI cut is starting this month instead of April so that people might notice it and remember it for a spring election. The Budget is a couple of weeks earlier than expect so that Parliament could be dissolved for a early Mat election. They are now going to have to fight local elections in England which (due to the makeup of the councils holding elections) at best will be bad for them at worst a bloodbath. All because their polling /focus groups are telling them that if they go for an election in the spring they will loose heavily.
Of course because they have know strategy at all and are simply hobbling from one crisis to another they have left it to late. If they had killed of the rumors of a Spring election at the back end of last year when they started bubbling up that would of been that. But they didn’t they let them grow and now it just looks like they are ‘bottling’ an election.
It’s very dire for Labour too, just less so! They have the support of about 22% of the electorate; exactly what they got in 2019. Not gained a single new supporter in 5 years. Nobody has moved to Labour in Scotland nor England. It’s all a result of very low projected turnouts. Zero net swing to them from any party.
20% odd is the level of support they got in 2005. Right now is far more like that than 1997. Hence me predicting at 2010 type outcome where neither of the big two winds a solid majority.
If we did see a 50% turnout, I don’t see how the UK could go on politically. That would signal a complete failure of it’s democracy. In the end though, I think it will be 60% or so, and Labour’s lead will fall by 10 points or so as it did ahead of 1997 when the Tory core came out to stop them.
In Scotland, the best polls for unionists right now show only a 38% turnout of people who actually want an MP in Westminster (to compare apples with apples).
I need to see what Welsh data looks like, but with indy support at record highs there and the Labour vote crashing, I expect a similar picture.
S_S,
Have a look at the section ‘Wales’ on this page – About 3/4 of the way down:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
Polling in the nations and regions
https://imgur.com/ikkXO8r
That’s missing the most recent Wales Yougov which showed a big drop (8 points I recall) in support for Labour in Wales!
I takes some time to source, tabulate and plot polls. I spend to much time on this! 🙂
But aye, the latest Yougov – which is missing from that wiki list, shows the same patterns as we see in Scotland and England.
Very low CTV, and it seems when this goes up, Labour VI goes down.
Drakeford can feel the winds of change…
Does YouGov (Founders: N. Zahawi et al.) now provide for Wales alone, then?
Traditionally, they always used to lump us with the English Midlands – thereby inflating the Plaid Cymru vote amongst Brummies! 😀
In 1997, British Labour offered Scots a very attractive package; quite extensive devolution through the reopening of Scotland’s national parliament.
This was the culmination of a process that dated back to 1989 and beyond. In that year, British Labour were the were one of the primary signatories to the claim of right, which read thus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claim_of_Right_1989
We, gathered as the Scottish Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs, and do hereby declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations their interests shall be paramount.
We further declare and pledge that our actions and deliberations shall be directed to the following ends:
To agree a scheme for an Assembly or Parliament for Scotland;
To mobilise Scottish opinion and ensure the approval of the Scottish people for that scheme; and
To assert the right of the Scottish people to secure implementation of that scheme.
Roll on 2024, and the only thing English Labour are offering Scots is to tear up the 35 year old Claim of Right they signed and like the English Tories, strip Scots of the right to vote (for the government they choose) on the basis of their nationality so England can continue to plunder Scotland’s resources.
This is while independence is the majority view of every age group under 65, with, at worst case, half of Scots ready to vote for indy first thing tomorrow, no questions asked.
And the English media believes this will see Labour / unionism resurgent in Scotland.
England / Britain’s establishment has totally lost the plot. Only to be expected as it finally collapses as a state.
Welsh Indy opinion polls:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_Welsh_independence
Ok, here are the polls since 2021 for UKGEs with turnout adjustment (using 10/10 certain to vote / CTV, which as a rule of thumb, approaches turnout close to elections on average).
Around 32% of Scots say they are very keen on having a MP / being ruled by Westminster, so much so, they are certain to vote for one of the main unionist parties. This number does not seem to have measurably changed since the 2021 election.
If the UKSC case / Sturgeon trial by English media / Yousaf taking over had any effect, it was to decrease support for unionist parties amongst the electorate. This should not come as a shock, but would be exactly what you’d expect. It ties in with Yes rising over the period concerned.
As you can see, there has been zero resurgence of Labour amongst the Scottish electorate. They have gained from the Tories alone post mini-budget. All the attacks on the Sturgeon… the UKSC case… financegate, have, unsurprisingly, totally failed.
SNP are not ‘coming home to Labour’. None have, net. None at all.
It’s all about what those voters who are not answering or saying they are not sure whether they will vote. These must be SNP voters, for those who vote Lab/Con/Lib regularly appear to be very happily responding in constant numbers as only SNP are being negatively affected by projected lower turnouts.
So what will our coy SNP/Yessers do next? Well, their coyness meant the English media did not see the tusami’s coming in 2011 nor 2014 nor 2015. Even had them fooled somewhat in 2019 and 2020.
So let’s wait and see.
Very bad polling for Labour in Scotland and UK-wide.
Och lol, if Starmer actually has to argue this, it means the difference is minimal to non-existent.
I mean it’s not like Corbyn had to explain how his offering was ‘different to the Tories’. He didn’t because it really was, and pretty similar to the modest centre-left policies of the SNP.
https://archive.is/PO5HZ
Big difference between Labour and Tories, says Sir Keir Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted there are real dividing lines between Labour and the Conservatives ahead of the looming general election.
The Labour leader dismissed criticism his policies are not different enough to PM Rishi Sunak’s.
Starmer would be suffering the same as Corbyn if Labour’s policies were actually different to the Tories. He’d be being slaughtered by the right-wing English press. Instead, we have said media asking him to expand on what is actually different, and with a similar goal.
Remember Alister Jack’s words “This place is sovereign”
He wasn’t in Scotland Wales or Northern Ireland when he said that
And when Union Jack said those words he meant the place in which he was standing,
the so called UK parliament, that neither Scotland or Wales as countries can have any affect upon because we are outnumbered 10 to 1 by the voters of England whose votes determine which of the English political parties are elected as the overall British government
So in truth Westminster is the English parliament
Even Sir John Curtice only today echoed that fact when he said “even if Scotland voted Labour at the next election that in itself can only add to the choice of the voters of England if they choose to vote Labour”
That’s code language for Scotland cannot make a difference in general elections to what England’s voters decide to do
You could stand Donald Trump Nigel Farage or Rasputin parties in a general election and if England decided that’s what they wanted Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland would get that even if we collectively voted for Mahatma Gandhi and the Lord God almighty
Watch the polls shift by around April when the BOE reduces interest rates, energy prices come down and the price of petrol and diesel drops, then Rishi Sunak and his propaganda team will claim financial victory over the economy, attack Starmer’s non plans and announce a date for the general election, once he’s sure of the date of, and, who the US election candidates are, because that is important to England’s selection
If Trump looks like winning in the US then England will vote Tory, if Biden? then probably Labour, it all depends on what your great British/English unbiased media are instructed to promote
Hot on the heels of the unattributed and ridiculous “Nicola Sturgeon warns flagship care plan may not be meeting goals”, as sole recognition for her participation in an episode of “Fixing Britain” on R4 (see https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2024/01/04/care-astonishing-praise-for-nicola-sturgeon-on-bbc-radio-4-not-scotland-dont-be-daft/) comes the utterly impartial Andrew Kerr from the BBC in Scotland “Politicians primed for change in the year ahead” https://archive.ph/YCoIw
More Bilge & Swoon than serious political analysis….
Your occasional reminder that sectarianism is a fine British unionist / English tradition and not per se a Scottish one.
I’ve never met a sectarian Scot in my life. They’ve always been in whole or in part ‘proud British’. Hence the union flags, ‘f’kin hate Sturgeon / SNP’ etc.
https://archive.is/N5QAe
Englishman ‘gobsmacked’ at arrest for flying UFF flag, court told
A West Midlands man accused of breaching anti-terror laws by flying an Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) flag told police he thought the group had “ceased to exist” after the Good Friday Agreement, a jury has heard.
Kieron Brockhouse, who denies two counts of supporting a proscribed organisation contrary to the 2000 Terrorism Act, said he was “gobsmacked” at being arrested ahead of a police interview in 2022…
…Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court heard Brockhouse told police he was part of an Orange Order lodge, adding: “I like the support we get – it’s the history of my country.”
He is correct, sectarianism is part of the history of his country, and he’s proud of that.
It’s just the English media present it as a N. ‘Irish’ and ‘Scottish’ thing. People with British nationality carrying it out are called ‘loyalists’ rather than the ‘proud brits / Englishmen’ they insist they are if asked.
A relatively recent review of problems in Liverpool:
https://irr.org.uk/article/liverpools-irish-community-under-attack/
Liverpool’s Irish community under attack
February 14 2013
A new report by an Irish community group based in Liverpool is a call for help against growing far-right and Loyalist attacks.
https://archive.is/KGyo2
Just as those of us who were worried about the governance of the party and the management of its finances under the previous leadership had to campaign and stand for election to the NEC to do something about it. We could have done with the support of those only now speaking out because, at the time, we were thwarted. However, I don’t think anyone could seriously argue that we have not been vindicated by subsequent events.
It appears Joanna Cherry wants the English parliament to force a bill on Scotland changing the role of the Lord Advocate? Has she got the consent of Scots / Holyrood for this? It should be up to Scots / Holyrood, not up to the English parliament / the likes of Alister Jack, and, it seems, Joanna Cherry in this case. Apologies if she is acting on behalf of Holyrood, with said parliament’s consent.
I note also she uses the Westminster establishment’s line on the SNP finances, trying to suggest a crime has been committed, with senior figures guilty. Otherwise, what ‘events’ does she mean? So far, there have been no events which show financial malpractice in the SNP which would ‘vindicate’ those claiming this. My understanding is that the party accounts have been consistently given the all clear by independent auditors / the English EC, and that, after 2.5 years of painstaking investigation, Police Scotland have not reported finding any crime, nor a suspect for that, never mind someone being found guilty of one. So what events ‘vindicate’ the claims of unionists here Cherry?
True BBC Scotland line that one in bold from her.
Joanna Cherry’s article is an explanation of why the dual roles of the Lord Advocate, legal advisor to the government and public prosecutor, should be separated. The are separate in the UK and Ireland to avoid conflict of interest. The Scottish government already stated its intention to do this but lacks the competence. Since this is a power reserved to Westminster her bill aims at devolving that power to the Scottish Parliament thus increasing its power.
A long and detailed explanation but worth reading IMO.
I don’t disagree with the need to look into reform of the role due to the potential for conflict of interest. What I disagree with is British MPs such as Cherry / the English parliament doing this without the consent of Scots / Holyrood.
There is no difference between the Tories passing a bill to reform Holyrood without the permission of Scots / Holyrood and Joanna Cherry doing this. If she does not have the consent of Holyrood, she’s just another British / English MP dictating to Scots from a foreign parliament.
The way for reform is for Holyrood to look into the matter – which is planned as she discussed – then seek to have Westminster implement the changes, which it must under the constraints of devolution. It’s not for British MPs like Cherry to decide the matter for Scots.
I will complain about Westminster intervening with devolution whether it’s Sunak, Jack or Cherry doing it.
What next, Holyrood passes a bill Cherry doesn’t like (think GRR) so she submits a private members Bill to Westminster to get backing of Labour and the Tories to overturn it? BBC would love that as they’ll like this from her. Can use it to suggest ‘Holyrood is corrupt and even lots of SNP agree’.
What I disagree with is British MPs such as Cherry / the English parliament doing this without the consent of Scots / Holyrood.
Which is exactly what Cherry’s bill would allow.
NEXT week I will be introducing a private member’s bill at Westminster designed to give the Scottish Parliament the power to amend the role of Scotland’s law officers including dividing the role of the Lord Advocate into two separate jobs. One as head of Scotland’s prosecution service, and the other as a minister of the Scottish Government and its chief legal adviser.
She agrees with you, at the moment its the British/English Parliament who have the power to reform the role, she – like you – wants that power to be transferred to Holyrood so it can make any changes that are necessary.
Maybe you misread my post, but I said that I don’t mind her bill if it’s done with the consent of Holyrood, and apologised if that were so. I would have thought though, if this were so, the bill would be being submitted by the SNP group leader.
If Cherry has not got Holyrood’s permission, it’s interference, whatever the intent. A English Tory can interfere as much as Cherry can, and both with good intent as far as they see things. But there’s nothing worse than someone interfering in your business without you asking for them to, even if they believed they had good intention. It’s presumptuous and disrespectful, which sadly sums up Cherry.
Have you actually read the article?
The Scottish Parliament has already consulted on this and wants to make the changes. But the Scotland Act, a British parliament act, incorporated an outdated combined role for the Lord Advocate. The Scotland Act can only be amended at Westminster.
Joanna Cherry is a SNP MP elected by her constituents to work for their interests at Westminster. Her bill will enable the Scottish Parliament to proceed. Nothing will change until the Scottish Parliament votes for it.
I do think you allow your biases to cloud your thinking. But it would be a pity to mislead other readers.
Yes, I did. Has Cherry got permission for the bill? Has she consulted with her party and got the go ahead at least? If so, great, and my apologies.
If not, she could be making a mess of SNP strategy on this topic by acting unilaterally. She was not elected as ‘Joanna Cherry’, but as an SNP MP. SNP policies, party reputation, money and hard working campaigners are what got her the job, not Joanna Cherry’s personal attributes. She should consult and take direction from the leadership. There is no ‘I’ in team. If she’s not able to be a team player, she should step down, trigger a by election, and stand as an independent.
Imagine a football player started just deciding strategy themselves mid-game justifying it as ‘acting in the interests of the team (‘or the midfielders’) and opening up an opportunity for them’. Could be a disaster.
If I act keep acting unilaterally at work, I’ll get fired for good reason. It would be very damaging for my employer. I am totally free to constructively criticise the company, but if I did so on twitter… in newspapers, I’d likewise get fired for good reason too. No, complaints and concerns are for staff meetings / consultations internally. Doing so publicly helps only the rivals. Sadly, Cherry knows this, but does it anyway. She had so much form here.
So my post is about here seeming to think about Cherry first again. Get her name in the papers. If I am wrong and she got the go ahead, then I take it back.
The bill has merit. So the approach should be to consult the leadership and get the go ahead. They might have had a plan for the same to use at an opportune, public support winning moment, which would be totally thrown amok by a member pursuing it unliterally.
Joanna Cherry didn’t get elected to Westminster on her own merit, She was the SNP representative advocated by FM Nicola Sturgeon leader of that party
People don’t vote for individuals, they vote for the party leaders, and those that say they vote for individuals based on their policies just talk plain rubbish because all policies are determined by the party leaders, the representatives are only there to work towards achieving that
This nonsense about working for their constituents is merely a nod towards the voters who take part in the process
If MPs only worked for their constituents there’d be a never ending stream of tiny issues clogging up the works and nothing would ever get done
Joanna Cherry suffers from an overblown ego complex, she’s not in charge and never will be, if she stuck to the job she was hired for she’d be an ace MP for the party instead of an undignified cartoon character on missions to fulfill her own self importance
The Tory party is the most successful political party that ever existed, why? their representatives are drones who for the most part do as they’re told, Joanna Cherry has the advantage over them of having a brain but chooses to squander it on herself and has forgotten or now ignores that Scotland voted for Nicola Sturgeon, they never heard of Joanna Cherry until the FM asked them to put a cross beside her name
The woman just makes me groan with sadness at the waste to which she puts her abilities
She will not be picked to play for the team again, maybe she’ll transfer to the lower league which is far worse, there’s no individualism allowed whatsoever in that cult of pretense
Ok, Scotland, I have a petition for you to sign:
Abolish the name ‘Wales’ and make ‘CYMRU’ the only name for our country.
Wales is a name imposed on Cymru and is essentially not a Welsh word at all. The world knows about Wales because of its English connection since 1282. Hardly anyone has heard of Cymru or realises that we have our own unique language and culture which is totally different from the other countries within the United Kingdom.
https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/245956
Many thanks / Diolch yn fawr
Signed. That’s 6845 now so well on the way to 10,000.
Signed !!!
Adlais….
This wouldn’t be your doing, would it, Scotland? 😉
Petition calling for Wales to only be referred to as Cymru receives surge in support
05 Jan 2024 4 minute read
https://nation.cymru/news/petition-calling-for-wales-to-only-be-referred-to-as-cymru-receives-surge-in-support/
7 957 signatures now,
Scotland:
138 signatures
1.735% of 7,957 signatures
If 10,000 signatures are received, “it will be considered for a debate in the Senedd”.
Excellent advice from Richard Murphy as ever.
Five reasons to reject Keir Starmer’s Labour at a General Election
https://archive.is/jEPDd
The Tories will be gone in a few months. Ms Cherry is stepping down?
Senior Officials in Scotland are decided by Westminster Gov. A Westminster approved list, from which Scottish Gov have to choose one. Protected by the Official Secrets Act. An Act civil service officials have to adhere and swear allegiance. Or be punished.
The PR lists in Scotland imposed by unionists. A quota. First preference votes go in the bin to let 1/3 unionists in, with a few hundred votes. Once the quota is realised.
Ms Cherry is stepping down
..
No she has been re selected to stand in the next GE
PR is a far better system than FTP.
Politicians should follow their parties manifesto. Or not go for election. False pretensions. Starmer etc.
Incidentally, it looks the slow but stead Labour loss in UK polls over the course of the year is not CTV related. They are actually losing support as a % of the total electorate when you correct for turnout.
This agrees with them going nowhere or even possibly losing support in Scotland over the same period.
More to follow.
Only 5 days into 2024 – and Sunak recons he can hold onto the second half of the year….
England has a huge carbon footprint from all the oil and gas it’s extracted from Scottish waters, which it also used 90% of.
Scotland has a fraction of the carbon footprint from this by comparison, as it’s never issued any licences, and only used a population share.
Scotland could produce at current levels for many decades after indy and not come close to the climate impact of England’s licencing.
If part of the indy deal was Scotland getting all the past revenues repaid, then that would change things completely of course.
6 days in and we discover that Sunak thinks The Conservatives flagship policy is no good and that he probably only supports it to stop his base from kicking him out.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67897560
“The documents describe a significant difference of view between No 10 and 11 Downing Street on the effectiveness of the proposed scheme saying the chancellor believes the “deterrent won’t work”.”
The papers also reveal that No 10 suggested Mr Sunak should be told to “consider his popularity with the base” if he was reluctant to sign up to changes to the migration system, including the Rwanda plan.
Honestly Rishi carry on as your started and make sure you drag out the election date as well – the way you are going you will make the Canadian Conservatives look good !
A report by BBC Scotland, who get their money by forcibly extracting punters cash from them by law: says….
Operation *let’s find legal things to attack the SNP with* have decided to “investigate” Peter Murrell’s two loans to the party as criminal activity
I ran my own businesses all my life and when there were cash flow dips for a dozen different reasons and like in every other small self employed to large company does I injected my own money into that business until cash flow picked up then withdrew my own cash, If that’s now considered a crime then I’ve been an absolute villain all my life, but never once did anybody ever consider investigating me or turning up to stick a tent in my front garden for my terrible crimes of paying my employees before the cash came in and or looking after my own businesses interests
There’s not a sporting club or business in existence where cash loans and *injections of capital* doesn’t occur from time to time
Of course I was never important enough to incur the wrath of the English/British squad that disappear £billion of public taxpayers money and would never even give thought to investigating themselves, well they’re the owners appointed by some Queen or King aren’t they
What jars is the abject apathy from Scots towards England’s witch hunt behaviour in these matters, my ears hurt with the high pitched whining of “it’s no fair but whit kin ye dae” ? It plays the England/British owners game of “musta been guilty if they say so eh”?
Nobody ever lent anybody in their family a £tenner till they get paid? according to those pulling the strings of Scotland’s police and legal services you all committed heinous crimes and deserve tents and in depth investigations running into years and hopefully ruining and branding you a criminal for life, but we’ll all just keep quiet and maybe it’ll all just go away, indeed it will, until the next time and the time after that
We must love being punished for having an opinion that disagrees with England’s rule
How dare Murrell reverse steal from the SNP! Disgraceful!
Another rat leaving the sinking ship. Jumped before being voted out. The rest of the crew hanging on for dear life and spite. People getting angrier and more annoyed, cannot wait to boot them out. Especially in Scotland. What a way to go in a while. A long and exhausting wait.
Cheaper energy and fuel resources. CCS technology. Even more production in the North Sea. Wind, wave, solar and water. Hydro production and tidal.
Anyone know of a case where a fraudster gives his/her own money in large sums to help the organisation they are defrauding?
I can’t find a single example. I can find a list as long as my arm of fraudsters taking a ‘loan’ from their unsuspecting victim (which is never repaid!) as the latter struggles, but not one instance of the fraudster risking their own ill begotten gains to help the organisation they are busily defrauding with a loan when it needs assistance.
If someone has some stats here, would be great. Thanks.
Wait, I am reading that Michelle Mone and hubby helped out the UK government during the pandemic with a loan of their own personal cash to keep things ticking over! Anyone know if this is true? Total evil wanks if so!
Apparently Michael Gove suggested Michelle Mone give him a shedload of money and he’d fix it so whatever she did would *go away* even though he arranged the wee PPE scam for her in the first place after Rishi signed the cheque for it
Prof Robertson again nails the hypocrisy of the BBC and media with a look at how other political parties are treated when failing to report donations on time.
Sh## must be about to hit the fan for the tory’ssssss.
Golfnut
Did anyone spot BBC headlines concerning the following matters reported on the Electoral Commission’s website?
1) Posted 19 December, 2023: ‘Electoral Commission concludes investigations into two political parties: Investigations into two political parties have closed over the last month, with the Electoral Commission imposing fines in each case.’
One of these relate to the ‘Labour Party (registered political party)’ for the offence of ‘Late reporting of 18 donations’ – a fine of £250 was imposed.
Source https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media-centre/electoral-commission-concludes-investigations-two-political-parties-0
2) In similar vein, reported on 23 October 2023 on the Electoral Commission website: ‘Liberal Democrats (political party)- ‘Late reporting of 25 donations’ – ‘offences found’ – ‘Two fines of £200 each, and one fine of £2,000’
3) And on 23 May 2022: ‘Labour Party (political party) – ‘Late reporting of donations’ – ‘offences found’ – ‘Three fines of £200 each’.
I suspect one could go even further back in time and find multiple other offences involving UK political parties that are NOT NEWSWORTHY even though they are regarded by the Electoral Commission as ACTUAL OFFENCES rather than just a potential/alleged one!
Exactly, the SNP are singled out for “special treatment” by the UK media and especially the BBC. I think it’s a clear signal that the UK government believe that they are losing the battle in trying to convince people to stick with the Union.
The longer it goes on the less effect it will have, to most of us it is already very apparent that these “scandals” are nothing of the sort, they are in fact manufactured “scandals” that are being used as political propaganda against support for Independence and especially to undermine the SNP.
BBC we see YOU!
It’s not working at all though.
England has thrown the kitchen sink Scotland. They’ve given her a giant English boot full in the face with the UKSC ruling on iref2.
Then as Scotland tried to get up, England’s media gave her a big black eye, this time by trying to have the most popular leader since the Bruce arrested, and short of this, finding the former guilt through trial by media.
The battering continues. Punch after punch by the lager lout racist Brexit bully English government / establishment. Every time Scotland tries to speak, England punches her again. If she says she wants to leave, he locks the door and hits her again.
Is it any surprise that the polls show this as not caused Scots to ‘come home to the union’, but move away from it, including those most loyal doing so, e.g. traditional unionist party voters?
The problem we have is Scotland has locked herself in her room and isn’t saying much. Meanwhile, violent lout England is snorting coke downstairs celebrating having, seemingly, ‘shut her up good and proper’ this time.
What is she planning we might ask? She’s not telling for now. All we know is she hates the union and would leave it first thing tomorrow if she could.
Give her a way out, and she will grab it with open arms. That’s what the polls are suggesting. What they are definitely not seeing is there has been a labour resurgence in Scotland. That is an artefact of low projected turnout numbers and/or sampling issues.
Whoever wanted the SNP finance investigation must be well pissed off that the GE is looking like the second half of the year.
Police Scotland will have to keep on finding nothing ‘but continuing to investigate’ for at least 9 months most likely.
The BBC News website reported the beginning of the ‘formal’ police investigation into SNP finances on 13 July 2021. Can ‘Operation Branchform’ really drag on ’till July 2024?
If so, perhaps some imaginative campaigner can devise a national day of action to ‘celebrate’ its third birthday, acknowledging the ‘achievements’ of the senior management of Police Scotland and the Crown Office! After all the impact of their contribution on Scotland’s polity should not go unmarked.
As BBC Scotland’s political correspondent, Andrew Kerr wrote a day ago under the headline ‘Politicians primed for change in the year ahead’ (with my emphasis):
‘.. “Operation Branchform” – the police investigation into the SNP’s finances – continues.
‘It is still A STORY AT THE FOREFRONT OF MANY MINDS and the latest SPECULATION IS ENDLESSLY DISCUSSED BY POLITICIANS AND JOURNALISTS.
‘And IT IS JUST SPECULATION. No-one except the police detectives at the heart of this and senior Crown Office officials know what might happen.
‘OPPONENTS HAVE RELISHED the SNP’s discomfort.’ You can say that again!!!
Well, branchform has singularly failed to see a single SNP voter move to a unionist party.
So if that was the goal, it’s failed.
Even if correct that not a single SNP voter has moved to a unionist party, there are other factors that may be in play here:
– discouraging ‘persuadables’ from moving to the side of the SNP and/or independence – maintaining the present near stasis in public opinion for as long as possible would be a valid, pragmatic unionist objective;
– potential negative impact on the flow of substantial donations to the SNP whilst Branchform continues – from my last look at the Electoral Commission data on donations and loans, the contrast between the level of funding of the SNP and the funding of its main rivals could HARDLY BE MORE STARK even given the geographic scope of the SNP’s activities.
Aye, had posted this upthread yesterday morning…
“Andrew Kerr from the BBC in Scotland “Politicians primed for change in the year ahead” https://archive.ph/YCoIw
More Bilge & Swoon than serious political analysis….”
What killed me from Andrew’s guff is your highlighted “‘It is still A STORY AT THE FOREFRONT OF MANY MINDS” to infer the public who are merely waiting for the fat lady to sing “Nothing to see here”, and the real truth is revealed in “and the latest SPECULATION IS ENDLESSLY DISCUSSED BY POLITICIANS AND JOURNALISTS”.
The media are so full of themselves believing they dictate public opinion by relentless propaganda, not least the BBC in Scotland, with Kerr and his bosses still masquerading as journalists.
Yet Andrew’s piece –
Created 4th January 2024, 10:55 UTC, purportedly at the time of writing 1 day old, the earliest comment on 5th January at 10.27, yet most noticeably the BBC’s rentamob are essentially talking to themselves – The few lured have swelled comments to a frankly underwhelming 593, screwing up the usual self-uptick malarkey.
It’s probably why James Cook promoted the “SNP could face investigation into loans from Peter Murrell” as backup for the Scotland/Politics page, https://archive.ph/d5r3Y 5th January 2024, 06:00 UTC, allegedly 20 hours old, no comments open of course, reserving those for Andrew’s piffle.
Even Pacific Quay’s propaganda controller must be acutely aware how far they have fallen from public credibility…
It is staggering how quickly natural Dolby BBC has developed among Scots since Nick Robinson’s massive gaffe in 2014, and frankly, gratifying. Who knew herd immunity was a thing….
Looked at R&W data for Scotland now too. Aye. Absolutely zero movement from SNP to Lab/Con/Lib as a result of #financegate etc. Nobody as gone ‘home to Labour’. In terms of support amongst the total electorate, all three have stood still or slipped a bit over the last year as per other pollsters. The drop in SNP is all because Lab/Con/Lib voters seem to be the only ones interested in UK elections / answering polls right now.
So we know what Lab/Con/Lib support is; it’s no better than 2019/21, possibly down a bit. What we can’t know is SNP support / the numbers who will turn out on the day for them. All we can say is Yes has been rising with unionist party voters moving to indy and warming to Yousaf while they go off Starmer / Sarwar.
In England meanwhile, Labour only came close to the 31% of the electorate Blair got in 1997 just after the mini-budget. That vanished very quickly though. As things stand, they have only 2/3 of the support he got on the day in terms of the total electorate. 22% or so. Not brought a single person to their cause since 2019 as previously discussed. All the polls are showing this when adjusted for projected turnout.
Right now, Starmer will have no mandate for anything. Imagine the turnout was only 49%! He’d be slaughtered by the media for having no mandate at all. Scots would be up in arms at him refusing iref2 based on just 20% support of the electorate. He’d not even have a mandate from England for being a Scot-hating, fascist little English dictator, never mind from Scotland.
What polls show right now is that UK democracy is broken if they come off. Scottish Labour’s ostensibly best looking polls since pre 2015 tell a story of a party despised, with its own core moving to indepdence, sick as it increasingly is of English politics.
Brian Souter is apparently the enemy of independence, so opposition party Alba scream blue murder and conjure up as many unpleasant adjectives aimed at Humza Yousaf for talking to him
David Davis is a Tory MP and arch Brexiter, and Alba never utter a stutter and complain that their leader Alex Salmond who has been besties with him for many years
Once again a party less popular than the Liberal Democrats shouting the odds and demanding attention, and I’m afraid the National newspaper keeps giving it to them
Coming back to Prof C’s April blog…
https://www.whatscotlandthinks.org/2023/04/a-broken-link-support-for-independence-and-the-snp/
A Broken Link? Support for Independence and the SNP
However, what the widening gap does suggest is that belief in independence is currently not translating into support for the SNP to the same extent as in the recent past
No prof, I think it is. When polls show actual support for the SNP, they will show real support for independence. Try plotting certain to vote numbers vs SNP and the linear correlation is quite something to behold. We are right down at low CTV, so low SNP. Labour need to pray that CTV does not rise as election approaches, as SNP and Yes will too. But then if it doesn’t, any Labour gains are totally discredited by a low turnout, and Starmer lacks a democratic mandate for the UK. 22% support from the electorate gives you zero mandate to govern, certainly alone.
But I think you are right Prof, but just looking at it from the wrong angle. From an Englishman’s perspective perhaps… It’s not the link between SNP and Yes that’s broken. Come on, frankly, that’s nonsense (unless a new SNP appeared). What’s happened is the link between unionist parties and No has been broken, notably in the case of Labour. That explains Labour seemingly up while Yes is too. When you think about it that way, it all makes sense. Scotland will become independent when the Yes ceases to be about the SNP. It isn’t anymore. It’s about the Greens, a wee bit alba, and now increasingly Scottish Labour as English labour goes right wing.
As long as the Labour branch in Scotland continues to accept imposed British nationalist leadership appointments from head office England, the Labour branch in Scotland will continue its loyalty to England first policy in exactly the same way as the Tory and Liberal Democrat branches do
Anas Sarwar the current Labour branch leader in Scotland was an English imposed creation to fight against the strength of Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP due to the depth of panic in Westminster over the steadily increasing support for independence
Alba are and do exactly the same thing, a party set up to attack the credibility and leadership of the SNP, and they do it on a daily basis by attempting to undermine the veracity of the SNP purpose
Not a day goes past where the Alba party do not call the SNP liars as to their intent for Scotland’s independence, what’s that if it’s not attempts to undermine credibility?
Alba are like Liberal Democrats, constantly complaining about Tory and Labour but will join with them at the drop of a hat if they think there’s something in it for them, like peerages to sit in the house of Lords for example? now who would want one of those? Hmmn let me think? perhaps somebody who was involved in being a MSP then a FM then a MP then a MSP, then a Russian paid broadcaster, so what’s next for that type of political professional careerist ambition? a Scottish Nigel Farage if ever there was one, oh he’s also a Marmite figure that’s been found out by just about everyone now
How long is it going to take all of the people to suss out Lord Salmond of Strichen Burn?
Labour are constitutionally a British/English political party the same as the Tories and Liberal Democrats that’s why none of these parties stand in their own names in Northern Ireland
The unionist parties in Northern Ireland are just corruptions of their British/English identities
And as we speak news from Westminster is Tory Labour and Lib Dems call for a de facto referendum on Scotland’s independence using the general election
Every vote not SNP is to count as a vote FOR the abolition of Holyrood
Since Brexit this has been England’s goal
Let’s see how that works out then. Make the next election about the powers of devolution. The fact that 70% or more of Scots want, at a minimum, greater Holyrood powers, while only 17% want less, according to recent polling, suggests these clowns haven’t thought through the consequences of their statement
Blair won over a good lot of Scots by offering Devo in 1997, albeit it Lib and SNP were behind it too. But then he listened to Scottish unionists on Scotland, not the British nationalists here.
Keir Starmer is offering to take devo away this time, buy refusing to let Scots ‘decide the government that best suits their needs’.
English Labour is no longer a signatory to the 1989 claim of right. Instead Starmer hates Scottish people, English right-wing nationalist that he is it seems. To strip a minority (which Scots are in the UK) of voting rights on the basis of a protected characteristic can only mean that.
Alex Salmond did more for Scotland than anyone. Devoted his life to Independence. False accusations do not change the facts. Fought to exposed the Oil & Gas scandal and Thatcher lies. Found out and exposed.
AWPR waited for 40 years built, wind turbines, golf developments, airport expansion.. More fairer society.
Scotland needs another Independence Party because of STV and D’Hond’t imposed, without a mandate, by unionists. Appointed by Westminster lists. Unelected in Scotland.
Salmond is Labour through and through. He only got involved in SNP as he saw it as a way to power. The speed of indy 14 happening took him by surprise, he didn’t want independence, he just wanted it to look like he did, he’d have been more than happy as FM with a few more powers. In hindsight when you watch the old TV debates he wasn’t trying hard enough, it was all show. He’s still a showman.
“Salmond is Labour through and through. He only got involved in SNP as he saw it as a way to power.”
That’s utter revisionist nonsense.
Salmond joined the SNP in 1973, and was only not a member for a few years as he joined a left wing group within it called the 79 group which was then banned from the SNP for a handful of years.
Another independence party? Isn’t Alba delivering us freedom?
Need the numbers because of D’Houdt quota. To hoover up the list votes. It needs another Independence party on the road to freedom and self governance. Holyrood etc.
Unionist parties join together to try to cut SNP candidates out. Candidates with a higher number of votes.
Unionist manipulation, without a mandate, changed the voting system to try to gain unfair advantage. Non Democratic.
Someone’s spotted the elephant in the room. Labour’s polling is sh*te for the umpteenth time. 22% of the total electorate behind you on a 50% turnout would a mandate for sweet FA, and the media would never let Starmer forget it. Which means the public wouldn’t either.
‘No iref2? You’ve no mandate for that Starmer! Scots, this English establishment Tory erse is taking your vote off you when even the English don’t want him in office. It’s time for indy. Plebiscite election in 2026 it is’.
Aye, that’s what these ‘great polls for labour’ say.
https://archive.is/wip/hRVf0
Keir Starmer won’t just be battling the Tories this year but also the absence of hope
It is a worry for the Labour leader that a negative campaign and a low-turnout election could put him in Number 10 with a brittle mandate
At least Tony Blair was somewhat popular. He got 31% of the total electorate behind him. He had something to offer Scots too, albeit it everyone but the Tories had it on offer. Still fell from 55% to 42% (of project turnout) in the polls over the year or so before the election.
There will be no hope in the English campaign. It will be all about bashing migrants, Scots, Welsh, people on low incomes etc. Right-wing extremism like you’ve never seen. Someone else must be blamed for England’s one failings.
SNP have to offer indy, for indy is hope. Indy is change. Indy offers a new future. One which Scots control.
You now what SS More often than not I agree with your comments as I do with other notables here abouts.
But sometimes your comments are just a tad out of step (or not effectively proof read, I am also guilty of that).
The observation “It’s time for indy. Plebiscite election in 2026 it is’.” being a prime example.
If the unionists have their way it’s ‘Plebiscite Now’. Holyrood will not exist in 2026 and we’ll all be back in the shortbread tin.
IMHO the FM and current government need to accept the Westminster unionist offer of the GE being a plebiscite on independence.
Push it through the media at home and internationally the same way that the “once in a generation” lie was.
Only this time round it’s the truth, and we accept your challenge.
We know they are worm-tongues and will try to wriggle out of it.
But if we push it hard enough they are stuck with their super whizz of an idea!!
Scottish Lab/Con/Lib voters won’t accept an end to devo, and neither will their MSPs, not least because it would end them as political forces in Scotland. It is only by Devo that unionists have any politicians (as MSPs), notably since 2015.
Remember, devo is the baby of Scottish unionists. It was a Lab/Lib idea which the SNP was somewhat resistant to back because it might ‘kill indy stone dead’. If devo ends, Scottish unionist voters will move to indy, and only British nationalists will be left. There are very few of the latter. Even Scottish Tory voters in majority support devo these days.
The Yes vote would 80% or higher at the next available election plebiscite. Like 1997, but a generation on, with far fewer British identifying in Scotland.
To kill dev is to kill unionism and hand independence on a golden platter to the nationalists.
SNP-Green may rule the roost in Holyrood now, but it’s Scottish unionist parliament. Their baby that’s in their hands and still, for now, keeping Scotland in the union. SNP would absolutely love the idea of England trying to end it.
The Labour high command of today is likewise scarred by quadruple consecutive losses, in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019, the last the most catastrophic defeat for the party since 1935.
Och lol. They are on the same level of public support that resulted in the most catastrophic defeat for the party since 1935′.
This is nuts. If a geologist come production chemist can see this from a quick look at the tables, how come nobody else is talking about it?
More people who support Independence should join the SNP. To help fight the GE.
Convince others to vote SNP. People should join the SNP before the election. If they support Independence and Holyrood. Support and vote for Indepemdence supporting Parties.
Blair had to offer (limited) Devolution or not been in the EU or UN.international Law supports the right to self determination and self government, when people vote for it. Devolution was the first limited step. Not enough powers.
The countries in Eastern Europe had more power and rights than Scotland in the UK. Scotland was not treated equally as promised.. Gorbachev. Perestroika and Glasnost. 1990.
The EU, UN held up the rights of Scotland to self determination , and self government held up by EU, Un charter. Members have to adhere to the rules and Law. Or be sanctioned. Putin supported Scottish Independence. So did RT and many broadcasting stations based elsewhere. The majority.
Tories held up Devolution twenty years. Unionists only conceded to limited powers. Thatcher illegally and secretly took all of Scotland Oil & Gas and other revenues and denied it. Alex Salmond found proof and publicised it.
Internet use increased worldwide 1990’s. People could share information and their views.
The average May-Sep 2019 10/10 Yougov certain to vote (CTV) was 58%. The election became a certainty in October, and CTV began it’s sharp upwards trajectory.
The final 10/10 Yougov just before 2019’s election was 68%. The turnout on the day was 68% (67.5%).
This same final poll had Labour on 22.4% of the total electorate CTV for them. The result was 21.7% of the total electorate backing them (31.1% out of a 67.5% turnout) at the ballot box.
The latest YouGov has a CTV of 49%, with Labour on, you guessed it, 21.6% of the total electorate CTV for them. They have not won over anyone as noted. Nobody. Starmer’s leadership is a total disaster. 5 years of ultra-Blairism and nothing to show for it, unsurprisingly.
It’s quite an irony that Starmer needs a very low turnout to get his No 10 £millions, but that means no democratic mandate. But then I don’t think he cares much for democracy; if he did, he’d support self-determination for the home nations like e.g. Mark Drakeford did.
England, like Scotland, is rejecting the new Tories. Interesting times.
I don’t believe CTV levels will remain this low. Once people know an election is coming, these will change. The evidence says this will cause labour’s lead to vanish like snaw off a dyke. Like 2011/2015/2019 in Scotland. Or like the Tory lead ahead of 2017.
Fiona and Marlene are back at work producing the Independence Podcasts. Here’s their preview of what’s coming up in January.
Don’t forget to check out Prof Robertson’s blog for excellent analysis of media misinformation. A never ending task unfortunately. I particularly liked:
Aye, as I have said, unionist party voters are warming to Yousaf, hence is ratings rising in polls they are over-sampled in.
2024 needs to be a year where the SNP and its closest supporters at least pay heed to criticism with a view to improving their approach.
Independence is number 2 on the SNP constitution, second only to its actual name, and the main and even only reason, many Indy supporters vote for the SNP. Who actually cares about the House of Lords for instance, it becomes instantly irrelevant for Scotland with Independence.
Meanwhile however, you have to laugh at the Herald’s clumsy attempt to attack Yousaf, with a main page headline that could actually help to get frustrated Indy supporters onside:
“Beleaguered Yousaf attempts to win back independence supporters ahead of election”
Well, most excellent, that’s precisely what is needed.
The headline of the article itself is this:
“Yousaf: Boosting living standards the ‘prize of independence’”
and that is the winning strategy with so many on our uppers, and even moderately well off suffering from the UK Government’s totally wrong priorities (rich dude pals pocket stuffing).
And here’s 2 headlines from the National to support this strategy:
“Scots could be £10k better off with ‘independence prize of higher living standards’”
and
“‘Shocking and unacceptable’: Nearly 250k Scots using libraries and cafes to keep warm”
I know people previously not much affected who are now feeling the pinch like the rest of us.
Their approach must be very good given they’ve not lost a single voter to unionist parties even with all that’s happened in the past year. That, frankly, is quite remarkable.
No reason not to strive for excellence though.
More Independence supporting voters need to vote at every elections. Council, Holyrood, GE. (Ref). If they do not vote they cannot complain.
Why any Independence supporter should vote unionist is a mystery? Cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Herald click bait. Never ending. Trying to be relevant and failing.
All governments of the world are dictatorships, but that doesn’t make all leaders in the world dictators
Democracy if it’s adhered to is about the choice of style of the regime elected
The problem Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland have is that our three countries have no input into the style of regime that England desires because they outnumber any selection we make by ten to one, so when elected England’s choice rules all four countries
Devolution was always designed to be catch but never release
You can’t have any kind of democracy in a country if the majority of choices within the country made by the electorate can never win, because the country you’re in exists in a system designed by another country that specifically prevents that happening
England is a monarchial system designed around the centralisation of power to that country under the control of one powerful entity, whether previously monarchs now today a monarchial government that even admits to invoking previous royal powers if and when it requires extra domination, then calls that legal
Kings and Queens used to do the same thing, they’d just make a law and that was it
England’s system has captured us and refuses to release because they are, how many times do we hear them repeat it? *SOVEREIGN*
The definition of sovereign is dictator, no matter how hard the dictionary tries to dress it up as something more cuddly
England uses the word constitution a lot and yet we know there isn’t and never was such a thing ever written, there can’t ever be because we are controlled by a monarchial system that was only transferred to a building full of folk that won a battle for power many hundreds of years ago, and that resulted in a King being replaced by a dictator who said we’ll now have people participation but the position held by me as leader shall remain
The King was replaced by a somebody who didn’t call himself a King, otherwise all powers remained the same, that’s clever isn’t it
I don’t reckon that’s what the Greeks had in mind when they came up with the original concept of democracy
Good to see.
These child genocide supporting English Labour party in Scotland MPs can’t be let off the hook.
https://archive.is/am06W
Rutherglen: Protest to be held over Michael Shanks’ Gaza stance
A PROTEST is to be held in Rutherglen tomorrow over Labour MP Michael Shanks’ stance on a ceasefire in Gaza.
We previously told how Shanks was among those to back the UK Labour leader’s call for a “humanitarian pause” as opposed to a ceasefire.
He was also among those to refuse to back the SNP’s Commons call for a ceasefire in November last year.
This New Tory Labour guy already cost the party a lot of votes on 2019. He will cost them more.
If you are a child genocide supporting unionist politician, the BBC will sympathise with you and your kids. It will happily publish stories like the below to try and help you get elected.
If you are Scottish, not British, and want an end to the killing of kids here and across the world, the BBC will attack your children relentlessly if it thinks it can it get to you that way. Like say you were an MSP and your kids used your work hotspot to watch football when abroad – again – as this had always been fine, and the work IT had never said it wasn’t. Wee schoolboys crying ‘sorry dad – we thought it was ok like last time, we didn’t know it would cost the family all that money and you so much trouble…’ while the English BBC rubs it’s hands in glee due to the hatred it has for Scottish people / families.
https://archive.is/i0hHu
Sir Keir Starmer has worries over election impact on his children
Sir Keir Starmer admits he worries about the toll of a general election year on his two teenage children.
The Labour leader said he and his wife, Victoria Starmer, have tried to keep their 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter out of the public eye.
If Starmer worries about kids, he should call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Instead, he’s happy to see kids blown to sh*te in their 1000’s so he can fatten his wallet by being in No 10 for a few years.
IF Starmer was REALLY worried about the impact of a GE on his kids , he wouldn’t have applied for the Leadership of a political party .
IF he was REALLY concerned about the impact of his role as an MP on his kids he would have remained in the relative obscurity of the PPS , where he actually earned far more as the Head of PPS than any MP .
So , given that no one forced Starmer into the very high profile job as Leader of the Labour Party , did he not consider the possible impact on his kids of putting himself forward for such a role ?
Methinks Starmer’s career is far more important to him than any possible blowback for his kids .
Perhaps he’s suddenly realised that what various media did to many MPs/MSPs/MSs, especially Mr Matheson and his family, could happen to him and his.
Before the Infamous Footie Watching Debacle, the closest they came to attacking offspring was Johnson’s brood – and that was more their parentage than them. With the Matheson boys, one silly slip and the opposition, as well as the media, (including IIRC some of his own MSPS) fell over themselves to vilify the entire family and wreck their father’s reputation and career.
But this is 2 similarly aged teens, with typically unthinking teenage-type behaviour. Their every move will now be open to scrutiny. And they’re old enough to be aware that just one innocent slip from either of them (especially the girl if past attitudes are anything to go by) and the same could happen to them. It’ll have dawned on him too.
I should imagine that the strain of behaving perfectly every waking moment for 5 years (what if “a govt source” leaks a strop? a failed exam result? a cigarette behind the bike shed? a boy/girlfriend?). And if he puts a foot wrong with his sponsors himself, what’s to say they won’t withdraw their support using all means open to them?
And it’s Silly Daddy that’s drawn the attention of “Public Interest” to them…
I was once told to be careful who I trod on on the way up, because I’d meet them on the way down.
The BBC at least won’t touch Starmer’s kids as he is an English nationalist / British unionist . If the parent(s) of the kids are Scottish and a member of Scottish political party such as the SNP/Greens, the whole family will be fair game, as we saw with the horrific BBC etc attacks on Matheson’s wee boys.
England’s government / establishment is playing very dirty now. It’s stripping Scots of the right to vote based on their nationality and attacking their parliament / democracy, while trying to have Scots Yes politicians jailed or forced out of office through evidence-free trial by media. The families, including kids, of Yes politicians are now fair game. These will be attacked if that can be used to get at their SNP/Green etc politician family members.
We face a super dirty, right-wing authoritarian extremist English election campaign. The establishment knows what I know about the polling. It is perfectly aware the union is totally screwed. It is getting totally desperate now as a result. #Financegate and UKSC totally failed. Not a single voter has moved to unionist parties / the union. Instead, unionists have, unsurprisingly moved to indy. The UKSC case has clearly pushed many Scottish unionists to indy. Increasingly it is only the minority British nationalists in our borders that still back the union. Remember – these groups are not the same.
As I’ve been saying in the national, the rise in Yes amongst Labour indenters is not because of Yes/SNP voters moving to Labour, but traditional base labour voters (2019 and 21) moving to Yes.
I found myself laughing at Sarwar this morning courting Yes / SNP voters like he actually believes these are moving to Labour. Yet the polls show Scots labour have gained nobody since 2019 net. He’s not gained a single Yesser / SNPer, with his own base moving to indy, but he’s running around with a smile on his face at current polling. What a prize idiot.
But let’s not tell him huh? That said, these people are so deluded they’d not believe you anyway. All they want to see is that fictional big Labour lead over con.
Some of the ruglen protesters might even be labourites
Not possible really given that party are already complicit in actual genocide only a couple of decades ago but you never know
Rutherglen’s Labour voters at the last by election election were probably mostly Tory *save the union* voters who never fail to turn out if it helps England maintain control over Scotland
Och well Genocide is a mere bagatelle in that case
An aside: The National features SNP Hopeful Graham Leadbitter touting him to take Dross’ Moray seat at the UK GE.
If the snap in the feature of the man is anything to go by, he needs to lose about three stones in weight before the campaign gets underway.
Fat shaming? You’re darn tootin’.
CAESAR :- ‘Let me have men about me that are fat, Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much.’
We need ‘lean and hungry’ candidates.
Pot bellies and double chins don’t win votes.
These are the details, the public perception, that are as crucial as policies and hearts and minds initiatives which will sway the undecided.
On Michael Shanks’, and indeed all Brit Jock politicians’ tacit approval of Israel slaughtering children, I challenge the Rutherglen Mickey Come Lately to pay a visit to his old school this week.
I’d imagine that his former outraged pupils would drive him out of the school gates.
On Starmer, worried that his teenage children be shielded from the glare of political battle, perhaps he can explain to them why Peter Mandelson, friend of Jeffrey Epstein and who stayed in the convicted paedophile’s Manhatten apartment (the One No Sweat Andrew used) , and holidayed on board Russian Billionaires’ yachts, has been hired as his Wing Man?
We note that Sarwar is exhorting Independence supporters to vote New New Labour next time round?
The millionaire dentist, who will privatise the NHS, charge for prescriptions, introduce University tuition fees, charge tolls on our roads and bridges, allow an invading power to park its WMDs and armed forces in our land, and stand by silently while Israel reduces Gaza to rubble and drive 2 million fellow Semites into the sea….oh, and continue to cut welfare services to our most vulnerable..
Fuck off, New New Labour.
Rant over.
My thoughts are with you, at this time, Paul.
We still cherish lives..unlike some.
I am raging at these Scots based Unionists, selling their souls for English gold.
May they rot in their belief system’s version of hell.
I repeat; to SNP hopefuls..lose the fat…
Rutherglen by election turnout 37%
Independence supporters need to get out and vote. If they want Independence.