Scotland’s fastest growing political party ALBA will today (Saturday) host its first ever policy conference just one week after it’s official launch. The virtual conference will bring together ALBA’s 32 candidates from across Scotland. Alex Salmond will deliver a Keynote Speech on the pathway to an Independence Supermajority. The conference will then go on to adopt a policy position paper on Women and Equality and discuss draft policy positions on the Economic Recovery from Covid and Education.
In his keynote speech Alex Salmond, party leaders will state:
“To sum up the week
“I rather liked our founder Laurie Flynn’s statement of yesterday that in one single week we had surpassed the membership total of the Liberal Democrats who had been working at it, in various disguises, for 150 years.
“Our real achievement, however, has been to bring into place 32 candidates of talent and diversity the length and breadth of the country. Today we start to provide the policy framework to define our message.
“Arithmetically our argument for the independence #Supermajority is unassailable. More MSPs supporting independence -What’s not to like?
“Of course some people say they don’t but why should colleagues not want there to be a #Supermajority- why would they rather that the Indy numbers be lighter so that the unionists numbers can be heavier.
“That is a ridiculous posturing for any independence supporter caused by the realisation that SNP votes on the regional list are the ultimate wasted votes.
“The reality is as follows:
“The cause of Scottish independence is beyond Party.
“It is proper to recognise that, for most of the century where Scottish self-government has been pursued on a political canvas, the heavy lifting has been done by the Scottish National Party.
“However the cause of independence has never been the SNP’s sole preserve – they hold no arbitrary authority over it.
“One thinks of the Scottish Covenant movement in the post war period
“And then there is the cross party, Claim of Right which the SNP participated in and the Scottish Constitutional Convention which the SNP did not.
“Most importantly and most recently there was the broad-based YES campaign of the summer of 2014 which propelled the independence case forward in a fashion never achieved before. That was not the preserve of the SNP and if I would suggest one recent political movement which most resembles our new party I would say it was the YES campaign of summer of 2014 now reborn in political form in the ranks of ALBA.
“At today’s conference we engage in the policy debate to indicate the “Scotland We Seek”. The debates today on economic recovery from Covid, on education, on women and equality are the very life blood of a quality election campaign.
“As our thinking comes forward on these matters and on the Constitution of an independent Scotland, on Scotland’s place in Europe and the world, and on the practical answers to hard questions on the currency, on borders and on the transition to freedom then Alba will make our mark on this election.
“The mainstream media tell us that the people don’t want to talk about independence.
“They are wrong.
“Not only do people want to talk about it they want the assurance that the thinking has been done to provide the framework from which we can build an independent country.
“That is what Alba will inject into this election and as we articulate these views with positivity, with clarity and with substance then we will make a substantial contribution to the noblest cause of all, the cause of the independence of our country”.
#Alba
Some of us are old enough to remember when Alex Salmond and Kenny Macaskill set up organisations like THE SCOTTISH SOCIALIST SOCIETY and THE SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE PROPERTY TRUST, at a time in the 1980s when they were both out of the SNP and badly needed vehicles for their own egos.
The “elephants” among us will also recall what happened to those entities once they had served Salmond’s and Macaskill’s purpose! “Snaw aff a dyke”, springs to minf!
I have no doubt that history will repeat itself with this latest ego trip!
Oh dear, oh dear the playing the man continues from the SNP faithful. I blame the party leader for all the nastiness.The SNP wish for a majority rests with the Alba Party they better hope their constant smearing and sneering doesn’t backfire.
Kellie, I would imagine to some extent, ego is a factor, but, all commentators should remember that the call for a new party was very much as grassroots phenomenon. It wasn’t a case of a number of former SNP personalities setting up a party; it was the case that a party was on the look-out for these personalities. Your response, and the response of so many others, Unionists and SNP/YES supporters, to the rise of Alba is totally misplaced.
Despair and a move away from the SNP was happening long before Mr Salmond’s case came to trial. It had nothing whatsoever to do with him. It had to do with inertia on independence, so-called ‘progressive’ policies that were the most regressive seen in Scotland for many a long day and with a creeping sense of entitlement.
The young will always take over from the older ones, and that is right and proper; it is Mother Nature’s way. However, I cannot recall a time in Western history when excessive sexual licence, identity politics and the blurring of the demarcation lines of human expectations has ever heralded anything but disaster and collapse. I’m not a Conservative or even all that conservative, but I have studied periods of societal collapse, and they all have these elements in common.
We can get back to an equilibrium where people’s human and civil rights are not threatened, but that will take effort and empathy. I do believe that regaining our independence and rebuilding our country will achieve this to a great extent, albeit the elements of radicalism have been sown throughout the West are still there. Western liberalism and democracy are worth having, but, sometimes, you have to be alert to undermining from within. I think that, on this level, as well as on others, the SNP has lost its way.
If Alba can pull things round to put Scotland on a normal footing with forming a strong opposition to some of the most divisive SNP policies, but also on an independence footing that can force the SNP to pull itself out of the inertia on this topic, so much the better, and we can stand as an example to other countries, even England, by creating a constitution worthy of the name.
Kellie, some of us are old enough to remember when the SNP stood for Scottish independence.
Good idea! Give the BBC, ITV, Ch 4, and all the media a field day. Independence has probably lost a a few million floating voters. What was Salmond thinking when he said his Once in a generation comment? Another gift to the Brit press! I’ll give both votes to SNP. They are the party who’ve campaigned so hard to get us this close to Independence! If we lose this time, it will down to the so called Alba party. The unionists will have divided and ruled.
Unionist drivel, but you know that.
The SNP with their dogmatic edict vote snp1&2 one size fits all. The last time 2016 they got 4 list seats with 900K votes going to waste, this time the polls forecast even stronger constituency results so even less list seats for over 1 MILLION VOTES, it’s the SNP that are losing voters votes, folk died to get the vote many of them women.
My youngest who is as they say a smart cookie with his own businesses and completely apolitical asked me out of the blue yesterday whether l was still supporting Sturgeon ( note surgeon not independence ) .l asked him why he posed that question and his reply was that he watched a bit of the Fm’s testimony to committee and concluded very quickly that she was lying .He was indifferent to Eck but did say that the continued innuendo on his settled course case he found utterly distasteful .His wife ( again a go getter ) jumped in to say that Sturgeon looked mega stressed on the leaders debate with poor body language and demeanour .The bottom line for them was yes they supported self determination but had smelled a rat with the FM which l think might be a more widespread viewpoint than the SNP hierarchy think .
Aye, The Trolls for the British State have had their instructions and they are out in force. They thought it was all over. It ISN’T now.
If as people on both sides of the Alex and Nicola side show stopped and thanked what is at stake here it’s our kids future not Alex and Nicola there future is already secure. I’d ask one question why is Alex Salmond seeking to now split the vote when he advocated in 2011 both votes SNP and he got a majority which led to the Indy referendum so why in 2016 we split the vote and lost our majority would we now split the vote again I’ve seen all the charts and listened to all the bloggers supporting a vote for Alba is a vote for a super majority when in fact it will only reduce the greens by 2 seats the SNP by 2/4 seats and if lucky give Alba 1 seat and surprise surprise it would be Alex Salmond that would win that seat. The SNP and the independence parties would loose there majority and independence would be as dead as a Dido for the next 30 / 40 years now ask yourself why the MSM are singing Alex and Albas praises when 18 months ago they had the man guilty and hanged before he had even had a trial. Simple they promote Alex and Alba as splitting the vote means no super majority and the death of independence and a one British state so I’d advise all the people promoting Alba to think long and hard about where you cast your vote as it might be the last vote you get in a Scottish general election as the unionists are out to kill devolution and your hopes of ever leaving there corrupt union.
You really should educate yourself on the voting system for Holyrood before making such incorrect comments. In 2016 the SNP vote rose above 2011 levels yet they managed to lose 16 List Seats. The D’Hondt AMS system was put in place to ensure no one party every won a majority. 2011 was a fluke also to add to the mix Labour were still at that time a force in the Constituency by 2016 that had gone meaning SNP won more Const seats and to balance that unionist won a landslide on the List. 953,000 SNP Votes won just 4 List Seats. This time SNP are somewhere between 7 and 11% higher in the polls suggesting they will WIN ZERO List Seats. Indeed last Thursday before Alba launch Survation Poll confirmed that SNP to win 66 FPTP seats and ZERO List Seats. Today’s Panelbase Poll shows Alba at 6%and winning list seats and it gas not affected SNP one bit. Indeed the ones most likely to lose are the Unionists as this polling shows. So perhaps you need to think long and hard about this. I do understand how the system works and have devoted my entire adult life to fighting for Scottish independence, a lot of the Johnny Come Latelys think they know more than they do, they don’t. I would never do anything to harm the independence cause.That is why I will be voting SNP in the Constituency and Alba on the List will win an Independence Super Majority, remove Unionists and remove Westminster completely from the constitutional argument.
Only today Frank, we have the MSM, including arch unionist Tom Gordon, rallying round to protect Nicola. The polls showing that Alba will win seats, with both SNP and Greens winning additional seats. This goes some way to supporting the argument that there is no detriment to the SNP from this strategy. The ” splitting the vote” argument is demonstrable nonsense on the regional list, but not so on the constituencies. So why is no one shouting that the Greens standing in 12 constituencies could split the vote and prevent SNP success. Promoting SNP both votes was the correct call in 2011, and maybe even in 2016- SNP where not expected to see the level of success in the constituencies as they did. This time they are expected to do better than they have ever done. This is a different political landscape than previously, good strategists and tacticians adapt to the changes, others just promote a route which suits their own agenda regardless of the cost to the country. The latter have both votes SNP as their trademark.
Yes indeed the Trolls are indeed out.
Make sure your vote is wasted is the call. Make sure we retain maybe twenty five to thirty Labour and Conservative MSPs. In fact that is Queen Nicola’s call – she doesn’t want a supermajority only a simple one.
So which unionist MSPs does she want to keep. Can any of you trolls tell us that. Which ones, because if you don’t want a majority, then you need to decide which ipunionidts you want to keep.
( PS – Nicola Sturgeon is the leader of an Independence Party. Not wanting a majority is normal for leaders like her. It’s an interesting concept altogether. Not sure the voters agree, and in fact I think without any shadow of a doubt that they don’t! )