Alex Salmond accused (and then cleared) of sexual misconduct.

[Pickman's model]

View attachment 260864
Oh dear, Alba’s newly announced candidate is a racist cuntz

Start as you mean to go on

 

[andysays]

View attachment 260864
Oh dear, Alba’s newly announced candidate is a racist cuntz

Does his being a Member of the British Empire add to his appeal to pro-indy voters, so we think?

 

[danny la rouge]

Does his being a Member of the British Empire add to his appeal to pro-indy voters, so we think?

We wouldn’t have thought so. But then we didn’t think a Gropist Dads party was a goer. Now it’s a Sexist Racist Dads Party. MBE.

 

[danny la rouge]

Haud me back.

 

[Sue]

Haud me back.

Need to up (down?) your game.

 

[danny la rouge]

I’m told he’s anti vaxx too, though haven’t seen that myself.

 

[weepiper]

He's really a charmer.

 

[steeplejack]

Lots of loon skeletons to come tumbling out the closet in the next while I'd fancy. It's going to be a bit like the proxy conflicts during the Cold War; the Tories are riding Alba whilst presenting themselves as "the only party that can save the Union from Salmond and Sturgeon" whilst the SNP will unload all the dirt they have on the weirdoes on Alba's slate to client journalists, whilst in public looking pained and making "mature" statements about Mr Sleepy Cuddles fitness for office. Salmond and his proxies have for months been feeding the Tory group in the Scottish parliament attack lines. And David Davis' parliamentary privelige speech last week in Westminster had absolutely nothing to do with his close personal friendship with Alex Salmond. Absolutely nothing. Of course.

What's even funnier is the mediocre linesman's attempts to build a pro-Union coalition with the Scottish Tory Party in the lead. LOL.

One of the major benefits of being in lockdown until the 26th April in Scotland will be that it will be so much easier to ignore this delightful "campaign" altogether. Which, other than this amusing thread, I am doing.

 

[danny la rouge]

PMSL

 

[weepiper]

Some of his best friends.

 

[danny la rouge]

They warned him about vaccines too.

 

[belboid]

Rotation is a key feature of Romanian folk dancers, of course all kinds of their peoples are good at it.

 

[steeplejack]

I suspect a political k.o. within the first minute is coming...

 

[marty21]

View attachment 260864
Oh dear, Alba’s newly announced candidate is a racist cuntz

As I said on the other thread , I was wondering if he was a similar candidate to the brexit 'celebs' who ran in the Euro Elections. I'd never heard of him , turns out he isn't a Scottish celeb, but his racism & anti-vaxxing is similar to Brexit Party candidates.

 

[steeplejack]

George Kerevan and two others jump ship to Alba with a withering criticism of the SNP leadership's economic conservatism, and lack of progress on independence.



For many English readers the reaction will be "who are these guys I've never heard of them". Kerevan's defection is significant in particular as he has been a very longstanding SNP member and commentator, and economically of the left. The other two are quite well known in activist circles, apparently.

The emerging direction of travel appears to be occupation of the space to the left of the SNP on a populist platform. There's obviously a lot of wish fulfilment going on with Alba. How on earth do people expect a newly formed party to have any chance of enacting the kind of change that they want to see in this statement? What is the purpose of abandoning the party of government to the neoliberals they oppose (and where was this criticism when the party was moving in that direction under Salmond's leadership? Where was the forensic outrage at Salmond's oleaginous letter offering all support to Fred Goodwin as MD of RBS, immediately after the utterly disastrous ABN AMRO takeover?)

Salmond is letting the party be a blank screen onto which anyone can project their hobbyhorse view of the world, as long as he is elected to act as a cloud of midges around Nicola's head.

If only the Unionist camp wasn't so utterly pathetic and discredited, they'd be mopping up in this election.

 

[danny la rouge]

The other two are quite well known in activist circles, apparently.

I know of Kerevan, of course, but not the other two. (The was a singer called Lynne Anderson, but I doubt it’s her).

 

[steeplejack]

Yup all you have to do is ride a twitter account, be pompous at a few meetings, write a position paper that nobody actually reads, and-boom- you're a "leading activist"

 

[danny la rouge]

Yup all you have to do is ride a twitter account, be pompous at a few meetings, write a position paper that nobody actually reads, and-boom- you're a "leading activist"

That’s me in!

 

[steeplejack]

Joking aside I'm actually really sickened by all this.

That the whole trajectory of Scottish self-determination should boil down to a pathetic personality contest, a sterile piece of trench warfare between a party getting quite comfortable being a party of devolved government, and a newly formed groupuscule led by a sex pest, selling moonbeams, is utterly tragic, and demoralising.

I've been wanting independence for Scotland since I was at school in the late 80s. For a while it looked feasible. Now, it's all crumbling away. Yes the move towards independence can't be stopped by feuding ruthless personalities being pathetic. It can sure be set back, and by many years, though. What this feud eats away at is the belief that Scotland can be governed better from Holyrood than from Westminster. It's the same shit, just a question of tone, and degrees. There's no truth to believe in, only lies that polish well, and are more plausible than the other lot's lies.

The SNP has to move beyond Sturgeon-Murrell and quickly, after the election, but I am really not sure the party is capable of regenerating internally after fifteen years in government. They are increasingly right wing, centralising, corrupt, and in a functioning democracy would deservedly be slung out on their ears.

I will vote for them very reluctantly. Without change, I won't bother participating at all in future elections, instead work in the community and through extra-parliamentary formations and campaigns. No one in their right mind would go near party politics nowadays. Just organised gangsterism, grifting, doing really shit things covered in pious, high-toned flatulence.

 

[danny la rouge]

Which is why we need the tear down capitalism and parliamentary democracy along with it.

 

[steeplejack]

Glib sentences don't really cut it either I'm afraid.

 

[steeplejack]

The last pre-Sleepy Cuddles launch poll. Not much sign of the fringe loon parties (remember ISP / AFI were in play last week) making any impact. Next polls featuring "Alba" will be interesting.



"Reform UK" ? Farage's lot? LOL

Sur Kieth and Anas playing really well too it seems....

 

[danny la rouge]

Glib sentences don't really cut it either I'm afraid.

Fair enough, but I honestly don’t think there’s a parliamentary road to socialism. Capitalism can’t be reformed, the class with the wealth and power won’t allow any meaningful changes to happen.

Similarly, independence for Scotland really only changes the address of the Parliament. The same processes will still be in play.

If there is an organised working class we might be able to force the hand of capital at the moment of independence and come to an accommodation comparable to the post war consensus. But there is no such organisation at this point, and I’m afraid I have no faith that anything other than what we’re witnessing would be the story the other side of independence.

Ill vote Yes, because I can’t vote No. But parliaments are machines of bureaucracy and stagnation and corruption, and that’s what they’ll produce wherever they’re located.

Glib or not, that’s the reality. Our options are constant resistance and attrition or the social revolution. Politicians are not our friends or saviours.

 

[steeplejack]

Fair enough, but I honestly don’t think there’s a parliamentary road to socialism. Capitalism can’t be reformed, the class with the wealth and power won’t allow any meaningful changes to happen.

undoubtedly true

Similarly, independence for Scotland really only changes the address of the Parliament. The same processes will still be in play.

If there is an organised working class we might be able to force the hand of capital at the moment of independence and come to an accommodation comparable to the post war consensus. But there is no such organisation at this point, and I’m afraid I have no faith that anything other than what we’re witnessing would be the story the other side of independence.

There isn't an "organised working class" though. Why engage with fantasy parallel-universe scenarios that have no immediate and meaningful application? What's the point?

Ill vote Yes, because I can’t vote No. But parliaments are machines of bureaucracy and stagnation and corruption, and that’s what they’ll produce wherever they’re located.

what is your realistic, real-world alternative that is likely to grow a solid majority of opinion behind it, over time? What timescale do you have in mind and what will be the measures of success? given that the foundations of the directions you want to go in aren't in place, how do you actually get there?

I'm an arch pragmatist, I'm afraid. Every year of my life society has become more atomised, people have become more idnvidualised and ever more lacking in empathy with others. In COVID there's been a visible retreat into parallel fantasy / imaginary worlds and distrust in politics- of any kind- has never been higher. At the same time "the people" have never been more powerless to resist being visibly fucked on a day to day basis- the theft of public funds, stealth NHS privatisation in England, & co. I dearly wish that wasn't the case, but we are where we are.

Glib or not, that’s the reality. Our options are constant resistance and attrition or the social revolution. Politicians are not our friends or saviours.

It's a take on rather than the reality. As it stands you are probably right, but I'm in a really bad mood today and I just don't see how any progress can be made. You're right, politicians are not our saviours. But we as individuals and in our small groups of earnest pamphleteers have zero power or agency at present to make much impact on these processes.

 

[danny la rouge]

There isn't an "organised working class" though.

I know. I said that.

My real life alternative is attrition and resistance. That’s what we have for the foreseeable. And thereby try to build organisation.

It’s a long, hard slog.

 

[redcogs]

The politics of powerlessness are pretty ruthless that is for sure. i just want to avoid falling an ever deeper pit of cynicism.

 

[belboid]

I apologise if the following screengrab makes you want to vomit

 

[Fedayn]

If I remember right, Salmond drafted in Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh in to organise the makeovers.

 

[danny la rouge]

I apologise if the following screengrab makes you want to vomit



View attachment 260962

Yeah, saw this story in the news a couple of days ago. Indicative of the attitudes. I like Mhairi Black. One of the very, very, very few politicians I have any sort of respect for.

 

[redsquirrel]

and where was this criticism when the party was moving in that direction under Salmond's leadership? Where was the forensic outrage at Salmond's oleaginous letter offering all support to Fred Goodwin as MD of RBS, immediately after the utterly disastrous ABN AMRO takeover?

Yeah that was my first thought on seeing this tweet.