Since 31/01/2020 like so many in the YES Movement, I am devastated. No need to go over the events of that ill-fated press conference by our First Minister. Suffice to say the majority of Yessers are disappointed that we have no date for our referendum of deliverance. The best Nicola could offer was for us to go out and try to convert more voters to our cause. It seems she requires yet another mandate, this time from Holyrood 2021. She didn’t actually say how this would change Westminster’s mind. We are just to believe that it will. Neither were we told how we should convert these soft No voters to our cause.There were no new initiatives, no new brochures or flyers, no new tactics, no new date for a referendum. She left that bit for ourselves to workout. I don’t know how many of us would feel comfortable promising another Independence Referendum in 2021 after the 2020 pledge.
Since the beginning of February I have been endeavouring to do my best for the cause. I have written blogs trying to rally the troops and convert the waverers. I have been a social media warrior, rooting out the lies and liars of the union wherever and whenever I find them.
I have written over the past months that I have adopted a stance of zero tolerance and an attitude of belligerence. Whenever a Unionist Councillor, MP, MSP or troll goes on social media to lie for London, I pounce, belligerence on full setting. Whatever the topic, I am ready with a rebuttal. I have amassed knowledge, memes and articles over the years. Whatever is appropriate and to hand I deploy in the hope it has some effect.I have no idea what else I can do.
The YES family it too has been busy, street campaigning, planning and organising marches. Meetings and fund raising are happening all over Scotland. The Movement is readying itself for action, unfortunately our political leaders it seems are only doing the day job. There maybe plans going on behind closed doors however nothing new or invigorating is being delivered to the movement from above. The British Union is at its weakest in 313 years and yet our political leadership for reasons unknown is reluctant to press ahead.
When regimes fall, the most recent examples have been led by the people rising up, not by politicians playing linguistic chess. When the Warsaw Pact countries broke away from the Soviet Union, it was direct action by the people and civil society that moved the final mile not politicians debating. The Arab Spring had the people acting in harmony this is what brought down dictators.
Now, in Scotland it seems the people are getting fed up waiting on the establishment politicians delivering independence. While the SNP wants to keep doing the same old, some in the YES Movement have decided to take a more direct involvement in progressing our independence.
I have recently become involved in the Indy List Project, more by accident than design. Some people I know and respect decided the best way they could affect change was by forming a Political Party exclusively for independence and only for the List, not as a direct challenge to the SNP.
It would be possible to write several blogs exclusively on the D’Hondt system used for Holyrood elections. The system is deeply flawed. I think the best way to display these shortcomings is with this newspaper headline and article.
I do believe there is a need for an Independence List Party. The Holyrood electoral system was rigged from day one by the Anglo-Brits and House-Jocks. This latest plan to beat the List system took root after Stu Campbell of Wings Over Scotland wrote a piece last year suggesting he might start a Political Party to contest the Regional seats. Its primary aim is to help remove Unionist seat warmers and keep the SNP feet to the independence fire. It will be very interesting to see what Stu Campbell decides after returning from his well deserved sabbatical. His input IMHO is vital to the success of this venture.
I have to say that as things stand today I have some major concerns. There are at present two groups with the same plan in mind, ISP and TPA. The former took the decision to take care of all the legal and electoral niceties before recruiting members or testing their offering with the public. TPA took the opposite decision and decided to hold a public meeting and inviting interested parties to attend a gathering in Glasgow before then taking care of the legal and electoral niceties.
Neither plan was wrong or right. They are both full of people with the best of intentions and good hearts. Both groups want the same outcome. It is just their timings and tactics that are slightly different. They each have their critics and supporters. Sadly it also has to be admitted that both have some that are of the ‘our way or the highway’ attitude. Some people wrongly accuse ISP of being SNP 2 with GRA opposition as its main aim. Others accuse TPA of being RISE/Solidarity with extreme left as their plan. In my discussions with both sets of people neither of these charges are fair or warranted.
Since I wrote my first blog on this topic earlier this month the whole List Party idea seems to have gained a lot of traction.
My views then, as now are this, I believe a List Party that has independence at its core is both welcome and necessary. I think we need a single entity under the one banner if TPA or ISP is not acceptable then Yes For Independence or some other variant can surely be found? It needs a well known and trusted leader that the entire YES Movement can relate to and believe In. With all the mistrust going around on social media, the trusted figurehead is an imperative and also perhaps the key to uniting both camps. Several names have been banded about all I feel would meet the criteria. Is there someone prepared to step forward?
If those things can be achieved, I do not think trust or funding will be an issue. The YES family will support any cause they think will promote and hasten Independence.
I would encourage those in both groups to find some way to work together. We all want the same outcome, Independence. Now is not the time for egos or pettiness to stand in the way of this worthwhile initiative. We will have enough problems convincing the voters to the merit of our plan. The Holyrood election will be upon us before we know it. There is a huge amount of work to be done before then. We should be focusing on that not on anything else.Let us not grab defeat from the jaws of victory.
Nicola and numerous SNP officials have stated that the question of Scottish Independence is not a matter for any politician or Parliament. That choice, we are told is purely for the sovereign people of Scotland. This enterprise is the opportunity for us all to exercise that sovereign will. A Party of the People, by the People and for the People. Let us take Holyrood by storm and put the YES Movement in our Parliament and kick out those that are agents of another country. Let us tell the SNP and the rest of the world, we the Scottish people demand our voice is heard in an Independence Referendum immediately! Let Johnson or any usurper or collaborator try to deny our will at their peril!
This article IMO is an honest and accurate assessment of where the YES movement are with regard to the List Party project. It is my understanding that both TPA and ISP will be present at a Regional YES meeting at the week end.
You echo my thoughts almost entirely.
A couple of things I would add to the list of qualities required in the leader of this venture besides being known and trusted.
Whoever leads this group must also be competent and perhaps apolitical. Someone from the real world who isn’t blighted by other niche interests. And not a career politician. That would really shake things up.
I have said this on other sites but there seems to be the Bonnie Prince Charlie syndrome of getting as far as Derby and retreating because the English were recovering from the initial shock and were strengthening their numbers.
We all know where that led.
I hope the cause is not lost because of the dithering.
Hi BarrheadBoy
I totally concur with everything in this blog wholeheartedly. We ar#ThePeoplesAlliance have left the door open for discussions between all interested Parties and individual and I am assures there is some movement in that direction taking place as we speak. I’m encouraged by the standard of “some” of the debate and have faith a compromise can be achieved. #ThePeoplesAlliance is only 3 Weeks old and an open door to be accessed by all. “We fight not for Glory, nor honour, nor wealth. We fight only and alone for Freedom” and Scotland. Saor Alba gu brath BB.
In 2007 the snp won 21 constituency seats and 26 list seats, without those list seats we would never have had a SNP government and we wouldn’t have had the referendum in 2014
In the 2016 election the snp lost 5 seats that they had previously held, they needed the 4 list seats to keep them in power
So are you advocating that we risk losing the pro indy government completely because someone wants to play games
The numbers you quote bear no resemblance to the actual results
The unionists are going to win seats as long as there are people voting for them, and they can choose which those are. Nothing that anybody in our movement can do will prevent the top one or two candidates in their party lists being elected. Frankly, talking about that doesn’t even reach the credibility level of pure fantasy; you might as well say you’re going to turn President Bawbag into a cuddly socialist.
What we need to concentrate on is getting the maximum number of independenistas into parliament. Now, the thing is, most of our supporters are going to vote SNP/SNP whatever happens. It would take many years of patient hard work to even begin to change that behaviour, and it certainly isn’t going to happen because somebody pops up barely a year before the election and says “vote for us. We want independence more than the SNP does”.
To build that party up to having any chance at all of winning so much as a single seat would take years of trust building: they would need to persuade tens of thousands of people to abandon the SNP with its proven track record for an unknown quantity that’s tainted with the unpopular stain of the far left, and that’s not going to happen in the space of fifteen months. I will be astonished if either of these groupings gets anywhere near winning a seat, especially if they’re competing against each other as well as the SNP. And they WILL be competing against the SNP, because the SNP certainly isn’t going to stand down in their favour. Even if it did, I would expect to see unionist protests that they were effectively the same party as the SNP, and a real possibility that the SNP’s constituency wins would be counted against them in the list ballots.
In 2016, Solidarity and the SSP stood in the list section making literally exactly the same set of arguments as we’re getting now from these two groupings (except that now they’re saying we need more than TWO Indy parties rather than one). Combined, they attracted only 25000 votes, not nearly enough to ever be in competition for a seat anywhere in the country, but just enough in some regions to bring down the SNP vote enough to put them behind one or other unionist and hand the seat to the unionist. Overall, the number of independenistas in parliament fell from 71 to 68, and without the four seats the SNP won in the lists despite the two far left parties assuring us they couldn’t possibly win any, the independence majority would have been gone.
All that effort resulted not in an increase of pro-independence MSPs but an increase in British nationalist representation. And there is no reason to suppose that the almost spookily similar claims this time round will fare any better. And if the same is repeated, our independence majority could be gone, with no chance of a new independence referendum until at least 2026.
None of us, and nobody in these third party campaigns, has the knowledge and understanding of our situation that is possessed by the Scottish government or even the Greens. And our government is not proceeding methodically and systematically without reason.
The Highland charge hasn’t worked since before 1746. The world, including Scotland, has moved on since then.
Never forget, in the old tale the tortoise BEATS the hare.
Thank you for your comment. There really are so many holes in your argument that I would probably need to write an entire blog to cover it. Some quick points this new grouping is not about challenging the SNP in any way and not in the constituencies at all. This is about maximising the List vote. In 2016 SNP received 960,000+list votes and achieved 4 seats. The SNP in fact need 8 times the list votes of the Unionists to reach parity. A good example is West of Scotland where SNP won 8 Constituency seats Tories 1 & Labour1. Although massively out voting both on the list SNP received no seats unionists were handed 7 list seats. Therefore a draw in WOS although SNP had outscored them in the constituency and list votes by a huge number.The reason Rise, SSP, Solidarity failed are numerous. Two of the biggest causes were they did not get buy in from YES Movement and SNP in particular,they then went into a campaign attacking the SNP, not the Unionists.They had no charismatic unifying leader. None of the New Media or Independence bloggers backed them only Bella and Commonspace two outlets that have almost zero credibility with the larger YES family. Secondly the Rise plan was extreme left wing hubris which will be devoid in this campaign. Lastly and more importantly many of the indy blogging community see merit in this project and will likely be promoting the idea. Let us not forget the hugely read WOS were the first ones to promote this concept and may yet become the unifying brand. Should Mr Campbell still be of a similar mind and the different factions merge into one this will be a completely different beast and I am as certain as one can be this will increase the indy majority and remove Unionist seat warmers.
The SNP will be standing in the lists, not standing down in favour of these groups. They will all be competing for the same votes. In what sense is that not challenging the SNP? Any SNP member supporting them will be in breach of party rules and liable to be thrown out of the party.
As has been explained many times the more successful SNP are in the constituency under D’Hondt the less successful on the list. 2016 960,000 only 4 seats 3 in South Scotland 1 in Highlands. 750,000 votes in Central Belt, Fife, Grampian netted 0 seats. If those 750,000 votes had gone to a list Party 30+Pro indy MSPS – 30+Unionists.
The unionist “seat warmers” will be there as long as people are voting for their parties. Nobody can change that except by stopping them voting for unionists.
Not so. The list party option removes Unionists. SNP 1-2 wont
Roddy if a unionist party gets about 15% of the list votes they’ll end up with about 15% of the seats. That can’t be changed by taking votes from the SNP. Please explain how taking votes from the SNP can prevent unionists winning seats in a proportional system.
Hello Barrhead boy,
Have you heard of the Scottish digital covenant? if so don’t you think if this is promoted widely enough then there would be no need for a referendum?
Thankyou for all that you do keeping us informed on the Scottish political scene.
As usual an excellent blog Roddy. The List party idea is a winner, as long as the bickering TPA and ISP can put their differences aside and come together with others in an alliance. It’s not as if they should contest every List seat, just the strategically important ones. With such a strategy there’s no way that the SNP can lose out.
Whole idea is idiotic. The likelihood is that a Holyrood election will be used as an independence plebiscite either in 2020 or 2021. The larger the SNP vote the greater the credibility of the vote.