Nicola Sturgeon

Maybe Rishi should call a ref now to close off once and for all. Or is that only allowed if the SNP think they will win?

 

Great idea

 

@Somafunk Who do you hope takes over the SNP leadership?

No sneering indifference from me. Never is, I want Scotland to thrive just the same as all of the UK. Which candidate is best placed to deliver?

 

Well, I didn't state how much I expect support for the SNP to drop so that's a difficult call!

In fact, in terms of Westminster MPs the SNP peaked in 2015 and even the improvement in 2019 didn't equal that high water mark. And that improvement was largely driven by a nationwide decline in the Labour vote, the opposite of what happened in 2017. Against the headwinds of a significantly improved Labour vote at the next GE and the loss of an electoral asset in Sturgeon, it's hard to see a path to any improvement in the SNP's vote. In just the last few weeks they've lost a council seat in Edinburgh to the Lib Dems, one in Stirling to the Tories and failed to win one in Aberdeen which went to Labour on second preference votes. Now I will give my expectation - they will lose 6-10 seats, with perhaps some compensation if they win back a few of the Tory marginals.

By the way, this is non-partisan analysis. I'd like to see as few Tory seats as possible at the next election and it doesn't much matter to me which party in Scotland benefits (this would change if Forbes wins the leadership).

 

Gives me no pleasure to remark on how little there seems to be to them absent Sturgeon.

 

Well you're a better man than me then.

 

SNP in meltdown.

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...ecutive-peter-murrell-resigns-nicola-sturgeon

 

Just heard this on BBC Radio 4 News.

Like @kensalriser I can't help feeling that we may have seen peak SNP.

While they will likely remain the strongest party in Scotland for the foreseeable future, I think the departure of Sturgeon, the calibre of her likely replacement, their performance in government, and declining party membership, will take the wind out of the sails for full independence.

I should make it clear that I have nothing against Scotland and, being an effete Southerner living on the South Coast of England, I have no direct skin in this game, though I'm a great fan of Scotland and the Scottish people and wish them well whatever they ultimately decide. If I lived in Scotland I think I'd be pushing for a Quebec option.

 

Looks to me that Labour will be the next government in Westminster and what will likely happen is that there will be a resurgence of labour in Scotland cause the SNP have, basically, pissed 15 years of government up the wall and have now run out of road.

That was always going to happen cause the SNP leadership are not in the slightest bit interested in Independence they're all enjoying being in the pay of the UK government and who can blame them?

They should really have done what Sinn Fein did and refused point blank to send MPs to Westminster because SF knew that their MPS would have been seduced and compromised by being in London/Westminster plus Sturgeon should really have been an MP not an MSP.

 

My judgment would not be quite as harsh as yours. But I agree, the moment has passed, and it is entirely due to the direction the neoliberal cabal around Sturgeon have pursued since 2014.

I’m not a SNP member, but if I was I would be voting on a ‘least worse option’ basis (and probably Reagan), as none of the three candidates really inspire the fight for independence. Their claims of independence in five years are as ludicrous as they are fantasist. It’s back to square one. It will be interesting to see the numbers All Under One Banner pull to the demo in Glasgow on 6th May. AUOB have invited all three leadership candidates to address the rally. Participation, abstention and absences will give us a useful idea of how serious an independence strategy they are likely to pursue.

 

What's been obvious for a long time is the incompetence of the SNP and division within the party, the party hasn't improved since Sturgeon became leader. This is now being highlighted by people within the party for all to see.

The fawning over Sturgeon- hoodwinked. Massively. The party simply stirs up the nationalists, which history tells us is not difficult. It's very similar to people being played to vote for brexit. Millions are worse off but those insulated don't give a damn.

There are some very serious questions about the SNP.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65000606

 

Isn't he also being investigated for fraud?

 

Maybe Government should dispense with this time-consuming election stuff and simply install a “government approved” 1st minister who is more in line with current Tory ideology?

It’s clear Westminster regards itself as the true masters of Scotland. Empire’s current insular closing of the jaws means it has no countries left to subjugate so Scotland might as well be England’s next little white niggers.

 

That should get you a ban!

 

Time to move with the times, Claire, even the writer has dropped it.

https://www.insider.com/elvis-costello-olivers-army-stop-playing-n-word-radio-2022-1

Or you could keep the flag flying, I suppose.

 

He loaned the SNP £107 grand, which was not reported to the relevant body for over a year, in contravention of laws governing loans to political parties. Sturgeon claims to have been unaware of it. My Mrs. doesn't always tell me everything, but I think I’d deserve to know if she’d spunked a hundred and seven K.

 

I’m not sure it does: I think it illustrates how easily a good leader, with a fair wind behind her, can draw a veil over structural and strategic weaknesses, and how dangerous it is to let that happen, because eventually those weaknesses will reassert themselves. Usually once the media decide the time is right and find the right buttons to press.

 

Yeah right. You could do with working on your theatrical outrage a bit more.