From: Hazel Lyon, Leader of the Alliance to Liberate Scotland (ATLS)
Subject: Scotland cannot afford another decade of failed strategy
Mr. Swinney,
For more than a decade, the SNP has asked the independence movement to unite behind one central electoral message: “Both Votes SNP.The argument was always the same: concentrate support behind the SNP, dominate Holyrood, keep unionist parties out, and force Westminster to recognise Scotland’s democratic will.
The results now speak for themselves.
Since the 2014 referendum, the SNP’s regional list representation has steadily collapsed:
- 2016: 4 SNP list seats
- 2021: 2 SNP list seats
- 2026: 1 SNP list seat
This was not unpredictable. Scotland’s Additional Member System was specifically designed to prevent one-party dominance by redistributing regional seats away from parties that perform strongly in constituencies.
Many across the wider independence movement repeatedly warned that concentrating both votes behind a dominant constituency party would eventually waste list votes instead of maximising pro-independence representation. Those warnings were ignored, dismissed, or attacked.
The consequences are now undeniable.
Holyrood now contains 56 unionist MSPs enough to block any meaningful parliamentary route toward independence. Reform UK has entered the Scottish Parliament with 17 list seats, benefiting directly from an electoral imbalance that handed away opportunities the independence movement should never have lost.
This is not simply an electoral setback. It is the result of a political strategy that has failed repeatedly while demanding unquestioning loyalty from the movement expected to sustain it.
The deeper problem, however, is cultural as much as electoral.
The modern independence movement was never built solely by party headquarters, parliamentary managers, or centralised messaging operations. The energy that brought Scotland to within touching distance of independence in 2014 came from ordinary people, local campaigners, community organisers, artists, writers, activists, and grassroots movements who believed they were participating in a national cause greater than any single political party.
That spirit inspired hundreds of thousands of people because it felt alive, open, creative, hopeful, and driven by national purpose.
Over time, that energy has been replaced by excessive centralisation, rigid message discipline, and a political culture increasingly focused on protecting party dominance within devolution rather than building a genuine liberation movement.
Too often, independent pro-independence voices are treated as threats rather than allies. New strategic ideas are resisted instead of debated. Electoral control of the movement has become an objective in itself, even when it no longer serves the broader national cause.
This has created stagnation.
A movement seeking constitutional transformation cannot survive indefinitely in managerial mode. It cannot rely forever on cautious triangulation, process politics, and endless appeals to patience while support fragments and momentum dissipates.
Independence will not be achieved through party preservation alone.
It will require creativity, strategic flexibility, civic mobilisation, and the confidence to build a genuine multi-party national movement capable of adapting to political reality rather than denying it.
The Greens are not positioned to serve as the broad second electoral vehicle the movement requires. Their priorities extend well beyond the constitutional question, and recent constituency gains in Glasgow and Edinburgh came directly at the SNP’s expense demonstrating increasing competition within the pro-independence vote rather than coordinated strategy.
Meanwhile, other smaller pro-independence parties continue to divide support without building sufficient electoral momentum to break through effectively under the current system. ATLS received almost as many votes as the ISP, SSP, and WP combined, a clear indication of where significant momentum within the wider movement is now beginning to consolidate.
ATLS believes the movement must now confront political reality honestly.
If independence is truly the priority, then the strategy must fundamentally change. The goal cannot simply be SNP dominance at Holyrood. The goal must be constructing a durable parliamentary supermajority for independence itself.
That means openly acknowledging what Scotland’s electoral system clearly rewards: coordinated multi-party representation, not excessive concentration behind a single dominant party.
It also requires acknowledging a difficult truth:
“Both Votes SNP” was a strategic mistake.
A slogan designed to maximise party dominance ultimately weakened the wider independence movement’s parliamentary position and contributed directly to the loss of pro-independence opportunities on the regional lists.
ATLS therefore calls for a serious national discussion about coordinated electoral strategy across the independence movement, including support for a viable second pro-independence force on the regional list vote.
The objective should be clear:
- An 80-seat pro-independence supermajority that would establish an undeniable democratic mandate
- An eventual 86-seat two-thirds parliamentary supermajority demonstrating overwhelming national support and political legitimacy
- A movement built on cooperation, strategic intelligence, and national purpose rather than tribalism and internal gatekeeping.
This requires honesty from everyone involved especially the leadership of the SNP. Mr. Swinney, Scotland cannot afford another decade of repeating strategies that no longer deliver parliamentary gains while expecting the movement to remain silent about the consequences.
This is bigger than the SNP.
The question now is whether your party is prepared to become part of a broader national independence movement again one that empowers the grassroots, welcomes strategic plurality, and puts country before party interest or whether maintaining political dominance within the existing devolution settlement has become the overriding priority.
Scotland deserves clarity on that question.
Because the people who carried this movement on their backs in 2014 did not dedicate years of their lives simply to preserve a devolved administration.
They did it to build a nation.
Yours sincerely,
Hazel Lyon
Leader, Alliance to Liberate Scotland (ATLS)
Ground zero + one and counting.
Every unionist has been gaming the voting system placed before us from the start.
Look at the results , even the Murdo Frasers continue to get in on the list , without any effort whatsoever, without a single Scottish manifesto pledge.
Their pledge is to keep Scotland , Catched.
Impoverished even, we might as well be Palestinians , for all they care, these supporters of genocide, these grifters , carpetbaggers, charlatans.
Locked into politico speke.
The suppurating ,soporific massage of verbage.
vote on it ,then print names of those who say no.
Don’t waste your breath. The SNP knew this would happen. They knew SNP 1 + 2 would let in Reform and all the rest of the English nationalists. They are traitors. They have been infiltrated.
The Independence movement is dead, murdered by this shower of bastards. The ATLS and ISP results prove it. The Scots don’t want their own country, feeble minded cowards that they are. How predictable that Swinney did not get his majority. How convenient that Alex Salmond died in some second rate, European backwater.
Democracy is a sham in this country, and the D’Hondt system is at its very core. Sit back and watch as the UK and the whole Europe goes up in flames in the coming years. I literally could not care less.
Burn the whole fucking lot of it down.
Ken, I live in rural Perthshire now a suburb of London. Murdo did have a pledge and the banners he installed on Tory farmers land: stop the SNP. That was his pledge. That was his offer. Outrageous. He’s been getting handsomely paid for doing nothing for the past 30 years nearly. I appreciate that is how PR works but at least he could have moved on and let some younger Tory take up the mantle.Same in Angus with Liam Kerr etc. There should be a maximum of two terms on the list and you are out. It’s the same with the SNp. Swinney is a famous dinosaur who has no intention of leading Scotland to independence hence the reason he gets an easy ride from the British press.
The Ballot is in for Scotland for Independence. Blair to the Hague, YES, or Blair to walk away Scot Free, NO. Your Choice. The number of people who are registered to vote in the whole of Scotland, is 4,320,981, the number of Ballots cast were 2,298,714, there were no spoilt papers, they were all for YES. To get Blair to the Hague Scotland and Westminster had to be separated, Blair was above the Law in England, there is nobody above the Law in Scotland. I have been working with Westminster and every party in Scotland to get this done. What this means for the election the other day is that the Scottish Parliament is closed as it was a devolved Parliament, the New Parliament will be opened with Elected members from AtLS, ISP, Independent candidates that all stood. Every Ballot that went into the Regional box was for Scotland for Independence, immaterial as to what party that was getting the vote for the devolved parliament. My Manifesto was well publicised across the media, so is above the law.
Thank you to all who stood, and you may think you got humiliated, you won, let that sink in, you won the Independence not the SNP, not the Scottish Greens, but the people that I asked to step forward from ALBA when I wrote them a letter, saying the hand was shown to early the last time, this time we will make it look as though ALBA had disintegrated. ALBA for Independence, Scotland for Independence, what is the difference. I did not ask for Independence, I put forward something they also wanted but could not work out how to do it without raising suspicions, I volunteered as a Scots Guardsman to try and get Blair to the Hague, they knew that we had to be separate to do this and a lot of work has been going on by thousands of folk in the back ground from the royals right across the whole country and even to the voters.
I want to thank every candidate who put their trust in me I said that I was standing up for Scots Guardsman Stephen Ferguson, age 31 killed 13th December 2007, and our MOTO IS NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT, I take that seriously as it is also the MOTO for Scotland and folk have given their life for their country. The Queen agreed not to be above the Law and Boris went out to ensure that was the case and also at the same time got rid of the undemocratic fixed term parliament hence all the changing of PM’s in England having to load the HoL because Blair was the blocker, that got rectified by promoting him to the highest Knight in the land.
There have been a few traps that Blair set, hence why Brown gave the Vow, even if we had won we could not leave then we would have blamed the Tories. That is why David came out and said EVEL English Votes English Laws, he then called for BREXIT so that he could see how Scotland would have voted, that is why Mrs May said “Now is not the Time” that would have reversed that vote and there was loads of thing to get looked at. Even Nigel is on board along with George so when you are knocking six bell off of them they are on our side as are the Tories, Lib Dems, Kier Starmer, the King, they are all wanting the same thing that is how we get our Independence, that was the Prize, the goal was getting Blair to the Hague. Now we can all stand Shoulder to Shoulder apart. Just think we went to war on a scrap of paper, Germany thought we were mad, we will go to any length to bring Blair to the Hague because we are not harbouring War criminals and that will send a really powerful message around the world how Powerful Scotland is. That is why the power is not with Parliament, England was lucky this time, they might not get away with it again.
I hope you took that in, You won Scotland’s Independence because you did not ask for it, nor did you demand it, we voted on a common cause without knowing it.
The only time weve got a referendum the snp needed to break the system and win list seats to get it.
On a different tack has anyone got insight into the Sir Keir Starmer’ rent boys’ ongoing trial in the Old Bailley.
Suggestion is that reporting restrictions are not going to be held post the conclusion of the trial. And if so, one wonders to what extent this almighty rush to bin Starmer may be connected.
Quite why two Ukraniam and one Russian male models came to be charged with multiple arson attacks on properties and vehicles associated with Sir Keir is of huge question of of public i
Interest. Was he compromised?
Maybe we are about to find out.
For Indy supporters, he SNP has been taking-the-piss and getting away with it for years. Most folks, however, couldn’t care-less about that because their self interest in voting SNP is 100% focused on free prescriptions, higher education and the like. People will never risk voting to possibly lose such things, while consideration of the constitutional/independence question, for most SNP voters, doesn’t really enter the equation at all. One reason that smaller parties are overlooked electorally by voters is because, unlike the SNP, they have absolutely no power or influence within the patronage system. In short: Scottish voters have been bought-off for years by the party of independence. They may be a party of dunces and careerists, but the average voter has little interest in such things as long as as the freebies keep coming.