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

[danny la rouge]

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh has joined Alba. She’s top of their Central Scotland list. She was a Tory candidate before joining the SNP. Not a surprise defection, she’s a personal friend of Alex Salmond (and was who was in charge of make overs for the female MPs).

(This is an aside and offered only as an interesting - to me - observation that there can be an opposite of photogenicness. I bumped into her in a cafe in Crieff during the indyref. She’s very attractive in real life, much more so than on TV, which seems to give her a coldness, which is strange given she was a professional actor.

So there you go. Shallow but nevertheless my opinion).

 

[Fedayn]

She was in the Labour Party once aswell.

 

[danny la rouge]

She was in the Labour Party once aswell.

Party number four.

 

[redcogs]

So there you go. Shallow but nevertheless my opinion).

Shallow opinions allowed i reckon. We all hold em. Apart from Chomsky.

 

[danny la rouge]

The Alba Party list.

I’ve asterisked the ones I’d previously heard of. (And double asterisked the one I’d only heard of because of “accidental antisemitism”).

South Scotland

Cynthia Guthrie


Corri Wilson

Suzanne Blackley

Laurie Flynn

Lothian

Kenny MacAskill MP *

Alex Arthur

Christina Hendry

Irshad Ahmed

Glasgow

Cllr Michelle Fearns

Ailsa Gray

Cllr Shahid Farooq

Lynn McMahon

North East Scotland

Alex Salmond *

Heather McLean

Cllr Brian Topping

Dot Jessiman

West Scotland

Cllr Chris McEleny

Cllr Caroline McAllister

Cllr Ellen McMaster

Delia Henry

Central Scotland

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh *

Cllr Lynne Anderson

Dr Jim Walker

Margaret Lynch

Mid Scotland and Fife

Eva Comrie

Neale Hanvey MP **

Jim Eadie

Stephanie Reilly

Highlands and Islands

Kirk Torrance

Craig Berry

Josh Robertson

Judith Reid

 

[danny la rouge]

I have just discovered that I do know another one of the Alba list candidates. Well, I met her once at a party. I didn’t know her second name though, and had no reason to know it was her. But there you go.

 

[danny la rouge]

I’ve put the 3% poll in for Alba in the Holyrood Election thread.

But I have some questions about social media culture references.

1. who the fuck is Jeggit?
2. Who the fuck is Barrhead Boy?
3. Who the fuck is Cllr Chris McEleny?

Everyone seems to know, but I don’t.

 

[MickiQ]

This system seems as clear as mud to me danny la rouge , these list votes as opposed to FPTP votes, you do actually have to tick who you want them to go to right? If no-one ticks Alba as a choice then they get naff all.
I know it was principally designed to bollox SNP's chance of getting a majority but it seems to bollox any chance of understanding it.

 

[weepiper]

I’ve put the 3% poll in for Alba in the Holyrood Election thread.

But I have some questions about social media culture references.

1. who the fuck is Jeggit?
2. Who the fuck is Barrhead Boy?
3. Who the fuck is Cllr Chris McEleny?

Everyone seems to know, but I don’t.

1. A long-term 'cybernat' on Twitter. Bit of a prick.
2. Dunno
3. A vocal on Twitter SNP (until very recently) councillor in Inverclyde. Bit of a prick.

 

[danny la rouge]

This system seems as clear as mud to me danny la rouge , these list votes as opposed to FPTP votes, you do actually have to tick who you want them to go to right? If no-one ticks Alba as a choice then they get naff all.
I know it was principally designed to bollox SNP's chance of getting a majority but it seems to bollox any chance of understanding it.

So, you get two ballot papers. One for your constituency MSP. Mine’s Glasgow Kelvin.

Dave Sherry SNP
Doris Trifle Labour
Derek Rum Baba Conservative
etc.

It’s FPTP, you tick one.

Then you get a very long paper with a huge list of mad arse parties.

SNP
Labour
Conservative
Green
Lib Dem
Pants Party
Socks Party
Tights Party
Etc.

You tick one. You are electing 7 MSPs for the bigger Glasgow region.

When that goes to get counted it’s done by a system that shares the votes out proportionally (hmmm ish), but which takes into account the other paper.

So Dave Sherry gets 99% of the constituency vote. So do the other 8 Glasgow constituency SNP candidates. So that’s 9 SNP already. There won’t be an SNP list seat. So none of the 7 “additional members” will be SNP. They’ll come from the other list paries.

But maybe 4 will be the Pants Party. So you look at the Pants list and the top 4 go through. And so on until you have the 7 places filled.

 

[danny la rouge]

That was a bit garbled. I’ve had beer.

So. Glasgow has 16 MSP. One for each of the 9 constituencies. Then there are 7 additional (or “list”) members.

Paper 1 elects your constituency MSP. You voted for a named individual.

Paper 2 decides what percentage each party gets of the Glasgow region votes. You vote for a party. There are 7 additional members to be divided according to party percentage.

As SNP will likely get all 9 constituency MSPs, they won’t get any of the 7 additional members.

So they will be divided up between the other parties.

That was clearer wasn’t it?

 

[Sue]

Are they not all pants though?

 

[danny la rouge]

Are they not all pants though?

Yes.

 

[MickiQ]

That was a bit garbled. I’ve had beer.

So. Glasgow has 16 MSP. One for each of the 9 constituencies. Then there are 7 additional (or “list”) members.

Paper 1 elects your constituency MSP. You voted for a named individual.

Paper 2 decides what percentage each party gets of the Glasgow region votes. You vote for a party. There are 7 additional members to be divided according to party percentage.

As SNP will likely get all 9 constituency MSPs, they won’t get any of the 7 additional members.

So they will be divided up between the other parties.

That was clearer wasn’t it?

Not really but thanks for trying

 

[Fedayn]

I’ve put the 3% poll in for Alba in the Holyrood Election thread.

But I have some questions about social media culture references.

1. who the fuck is Jeggit?
2. Who the fuck is Barrhead Boy?
3. Who the fuck is Cllr Chris McEleny?

Everyone seems to know, but I don’t.

Assuming it is the same Barrhead Boy I see on Twitter occasionally, je is a Left leaning, socialist I think pro indy Ra***rs fan.

 

[danny la rouge]

The news from inside Alba is that Jeggit is a deluded fantasist. 30-40%?

 

[steeplejack]

Maybe he added a zero onto the numbers in his excitement

 

[danny la rouge]

Really, I shouldn’t be expending any time on the Alba Party. But it’s very entertaining.

 

[steeplejack]

The Courier report yesterday seemed almost shocked that the great lost leader, Salmond, wouldn't be parting the waves of the SNP sea and leading his followers to a future where every loon hobbyhorse wish would be grant...err, an "independence supermajority" was secure

The Survation poll, carried out exclusively for DC Thomson, found the former first minister’s pro-independence party, Alba Party, to be seriously lagging behind the other major parties – with only 3% of Scots saying they would offer support at the ballot box.

They really have underestimated how toxic Salmond is. The membership, shouty burst-haemorrhoid reactionaries who imagine an MI5 bug in every empty sweetie wrapper, impatient fundamentalists after four double espressos, seem even more so.

If he's very lucky Salmond will sneak in. The rest are just meat in the room.

 

[19sixtysix]

Not proven verdict is well rooted in Scotland and means what it says.
Not proven verdict on sexual assault with attempt to rape is about as toxic as it could be.

Alba does seem to be attracting shit magnetically.

 

[Wilf]

Prediction of 0 seats:
'It's all over for Salmond': Exclusive polling puts Alba Party on 3% - The Courier

It's paywalled, so I don't know if that's a national 3% or whether they have figures for each of the lists. Either way, dreadful polling. Fuck salmond and fuck wings.

Edit: Ooops, as already discussed, I'm a page behind.

 

[Cerv]

does this piece by the Courier's editor in the Guardian cover the same as what's behind his own paper's paywall there?

For Alex Salmond and his new Alba party, the prospects are not looking good | David Clegg

A new poll predicts no seats won in next month’s Holyrood elections, says journalist David Clegg

www.theguardian.com

can't say I'd paid much attention before while this was just internal SNP warfare but reading up more about the background now it's blown up, yikes

“War on woke”: the meaning of the Alba Party

In Alex Salmond’s new party, Scotland has produced a bekilted ally of Faragism and the right-wing press.

www.newstatesman.com

 

[danny la rouge]

does this piece by the Courier's editor in the Guardian cover the same as what's behind his own paper's paywall there?

I can’t see behind the Courier paywall either, but I’d imagine so.

 

[Border Reiver]

The Courier report yesterday seemed almost shocked that the great lost leader, Salmond, wouldn't be parting the waves of the SNP sea and leading his followers to a future where every loon hobbyhorse wish would be grant...err, an "independence supermajority" was secure



They really have underestimated how toxic Salmond is. The membership, shouty burst-haemorrhoid reactionaries who imagine an MI5 bug in every empty sweetie wrapper, impatient fundamentalists after four double espressos, seem even more so.

If he's very lucky Salmond will sneak in. The rest are just meat in the room.

The poll as reported on Sky News suggests six seats for Alba, and several extra for Greens and SNP. But with d'Hondt, marginal results are notoriously unpredictable. Whatever it looks like the unionist parties take a big hit and there is a serious Indy majority.

 

[steeplejack]

The poll as reported on Sky News suggests six seats for Alba, and several extra for Greens and SNP. But with d'Hondt, marginal results are notoriously unpredictable. Whatever it looks like the unionist parties take a big hit and there is a serious Indy majority.

Fantasy island stuff I'm afraid. Salmond might get in, no else will from "Alba".

In respect of any pro-independence majority, the SNP will be the biggest party by one or two seats, or the Greens will help them achieve another parliamentary majority. It's on a knife edge. The Unuonist opposition is so laughably bad that even this querulous and divided government will survive without much trouble.

 

[danny la rouge]

That’s his problem, though.

 

[steeplejack]

I mean...who actually spends time making this stuff? And buys into it? really?

People spending months making a scale model of Lincoln cathedral out of matchsticks, or spending ££££ buying old postcards of Lonnie Donegan are strange enough, but this is next level lockdown weird.

 

[danny la rouge]

I mean...who actually spends time making this stuff? And buys into it? really?

People spending months making a scale model of Lincoln cathedral out of matchsticks, or spending ££££ buying old postcards of Lonnie Donegan are strange enough, but this is next level lockdown weird.

It has to be irony, surely? Unless they’re specifically referring to his priapism.

 

[Sue]

It has to be irony, surely? Unless they’re specifically referring to his priapism.

Oh danny la rouge .

 

[JimW]

It has to be irony, surely? Unless they’re specifically referring to his priapism.

I heard he's standing again already.