Being lucky enough to be at the launch of The Alba Party, it allowed me to ask Alex Salmond a question that has bothered me the most for sometime now. Those of you that follow me on Social Media and this blog know how long I have been promoting the Super Majority. It had me falling foul of many independence supporters and some bloggers too. I asked Alex, how do we educate the voters on the vagaries of the Holyrood voting method and convince them to vote SNP in the constituency and Alba Party on the regional list?
I have been ploughing that field for a long time now. Shouts of pop up parties, snake oil salesmen, just another Rise etc.are constantly aimed at me. Nobody has ever heard of them.It can’t possibly be done is the shout. I even tried to get two well-known bloggers to agree the principle that given the right circumstances a super majority was possible. One who has a reputation for polls and polling was first to have a hissy fit. He just wouldn’t enter into rational adult conversation. He had made up his mind and because I refused to bend to his will the dummy was launched and I was blocked.I am delighted to say now that Alba is here is marching to the same tune as me.
Another prominent blogger still refuses to acknowledge that a super majority is even desirable let alone possible. He seems to think somehow it is possible to change SNP thinking with zero leverage or influence. Even an Independence party led by Alex Salmond it seems is not enough for him to see any advantage in a super majority.Just as with some Unionists you just have to give some up as a lost cause.
It has wrongly been assumed by many that I was only promoting ISP2 because I wanted to be an MSP. Nothing could be further from my mind. Those that know me well enough can envisage me in a roomful of braying Tories and champagne socialists and then just picture the ensuing carnage. We would need weekly Crowdfunders for my bail. The reason I was promoting ISP was simple. They were the first Independence Party to enter the fray beside the SNP.
Others truly believe that it must be that I hate the SNP, or Nicola Sturgeon or worst of all I must be a Yoon infiltrator. They just refuse to contemplate anything but voting both votes SNP. Anyone like me suggesting using their regional list votes to elect pro independence MSPs of another party instead of Unionists has to be working for the union to ‘split the vote.’
The arrival of Alex Salmond and The Alba Party, therefore, is, particularly welcomed by me. I also want to pay tribute to ISP and AFI that allowed this topic to at least get some discussion among the independence community. I also congratulate them for standing aside at this time. Sadly till now Super Majorty fell mainly on deaf ears. Others with agendas that have nothing to do with independence have used the confusion over the D’Hondt/AMS voting system to drive a wedge between independence supporters.
Others and I have posted graphs and videos, charts and testament showing that it is more than likely that #bothvotessnp will elect Unionists not SNP MSPs seems for so many too difficult a concept to grasp.They just seem unable to understand how their SNP List Vote could elect a unionist.
It does not help when the SNP themselves are promoting this in the full knowledge that just as in 2016 if everyone votes in the same manner in May it is likely that around 1,000,000 SNP List Votes will count for nothing and elect not a single SNP MSP. Unionist Parties will once again dominate the List Seats allocation and unionism will be over represented at Holyrood.
The Unionists, till now have just sat back smirking at the stupidity of our movement. It really is just logic and simple arithmetic. Everything else is vested interest. Voting SNP in the Constituency is a must. I will, between now and polling day beg, plead, implore, beseech and cajole each and everyone of you to cast your vote this way. I know many of you will find that difficult due to certain policies and behaviour by the SNP. It won’t though stop me from trying to change your mind and get you to see the bigger picture.
I will also use the same pleadings to get everyone to Vote The Alba Party on the Regional List. This way we really can get a super majority and reduce the Unionists to a rump. For every Independence voter this is a win-win scenario. Voting the way I suggest all but guarantees an SNP Majority in the chamber and an Independence super majority at Holyrood. It opens up all sorts of options for the movement that a simple majority cannot offer.Those possibilities are so many and so great I intend to write a separate blog on those.Today I am just asking you to accept the principle.
You have every right not to believe me, some will never be convinced for a myriad of reasons. None of those reasons though can be logic, arithmetic or reality. If you don’t believe me, then believe these prominent Unionists they know I am speaking the truth. Till Friday the unionists were not worried about the outcome of the May election.
Up until Friday afternoon they were looking forward to 60ish seats at Holyrood. 60 unionist offices, 60 unionist mouthpieces, 60 big salaries for unionists to sit and trash Scotland. Five years of obstructing and demeaning everything about Scotland and not representing their Scottish electorate or nation. Their job is to represent Boris Johnsons voters and the English Parliament at Westminster. Now with the arrival of Alex Salmond and The Alba Party, the Unionists are suddenly very afraid. On Thursday their precious union was safe by Friday afternoon it was in deadly jeopardy.
If you don’t believe me maybe, you will believe the enemies of Scotland.
Douglas Ross tried to agree a new Better Together strategy to defend the union against this Alba threat.
Fluffy Mundell has hardly uttered a word since December 2019 when he got elected back into his easy billet at Westminster. Even Mundell can see this danger to the union.
When one if Galloway’s crew is showing more awareness than many independence voters it is really upsetting. If one of them gets it, why don’t you? 
Finally when that hater of all things SNP and Scotland Effie Deans aka Prof. Jill Stephenson can see the danger for the Union you would think every last independence voter would be voting SNP 1 Alba2
This document is being circulated among unionists so they know how to ‘tactically’ vote or game the system if you prefer
Our enemies get it, do you?
The SNP and Alba Party are really allies, not foes, let’s start acting and voting like that.
Jackson Carlaw is on full meltdown about losing his comfy chair.
He is pleading, I mean greetin for the two other London Parties to vote for him to keep ALBA out.
Unfortunately many just don’t understand the voting system. To one person who was confused, but who was open minded, I sent the following link which made how the voting works a lot clearer to them, in simple terms https://youtu.be/u5RvDg8uFv0?t=290
One of the big problems now though might be getting folk to vote SNP in the constituency – many, myself included, feel loathe to trust them with our vote and I had decided to spoil my constituency ballot. If I do change my mind then the SNP can thank Alex Salmond for my vote – I’ll be doing it to help get his candidate elected on the list.
errr… that youtube links takes me to
“Space Saving Furniture Ideas for Small Apartments” !!!
?
I had told my MSP that I would not be voting for him, and would instead vote for a unionist party (who had no chance of getting in!) just to mess up the voting numbers. A week later I emailed him again informing him that I would be voting for him to make sure he was successful and that he should thank Alex Salmond and the ALBA party for my change of mind.
As usual no response.
As a rough approximation it is simple…
The regional list selects the makeup of the parliament, on a PR basis – each region having around 16 seats. However the constituency votes within a region pre-select 9 members from within that region, hence filling or even over consuming the PR chosen places before the list votes get considered. Given that the constituencies select slightly more (72 vs 56 overall, or 8 vs 7 per region) than the lists, there is a slight bias away from PR, such that the a FPTP choice can dominate.
The d’Hondt algorithm is simply the mathematical way of achieving that, and one does not really need to worry over the detail unless proving that it has been properly followed.
So if one party gets a landslide in the constituencies, then to get an overall majority in the parliament, they need to be achieving something greater than 50% across all the regional list votes. By having only one independence party (discounting the Greens) on the list, and many unionist parties, they unionists get an advantage – especially given the choices of policy flavour (Labour vs Tory vs LibDem). To a large degree the SNPs “broad church” approach has also been a disadvantage.
I’d have to check, but as I recall Catalonia has a number of independence supporting parties, each favouring different types of policy – hence there is a natural way for voters to express independence support which also indicating their preference for other policies.
👍👍👍
I have always understood how the electoral system works for Holyrood.
My problem is voting in the constituency for that disgusting woman Sturgeon and her gang. Today she is saying Salmond must apologise to the liars who tried to send him to jail. The brass neck of Sturgeon is unbelievable. Apart from that she is a phoney who does not want independence and has caused more divide in the yes movement than anyone could have thought possible.
Getting people to understand the voting system is an absolute priority.
Getting a slew of additional independence MSPs to deliver a super majority will change things utterly and I’m not sure if all independence supporters fully realise that. Maxing the Constituency and maxing the Regionals can not be done by the SNP. It is impossible and people need to understand that.
With a super majority the Parliament is empowered to not just talk the talk but empowered to walk the walk. Mandated through parliamentary process it will full be able to pursue all legal routes to secure independence be that here or internationally.
Denuded of unionists and with a 2/3 vote by MSPs the Parliament can moreover call legally a plebiscitary election. But the key to all this is a super majority which is something the SNP alone cannot achieve, because it is impossible for them to do so.
So, whatever folks thoughts on how some of the SNP have conducted themselves these last three years or so this must not be an impediment to voting SNP 1 and Alba 2. That is our message and no independence supporter should misunderstand that.
As for the voting system, which many many people, including party members do not fully understand, here is a rather good info graphic presentation that I think usefully explains along with real 2016 worked examples.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bqHnzdgPiPw
Spread wide and far, for it is the message of the new beginning. The path forward. The dark winter of recent years is lifting.
Thanks BB. The wake up call for me was the (only) 4 seats gained in 2016. Trouble was, although we knew SNP 1 & 2 was a ‘wasted’ vote, there really wasn’t any option but the Greens.
From an ordinary woman’s point of view however, we now know that a ‘Green’ vote is actually a vote for Stonewall’s toxic gender agenda, instead of the real electorate of Scotland.
Trouble is there are still many people who perhaps will never vote Lab or Tory but see the Greens as the Indy supporting soft (harmless) option.
Finally though, we’ve got the real deal on offer.
As much as anything else, the quality of people Alex is attracting to Alba says it all. I’m so delighted.
What we need to do however, is get the message out there to the people who don’t read you or the other bloggers.
How that happens, I don’t know. Does Alba pay for full page advert in the National /Herald/Scotsman? What about a generic online/electronic article we can share, explaining how it all works?
We need to get Alba’s Facebook page fully operational. Not just for pro Indy info but perhaps with a Q & A section for the unconvinced.
Right now, I attach a link to the Wikipedia page showing the 2016 results and advise scrolling down to the ‘Additional Member’ seats diagram which says it all.
I’m sure Alba will have well qualified, communication people to coordinate the decemination of information.
Too old to do the twitter thing (or like yourself get arrested, patience is indeed a virtue) but happy to spread the word in whatever way I can.
Coordination though, is the key I think.
Thanks again for all you do.
I think you are referring to Pete Bell regards the Super Majority.
Not sure why he still thinks the SNP getting 47% on the list vote and 4MSPs is good value for money. Even if Alba only picked up 10 seats, it’s got to be better than 4 or less. If the SNP get a majority on the 1st vote, which polls suggest they will , then they wouldn’t even get 4.
I will take a wee punt here.
I think the SNP will get 67 1st seats , 1 list seat – Alba 13 seats , Greens 3.
Great article.
The wokeratti seem unconvinced ( as fewer of them ?). For everyone else it seems a no-brainer.
Like wee chid I was going to spoil my constituency vote with ” I wont vote woke”. But now I’ll vote SNP 1 and Alba2.
All of which raises the obvious question: Why is the SNP continuing with its 1&2 line? The obvious answer to that question can only be that they live in fear of a super-majority—a situation wherein their devolutionary preferences would be laid-bare for all to see. Whatever the SNP might be, by it’s actions over the past few years it certainly isn’t a Scottish independence party. For those of us who genuinely and unequivocally want independence, it will be necessary to vote SNP 1, ALBA 2, despite our profound and justifiable reservations regarding Sturgeon et al.
Even back in 2012/2013 I noticed that many in the SNP had replaced Nation with Party.
They complained that to many were on the YES stall instead of the SNP stall.
At SNP branch meetings they blocked funds being spent on YES banners and posters ” that is against the constitution, it is SNP money”
The simply forgot what the mission was. Independence had been replaced by Party in their mindset.
All that matters is building an Independent Nation. It doesn’t matter about being left wing or centrists. It is certainly not about Parties.
I am not voting for Parties or People. I am voting for Scotland.
SNP1/ALBA2 – #bothvotesScotland
Just how low is Mrs. Murrell going to sink? Her most recent outburst is dreadful. She is showing her abysmal ability to lead and demonstrating why she could not successfully unite the YES vote. She has a petted lip of huge proportions to match the chip on her shoulder. I will hold my nose and vote SNP 1 and breath fresh air when I vote ALBA 2 Alba gu Brath.
Got to agree with Cubby —the utter brass of Sturgeon is something to behold .Not one word from eck about her and a deluge from her about him .This morning’s diatribe about Alex puts her firmly in the Boris Johnston truth society .She and her odious inner circle continue to defame an innocent man with approval from the Sturgeonista fantasists .When Alba gets parliamentary access on the list then the fireworks should be quite something to behold.Incidentally Nicola your apology to me as a taxpayer for handing out £ 500,000 of my money would be appreciated.
“… The arrival of Alex Salmond and The Alba Party, therefore, is, particularly welcomed by me. I also want to pay tribute to ISP and AFI that allowed this topic to at least get some discussion among the independence community. I also congratulate them for standing aside at this time… ”
Couldn’t agree more. This is real co-operation now to achieve a desired goal. It is a shame that we have had to wait seven years and more.
“… Voting SNP in the Constituency is a must. I will, between now and polling day beg, plead, implore, beseech and cajole each and everyone of you to cast your vote this way. I know many of you will find that difficult due to certain policies and behaviour by the SNP. It won’t though stop me from trying to change your mind and get you to see the bigger picture… ”
Spot on. However, there may be a couple of constituencies that would benefit from SNP 1 & 2, and people really need to use their noddles here or it could backfire. We need to wait till almost polling day to see how the wind is blowing, but we should have a good idea by then how any particular candidate for the SNP is likely to do in his/her constituency. This is where postal voting is a hindrance to the List parties. One blogger calls us stupid for contemplating it. He seems unable to understand that the SNPG, as it is, will never deliver independence. It is simply not in their present interests to do so; it has not been in their interests to do so since 2015, when Stonewall, in particular, and other parasitical elements, infiltrated the party. The law of all parasitical entities is to suck the lifeblood of your host until you kill it and then you move on to another host, or you try to keep it barely alive to feed you forever. If it recovers its wellbeing and raison d’être, you, the parasite, will not survive.
This blogger, for whom I have respect) thinks that achieving a ‘supermajority’ (he sneers at that word) will bring us no closer to independence because Westminster will not care. He has a point, except that it is not only Westminster we need to impress; it is also the international community who must see that we are doing all in our power to show we want independence democratically and legally, but are prevented from achieving it by Westminster, before we take the next step. Time, says the blogger is not on our side, and he is right. So, a bold move will be necessary soon after this election, since we are not making it a plebiscitary one – which, incidentally, it will be anyway, de facto (in fact) if not de iure (in law) if a supermajority is achieved. It just won’t be in the SNP Manifesto, more’s the pity.
There would have been no need for any of this had the SNP stuck to its raison d’être. So often, people go for ideologies that they know nothing about in reality because they sound good, and people, in general, want to do good: it is just that the ideology sounds good and it seems to open up new vistas for them. The trans ideology fits this bill: it all sounds very libertarian and liberal and full of promise for individual freedom of choice; but it is a trap for the unwary. Its end point, full of apparent promise, has just one outcome if allowed to come to full fruition, and that outcome bodes ill for children and young people, specifically, and also for women, in general. Because the captured don’t see it, or don’t choose to see it, those who do, and say so, are accused of all sorts.
It is, speaking in general terms just another form of misogyny and male sexual preferences, taken to the utmost degree, and dressed up to look like a philosophical account of humanity’s quest for freedom and liberty, at an individual, and, by extension, societal, level. This, basically, is why I, as a woman, a mother and a human being, oppose it so vehemently: it is, in its essence a tissue of falsehoods and sleight of hand made to appeal to decent people with bad judgement and little imagination or foresight. Note, I am not talking about people who have body dysphoria, a tiny, minuscule, part of the population, who definitely need help and to be treated with respect; I am talking about the manipulators, and the hangers-on of the manipulators, and those who see it as an open door to total sexual licence for them at the expense of others’ rights – particularly those of children and women. Why the SNPG has hitched itself to this bandwagon, I hesitate to speculate. Perhaps the SNPG and its trans warriors have never read Foucault and deciphered the message/intent – or perhaps they have – and it makes some of the #MeToo concerns pale into insignificance by comparison.
My other, personal, abhorrence at the lack of real separation of powers, at the shrugging off of legal obligations and the strange refusal to acknowledge central tenets of our legal/justice system in pursuit of a certain goal, the sniping and pot-shooting afterwards, and the fundamental human trauma that has been caused to both the alleged perpetrator and to the accusers, and to peripheral others, by, apparently, using them like chess pieces, I have found difficult to understand. Alongside the pseudo ‘wokism’, and running in parallel with it, are strains of fascism and totalitarianism that have no place at all in a social democratic party that is governed by the rule of law – and the rule of law that is not bendy-shapey nor inegalitarian nor autocratic, nor capricious.
We will be subjected to the most appalling financial threats by Westminster, initially, as we strive for our independence, and it could get worse, but that is what all countries who have wanted their independence have had to face. Just remind them that their actions are illegal in both domestic and international law, and our right to independence is enshrined in international law. If we are not willing to face adversity, then we vote for the Unionist parties and let that be the end of it or leave it to future generations who will have to do it the hardest way possible.
Excellent, Lorna. So sad that this is where we now are with all the gender nonsense. At least we now have he Alba Party.
” need weekly Crowdfunders for my bail” surely daily.
Well if the unthinking morons on WGD are representative of the SNP membership then not many are planning to vote Alba. They would prefer British parties to win seats. Sturgeon has turned them from independence supporters to party and Nicola First and second votes.