Last week was one of the most eventful weeks in Scottish politics in many a long year. We lost one of the national movements greats in Winnie Ewing. The day previously to her demise the party she was integral in building was threatening to remove the whip from her son Fergus. To people like myself that were in the party from the 60s and 70s this seemed almost surreal!
The former First Minister was calling press conferences oftener than she did during covid. She assembled the gutter press outside her part-time home she shares occasionally with a Mr Peter Murrell to ask the press to stop bothering her neighbours, D’oh!
Her second presser which coincided with the Alba legal opinion on the Supreme Court decision of November 2022 on an independence referendum by Professor Mccorquodale at Westminster (A coincidence I am sure, NOT!) ended with her throwing her husband under the bus regarding the fraud investigation into the SNP finances.
On Saturday the long planned AUOB Bannockburn march and rally took place with an estimated 6,000 independence supporters participating in commemorating the battle but also supporting calls for independence. This support of independence garnering itself in a Scotland United Campaign. To put simply this entails having a single pro independence candidate in each Westminster constituency in next years UK General Election.
The strategy is simple and sensible. It cannot in anyway be thwarted by Westminster interference. It cannot be called illegal by the English Imperialists parties or their little House Jock helpers in Scotland. Sure they will scream and rant and throw copious amounts of toys out of their English Imperialists prams. However, they cannot prevent it in any way.
It will maximise the Scottish Independence vote throughout the nation and in itself it will be a defacto referendum. It will unite the entire pro-independence movement and ensure that the unionists are wrongfooted. The movement will be fighting on ground of its own choosing and while the House Jock Parties are fighting to get their English leaders into the big boys house in Downing Street, Scotland will be fighting for self-determination.
I disagree with those that believe the media will ignore this move and concentrate as always on the election as it matters to England only. Their arrogance and sense of self-entitlement over Scotland and Scottish resources will force them to report on these pesky Scots undermining their great English General election.
In Scotland the party that will benefit most from this tactic will be the SNP. What has become apparent over the past months is that successive polling shows that while independence is sitting at 52-53% support for the SNP is languishing in the middle to high 30s. These polls indicate that the SNP could lose upwards of 30 of their present seats. Fighting an election on a single line manifesto has another benefit for the SNP. It means that they do not have to spend the entire campaign defending their terrible handling of their Scottish governance. It cannot be denied that under Sturgeon there is not a single area of devolved issues that has improved during her tenure.
So for Scottish independence supporters we have a win-win situation, what’s not to like? Well, apparently all of it! While the 6,000 Scottish patriots were marching from Stirling to Bannockburn around 800 SNP members, MPs, MSPs, Councillors and their staff were holding a so-called special conference in Dundee. Why the party chose the same day as Bannockburn can only be speculated. It certainly was not done as a means to unify the YES Movement that so nearly won us our independence in 2014!
Everyone interested in Scotland’s Constitutional future friend and foe alike were waiting to hear the deliberations from this tiny but influential gathering. It resulted in joy for the unionists and dismay for the independence supporters.
Spin as they might try even the SNP sheeple had trouble in sounding enthusiastic after Humza finished his incoherent mibbes aye, mibbes naw, mibbes sometime gobbledegook It was a speech full of word salad and clichés trying to disguise the bullshit. Post conference one of the few intelligent SNP spads, Kevin Pringle struggled to make sense of Humza’s ‘plan to the waiting press.
Humza started off his speech saying “a vote for the SNP is a vote for Scotland to become an independent country.”
However, within hours he was changing his tune to :-
Mr Yousaf told the BBC: “I’m not saying to you if we win that general election, Scotland suddenly becomes independent.
“What I’m saying to you is that through a democratic, lawful means, we begin negotiation with the UK government on how to give that proposition democratic effect.”
To others he said, if the party won a majority of seats north of the border he would press the UK government for powers to hold a second referendum.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-65998210
https://news.sky.com/story/snp-leader-humza-yousaf-accused-of-putting-partys-general-election-independence-bid-on-steroids-12909353
Therefore, when Scots go to the polls in 2024 confusion will reign. Is a vote for the SNP, a vote for, independence or a vote to once again ask for a Section 30 which the highest court in the land has ruled as illegal? What about the 12-14% of Scottish voters that support independence but not the SNP? Most of them stopped supporting the SNP because of the stupidity of continually asking the Brits for a Section 30! They can see the futility of that approach. Why would anyone think they would turn out to vote for a refusal yet again?
With 48 MPs Westminster ignored Scotland why if the polls are to be believed would they listen to the SNP with 15-20 seats and 39% of the vote? If the SNP will not unite the movement in a Scotland United strategy why should the Alba and ISP Parties, not field Westminster candidates offering voters their prospectus reducing the SNP vote further?
Is there anyone left in the SNP that can take Humza aside and give him a reality check? It does not take a political scientist to understand that the strategy, if you can call it that outlined by Humza at Dundee is a disaster waiting to happen!
Scotland United is the only way the SNP can stop what will be an electoral disaster in 2024. For appearances the unionists are feigning outrage that Mr Yousaf is talking independence when Scotland is in such dire straits! Inwardly they must be rubbing their hands at the stupidity announced on Saturday in Dundee.
Our imperial masters know that if this remains SNP tactics then the union is safe for at least another decade. Like 2017 when the SNP ran the worst ever election campaign and 500,000 pro-independence supporters stayed at home next year’s carnage will look like a great result in comparison. It will undoubtedly, and belatedly lead to Humza’s sacking and a huge rebuild will be necessary. It is also more than likely guarantee that the SNP will lose its status as the pre-eminent party of Scottish independence.
My advice to those left in the SNP that truly desire independence either immediately bang some sense into your leadership or find a new vehicle to fight for independence. That same message applies even more so to the sitting members at Holyrood and Westminster. Do not sit around eyes closed fingers crossed in the hope that some miracle will happen. It wont!
The only sensible course of action is a Scotland United Campaign. Even the dogs in the street know that! Stop with the tribalism and start with some realism! Humza pick up the phone and speak to Alex Salmond. Do not make the same mistakes as your predecessor did at Holyrood 2021 and at the Council elections a year later.
The SNP cannot ever win Scotland’s freedom on its own. You need to unite the clans! As Del Trotter would say, ‘you know it makes sense.’ You are in the last chance saloon don’t be stupid or stubborn. Scotland United cannot be defeated! SNP alone will be crushed!
It is quite deliberate. Leave things as foggy as possible. A five-year stint in opposition would not be a bad outcome in their book. The SNP has no intention of ever going for independence. Ever. Confrontation is inevitable but they want to avoid that like the plague. None of them history buffs, then? Yes, a Scotland United campaign. Leave the SNP and Greens to crash. However, a wee word of caution: we must be ready, in every constituency in Scotland, to fight to win, regardless of the SNP. We must have a central bank set-up ready to go, and the currency issue settled. Build it and they will come. Cliche, but apposite.
I agree Lorna we cannot wait any longer. Contrary to the SNP drones bleating about Bad Alba they have 3 times in 3 years offered unity to the SNP each time it has been rejected outof hand. Hell mend them
Thanks you, Roddy, for this good sense. It is now obvious that if the SNP is unwilling, as it seems, to agree to a Scotland United aproach, it is signing its own Death Warrant.
Unfortunately that will also be hugely damaging to Scotland and our people as Unionist parties may get a majority to impose their policies on us, with no elected opposition.
How do we get them to see this reality?
Humza may be a hamfisted half-wit but he’s surely not as stupid as his incoherent ramblings make out.
It simply must be intentional: he and his circle of pals and mates that constitute his cabinet, advisors and speechwriters have not now settled for salvaging what they can in the form of devolution and are abandoning/have abandoned any meaningful efforts in support of Scotland’s Cause.
No I think the ham fisted half-wit is the reality. Humza is playing at the role just as he dressed in scrubs as Health Secretary and played the Train Guard when Transport Secy. The SNP leadership are in a bubble of their own making that is why they block us out we by telling them the reality ruin their pretend world.Thus is compounded by the fact they have appointed family and friends as their spads abd advisors. There are none with an ounce of political core but lots of family money has been earned
The SNP are comprised, the British state security services have taken over control of the leadership of the party , the SNP highracy are playing the old colonial game of string the natives along ,playing us for fools. We must ditch the quisling vichy colonial SNP administration who put a spanner in the works at every oppurtunity. We must now go for a Scotland United approach to the next election. (Without the SNP, who will only betrayal us again after a successful majority vote).
We need independence now more than ever, those who say wait or now is not the time,
secretly dont what independence now or at anytime in the future.
It’s time to wake up to trusting the same old SNP deadbeats.
Certainly, a great deal occurred last week.
The confused messaging from NuSNP’s Dundee rally could at best, be described as “constructive ambiguity”.
Where words are substantively meaningless, best to concentrate on deeds.
For me, the most significant development last week was the SNP wholeheartedly throwing itself behind a Believe in Scotland ™️ march in September. This act all but confirmed a rejection of All Under One Banner by NuSNP.
I regard this as a pivotal event because the first reaction of any cult that runs into difficulties is to isolate its members from “bad influences in the outside world”.
The People’s Temple relocated to Guyana, the Manson Family moved to Death Valley, Heaven’s Gate and The Workers’ Institute for Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought holed themselves up in a communal building.
As the cult leaders are challenged they invariably respond with isolationism and expulsions. A shrinking bandwidth of “acceptable thought” coupled with manipulative psychological games to trap the cult rank-and-file within the “embrace of the family”.
Crucially here, the SNP rejected All Under One Banner without reciprocation. Total, unquestioned control is an existential prerequisite for the clique that controls the SNP. Apparently, Believe in Scotland ™️ are a de facto front for the tiny, paranoid faction that plays Humza like a marionette.
It is not lost on many of us the man that heads up BIS is a devout British Liberal Party man.
I’m certainly planning to take part in the BIS independence march in Edinburgh, and I hope that the majority of yessers who marched in Glasgow and Stirling will also take part in the spirit of Scotland United. Won’t it be great to see a sea of saltires, SNP banners, Alba flags, and Salvo banners filling the Royal Mile.
I think attending would give credence to the nonsense that was uttered from the Dundee stage. The SNP have chosen a go alone strategy, then so be it.It is their Charge of the Light Brigade moment,let them enjoy it.
I agree, AUOB have their own Edinburgh march & rally organised for October. This September ‘pretendy’ march by Believe in Scotland is so that Yousaf and his cabal can claim that the grassroots movement is now supporting him and the SNP. Not turning out for this but then supporting AUOB in October will burst that myth.
If there is a Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election soon, after the recall petition receives enough signatures, I hope all true independence supporters abstain from voting for the SNP candidate. And I hope Humza Yousaf and his do-nothing-for-independence cronies get the bloodiest of bloody noses.
Whenever the next ballot box test comes that is exactly what will happen
If their is a split between Mr & Mrs Murrell, I would presume Mr Murrell has more dirt on her than she does on him. All I’d say is watch this pace.
She took over the SNP ruined it and then passed it to Humza who he believes she’s a friend, one day I hope he’ll realize that Sturgeon threw him to the dogs.
One thing is certain in the Murrell family and that’s fraud was the core policy not Independence if you’ve to believe what you hear in the press.
One must ask this.
Why would an SNP, a party who these last 8 years ipso facto blocked independence, and whose poliyical popularity is now collapsing, absolutely hate the wider indepence supporters.
Without doubt it is because, as the last eight years have shown, the SNP is anti independence and a trogan horse to wreck the drive to independence.
And for that reason, that absolutely supreme reason, the SNP must be totally eclipsed.
No half measures. Eclipsed, destroyed, extinguished and replaced is what’s required and Scotland United candidates are the way to go.
Last weekend’s example of 6,000 patriots marching at Bannockburn whilst only around 800 or actually less, attended a lame duck SNP so called big event reinforces exactly what the SNP now are……….. an imploding, collapsing, once was independence supporting, but now independence hostile party in the pay of the establishment.