Stewart McDonald made a ridiculous comment about John Swinney's speech yesterday along the lines that it had "made his heart sing", while Robin McAlpine said that he was even more despairing than last year and that Swinney's leadership was a sign that the SNP is a "failed project". I'm somewhere in between those two extremes. Although I'm sceptical that this new arrangement will work out, I'm hoping it will and I'm trying to think of ways in which it might. So in that spirit, let me make a serious suggestion.
The polls suggest that John Swinney does have a significant advantage over his immediate predecessor in that he's regarded as a competent, credible head of government. But we all know that's balanced out by a major disadvantage, which might bluntly be described as a charisma bypass, and that's going to be an obvious and major handicap in campaigning for a closely-fought election. How do you square that circle and get the best of both worlds? I would suggest you do it by getting the public used to the idea of an SNP leadership team consisting of three people, namely Swinney himself, Stephen Flynn and Kate Forbes. People would know Swinney is the elder statesman, Leader-in-Chief in ultimate control of the government, which they might well be happy enough about, but that doesn't stop the SNP in its presentational interactions with the media and the public putting forward a team of three on a more or less equal basis, thus getting the proper benefit of the far greater charisma and superior communication skills of Forbes and Flynn.
And I would suggest that's particularly important in any TV election debates the SNP are invited to, regardless of whether they're UK-wide debates or second-string Scottish debates. There are clear precedents for putting forward deputies or alternative leaders for those debates - Alex Salmond put Angus Robertson forward for one debate in 2010, and Nicola Sturgeon did the same in 2017. If you have that option, and if you can be almost certain it would work to your advantage, it would be silly not to use it. In particular, it's not hard to imagine Kate Forbes emerging as the clear winner of any debate she takes part in - indeed she could be a real phenomenon just as Nicola Sturgeon was in 2015. That could make all the difference to the SNP's electoral chances.
As I just posted on the previous article, McAlpine is an ass.
ReplyDeleteIt’s spelt asset.
DeleteI think that you will find that during the general election you will find that both Flynn and Forbes will front debates during the general election. Who will front for Alba? I heard that Craig Murray is fighting a seat.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of who the SNP wheel out for election debates they’re going to get the mother of all thrashings at the GE, then hopefully the Holyrood election.It’s what they truly deserve as they have been awful in government, and for the sake of this country they need to be out of power.
ReplyDeleteTally ho, chaps. Rule Brittania.
DeleteAnd replaced by whom?
DeleteOne thing Alex Salmond did well was promote his ministers. It felt back then that the SNP was full of high profile figures that held govt posts and were known in the media. Under NS and Humza it felt much more central, much more like a presidency, so I agree completely.
ReplyDelete" Kate Forbes ... could be a real phenomenon just as Nicola Sturgeon was in 2015"
ReplyDeleteI think you have just damned the idea with faint praise.
Rubbish. Nicola Sturgeon was outstanding back then and it's only the history rewriting brigade who now claim otherwise.
DeleteEven those of us who grew tired and critical of her in the final years of her leadership have to concede that in 2015, Sturgeon objectively WAS a phenomenon.
DeleteTo do otherwise would be to depart from reality.
OK, she was a phenomenon. So what? She achieved the square route of bugger all. Now here we are looking at another ten years before independence is a serious proposition again. You call that progress?
DeleteAnon 8:09 - nobody mentioned 'achievements', besides you. Nobody 'called that progress', besides you. You are getting angry at the words you yourself have inserted into other people's mouths, in order to argue with. As social media makes people more and more addicted to outrage, this peculiar need for sniping, for aggression, for seeking an argument that simply isn't there for the very sake of argument, has unfortunately become all too common.
DeleteJames simply said that she was 'a phenomenon in 2015'. Nothing more. The previous comments in this thread simply acknowledged that was the case.
If that mere observation is sufficient to provoke you to fits of conniptions, then, with all due respect, perhaps a wee bit of time away from the computer screen would help you regain some perspective.
The absolute cesspit that is UK politics right now gives calm sensible uncle Swinney a clear path to GE success
ReplyDeleteI'd be totally on board with this idea - and I suspect Swinney is self-effacing enough to go for it. He certainly doesn't strike me as someone who's desperate to hog all the limelight.
ReplyDeleteAgree, but the Swinney of 20yrs ago is different. So far on the media he has been good.
DeleteIf Alex Salmond had put up Nicola Sturgeon to have the final debates with Alistair Darling in 2014 then Scotland would be independent right now
ReplyDeleteHe was OK in the second one but strangely under prepared for the first with Darling banging on about the currency union. I never liked that idea. I found it hard to sell when I was doing street stalls. An option that required the opponent's cooperation was always going to struggle. I think that was the weakest link in the whole campaign. Of course they may have agreed to such a proposal after a successful Yes vote but they were never going to admit it before one. Our position should have been own currency but open to discussions on the matter and let Darling go into the too wee and too stupid to have our own currency rant.
DeleteSalmond's mistake in that first debate in 2014 was, strangely enough, one that I think is hampering Alba under his leadership now. He - along with many in his generation who spent most of their adult lives without social media - has a tendency to vastly overestimate its reach.
DeleteI will never forget the sinking feeling of watching Salmond's cross-examination of Darling, where he staggered through a series of incredibly niche Twitter "gotchas" about alien invasions and which side of the road we'd have to drive on, allowing Darling to cast Salmond to the uninformed audience at home as a faintly ridiculous figure.
His second debate performance was vintage Salmond. But that first has always stuck with me as a textbook demonstration of the way that social media in-jokes and references fall flat on their face when presented to the outside world.
I see a similar tendency among some Alba supporters online (James excluded, of course). A tendency to vastly overestimate the weight of social media, and a tendency to imagine that a Twitter feed full of like-minded supporters suggests landslide victory for Alba is near at hand.
When in school myself and friends used to cycle to seaside villages. In one (no names please) we asked the Lady of the Shop if she sold prawn cocktail crisps. She had never heard of them. Which either proves your point.
DeleteLabour Is losing lots of votes in Muslim areas in England.
ReplyDeleteThis will help the SNP in urban seats like Glasgow
The SNP have got to do more than just talk. Difficult to imagine devolutionist Swinney doing anything but talk.
ReplyDeleteIndependence Swinney and has been all his life. If independence was easy to get we would have it already. Some of the britnat underminers will have to think up some new lines.
DeleteStimulating times for SNP supporters. Very good leader and unified party.
ReplyDeleteEncouraging to see this blog supporting a more prominent role for Flynn.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin has met Swinney in person and formed a very positive impression.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. A delightful man.
DeleteI can attest to the fact that on a personal level, he is one of the most decent and courteous people I've ever come across in politics. He is also, rather unusually, about as devoid of ego as any UK political leader this century, besides Jeremy Corbyn and Charles Kennedy.
DeleteWhether his political acumen serves him better than Corbyn, however, remains to be seen.
Sturgeon was handed several gifts. Brexit, every Scottish constituency voting to stay in the EU. 59 MPs at WM. That will never be achieved again. Boris as her opposite number and his Covid disaster. Win after win at UK and Scottish elections.
ReplyDeleteBut independence is further away than ever. She failed, because she ran away from confrontation, every time. In order to get independence you have to confront, take action and don't accept 'now is not the time'.
Sturgeon was weak and compromised, she walked straight into a trap. She was a terrible leader of our cause. We will be paying for her failure for decades.
Too negative. She was quite a remarkable leader and was extremely popular with the voters.
DeleteFollowing Alex Salmond's capitulation in 2014 independence was dead as a dodo, Nicola Sturgeon lifted the entire YES movement and raised the game back up further than ever before, not only that she maintained it for ten years
DeleteAre you nut cases trying to blame Nicola Sturgeon for people who wouldn't vote for independence if their life depended on it no matter what the circumstances, did you expect her to do a tour of Ibrox park and every British nationalist Orange Lodge and maniac bigots house in Scotland to magically convert them to supporting independence
you Alba people really are the most gullible twisted bunch of Tory attitude people
Are you alright? She was up against three of the weakest PMs the UK has ever had and duffed it. She will go down in history as the worst leader the party ever had including Youssaf. Youssaf had to deal with her legacy or mess whatever you want to call it: a bankrupt party, no auditors, falling membership, demoralised movement, factions in the party, ferries (yes them), dialing of A9 disaster, and a badly thought out strategy of partnership with Greens weakening the SNP positioning as the party of independence. Plus her memory seems to fade in and out at the drop of a hat. She was a disaster.
DeleteTalking complete nonesense. Even Robin McAlpine wouldn’t go as far…. Well maybe he would but such folk will never get independence because like you they remain on the fringes and always will.
DeleteI was a 30 year SNP member, and left due to Sturgeon. That's her legacy.
ReplyDeleteThen there is the corruption and Salmond stitch up. And as for the poster who said it's not her fault people won't vote yes.
At what point in her glorious reign did we have a referendum? I must have missed that.
She took over the party when yes voters colluded around the SNP. She didn't do anything. That was Salmonds legacy. She then went on to lose seats at the next GE. And lost the SNP majority at Holyrood.
You're expending about as much futile energy on a previous failed leader of a major political party as Luke Akehurst.
DeleteSturgeon is yesterday's woman. Raging at her and trying to re-litigate the legacies of two political has-beens like Salmond and Sturgeon is not going to change the past.
They're the past. You might find your blood pressure benefits from focusing on the future instead.
The comments about Nicola Sturgeon are wide of the mark. She was a great leader of the SNP and we were very lucky to have her.
DeleteHey guys. Now that Galloway is openly homophobic, I seriously wonder if Craig Murray (who I have a lot of time for) is still going to stand for the Workers' Party. Can't imagine he wants to be associated with a party led by an outright, unashamed homophobe.
ReplyDeleteAl Skinner
Workers Party of Britain is standing in Scotland unlike Murray said.
DeleteI am focusing on the future, and it's not the SNP. Don't tell me how I should feel. I have every reason to be angry at the SNP. Do you know why? Because they are still on the same failed path. This is not the past, this is happening right now. They are conning the gullible.
ReplyDeleteThe SNP are letting all of Scotland down, and last time I checked I still live here. I will not be patronised by those who think we just need to forget all that this corrupt party are doing. Because it's still the same Cabal running the party and our government.
SNP activists are hard working and we're probably up and working while most people were still under their covers most mornings.
DeleteThey are also invisible. At 8am this morning I did encounter activists from the Wee Frees punting creationism with two stalls decked out with posters. SNP activists are far, far less active than people from a micro-church.
DeleteCan you provide details of your corruption allegations? No? Thought not.
DeleteIn Bristol the Greens overtake Labour.
ReplyDeleteIf the Gaza conflict continues, the Glasgow seats are in the bag for the SNP
What utter nonsense!
DeleteWhat has Gaza got to do with Scottish politics?
The same as elsewhere in the UK. A large constituency of left-leaning voters and Muslim voters are angry at the position Starmer/Labour have taken, and there are now concrete examples of him being punished for it.
Delete“In the bag” would be somewhat overstated though.
Scotland is on planet earth , unlike you ?
DeleteCharismatic Kate Forbes?
ReplyDeleteFor a wee free wifey I suppose.