14 thoughts on “Scottish Prism 29th Jan 2021 – Neale Hanvey”
I just do not understand why Scotland has to play by every rule that WM sets for us, yet WM can do what the hell it wants. This F*****G Gold Standard makes me so mad. And I absolutely can not believe that NEALE HANVEY is defending that route. BarrheadBoy hit the nail on the head with the fact that Scotland will NEVER win a referendum. A Plebiscite IS recognised Internationally.. NEALE did not lift my spirits in anyway at all here..”If you don’t get out & vote for SNP there is not going to be a referendum” WE who have been voting & working for Independence for half a decade & more, do NOT want a referendum, we want a PLEBISCITE.. We do NOT want WM anywhere near our route out of this Union. A S30 will mean WM is in control AGAIN..
Precisely, Kate. Under what convention/custom/law or anything else did the Westminster parliament allow EVEL to become the norm? No discussions. No debates. No passing of legislation. If anything proved that the parliament is the de facto English parliament, that did. The Treaty strictly negates such partisan and unilateral behaviour, yet we are just meant to swallow it and shut up. The English can do as they please, but the Scots, co-signatories of the Treaty, must do as they are told. And the SNPG just accepts that while they fiddle away time and resources on the insanity that has become the trans issue – the trans lobby being the very lobby that has infiltrated and is now destroying the SNP. It’s almost enough to make you vote Tory. Did I just say that?
Again, with No voters, they are allowed to call the tune. Let’s call a spade a shovel here: they, and they alone, have brought us to this point. When they made their cross against NO, were they even aware that they were contravening international law? Probably not, since they seemed to give little thought to anything or anyone else except themselves. Since 2014, has the SNPG done one thing to let that be known to them? No. But we need them, is the cri de coeur. Well, yes, we do, but do we need them to vote NO again, because that is what they are very likely to do, most of them? No, so we make them aware that we know that what they are doing by voting NO, by trying to prevent us from taking our independence, is against the UN Charter to which the UKG is a signatory. We don’t stroke their bellies and tell them what good boys and girls they are.
It is this brake that is applied in saying that we must have a legal route, that is the problem because a legal route most emphatically does not mean a PRE independence referendum and only a PRE independence referendum. That is a lie, plain and simple, and both the SNPG and the Unionists know that it is a lie. Neale Hanvey talks about the anguish of the losing the first indyref. What about the anguish of being in a state of total inertia? By the time the SNPG gets around to holding a referendum – the Twelfth of Never – it will be too late and Brexit will have become a distant memory to which many people will have accommodated themselves. Perhaps that is the plan? Neale Hanvey and many of his colleagues in both Westminster and Holyrood should be ashamed to call themselves our representatives. They have allowed the coterie at the heart of the SNPG to dictate every term and block every move to get things moving. The SNPG and the Unionists are now almost indistinguishable. We are so sick of them both.
Got to agree with you Kate,hugely disappointed to listen to this mince. I wish bb had asked some of the questions he claims he couldn’t ask.
Neale sounds like James dornan too me,back in the fold now a company man.
but that got a bit lost among the numerous other comments, so I will ask it again here
as I am confident that someone on here should be able to provide the answer.
Thanks BB.
It could well be David Harvie the Crown Agent.
I could have perhaps have been more explicit in also saying that it seems there is a clearer view of the same man in picture 5 who appears immediately behind and to our left of Nicola Sturgeon and her chief of staff Liz Lloyd.
a nearly contemporaneous picture (10 weeks later)
of David Harvie on the BBC
“Lord Advocate wants ‘significant reform’ of Scots justice system” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-38639858
does look quite similar, esp the hairline and ears so a pretty good candidate for a match!
You did a great job trying to pin Neil down, BB! Thank you for that! I don’t think Neale truly understands the disappointment with the top people in the SNP or their thinking. Or how the voters are feeling. He seems to think this is frustation with the length of time it is taking to get a Ref. It STOPPED being that. But he doesn’t seem to get there are OTHER,. SERIOUS problems. I don’t truly think he understands about what is LEGAL when it comes to Indy, either and what isn’t! And this ‘gold standard’ nonsense being repeated, doesn’t help ANYONE. There is NO ‘gold standard’, simply a phrase used to admire the way 2014 Ref was conducted, that’s all. There is NO actual gold standard anyone HAS TO follow! But you tried your darnedest to make that clear to him, bless you.
He seems a really nice chap & in the usual political scene, I’d be happy to have him as a MSP/MP, but I’m really sorry – This isn’t a ‘usual’ time. I’m just hearing more ‘gradualist’ talk here… There seems to be no fire in his belly to look for and back other methods of attaining indy. And while I certainly didn’t expect Neale to discuss what is happening re: Salmond trial or Inquiry, I can’t say I was thrilled with his stance that we should continue to BELIEVE Nicola will hold a Ref. I’m sorry – I don’t believe she will & I, while he didn’t have to talk about it, kind of resented his insistence we believe a woman under a lot of suspicion, given what’s happening in the background. What’s happening doesn’t inspire me to vote SNP at all!
I get his point about staying a member & having the right, then, to have a say & force change in the party. 1) I resent that too, b/c he wants our VOTE, no matter whether we are SNP or not, so VOTERS should at least still be listened to whether an SNP member OR NOT & changes considered on that basis! And 2) he may not have family – wee girls & women – who will be affected by policies such as GRA. To insist we stick as members & vote for a party that is considered passing these policies, is rather self-defeating! WHY would we do that? To say you have to be in to make changes just doesn’t work anymore b/c Nicola Sturgeon has made it QUITE CLEAR where her choices lie & who her favourite people are & she & her manipulating crew have tied things up so that ONLY HER FAVOURITE PEOPLE get to comment, never mind determine, the policies of the SNP. It’s done behind close doors, done late at night (see taking it to policy lawyers late at night so it can’t be changed next morning) and done by meetings outwith SNP groups so no one in NEC knows what’s going on. And that woman is not going to make it easy at all for ordinary members to change a thing.
You only have to look at the list seats for SNP now – minority candidates to be #1 shoo in, in EVERY LIST SEAT. This is the manipulation being allowed. This is where we are. And not a peep out of Neale. I understand he may not want to discuss that & maybe it isn’t the time or place, but perhaps he could have said THAT. That there are people working to stop such behind the scenes, opaque dealings…
I’m sorry… this interview really didn’t fill me with any more confidence in the SNP than I felt before listening. I totally dislike that party now & I can’t vote for those kind of shenanigans that are not just allowed by the FM – but actively ENCOURAGED by her. They’re not getting my vote. I soooo wish ISP were standing in Constituencies!
Neil is obviously in a difficult position, however……… there are issues with his comments.
1/ It is difficult for some, impossible for me, to stay in a party who wish to legislate to harm my wife ,children and grandchildren. Stay in the party means providing funding for them to deliver this harm.
2/ There is little point in voting to remove people from the NEC when they are simply appointed back into a position therein. This is a measure of the disregard for the membership that the current leadership have.
Indeed. I have those same issues, John. I have two wee granddaughters & daughters whom I want to protect. My family has to be considered when I decide the value of my vote. So I really don’t appreciate people telling me to suck it up & just vote SNP to get Indy. It’s may okay for them – but it’ll HARM my family.
And you are right about the wokies on the NEC. They’ve got themselves back in by nefarious means. It means ZILCH, ZIPPO, NOTHING to them that they weren’t elected & that the members didn’t want them onboard. They are getting back on by hook & by crook & that can only happen if there are people willing to look the other way. I just find it so hard to reconcile that overlooking manipulation, by the very people I elected & trusted in. The betrayal comes really hard!
I do understand there were issues that were difficult for Neale to talk about, and he wanted to be loyal to the party. However, to be honest, there were things he could have said that at least would have indicated some MSPs/MPs know & understand particular issues are raging. And might have said something to at least reassure folks that these issues were being looked at. It’s not knowing if they are being acknowledged, never mind looked at, that is concerning. We don’t know, in light of Inquiry behaviour, if issues we fear are just being ignored. which brings me to another point ~ the ignoring of communications, emails, PM messages, ‘Contact us’ forms…
The communication between party & members is appalling. I’m really struggling to remember when communication was ever really all that good! My experience has been ‘stock’ answers which has really less than answered any query I had. When I eventually let it be known I wasn’t renewing my membership due to issues I had with some policies of theirs I couldn’t accept, to be honest, it REALLY WAS a case of ‘oh dear. How sad. NEVER MIND.’ Not exactly ‘communication’ or a wish to keep ‘valued’ members. I long since resigned myself to the fact – they only want us coming elections. Outwith then, we’re just a nuisance, a burr stuck on their sleeve that they just can’t get rid of, no matter how much they shake it… to the point they get angry we’re still there & respond with snide, snippy tone & insult us on Twitter…
In fact, I can’t really remember a time when SNP acknowledged the hard work, time & effort put in by members/activists & there’s been no real acknowledgement of that. Certainly not in the past few years. We keep being told to keep recruiting… that’s NOT communication, that’s not acknowledgement, that isn’t incentive to continue working for a party that doesn’t reward by at least taking the members & activists into the ‘conversation’ going on re Indy. Course the possibility is very real and I truly believe that there IS NO conversation going on worth talking about. But even if they told us THAT, we’d have some kind of starting point…
Yeah… sad days. And while Neale was really very nice & trying very hard to be positive, I’m really not at all positive of the SNP going forward… 🙁
John: I left after about two years of soul searching, and eventually, the brake on independence and the Salmond affair clinched it. I’d already been utterly disgusted with the GRA Reform and Hate Crime Bills. The SNP is now only pro trans women, and anti women. I had been SNP for the whole of my life from a very young age, and I still mourn the loss of the party I joined as a very young teenager.
Kate: I agree with you that there appears to be some disconnect in the party with reality, with legality and with plain common sense. It is a pattern. The refuse to acknowledge the damage hat the GRA stuff is doing is very similar in pattern to what happened with the Salmond debacle. Nobody listens; they just plunge on regardless, determined to get their own way, when it become so obvious that something is going seriously wrong. I am quite sure that, if we could pinpoint when the Stonewall Diversity Champions captured the SNPG, we would also be able to map its self-inflicted decline because I have come across the same thing in private’s businesses where they have been active. No debate, no discussions, no adherence to legality. It is really scary.
I’m afraid Neale means well but it is apparent that he is toeing the leadership line. Remember, he got burned by the leadership during the 2019 UKGE campaign for some innocuous comments.
The current SNP leadership has let down its members, the voters and Scotland in the last 6 years.
Regardless of viewpoint on the subject of transexuality/transgender I found NS’ video pleading with a handful of what appear to be somewhat deranged members of the ‘T’ portion of the LGBTI community within the SNP not to leave the party mind-bogglingly bizarre and astonishing.
In addition it is an insult to all those other independence seeking SNP members who expect the leadership to at least try and deliver on its declared primary objective and raison d’être. You know, article 1 of the SNP’s constitution which states that it is the “right of the people of Scotland to self-determination and national sovereignty”.
NS says ‘I don’t care’ when it comes to making special exceptions for, and pandering to, this small sect within the party. But I’m sure tens of thousands within the SNP membership do care … just not for her set of priorities.
There seems to be much passion expressed by the leadership for sex/gender politics and none for achieving the restoration of full self-government for Scotland.
Then there is the evident sleaze, corruption, dishonesty and conspiracy surrounding missing party funds, NEC gerrymandering and the Salmond/Hirst/Murray affairs.
However, we should not abandon the party that has been in existence since 1934 because a small group of seemingly anti-Democrats with their own agendas have seemingly taken over its direction in the last half dozen years. Given current events this leadership may very well not be in charge over the next short period.
We need to take back control of the SNP vehicle: It’s our bus, we pay the road tax, insurance and servicing. We just need to get a confident helmsman and a competent navigator, who both know how to get from A to B safely and quickly, as well as a trustworthy conductor who will honestly charge and collect the fares of its passengers.
First of all, thanks for your really informative and thoughtful work. I always enjoy visiting your site and seldom come away without having been challenged in some way.
In this interview, your performance was excellent, unlike your guest. I managed 38 minutes before I had to abandon it as I was predicting his responses. At one point he said to the effect, if you know me you know my beliefs, well I don’t know him from a plate of porridge and I still don’t know what he believes except in some vague way he wants an indy future but has no idea of how to achieve that – just trust the Party. Change his every instance of “SNP” to “Labour” and he sounds like a good old fashioned seat warmer. On that performance, the heather is safe around him.
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I just do not understand why Scotland has to play by every rule that WM sets for us, yet WM can do what the hell it wants. This F*****G Gold Standard makes me so mad. And I absolutely can not believe that NEALE HANVEY is defending that route. BarrheadBoy hit the nail on the head with the fact that Scotland will NEVER win a referendum. A Plebiscite IS recognised Internationally.. NEALE did not lift my spirits in anyway at all here..”If you don’t get out & vote for SNP there is not going to be a referendum” WE who have been voting & working for Independence for half a decade & more, do NOT want a referendum, we want a PLEBISCITE.. We do NOT want WM anywhere near our route out of this Union. A S30 will mean WM is in control AGAIN..
Precisely, Kate. Under what convention/custom/law or anything else did the Westminster parliament allow EVEL to become the norm? No discussions. No debates. No passing of legislation. If anything proved that the parliament is the de facto English parliament, that did. The Treaty strictly negates such partisan and unilateral behaviour, yet we are just meant to swallow it and shut up. The English can do as they please, but the Scots, co-signatories of the Treaty, must do as they are told. And the SNPG just accepts that while they fiddle away time and resources on the insanity that has become the trans issue – the trans lobby being the very lobby that has infiltrated and is now destroying the SNP. It’s almost enough to make you vote Tory. Did I just say that?
Again, with No voters, they are allowed to call the tune. Let’s call a spade a shovel here: they, and they alone, have brought us to this point. When they made their cross against NO, were they even aware that they were contravening international law? Probably not, since they seemed to give little thought to anything or anyone else except themselves. Since 2014, has the SNPG done one thing to let that be known to them? No. But we need them, is the cri de coeur. Well, yes, we do, but do we need them to vote NO again, because that is what they are very likely to do, most of them? No, so we make them aware that we know that what they are doing by voting NO, by trying to prevent us from taking our independence, is against the UN Charter to which the UKG is a signatory. We don’t stroke their bellies and tell them what good boys and girls they are.
It is this brake that is applied in saying that we must have a legal route, that is the problem because a legal route most emphatically does not mean a PRE independence referendum and only a PRE independence referendum. That is a lie, plain and simple, and both the SNPG and the Unionists know that it is a lie. Neale Hanvey talks about the anguish of the losing the first indyref. What about the anguish of being in a state of total inertia? By the time the SNPG gets around to holding a referendum – the Twelfth of Never – it will be too late and Brexit will have become a distant memory to which many people will have accommodated themselves. Perhaps that is the plan? Neale Hanvey and many of his colleagues in both Westminster and Holyrood should be ashamed to call themselves our representatives. They have allowed the coterie at the heart of the SNPG to dictate every term and block every move to get things moving. The SNPG and the Unionists are now almost indistinguishable. We are so sick of them both.
Got to agree with you Kate,hugely disappointed to listen to this mince. I wish bb had asked some of the questions he claims he couldn’t ask.
Neale sounds like James dornan too me,back in the fold now a company man.
Had too stop listening after 18 minutes, very disappointed in Neale Hanvey, wriggling out of the key question like a . . . . . .politician
I asked a question under the previous topic
“A Guest Post by Denise Findlay”
https://www.barrheadboy.com/a-guest-post-by-denise-findlay/#comment-5319
but that got a bit lost among the numerous other comments, so I will ask it again here
as I am confident that someone on here should be able to provide the answer.
article from The Mail: 27 March 2017
https://archive.is/re3cs
… can anyone identify the man in photograph 7 who is sitting between Nicola Sturgeon and her chief of staff Liz Lloyd ?
Thanks in advance.
🙂
Could be David Harvie the Crown Agent.
Thanks BB.
It could well be David Harvie the Crown Agent.
I could have perhaps have been more explicit in also saying that it seems there is a clearer view of the same man in picture 5 who appears immediately behind and to our left of Nicola Sturgeon and her chief of staff Liz Lloyd.
a nearly contemporaneous picture (10 weeks later)
of David Harvie on the BBC
“Lord Advocate wants ‘significant reform’ of Scots justice system”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-38639858
does look quite similar, esp the hairline and ears so a pretty good candidate for a match!
Any other suggestions, anyone?
Thanks again.
You did a great job trying to pin Neil down, BB! Thank you for that! I don’t think Neale truly understands the disappointment with the top people in the SNP or their thinking. Or how the voters are feeling. He seems to think this is frustation with the length of time it is taking to get a Ref. It STOPPED being that. But he doesn’t seem to get there are OTHER,. SERIOUS problems. I don’t truly think he understands about what is LEGAL when it comes to Indy, either and what isn’t! And this ‘gold standard’ nonsense being repeated, doesn’t help ANYONE. There is NO ‘gold standard’, simply a phrase used to admire the way 2014 Ref was conducted, that’s all. There is NO actual gold standard anyone HAS TO follow! But you tried your darnedest to make that clear to him, bless you.
He seems a really nice chap & in the usual political scene, I’d be happy to have him as a MSP/MP, but I’m really sorry – This isn’t a ‘usual’ time. I’m just hearing more ‘gradualist’ talk here… There seems to be no fire in his belly to look for and back other methods of attaining indy. And while I certainly didn’t expect Neale to discuss what is happening re: Salmond trial or Inquiry, I can’t say I was thrilled with his stance that we should continue to BELIEVE Nicola will hold a Ref. I’m sorry – I don’t believe she will & I, while he didn’t have to talk about it, kind of resented his insistence we believe a woman under a lot of suspicion, given what’s happening in the background. What’s happening doesn’t inspire me to vote SNP at all!
I get his point about staying a member & having the right, then, to have a say & force change in the party. 1) I resent that too, b/c he wants our VOTE, no matter whether we are SNP or not, so VOTERS should at least still be listened to whether an SNP member OR NOT & changes considered on that basis! And 2) he may not have family – wee girls & women – who will be affected by policies such as GRA. To insist we stick as members & vote for a party that is considered passing these policies, is rather self-defeating! WHY would we do that? To say you have to be in to make changes just doesn’t work anymore b/c Nicola Sturgeon has made it QUITE CLEAR where her choices lie & who her favourite people are & she & her manipulating crew have tied things up so that ONLY HER FAVOURITE PEOPLE get to comment, never mind determine, the policies of the SNP. It’s done behind close doors, done late at night (see taking it to policy lawyers late at night so it can’t be changed next morning) and done by meetings outwith SNP groups so no one in NEC knows what’s going on. And that woman is not going to make it easy at all for ordinary members to change a thing.
You only have to look at the list seats for SNP now – minority candidates to be #1 shoo in, in EVERY LIST SEAT. This is the manipulation being allowed. This is where we are. And not a peep out of Neale. I understand he may not want to discuss that & maybe it isn’t the time or place, but perhaps he could have said THAT. That there are people working to stop such behind the scenes, opaque dealings…
I’m sorry… this interview really didn’t fill me with any more confidence in the SNP than I felt before listening. I totally dislike that party now & I can’t vote for those kind of shenanigans that are not just allowed by the FM – but actively ENCOURAGED by her. They’re not getting my vote. I soooo wish ISP were standing in Constituencies!
Neil is obviously in a difficult position, however……… there are issues with his comments.
1/ It is difficult for some, impossible for me, to stay in a party who wish to legislate to harm my wife ,children and grandchildren. Stay in the party means providing funding for them to deliver this harm.
2/ There is little point in voting to remove people from the NEC when they are simply appointed back into a position therein. This is a measure of the disregard for the membership that the current leadership have.
Indeed. I have those same issues, John. I have two wee granddaughters & daughters whom I want to protect. My family has to be considered when I decide the value of my vote. So I really don’t appreciate people telling me to suck it up & just vote SNP to get Indy. It’s may okay for them – but it’ll HARM my family.
And you are right about the wokies on the NEC. They’ve got themselves back in by nefarious means. It means ZILCH, ZIPPO, NOTHING to them that they weren’t elected & that the members didn’t want them onboard. They are getting back on by hook & by crook & that can only happen if there are people willing to look the other way. I just find it so hard to reconcile that overlooking manipulation, by the very people I elected & trusted in. The betrayal comes really hard!
I do understand there were issues that were difficult for Neale to talk about, and he wanted to be loyal to the party. However, to be honest, there were things he could have said that at least would have indicated some MSPs/MPs know & understand particular issues are raging. And might have said something to at least reassure folks that these issues were being looked at. It’s not knowing if they are being acknowledged, never mind looked at, that is concerning. We don’t know, in light of Inquiry behaviour, if issues we fear are just being ignored. which brings me to another point ~ the ignoring of communications, emails, PM messages, ‘Contact us’ forms…
The communication between party & members is appalling. I’m really struggling to remember when communication was ever really all that good! My experience has been ‘stock’ answers which has really less than answered any query I had. When I eventually let it be known I wasn’t renewing my membership due to issues I had with some policies of theirs I couldn’t accept, to be honest, it REALLY WAS a case of ‘oh dear. How sad. NEVER MIND.’ Not exactly ‘communication’ or a wish to keep ‘valued’ members. I long since resigned myself to the fact – they only want us coming elections. Outwith then, we’re just a nuisance, a burr stuck on their sleeve that they just can’t get rid of, no matter how much they shake it… to the point they get angry we’re still there & respond with snide, snippy tone & insult us on Twitter…
In fact, I can’t really remember a time when SNP acknowledged the hard work, time & effort put in by members/activists & there’s been no real acknowledgement of that. Certainly not in the past few years. We keep being told to keep recruiting… that’s NOT communication, that’s not acknowledgement, that isn’t incentive to continue working for a party that doesn’t reward by at least taking the members & activists into the ‘conversation’ going on re Indy. Course the possibility is very real and I truly believe that there IS NO conversation going on worth talking about. But even if they told us THAT, we’d have some kind of starting point…
Yeah… sad days. And while Neale was really very nice & trying very hard to be positive, I’m really not at all positive of the SNP going forward… 🙁
John: I left after about two years of soul searching, and eventually, the brake on independence and the Salmond affair clinched it. I’d already been utterly disgusted with the GRA Reform and Hate Crime Bills. The SNP is now only pro trans women, and anti women. I had been SNP for the whole of my life from a very young age, and I still mourn the loss of the party I joined as a very young teenager.
Kate: I agree with you that there appears to be some disconnect in the party with reality, with legality and with plain common sense. It is a pattern. The refuse to acknowledge the damage hat the GRA stuff is doing is very similar in pattern to what happened with the Salmond debacle. Nobody listens; they just plunge on regardless, determined to get their own way, when it become so obvious that something is going seriously wrong. I am quite sure that, if we could pinpoint when the Stonewall Diversity Champions captured the SNPG, we would also be able to map its self-inflicted decline because I have come across the same thing in private’s businesses where they have been active. No debate, no discussions, no adherence to legality. It is really scary.
I’m afraid Neale means well but it is apparent that he is toeing the leadership line. Remember, he got burned by the leadership during the 2019 UKGE campaign for some innocuous comments.
The current SNP leadership has let down its members, the voters and Scotland in the last 6 years.
Regardless of viewpoint on the subject of transexuality/transgender I found NS’ video pleading with a handful of what appear to be somewhat deranged members of the ‘T’ portion of the LGBTI community within the SNP not to leave the party mind-bogglingly bizarre and astonishing.
In addition it is an insult to all those other independence seeking SNP members who expect the leadership to at least try and deliver on its declared primary objective and raison d’être. You know, article 1 of the SNP’s constitution which states that it is the “right of the people of Scotland to self-determination and national sovereignty”.
NS says ‘I don’t care’ when it comes to making special exceptions for, and pandering to, this small sect within the party. But I’m sure tens of thousands within the SNP membership do care … just not for her set of priorities.
There seems to be much passion expressed by the leadership for sex/gender politics and none for achieving the restoration of full self-government for Scotland.
Then there is the evident sleaze, corruption, dishonesty and conspiracy surrounding missing party funds, NEC gerrymandering and the Salmond/Hirst/Murray affairs.
However, we should not abandon the party that has been in existence since 1934 because a small group of seemingly anti-Democrats with their own agendas have seemingly taken over its direction in the last half dozen years. Given current events this leadership may very well not be in charge over the next short period.
We need to take back control of the SNP vehicle: It’s our bus, we pay the road tax, insurance and servicing. We just need to get a confident helmsman and a competent navigator, who both know how to get from A to B safely and quickly, as well as a trustworthy conductor who will honestly charge and collect the fares of its passengers.
First of all, thanks for your really informative and thoughtful work. I always enjoy visiting your site and seldom come away without having been challenged in some way.
In this interview, your performance was excellent, unlike your guest. I managed 38 minutes before I had to abandon it as I was predicting his responses. At one point he said to the effect, if you know me you know my beliefs, well I don’t know him from a plate of porridge and I still don’t know what he believes except in some vague way he wants an indy future but has no idea of how to achieve that – just trust the Party. Change his every instance of “SNP” to “Labour” and he sounds like a good old fashioned seat warmer. On that performance, the heather is safe around him.
another snp mp looking for the trough will stick to the party line to keep his nose clean so he will continue to make his life financially secure