What in God's name is a "real Yes alternative" when it's at home? It seems to be code for "any pro-independence party that is not the SNP", ie. the idea is that the SNP is no longer 'really' a Yes party, thus giving Liberate Scotland a valid excuse for splitting the Yes vote on the constituency ballot next year, etc, etc. Well, I can tell you this: I've been to all but one of the local SNP branch meetings since rejoining the party in mid-January. At first I wasn't quite sure what to expect, because if you listen to some people you'd think the SNP have been completely taken over at every level by identity politics entryists, but that hasn't been my experience at all. Pretty much everyone at the meetings seems to have joined the party because of independence. They also care about social justice issues, and some talk about subjects they have particular professional expertise about, but independence is the number one priority for one and all.
So a question: how can a party composed of literally tens of thousands of genuine independence supporters not be a "real Yes" party? I suppose the argument might be that there's a disconnect between the "real Yes" members and a "fake Yes" leadership, but even if that was the case, it's surely a statement of the obvious that the party containing the overwhelming majority of the independence movement has the potential to transform itself into a vehicle for independence. If all else fails, one way that could happen is via the next SNP leadership election, whenever it comes up.
As for the much smaller parties that have been designated as "real Yes", it's a matter of record that I was not only supportive of Alba, I was in fact a card-carrying member of the party for well over three years. Towards the end I was not at all happy with Alba's direction of travel and I thought the scale of the party's intervention in a first-past-the-post general election was a dreadful error. But I took the view that this in not America, and in this country you don't (to misquote Katy Perry) "change parties like a girl changes clothes". If you join a party, you've made a commitment, and if that party goes astray, you don't walk away unless there's a very good reason - you instead roll up your sleeves and try to fix the problems, or at the very least try to push for change. That's exactly what I did - I got stuck in, stood in the Alba internal elections, got elected to several committees, and did my absolute level best to insist on due process in the Disciplinary Committee and to give the party a real internal democracy via the Constitution Review Group. All I got for my efforts was to be unceremoniously thrown out of the party on gibberish trumped-up charges that no speaker of any known version of the English language has been able to make head nor tail of. So it's redundant and bordering on offensive to say with a sense of entitlement that I am not living up to some kind of 'duty' to support the Alba Party. The Alba Party made abundantly clear that it did not want my support, and it sent exactly the same message to countless other good independence supporters.
There are two things that Alba is definitely not and never has been. It is not a participative "member-led" party, and it is not a vehicle for delivering independence. It is simply a fan club set up to give status, funding and a platform to a small and exceedingly nasty clique centred around Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh. If you're an independence supporter, do not waste a further second of your time on Alba. It's never going to deliver what you want. It's never going to deliver anything worth having.
As for Liberate Scotland, they've disqualified themselves from the off by bringing the nativist party Sovereignty into the fold, complete with far-right policies on withholding citizenship rights from "non-Scots" on some sort of ill-defined ethnicity criteria, a total ban on "economic migration", and withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights. I don't buy the argument that you shouldn't judge people by the company they keep, because it seems highly unlikely that Barrhead Boy would ever have been so comfortable with an electoral pact with Sovereignty unless he agreed with a fair number of their dodgier policies. Even during his Alba days, one of his hobby-horses was withdrawing voting rights from English people living in Scotland. When I disagreed with him publicly about that, Alex Salmond phoned me up to say he couldn't have two members of "his NEC" in open conflict with each other (funny that - I thought the NEC was an elected body representing Alba members, but apparently not), but he stressed that he vehemently disagreed with Barrhead Boy about narrowing the franchise and asked me to trust him to "sort it out quietly" in some sort of unspecified way. Perhaps in a roundabout sense he actually kept his word on that, judging by the fact that the hard core of blood and soil nutters now seem to be in Liberate Scotland rather than Alba.
So if you want to lecture people on the need to support a credible pro-independence alternative to the SNP, first of all you'd have to actually create such an entity, because at the moment it simply doesn't exist.
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James, you shouldn't have to defend yourself as an independence supporter. It's also silly for people to expect you to support Alba after all that has happened.
ReplyDeleteI have always accepted that the SNP members want independence. The problem has always been their support for the charlatan leadership and thats why I have always said they need to change the leadership.
In my opinion there is, at present, no credible pro Independence Party. Even if Swinney declared a de facto referendum I wouldn't trust him one bit. He would probably try to undermine it. The SNP had two opportunities in recent years to pick a proper independence leader but they chose two members of Sturgeons devolution gang.
THIS! I have no reasons to blame the SNP membership of not wanting independence, but I fear they are being mislead by politicians who have no interest in promoting it (and who have sold their souls to Israel). Their refusal to offer any kind of direction on the issue is telling.
DeleteIf you think the SNP have sold their soul to Israel, I can't imagine what you must think of Alba's revered spiritual godfather Stew "let's stop being beastly to Bibi" Campbell.
DeleteThe charlatan that let us all down was devo max man Salmond
DeleteThe SNP leadership could have done more in calling out Westminster's support for war crimes. Westminster has always carried out war crimes so it is nothing for them to feel any guilt about but many in Scotland do not want to be associated with the Westminster war mongers. It's too late now for any SNP politician to say anything as they will now be arrested as a terrorist and facing up to 14 years in jail. If they didn't speak out before they certainly won't now.
DeleteWell said, James. There's a darkness at the heart of Liberate Scotland. Usually sensible people are being led down a very dangerous path. An intervention is required, but how and from where?
ReplyDeleteSGP is far from the first site to be overwhelmed by the Wings hordes. They are beyond all reason. If you asked them to explain why they're doing it, they wouldn't be able to. Campbell tells them to hate Person X or Y, so they hate that person without question. It really is that simple.
ReplyDeleteA bit like readers of the Daily Mail, Express, etc.
DeleteIt's insane the way Alba and Liberate Scotland, whoever the f*** they may be, are dividing our movement. Time for them to grow up.
ReplyDeleteNaw. Alba on whit 1 or 2% and Liberate Scotland like you said who the feck are they. They’re not dividing the yes community it’s the SNP that destroyed it , or more to the point the Murrells and the gender shite
DeleteThis why I've always opposed the view ' indy first nothing else 'til after'.There has to be democratic and social inclusion content or the tartan fascist bams will be on board shitting on our new country from inside the tent.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. There are some things that can wait until after independence, but weeding out the blood and soil nutters isn't one of them.
DeleteI've had a gutful of these People's Front of Judea micro-splitters who represent the square root of nobody. The irony is that they attack everyone else for being splitters! They're beyond satire.
ReplyDeleteWe can't blame people for feeling frustrated though. The splinter groups are a symptom of the SNP's failure to push for indy in the last decade of very favourable conditions.
DeletePutting so much time and effort into letting male rapists into girl's changing rooms was the final straw for many.
True, but we can blame people for using that "frustration" as an excuse for racism and neo-fascism.
Delete7.38 I still don't believe they've really appreciated the damage they did with the gender nonsense. The BHA era was an utter disaster with self id at the heart of it. It hasn't gone away. Most of the blue haired freaks are still in the SNP, they're just hiding in the shadows for now. It almost feels like they've decided to park the gender stuff until after the next election.
DeleteI think you are correct as Swinney said that they would start it all again when independent, I believe this was implied when he stopped the Misogyny bill because of the Supreme Court ruling, very sad that they would pass a bill to support the lie that boys can be girls, a real vote loser, I certainly cannot vote for all this alphabet stuff and also rejoining of the "new(nato 2.0)EU, the only way, so they dont hi-jack your vote and say that you voted for all their rubbish, is for a one question referendum
DeleteAnon 6;46 ISP is the party for you !
Delete'Real Yes' are groups of independence supporters who don't actually do anything to attempt to deliver Independence but pretend that they are by constantly moaning about the SNP. To be fair, I don't place Alba in that category as a lot of good independence supporters and workers joined it through their belief and support for Alex Salmond. I know that more than a few have since left Alba. I genuinely hope these individuals come back to the SNP. With regard to the others which you named, they are attention seekers and time wasters.
ReplyDeleteAlex Salmond will go down in history as the devo max man that lost control of the referendum and handed it to England's media to run
DeleteJackie Bird had more authority than Salmond
Which political entity will get Scotland its independence?
ReplyDeleteAlba - absolutely no chance whatsoever.
Wings over Scotland - absolutely no chance whatsoever, with gender-obssession, racist, genocide-denying, fascist-supporting bells on.
As for Liberate Scotland and Sovereignty, never heard of them.
SNP - certainly possible if they eventually get their act together.
Greens - as an assist to SNP, possibly.
There are no other possibilities.
Only the people can *get* independence for Scotland, politicians exist to negotiate the terms not the act
DeleteLazy people in Scotland can't expect a politician to do what they won't, they're not soldiers, they're people with families like the rest of us who the English will target and ruin or jail
The English can't in modern day target a nation the way they used to
Anon at 11.46. You are half right. It is up to people, but that includes politicians who are best placed of all of us to do this. And quite bluntly the politicians have stopped promoting Indy. A clear out of careerists and Gender entryists is essential and because the SNP will not do this , people are having to do it in the only way that we can, by not voting SNP. It’s political self harm because we are left no other option. Try to understand this.
DeleteAch, there's always Sovereignty !
DeleteThere's some sheer nonsense on a certain other blog about the Voyager spray-painting.
ReplyDeleteThe UK has 14 of them leased, the RAF have 9, plus 5 on charter which can be called back at need. These "guesses" are off the top of my head, so perhaps 1 in Poland, 1 in Cyprus and 1 off anywhere, 1 for training and 1 for maintenance / upgrade. Which leaves 4 at Brize Norton to cover QRA - 2 each for QRA north and south perhaps.
This extends the length of time the RAF can shadow Russian jets which fly with transponders switched off invisible to air traffic control; one of the main reasons for interception in international airspace over which the UK actually has responsibility, is for SAFETY. Not a lot of people know that apparently.
So apart from defence and air interdiction, QRA and refuelling actually play a part in passenger air flight safety. Not very pleasant if a passenger jet bound for the US on the great circle smashes into an "invisible" Russian bear flight testing UK readiness after a paint bombing has grounded the refuelling fleet and the Typhoons had to return to Lossie.
The cost of a single engine is over £10 million to replace, maybe £15 million it's not public info. With an intake of paint the whole thing would have needed stripped and some new parts. It seems likely this was ready for duty therefore another would have had to be made ready, and maybe flown back from wherever (Poland, Romania, Cyprus). Or taken back off charter presumably with a large denial of use penalty. Apparently it cost £7 million - it could have cost a lot more, and even cost civilian lives.
I presume you don't mean Palestinian civilian lives, though, because we're not supposed to care about those sort of lost lives.
DeleteI made absolutely no comment about Israel or Palestine so your presumption is as stupid as spraying paint into the exhaust of a jet engine. £7 million of public money could also be better used to save lives. ANY lives.
DeleteBut the UK government doesn't spend money saving Palestinian lives, quite the reverse in fact, so what's your point, caller?
Delete@2:06 AM
DeleteYou are Kaye Adams and I claim my £5
YIR2. You are referring to actions carried out in protest against the genocide in Gaza and the active supportive part played in it by the U K. Don’t be disingenuous. And you are using an entirely fictional event as part of your argument, whatever your argument actually is. The U K govt is completely compromised and is literally indebted to the murderous Israeli regime and its backers. The U K govt is both embarrassed and angry at this protest. Its police force in London is now arresting people for protesting against genocide. Let that sink in. And a govt minister wants people sacked for speaking to truth about events in Gaza. The same govt minister that called for Indy supporters to be dealt with in the Catalonian style. Those are the issues that should exercise the minds of Indy supporters. Not the temporary inconvenience caused by the paint attack.
Delete9.41
DeleteKaye Adams holding the UK government to account? Unlikely.
Hey yir2 ... I saw on another site someone saying that the paint sprayers should be done for "treason", because these planes are for the protection of everyone in the UK. Is that your view, too?
DeleteAnon at 10:13 AM
DeleteActually I'm not referring to a protest against genocide at all. As I said, I made no comment about that.
What I'm saying is that there's a lot of silly ignorance in the comments about it, which seek to minimise the damage and potential defence danger. It would be better if the reality was accepted - and only THEN make the judgemental comments in support (or otherwise).
To that end, for my judgemental comment I think it would be better if the protestors had simply spray-painted the tarmac of the runways - that would have made the point without the real damage and security issues, and without removing £7 million from the public purse. Clean-up could have been done via jankers perhaps, between take-offs and landings. They could start with those responsibile for the (lack of) security at Brize.
To address your point about "indebted", you might want to do some research. A few seconds on google found this - I can not vouch in any way at all for the detail of this, google found it for me, just that I do know Israel is a major supplier to the UK defence industry.
https://aoav.org.uk/2024/the-uks-israeli-weaponry-purchases-a-leaked-presentation-and-the-ethical-concerns-it-raises/
Anon at 11:24 AM
DeleteMade a bit of an arse of yourself there didn't you? As always.
As I said, I think you are being disingenuous. You have at least now made a point, which is that the nature of the damage could have been different and not disabled the aircraft, but in my opinion, disabling the craft was an essential element of the protest. And your fictional example of what might happen is just pointless. Your penultimate paragraph is a bit silly. I have no interest in google searches. The UK govt, both as a govt, and in terms of individuals within the govt, is personally and financially indebted to Israel and it’s murderous genocidal regime. That is beyond dispute.
DeleteWhat actually got me going was this on that other blog, from a poster I previously had great respect for, in reply to an informed comment from someone else I respect:
Delete"Stop with your asserting something as fact when you have no proof of what repairs (if any) were actually needed/done. You sound like you support UK becoming a fascist state."
There's too much, far too much, Saltire blue on Saltire blue over what are as far as Independence is concerned, a herd of grey squirrels.
The only thing we ALL have in common is the desire for Scotland to be Independent. And that's the way it should be.
Hey again yir2 at 1.03 pm ... Please explain how I have made "an arse" of myself. My question is a perfectly serious one (do you think the paint sprayers should be charged with treason?) and you haven't answered it.
Delete"What in God's name is a "real Yes alternative" when it's at home"
ReplyDeleteWell obviously it's a case of 'it's our way or the highway' kind of non choice that they are giving others.
Where they assume that it is they , and they alone, who get to decide .
The ranting of Dr Jim at 11.46, 11.48, 11.50pm.
ReplyDeleteSo at 11.46 Jimbo describes his excuse for Sturgeon and her gang doing nothing to get independence. Jimbo obviously and conveniently forgets the many times Sturgeon promised Indyref2 if you just vote SNP.
Yet he continually criticises Salmond for not getting independence. So according to the WGD logic of Jimbo when it is Sturgeon/Swinney in power it is not their responsibility it is the responsibility of the people. But when Salmond was in power it was his responsibility.
Jimbo contradicts himself. Not surprising though as he is an SNP ultra and nicophant.
mr angry has returned
DeleteIFS can't help himself, he's so easy to trip up into blowing his cover
DeleteWhen looking for a hotel to stay in Islay on hol I was amazed to see on a hotel's menu an item saying they offered an Israeli salad. What !!!!! - does it explode in your mouth. Needless to say I won't be staying there.
ReplyDeleteIncredible that there are people about that show so little concern for babies and children being massacred and starved. The hotel must be owned by a Britnat like KC.
you are a bit of an extremist yourself
ReplyDeleteHe's lying, IFS holidays in the hoose in his underwear
Deleteplease keep your fantasies to yourself
DeleteThe SNP were taken over by a cabal of ideologues and opportunists, who, once raised, pulled up the ladder behind them and destroyed party democracy, stuffed committees and ran out independent voices.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to think some "revolution of the rank and file" could return it to its roots as a nationalist party, but there is no mechanism left for this.
What is worse is we see increasingly incompetent, but totally loyal, young sycophants being given jobs they are technically unqualified for, and this can only result in real problems, with the NHS, education and so on.
We saw this phenomenon at Dundee Uni, which has all but collapsed - the "money guy" didn't know "money stuff" and got installed on a diversity hire because "old white guys that know money stuff" are like, racist, or homophobic, or something.
I agree with all of that. Politically correct sheer incompetence.
Delete