Nicola Sturgeon's time is up

[belboid]

The last poll (a month ago) had SNP 39% Labour 29%. Probably even closer now given the last months events.

20 seats sounds a lot, but far from impossible.

 

[danny la rouge]

Yeah agree, but The Times carried an inteview with Starmer this week where Labour was spinning that it was 'back' in Scotland and was on course to capture 20 plus seats off the nationalists at the GE. There seems to be zero evidence to back up the claim or any set of political ideas to add substance to the boast. More likely is disengagement by voters in working class areas.

Yup. Like steeplejack says, any party that can get its act together, especially Labour, could coin it in. But nobody knows the Scottish Labour leader. He’s utterly inconsequential. And expecting Starmer to play well in Scotland? No, I don’t think so.

This is very much everyone else’s game to lose. And they seem determined to do just that. So the SNP vote will drop, but it won’t be as a result of what the other parties are doing.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

100%. A Labour revival here would have been much more likely under Corbyn who was seen as authentic and doing the job a Labour leader should.

Starmer is a Manchurian candidate, Leaderbot 3.0, a sulphurous covering of political mist.

For those who’ve heard of him, of course.

Talking of Corbyn, the question is what happens to the moral economy assumptions/popular impulse that once proplelled the SNP/Yes campaign. There is no left organsiation of note to take advantage or try to tap into it, there seems little/zero enthusiasm for Salmond's project and the other Unionist parties won't make headway in places that were once the backbone of the organised working class.

 

[krtek a houby]

Yes I also read this bit...

Discrimination was the legal complaint, none was found ..........they played the victim card

Explain

 

[danny la rouge]

Explain

It’s a way of saying “the race card” without saying “the race card”.

 

[krtek a houby]

It’s a way of saying “the race card” without saying “the race card”.

How very unexpected

 

[Sasaferrato]

I can well understand why SNP types would be fuming if that was the case, but what law - warranting the cops raiding their house - is allegedly being broken if that's what he did?

Fraud I should imagine.

 

[steeplejack]

Talking of Corbyn, the question is what happens to the moral economy assumptions/popular impulse that once proplelled the SNP/Yes campaign. There is no left organsiation of note to take advantage or try to tap into it, there seems little/zero enthusiasm for Salmond's project and the other Unionist parties won't make headway in places that were once the backbone of the organised working class.

ALBA is a vehicle for the right wing moonhowlers and repressed bigots who used to be the socially conservative right wing of the SNP- at least those who can hold their nose and stomach Salmond's personal antics as first minister. No one in their right mind wants anything to do with them- they are Salmond's parallel of Sheridan's now defunct "Solidarity" ego-vehicle. Of course they are posturing as nationalist ultras and similutaneously social radicals, but they can say what they like - few beyond the media and the twittersphere are interested. It's telling that they are barely troubling the polling seismograph even in these darkest of hours for the SNP.

The "left" has yet to recover from the destruction of the SSP and the failed attempt to glue those fragments back together. There is a Republican Socialist platform which is tiny in number but promising, but it needs a decade to grow that we don't have.

There are signs that the SNP may yet fissure- Forbes has "fifteen supporters" in Holyrood who will be as effective an opposition as anything Sarwar, the fat linesman or anyone else can muster.

Scotland will perhaps be one of the most interesting places to watch Westminster '24 from. Some noises that Labour and Tory will have an informal pact to pressure vulnerable SNP members. That won't play well but they may noit give a toss now as no elected politician plays well any more after, well, spending forty years ruining the whole country on behalf of capital. (by that I mean the UK, not Scotland).

all stops to electoral dystopia, ding ding.

 

[danny la rouge]

they are Salmond's parallel of Sheridan's now defunct "Solidarity" ego-vehicle.

And indeed Sheridan is a member.

 

[danny la rouge]

Fraud I should imagine.

The BBC being very careful. “there are strict limits on what we can talk about”. But yes, that would be the implication.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Yes, only skim-read that bit last time, but here it is:

“Murky finances

The party was also starving of funds. The SNP faces, again, a class problem when it comes to financing its election campaigns and routine work. It is neither an old-school social democratic party with access to union support, nor a traditional centre right outfit with many large business donors. The modern party is a product of a populist wave, and these small donors became its main financial resource. This necessitated the strategy of diminishing returns by milking independence sentiment.

In 2017, something called Ref.scot appeared. It presented itself as a campaigning hub for an independence referendum campaign. Close inspection found it to be an SNP venture. It gathered data and funds from independence supporters, before abruptly shutting down months later.

With members leaving and local branches dying, desperation for funds grew. In 2019 another funding and data-mining campaign was launched, again on the false pretence of an independence campaign. This time, the deception was even more callous. The new website was called ‘Yes’ – an obvious attempt to stoke nostalgia for 2014. Though the small print informed the careful reader that this too was an SNP front (“you are donating to a political party”) everything about the website was designed to give the impression that it was the resurrection of the 2014, cross-party Yes campaign, a huge decentralised movement with great emotional resonance for tens of thousands of people.

Some £600,000 was raised between these two cynical ventures. The monies disappeared into the SNP cashflow, and up to £500,000 remains unaccounted for to this day.

After complaints from members of the public, a Police Scotland investigation began. With no solution to the party’s money problems in sight, Murrell – Sturgeon’s husband and the leading officer of the SNP – made a personal loan of £107,000. Sturgeon denies any knowledge of when this loan was made, and two days before the press conference announcing her departure, reports speculated that the police investigation had spread to Murrell’s loan. Sturgeon adamantly refused to answer questions on party finances as she left the podium.”

You should try being in the Greens.

I stopped giving any of my union fee to Labour a few years back. One, coz I can't stand Starmer. Two, coz it's unfair some parties automatically get funding while others don't (especially when I'm more likely to vote for the ones that don't).

 

[danny la rouge]

You should trying being in the Greens.

I really shouldn’t.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

I really shouldn’t.

They're an okay bunch. I was out drinking with the local branch last Friday.

 

[danny la rouge]

They're an okay bunch. I was out drinking with the local branch last Friday.

I have a brother and a sister who are members and whom I like just fine.

 

[Wilf]

And indeed Sheridan is a member.

Right, let's get the 'swing voters' quip out of the way, so we can all move on.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Yes, only skim-read that bit last time, but here it is:

“Murky finances

The party was also starving of funds. The SNP faces, again, a class problem when it comes to financing its election campaigns and routine work. It is neither an old-school social democratic party with access to union support, nor a traditional centre right outfit with many large business donors. The modern party is a product of a populist wave, and these small donors became its main financial resource. This necessitated the strategy of diminishing returns by milking independence sentiment.

In 2017, something called Ref.scot appeared. It presented itself as a campaigning hub for an independence referendum campaign. Close inspection found it to be an SNP venture. It gathered data and funds from independence supporters, before abruptly shutting down months later.

With members leaving and local branches dying, desperation for funds grew. In 2019 another funding and data-mining campaign was launched, again on the false pretence of an independence campaign. This time, the deception was even more callous. The new website was called ‘Yes’ – an obvious attempt to stoke nostalgia for 2014. Though the small print informed the careful reader that this too was an SNP front (“you are donating to a political party”) everything about the website was designed to give the impression that it was the resurrection of the 2014, cross-party Yes campaign, a huge decentralised movement with great emotional resonance for tens of thousands of people.

Some £600,000 was raised between these two cynical ventures. The monies disappeared into the SNP cashflow, and up to £500,000 remains unaccounted for to this day.

After complaints from members of the public, a Police Scotland investigation began. With no solution to the party’s money problems in sight, Murrell – Sturgeon’s husband and the leading officer of the SNP – made a personal loan of £107,000. Sturgeon denies any knowledge of when this loan was made, and two days before the press conference announcing her departure, reports speculated that the police investigation had spread to Murrell’s loan. Sturgeon adamantly refused to answer questions on party finances as she left the podium.”

I do not believe for a second that Sturgeon didn't know about the loan.

 

[Sasaferrato]

 

[danny la rouge]

I do not believe for a second that Sturgeon didn't know about the loan.

It seems unlikely, doesn’t it? Her claim though is she wasn’t aware of the timing of the loan. Not that she didn’t know. She has a lot of practice in knowing things but not at the time in question.

“What’s this in the bank statement, Pete?”
“We talked about that. It’s the loan”.
“I don’t remember”.
“Yes, you remember, last Tuesday”.
“No, I can’t have been listening”

 

[Wilf]

Well, I really wish these cartoonists would make their message more obvious. That one's a bit too nuanced for me.

 

[danny la rouge]

STV News reporting: “Police Scotland warned the public that legal proceedings were active meaning the Contempt of Court Act 1981 was in effect.”

"’The public are therefore advised to exercise caution if discussing it on social media,’ a Police Scotland spokesperson said.”

I don’t think we’ve said anything that isn’t obvious, nor that this corner of the web is likely to be under much scrutiny. But, you know, there might be an arsehole reading.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

But, you know, there might be an arsehole reading.

Just the one?

 

[Santino]

The police are digging up the garden.

 

[Sue]

The police are digging up the garden.

For the bodies of her enemies..?

 

[Santino]

For the bodies of her enemies..?

Whoa there, no one here is suggesting that Sturgeon and her husband have murdered someone and buried the corpse in their garden.

 

[danny la rouge]

The police are digging up the garden.

Do they think the missing membership is down there?

 

[danny la rouge]

Whoa there, no one here is suggesting that Sturgeon and her husband have murdered someone and buried the corpse in their garden.

Nor that he fucks goats.

 

[Sue]

Do they think the missing membership is down there?

Gym bags full of lots and lots of £50 notes...?

 

[andysays]

Whoa there, no one here is suggesting that Sturgeon and her husband have murdered someone and buried the corpse in their garden.

It's what we're all thinking though

(legal note: I'm sure no one is thinking this really. I'm certainly not)

 

[SpookyFrank]

And then the entire Greenland ice cap with 'tory corruption, endlessly enabled by the dribbling fuckwits who vote for them' written on it.

 

[Santino]

Gym bags full of lots and lots of £50 notes...?

Big sack marked 'Swag'.