This year will see the SNP reach its 88th year in existence. The first ever SNP MP elected was Dr. Robert Mcintyre in 1945. He only served a month before the UK General Election that saw, a Labour tsunami throughout the UK and Robert sadly lost his seat. The SNP upsurge only started in November 1967 when the great Winnie Ewing won the Hamilton by-election in a landslide. From that day onward Scotland was informing the world that we were on the road to independence. There have been many bumps in the road along the way.Today though the road is completely blocked, we need new thinking to remove that blockage! We fluctuated between one and 11 MPs up until 1979. From then till 2015 we averaged around a half a dozen.
The modern day SNP was born in November 2014, forty-seven years after Winnie’s victory. That was when the party went from radical independence party to politically correct gender party. For the first time in the history of the party independence was no longer the driving force. It began shortly after Sturgeon’s coronation when having a gender balanced cabinet appeared her obsession and more important than independence. Unlike her predecessor who included people in his cabinet based on their talent and ability Nicola chose them on their sex, not their ability.
That is why in 2015 UK General Election for the first time ever the SNP stated that a vote for the SNP was not a vote for independence! Despite winning 56 out of 59 MPs at that election their impact was negligible. The only impressive thing was when they all marched into Westminster as one. It made great television however it was a shortlived show of strength.Thereafter the weakness of Scottish representation was all too obvious.
https://www.centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk/opinions/votes-snp-are-not-votes-independence
Reliable sources inform me that the 2015 influx had little or no guidance or leadership. They were more or less left to their own devices with no coordinated actions directed from London or Edinburgh. Except on one occasion, it was, every man and woman for themselves. Today it is still like that with no strategic planning or action.
The huge interest for Scotland in 2015 was the Smith Commission. That was the enactment of the Vow given to us by the Three English Amigos and Murray Foote of the Daily Record. Foote a unionist devotee extraordinaire who has since gone on to become the SNP Communications Director. An appointment that has confused and angered many of us.
The Daily Record Unionist VOW manifested itself in the Scotland Act 2015. Gordon Toom Tabbard Brown lied to the Scottish people when he said he would guarantee the Vow would be enacted in full and that Scotland would have Home Rule that would almost be independence. We would have the strongest most powerful devolved parliament in the world. Like most things out of the mouths of Uncle Jock Labour politicians in Scotland it was just lies. That is one of the things Gordon excels in, lying to his fellow countrymen.
Even now at least once a, year the Brits drag Brown out of his underground lair to promise more and more powers for Scotland. He just rinses and repeats his lies. He like so many that have sold out their nation of birth will be reviled by generations to come when the history of these times is written by historians in an independent Scotland.
The SNP MPs in the class of 2015 submitted around 100 amendments to the Scotland Act. Although SNP represented 56 out of 59 constituencies of Scotland, not a single amendment, was accepted. The sole Uncle Jock, Tory David Mundell with a permanent grin on his face rejected every single SNP proposal out of hand. He was joined in the No lobbies by Ian Murray and liar Carmichael. Two more Scots born English Parliament sympathisers.
That completely exposes the farce that is Westminster. Even with 98% of all Scottish seats their opinions about Scotland were rejected by English MPs, and Scots, who collaborated with those English MPs.
That more than any other reason is why we need to get out of the Union. Scotland is ignored and dismissed at every turn. In the 88 years of the SNP, there has only been two ‘victories’ at Westminster, one was a winning vote on a Bill regarding fox hunting in England. The other was the Opposition Day debate allocated to the SNP on the Claim of Right for Scotland in the Commons Chamber on Wednesday, 4 July 2018. It passed unopposed. Sadly we have never used that solitary victory for Scotland’s benefit. I often wonder why the SNP even bothered. Strategic thinking isn’t their forte, so I suspect this was more theatrical than tactical.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-33516713
Opposition Day debate allocated to the SNP on the Claim of Right for Scotland in the Commons Chamber on Wednesday, 4 July 2018.This vote was, won when all English, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs abstained.
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2018-0171/
That brings me to the present day. What have the SNP MPs being doing in Westminster since 2015 to advance the cause of independence? The answer is quite simple really, nothing of consequence. All requests from Scotland be that Section 30s, more furlough payments, waiver to remain inside the single market, open safe drug consumption rooms are dismissed out of hand. We are treated with contempt daily. The SNP MPs against the wise words of Winnie Ewing have settled down in England they are certainly not settling up for Scotland. They are making great careers for themselves while their constituents suffer hardship.
In June 2018 Ian Blackford led a, walkout by the SNP MPs this generated great headlines and resulted in the SNP gaining 5,000 new members, within two weeks. The Scottish people reacted to the SNP showing some fighting spirit. Sadly since then compliance to the English establishment has been the order of the Day. Indeed, one particularly ineffective MP even had an attempt to become the Speaker for the English Parliament. Like his entire career down in London, he failed. His thwarted attempt was an insult to every Scottish independence voter, his arrogance and pomposity prevents him from even realising that. Becoming part of the English establishment has been more attractive to the SNP contingent rather than agitating for Scottish independence. When their constituents or supporters contact their SNP MPs to inquire what steps are being taken to advance the cause it invariably results in a social media blocking and being labelled abusive.
Now the only way you can get the comfy SNP MPs to walk out of the Westminster chamber is when an Alba MP rises to ask a question about Scotland. Then our SNP Scottish MPs leave the room. A Scottish question is of no interest to them. Playing childish politics is more important. Scottish Labour may have left the Westminster Parliament however the Bain Principle is intact and safe in SNP hands. SNP behaviour is reminiscent of Labour’s, Ian Davidson who famously shouted out, ‘Who cares? ‘ when an SNP MP mentioned Scotland in the 2010 Parliament.
I ask this, question now if after 88 years our only successes in the Parliament In London has been to interfere in English fox hunting and the Claim of Right why do we bother even attending Westminster?
The Sinn Féin Party refuse to take the oath or take up their seats. Northern Ireland remains in the single market and to all intents and purposes remains in the EU. In a couple of years maximum Mary Lou McDonald will become Taoiseach. Shortly after her assured victory a border poll will be held. It will likely result in a United Ireland. No politician in England will dare tell Sinn Féin or the Irish nation that, ‘Now is not the time!’ Sinn Féin are not bought and sold for English gold or ‘short money’ and they are closer to their goal of a united Ireland than Scotland is to independence.
Perhaps the time has come for us to take a leaf out of the Sinn Féin book and become abstensionists. It is certainly a discussion that we need to have. history shows going to England’s Parliament and playing by England’s rules is not moving Scotland an inch forward. We need a new approach. Let’s us stop complying and start denying Westminster the right to rule over us. We are a nation, not a colony. Time we began to act that way. Discuss!
Saor Alba gu brath
so much out there for discussion but the priority should be absenteeism from the
colonial parliament. High up on the agenda must be discussion about the terms of the franchise if we are to have a referendum. But why not use a plebiscite election as many
other independence-seeking countries did?
OK, Let’s start with the ALBA MPs, stand-up and walk out of there, lay down the gauntlet to the SNP Seat-warmers..! While they are settling back in, ALBA should instigate the Constitutional Convention and call the rest of the YES team together. We cannot wait for SNP to do it, they simply won’t! They need to be shamed into it. Timing wise, possibly wait until after the Council elections and stand there on this basis. That should win votes and get the desired attention. We simply cannot sit around for the rest of 2022 waiting for nicla.
That was a top notch article Ba.bo. A cool, concise description of the situation since 2014.
The Scots have independence in their hearts and want it, they actually vote for a Scottish party with a majority to represent them and bring independence about. The strategic goal is perfectly clear. The tactics are there and the way to achieve it.
But time and time again, mandate for mandate, opportunity over opportunity, the party and people that we voted for to get the job done have utterly failed.
Pre-2014, we had the party and Government that we voted for and needed, post-2014 we have by deception, lying and false promises nurtured a massive cuckoo in the Scottish nest. That “bird” has grown fat on the Scottish larder of trust that we willingly gave to achieve our goals.
It’s not the people that have failed but the SNP, so called, leadership.
It’s not the Tories, Labour or the yellow spots on the road that I blame, they are what they are and we know it.
However, the party in our midst, the one we trusted, the party that Alec Salmond brought to the brink of our independence, has been turned in to a den of traitors, malingers and a quisling branch of WM.
Will ALBA be our eagle???
Good summary but I see no way forward until we have a Leader committed to Independence and uniting the wider YES movement. That is not Sturgeon and her divisive style.
Yes we are a colony and yes our representatives seem happy to see us remaining as as one, but abstaining from voting ? No that won’t work, we are not Ireland.
Agitation might, but with all the socialists having left the SNP looking more like a reincarnation of Shirley William’s, Social Democrats, a pure cult of personality, that seems unlikely.
I wish I had an answer, I can only hope that that someday there will be a palace revolution, but I’m not holding my breath.
Our votes aren’t worth shit at Westminster!
The SNP are Unionists determined to keep us in our place we need to stop voting for them. They could have delivered independence after we were dragged out of the EU. It’s clear that the SNP have been turned by the British state and Westminster’s big money, but their is something else that sinks how they work hand in hand with our colonial masters they are truly a parcel of rogues. We need to move forward and start voting with our feet. Why give credence to the pretend democracy that is the Westminster circus for it is a sham ,lets stop sending MPs there lets call them back and Dissolve the Union. The SNP state they have to represent the constituents at Westminster to ensure their representation. Ha, Ha, there is no representation in that place for Scotland we all know that and so do the SNP.
The SNP is a party of home rule not independence. The political cowardice of the current SNP leadership sickens me; it brings shame to the whole of Scotland.
You think it’s bad? It’s probably about to get a lot worse, BHB. That devo-max stooshie this week got me really spooked and I reckon its a fore warning of what’s ahead for us.
I noted that there has been condemnation of the idea from a few SNP figures, but nothing from the people at the top. Nothing also from the movement’s supposed intellectual big hitters such as Lesley Riddoch, Gerry Hassan, Robin McAlpine, etc, etc, which I find disconcerting.
It was obviously a kite flying exercise on behalf of the leadership, and I’m sure they are all now well aware how unpopular the proposal is with the troops, but I expect them to go ahead with it anyway.
Sturgeon’s backed herself into a corner and this probably seems to be the best option open to her when the priority is preserving salaries and the trappings (if not the reality) of power. These people are that cynical, and when there’s no one to hold them to account, what’s to stop them coming to a back door agreement with the Tories? The rest of us will just have to fume and put up with the fait accompli.
David Jamieson of Contercast probably gave the best account on twitter of how this is likely to play out. An ill defined Devo Max option will get added to the ballot; establishment Scotland will get behind it; the SNP will fight a lackluster independence campaign; and the third way will achieve another pyrrhic victory. Sturgeon will bow out to lavish praise, claiming that she’s got Scotland a step closer to independence. Meanwhile the rest of us will be facing the inevitable Westminster claw back and independence will be further away than ever.
I shouldn’t be so distraught about things because I’ve been aware that uber gradualism has been the name of the game since Sturgeon took over in 2014. (How else do you explain the total absence of planning and prep for independence?) But I am concerned because I reckon we’re sleep walking into a trap that could, as one Englsh politician said back in the day, hold us firm.
To me this is a make or break time for the YES movement, if there is such a thing. Have we got the gumption to wrest back control of the cause from the self serving political elite who have other priorities? The signs are not good: we’re too dispersed, there’s no leadership, nobody’s offering alternatives. Unfortunately, the meek don’t inherit the earth and nobody does meekness like us.
I am distressed you think Lesley Riddoch, Gerry Hassan,are big hitters. Hassan is a latent unionist Riddoch a Green Salmond hating, Nicola fan
To be honest Hassan was only added because I needed more names and he was the only one I could think of. I don’t mind admitting that Lesley Riddoch was a bit of a hero of mine back in 2014: her book Blossom had some good stuff, she’s a good communicator and can be quite feisty when she wants. But recently she’s become a Nicola’s biggest cheerleader (the Wee Ginger Dug must be really pissed off) and it’s sad to see someone with a good brain turn into little more than a loyal lapdog. As for Robin M, who knows where he is these days but I thought he was one of our most impressive voices back in the first referendum campaign. Shame he’s gone to ground, though I hear that Chris Hanlon’s big in the SNP Commonweal group and that’s made me a bit wary of that lot, so I might have to revise my opinion on Robin as well.
It is easy to mock this bunch; they can be blowhards when they don’t have a focus, but I think they have an important role to play. Politicians usually can’t see beyond political parties or the election cycle, and as a consequence, have a limited skill set and stunted horizons. They don’t bring about big, radical change like independence; check the history books. They also have an unfortunate tendency to conflate what’s good for them personally with being good for the cause (Gordon Brown anyone?) We can certainly see with the current iteration of the SNP what happens when we allow politicians to take over: they accrue power to themselves, cut the lines of accountability and their let agendas take precedence. It becomes all about them, and they know best (except that they don’t).
So we shouldn’t be surprised when politicians put themselves first and that’s why I am actually more upset that a lot of the non-party people who assumed leadership roles in 2014, like Robin and yeah, Lesley Riddoch, totally failed to step up to the mark and challenge the usurpation of Sturgeon and co in the years that followed.
Maybe my estimation of these people was way too high [aye, stratospherically high; okay] but we need non-party opinion formers to provide a counterweight to the politicians. I would also like to see those voices joined with a strong non-party democratic umbrella organisation that could campaign on independence in a way that politicians can’t (usually because they fear for their own interests). In effect, I would like to see a proper Independence movement free of party political constraints. That’s the only way we can keep the politicians in line and also ensure we have a broad based independence campaign.
Will we get this; I doubt it, though I exist in hope. (I cling to the memory of those AOUB marches.) In the meantime I’m preparing for the great sell out, since there doesn’t appear to be any opposition. Maybe the political cycle will have to turn full circle before the opportunity comes again, but I’m sure it will; it’s just a pity that I’ll probably be pushing up daisies by then. I just hope that the folk campaigning for independence in future learn not to place too much reliance on their politicians and do it for themselves.
Chris Hanlon is my Prism guest this, Sunday watch and see what you think.
John, with respect, there appears as yet only the one theoretical framework produced which tells us precisely what independence means and why it is necessary:
https://www.facebook.com/YesHaddington/videos/professor-alf-baird-speaking-at-yes-haddingtonyes-tranent-meeting-151221/1059504741259620
Here we go again arguing among ourselves . The time has arrived for Scots to make their minds up. Take control of our Nation or the status quo. If we don`t take control this year forget it .
Arguing among ourselves? Did you read the article? It is a solution not an argument.
Devolution was always a trap, the devolved parliament a blessing or a curse.
The handful of chips devolution gave us had to be played wisely. Holyrood could have been a lifeboat to take us away from the sinking behemoth that is the British state. The key was to use what little we had to distance ourselves as much as possible from the establishment suction and show the public (not the banker and rentier class) how things could be very different beyond the treaty of union.
A progressive, or radical land policy, national investment bank (not run by £1000/hr ex spivs), national energy company, not cow-towing to the banking/housing development lobby. These and many more could have given people a glimpse of what was possible on leaving the union. I had more than one work colleague say they would leave Scotland if we were independent. They didn’t want to live in a ‘socialist dystopia’. None of these policies point to that but, cheerio all the same. There will be another 10 people who would gladly come here had Scotland been moving towards a modern progressive country.
The careerists that currently inhabit Holyrood have us tightly tethered to HMS Blighty and her neoliberal policies. A 3 question referendum would be fantastic for their careers. Devo max – subject to the goodwill of the London establishment would see years of ‘thrashing it out in the chamber’ (not a euphemism for hotel room activity), with the “Scotland will not [fill in the blanks] manual to hand.
As things stand, our parliament is a curse. The tories would never make the huge mistake of removing it. It is far too good a blame repository. A democratic vote for independence without Holyrood would be simplified – where an election victory would be a mandate for independence. We are now seeing the SNP and the greens butchering their manifesto pledges (except for the lucrative ones). We can’t even get a bottle return scheme off the ground.
I suspect the FM is a reluctant FM at present and reckon she is waiting for the right time to move on. In fairness I suspect that the senior civil servants she has access to are likely to be very loyal to the crown – perhaps a reason why so many policies are ranked as ‘too difficult’. Maybe this is why I hear so so often when I talk to people about Alex Salmond, “well he DID have temper” (this seems to make him guilty of far greater crimes in their eyes). Maybe he did have a temper. Maybe many of those around him weren’t quite onside. Maybe the temper was necessary.
Oh to have people with the moral fibre of Winnie Ewing back in play. Her daughter can’t even reply to an email.
I tend to become enmeshed in Irish affairs because I listen to so much Irish podcast output. There are alternatives to the British State propaganda service. There is a rosy coloured view of Sinn Fein and its progress as seen from Scotland. It may be a mirror to the LOL view of the importance to the YUK of Northern Ireland.
SF is currently polling well and looks to being the largest party in the Republic if current polling is maintained. However it is a PR electoral system and it is pretty nigh impossible to govern without some coalition. There are voices who expect SF to be in the next coalition, but there are others who think that is a difficult ask. Who are the likely coalition partners? A lot of the suggested parties are fishing in the same voter pool. So it is by no means a shoo in for Mary Lou to be Taoiseach.
The United Ireland prospect is polling well as an aspiration in the Republic, which also gets a vote on unity, but its an aspiration which loses its appeal when voters are asked if they d be happy to pay more taxes to achieve it. N Irelend does cost the UK a lot in subvention. If Ireland was to absorb the North it is widely expected it would cost them a lot of loot. There is also a political problem of expecting a hard core of very reactionary very antagonistic people to happily join a state where they will overnight become a minority. The south could do without the bother.
And polling in the North suggests that the casual association of catholic equals nationalist is a bit more nuanced. The success of political parties who are not extremist Unionist or nationalist would imply that a fair chunk of the electorate do not care for either position.
I do support abstentionism here in Scotland. But we are subject to a British world view here projected. The current advance of SF in the Republic would appear to owe more to housing policy than to its support for a united country.