As you'll have gathered, we're in "blogging is light" territory, but I'll just very very briefly give you my thoughts on the new Scottish poll from Redfield & Wilton. Again, the independence numbers are outstanding, with the Yes camp slightly closing what was already a very small gap, and with a slender majority (after Don't Knows are excluded) still wanting an independence referendum within the next year - an extraordinary finding that drives a coach and horses through the mainstream media narrative (hu-llo Alex Massie) that there is no public demand for a vote.
On the party political voting intentions, the best that can be said for the SNP is that it's not getting any worse for them. They maintain slender leads over Labour on both the Westminster ballot and the Holyrood constituency ballot. They've slipped one point behind Labour on the Holyrood regional list ballot, but that's bound to happen now and again due to the very tight state of play. The real concern is the story the SNP are telling themselves that their "vote is holding up well in the circumstances". That means, perversely, that they're regarding the police investigation as a plus, because they reckon they'll bounce back into a healthier lead once the "circumstances" disappear. That's delusional in my view, and the only question is when they will realise that and start to panic. If it's one week before polling day for the general election, it'll be too late for them to take the necessary action - ie. a change of leadership.
As far as the disgraceful expulsion of Angus MacNeil is concerned, it's a classic example of a weak leader overcompensating by trying to look strong. My guess is that Fergus Ewing would also have been expelled (at least from the Holyrood parliamentary group) if the tragic death of his mother Winnie hadn't made that psychologically impossible.
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SCOT GOES POP FUNDRAISER 2023: This year's fundraiser has now been running for well over two months, and it's been partially successful - it's around a quarter of the way towards its target figure of £8500. Please bear with me as I plug away at continuing to promote it at the bottom of every blogpost, because there's very little point in leaving the job half-done - that would mean continuing with the current service for maybe two or three more months and then more or less stopping. We wouldn't necessarily need to hit the full target figure to avoid that outcome, but substantial progress would need to be made. Why is it a bit harder to raise money these days than it used to be? Obviously it's partly because of the cost of living crisis, but I think the bigger issue is that it's far easier for a pro-indy blog to inspire people to donate if it's pumping out a "purist" message that appeals to one of the two opposite ends of the spectrum - ie. either that the SNP leadership can do no wrong and deserve our unquestioning support, or that the SNP is unremittingly evil and must be totally destroyed. Scot Goes Pop has a much more nuanced analysis that is pretty much bang in the middle between those two extremes. But the glass-half-full way of looking at it is that £2000+ raised means that people still think nuance and independent thinking (alternatively known as "being in the scunnered middle") have their place. A million thanks to everyone who has donated so far, and anyone wishing to make a donation can do so HERE. Alternatively, direct donations can be made via Paypal (in many ways this is preferable because it cuts out the middle man). My Paypal email address is: jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk
Even worse than that, Yousaf doesn't understand the value of "no comment", and that he is supposed to be the SNP leader, not a bleating sheep looking for its mama. From the National:
ReplyDelete" SNP leader Yousaf said: “I don’t understand this point about ‘the SNP left me’. He literally left the SNP.
“He literally wrote a public statement that said, ‘I’m not going to take the whip, I am not going to rejoin the SNP group’.” "
No, you pathetic dunce, your feart and weak party expelled him.
Yousaf says "he literally left the SNP" and then in the very next sentence confirms that MacNeil did not literally leave the SNP. "Not rejoining the SNP group" is not the same thing as leaving the SNP. It is perfectly possible to be a member of the SNP while being outside the SNP parliamentary group. Yousaf is banking on people not understanding that distinction. It's sophistry.
DeleteThe SNP has become a party of whimpering bullies.
DeleteNo doubt Yousaf learned his sophistry skills from the master, or rather mistress, of misrepresentation, his immediate predecessor as SNP leader and First Minister.
DeleteYes Fergus would have been toast but for the timing of Winnie's sad demise. The SNP at the moment is like looking at a slow motion car crash...
ReplyDeleteAnother anon!
A car that has to crash before its occupants realise there’s something wrong.
DeleteThat’s the saddest part of all of this: we are still to get pummelled, Yes humiliated and the SNP thrown out of office. All that pain is still to come. The delusion inside the vehicle makes this catastrophe inevitable.
Healing can’t even begin yet. Let alone progress in the cause which most of Scotland agrees must come.
Given the margin of error and the usual bias of the polling companies, we can assume Yes is ahead
ReplyDeleteIndependence numbers outstanding, as always.
ReplyDeleteJust more crap from an SNP that has lost it's way and depends on the passivity of it's betayed supporters.
ReplyDeleteMore chance of an actual sighting of Nessie than of the Union surviving. Independence is inevitable.
ReplyDeleteThat is encouraging to hear!
DeleteA fair few stories that the SNP's fall in popularity is down to the Greens. While an element of the fall will be down to that, the problems are much more likely to be within the party itself.
ReplyDeleteMy beef with them is their failure to come up.with a coherent plan to win independence, reinforced with my utter disbelief at how incompetent their organisational ability is.
Angus MacNeil is highly regarded in his constituency and says he plans to stand as an independent but as it is a First Past the Post system if ALBA and MacNeil both stand then that will split the vote - hopefully ALBA will not stand against him.
ReplyDeleteAs predicted, it isn't really the Greens that are damaging the SNP, it's Humza Yousaf's leadership.
ReplyDeleteProfessor Curtice has spoken in the Herald.
"If we look at the timeline of when SNP support went down, it was slipping a bit before Nicola Sturgeon resigned and it has slipped a bit since, but the primary period during which SNP support fell was during the leadership contest and with the election of Humza Yousaf.
"And I think the SNP have to ask themselves 'one do we necessarily have somebody who is capable of leading us effectively in future'....And secondly, are the divisions that are now emerging amongst us, the public arguments are these also not doing us much good. How it gets itself out of that bind it up to them to decide."
That seems pretty unequivocal to me. He thinks Humza Yousaf is a shite leader.
The SNP now have to get the adults back in charge.
There's a bigger question of what do parties need in a leader? My take:
Complete focus on the objective.
Assembling a team to deliver on that objective.
The ability to communicate that objective in clear terms to the elected officials, party membership and voting public.
The ability to analyse a situation politically and take the necessary action to stay on track with the objective.
Have a the necessary charisma to be relatable to by the voters.
Congratulatons on the continuing success of your fundraiser, James, I see it's going well.
ReplyDeleteRob here,
ReplyDeleteRobin McAlpine has posted something that caught my attention.. https://robinmcalpine.org/and-then-there-was-one/ He's quite clear about Yousaf being widely seen in the SNP as an inadequate leader not short of critical colleagues in high positions. It has me wondering about the leadership challenge currently under way - but invisible to most. Is there any progress to be shared yet?
And yet support for Scottish independence continues to climb
DeleteIt just makes you wonder how high support for independence would be if the SNP actually had a leader that wanted independence and was seen as reasonably competent.
DeleteYousaf now using language certainly not befitting FM of Scotland. Use of the F word and saying he’s going to p*** people off. This is how desperate things have become for the SNP SG. Yousaf has become a figure of fun and the SNP have become an embarrassment to he country and to be brutally honest, an apology for a political party.
ReplyDeletePossibly a little harsh but not far off the mark.
DeleteAs regards Yousaf, I actually feel a bit sorry for him, with the mess Sturgeon left him. She has done so much damage to the SNP and the independence movement in general, after seemingly been so good for years she ended up a total failure, and as I say, has done a lot of damage.
We just have to hope the police investigation comes to nothing, though I fear that’s wishful thinking.