Scotland the Brave

March 26, 2021 Longrider General News, Political 24

This could be good news for Scotland.

Alex Salmond has launched a new political party in what he described as a bid to build a super-majority for independence in the next Scottish parliament, which could also enable his own return to Holyrood.

If it destroys the SNP stranglehold and gets that obnoxious Krankie woman out of power, this can only be a good thing for Scotland. Here’s hoping.

24 Comments

  2. It will be great news for England if the free loading porridge wogs do vote for independence. What odds that in a few years they come crawling to England again, begging to be in a union to stave off bankruptcy.

    • Some years ago I worked for a short time in Castle Douglas and couldn’t understand why it was overrun by English people. When I finally tracked down a fellow Scot I was told that the town had seen a huge increase in retirees from the North of England who thought that if they needed social care, they’d get it free of charge. Why not take advantage of a freebie that the “free loading porridge wogs” have enjoyed at their expense? It will have come as a shock to find that the care-is-free-in-Scotland belief is a myth.

    • Scotland “begging to be in a union to stave off bankruptcy.”

      Deja vu. Isn’t that what happened in 1707?

  3. I think that it is interesting that it was once thought that it was really good for world peace and international cooperation to have larger and larger areas governed centrally from places like Brussels. There is now a definite movement towards people wanting to have much more independent and local government and to run their own affairs. The Scots seem to be a bit confused as part of their wish for independence from the UK is driven by their disagreement with Brexit. So they seem to want independence so that they can have the opposite of independence by rejoining the EU.

    • It’s entirely inconsistent to want independence but EU membership and I’ve concluded that it’s simply that the SNP want not to be governed by Westminster. Some Scots have a visceral loathing of Westminster, especially when the government is Conservative, which they think – rightly or wrongly – embodies an English upper class, home counties’ attitude of cliched disdain towards a country and people of which they are largely ignorant.
      Personally, had I been allowed to vote in the Indyref I’d have voted for independence on the principle that people are best served when their government is as local as reasonably possible. Also my reason for voting for Brexit. I dislike empire building because I think it’s entirely unreasonable to colonise other countries yet these days there’s an assumption that we must fall into one of two camps: the Scottish indy, pro-EU, Empire-hating camp or the Unionist, anti-EU, Empire-loving camp.

      • Yup, same here. I could not in all honesty vote for Brexit and then insist that the Scots remain against their will. I would prefer them to be friendly neighbours. Like you, I’m a localist. If Yorkshire and Cornwall want to go it alone, well let them.

  4. The big problem, if I read it correctly, is that he’s still pushing what is laughingly called “independence” North of the border.

  5. Do not conflate the Scots with SNP.
    That is as bad as assuming the EU is Europe.
    Sadly Eck is still banging on about being “green”. So what is the difference between him and Wee Nippie?

  6. If it destroys the SNP stranglehold

    Salmond’s Alba party is to “mop up the Indy voters who don’t like SNP” – his words

    His desire is list PR MSPs to bolster SNP majority, party won’t against SNP

    Tip: investigate before jumping on a headline and promoting falsehoods

    • I am not promoting falsehoods and there is no need to research anything at all. We have enough historical precedent to know what happens when a new party moves in on a traditional party’s territory. It splits the vote. The only question is by how much. If it is sufficiently high, they will be able to have an effect on policy and possibly demand the removal of the First Minister as a condition of any coalition.

      The key word in the sentence you quoted is “if.” None of this is an unreasonable speculation.

      • Yes. The problem here is that you’ve effectively got two systems running, one first-past-the-post (which operates mostly as you’d expect as regard party splits) and the other is the PR based party list aspect.

        From what is being suggested, Alba will not contest individual Scottish Parliamentary seats, but simply tout for votes on the regional party lists. Given that this is mainly where the Tories and Labour generally pick up their seats, Salmond’s Alba party is more of a threat to them than the SNP.

        I’m having to vote for the local Tory (*spits*) in the vain hope that he’ll get enough of a swing from the Fishgate scandal to unseat the incumbent SNP idiot John Swinney.

        I’m not getting my hopes up.

        • The Brexit Party did well out of the PR system, taking votes away from the Tories. A similar thing could well happen here. I suspect those voting Tory or Labour are less likely to shift position. Swing voters who might be persuaded to vote SNP now have a choice or SNP or SNP lite. If they and hardened SNP voters decide to send a message to Krankie in the same way that Farage did to May, things could get interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the SNP being the main party but short of a majority and having to go into coalition with Alba.

          • I wouldn’t be surprised to see the SNP being the main party but short of a majority and having to go into coalition with Alba.

            I’d pay good money to see Nicola Sturgeon’s face if that ever came to play. I’m guessing that the coalition price would be Nicola gets the boot. Salmond might be a twat, but he’s vindictive to the last.

      • In fairness, for those of us who cannot stand the SNP (regardless of our feelings on Scottish independence) this whole thing with the Alba party is very dangerous, since it potentially allows YET ANOTHER bunch of nationalists to exploit the deficiencies of the Scottish Parliamentary electoral system to gain disproportionate control of the Parliament despite only representing a minority of the electorate.

        Although structurally different from the “democratic deficit” they complained of in the 1980’s and 1990’s would be demonstrated if between them the SNP and Alba were able to sweep to a supermajority in parliament while only representing about 40% of the electorate.

        Then again, given their proven incompetence, tyranny and malevolence, maybe we deserve it in exactly the way H L Mencken described “good and hard”.

  7. Fair weather unionists who oh so conveniently forget previous contributions are as much a problem as the Spiteful Nannying Party.
    For once Doris is correct.
    We’ve already had a fecking once in a lifetime referendum which the Natzis resoundingly lost.
    They thrive on the oxygen of publicity and slavish BBC reportage in North Korean style.
    If Natzis were treated as Drumpf was, there would be a lot of rose tinted glasses smashed.

  8. I have always thought that regional assemblies were a bad idea due to the fact that they just add another layer of government along with more meddling politicians all keen to justify their existence. On the other hand, they do provide a stepping stone towards full independence if that is what is wanted.

    • Yes, that is why I objected to regional assemblies. However, if they were truly independent and completely responsible for the decisions they make to the voters in their constituency, then that is a good thing. Distance increases the lack of accountability.

  9. Something I never quite understood: why is it that only the scots get to vote on independence, and not the rest of the UK population as well?

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