Scot Goes Pop: The Final Fundraiser is underway (you can read more about why I anticipate it being the final one HERE) and it's already pretty close to halfway to its target figure of £1700. A million thanks to everyone who has donated so far. Card donations can be made at the GoFundMe page HERE, or if you prefer to cut out the middle-man, direct PayPal donations can be made to my PayPal email address, which is: jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk
There'll be a lot more trouble for Farage in Wales when he meets a bunch of Blodwens from Carphilly on a hen night in Swanses. Slap him with your daffodils girls.
ReplyDeleteAgree. BBC in Scotland spent the past week boasting about Reform councillor elected on a very poor % vote. They ignored the dubious history and of course does not reflect the strong SNP and Green showing. All it’s showing is tories in the main voting for another extreme party. Still interestingly would Labour support SNP and Greens on policies?
ReplyDeleteHere's the problem with holding the balance of power: you must be prepared to use it.
ReplyDeleteCould a left of centre, progressive, compassionate party (that’s the SNP's self image at any rate) really cut a deal with Nigel F#####? That’s what getting indyref2 out of him would take: lifting him into government, with all the sweeping, unchecked powers of the UK state.
It's a horrifying idea. Would indyref2 in that environment go well for "Farage's little helpers"? The Lib Dem's got kicked in the baws by the public when they got their referendum from the devil. Wouldn't we, too?
Conversely, getting indyref2 out of a coalition of the anti-Farage parties would need the credible threat of the SNP being prepared to let Farage come to power if Labour and the other unionists stick to their guns and refuse the referendum.
It would take a very firm leader indeed to force that point.
I don’t see it. Short of an English majority for Scottish independence (which is just as fanciful as it sounds) we won't be getting indyref2 against their wishes. The leverage just doesn’t exist in political practice.
"Could a left of centre, progressive, compassionate party (that’s the SNP's self image at any rate) really cut a deal with Nigel F#####?"
DeleteChrist no, that's not what I meant at all. If the SNP hold the balance of power, they use it to swing the balance against Farage, not in his favour - but make the deal conditional on a Section 30 order. There's no deal to be done with Farage, not now, not ever.
Doesn't that come to the same thing? If they say they'll keep Farage out in exchange for a S30, then if no deal is reached they have to prepared to let him *in*, with all the damage that would do to the brand. Sounds a lot like 1979
DeleteI don't know why anybody ever bothers trying to negotiate good terms in a coalition deal. It seems they should just agree to whatever the larger party wants because otherwise "it'll be 1979 all over again". Why hypothesise on the failure of coalition negotiations? There has to be a willingness to walk away if you want to get a favourable deal, but the intention should always be that the negotiations will succeed, not fail.
DeleteCoalitions have a terrible track record in UK politics and increasingly so in Europe too.
DeleteIt makes it all the more unfathomable that a BHA2 is becoming a likely scenario.
The voting system for Holyrood is proportional. That makes coalitions inevitable most of the time. Single-party government is the exception not the rule under PR.
DeleteAch well, the Cal Mac ferry Glen Rosa’s already over 7 years late, another 6 months is neither here nor there.
ReplyDeleteYou're right.
DeleteHigh speed train 2019 - no end date
ReplyDeleteAch, there's always direct rule from London.
ReplyDeleteThe Wiki page, Westminster voting intention, best fit curve shows the Tories clearly overtaking Labour.
ReplyDeleteRefUK have peaked, and are dropping. Labour continue their precipitous fall (nae surprise there). The LibDems are on a gentle decline. The Tories are recovering, and the Greens are surging.
Nae idea who controls the algorithm, ‘cause the numbers don’t back up the graph. That aside, plug the numbers fae the graph into ElectoralCalculus, and you get:
RefUK outright majority of 36. Seat projection:
Con 36, Lab 90, LibDem 66, RefUK 343, Green 26, SNP 51, Plaid Cymru 6, others 14.
Broad picture: The right are resurgent. Starmer’s administration arguably wasn’t socialist at all, and even that’s just a blip, followed by near annihilation of Labour as a credible force in UK politics.
England (and a reluctantly appended Wales) drift not so gently ever rightward. Scotland stands resolute in defying that trend.
Something’s gotta give