steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
I am posting this very well written analysis of the decline of the SNP and the profound crisis the independence movement now faces. The central conclusion of the article is that the 2014 movement is dead, killed by the crushing of internal democracy within the SNP, the Sturgeon personality cult, and the sell out of an on-paper "radical" party to the corporate lobby during Sturgeon's tenure.
The SNP has always been a party of contradictions but the article astutely lays out three of the key ones; 1. the promising of an Irish-style low tax economy with Scandianvian levels of public service; 2. the anti-nuclear stance brushing up against future membership of a nuclear alliance, NATO, in the parallel-universe reality where Scotland becomes indepoendent; 3. the using of the promise of another referendum s a rallying tactic at election time without any serious hard work being done on the thorny mechanisms of how that will actually work in practice, coupled with a failure to be honest about how tricky and potentially destabilising the process of independence negotiation and delivery wil be.
This thread could discuss the article for whoever can be bothered to read it, but also for discussing the emergence of what will be a new political reality in Scotland from the middle of 2026, with the party very likely to be a rump opposition in Holyrood following the next parlimantary elections. It might be a thread to take us up to those elections and the SNP's final Fred Dibnah moment.
I recognise that the author Jonathan Shafi hardly has a stellar political record himself, from his pisspoor failed attempt to shut down the Radical Indepoendence Campaign, to his involvement as a leading figure in Scotland's now-defunct clowncar SYRIZA equivalent, RISE (2015-16). Fortunately he seems a much better analyst than strategist. I think it's a really insightful piece.
The SNP has always been a party of contradictions but the article astutely lays out three of the key ones; 1. the promising of an Irish-style low tax economy with Scandianvian levels of public service; 2. the anti-nuclear stance brushing up against future membership of a nuclear alliance, NATO, in the parallel-universe reality where Scotland becomes indepoendent; 3. the using of the promise of another referendum s a rallying tactic at election time without any serious hard work being done on the thorny mechanisms of how that will actually work in practice, coupled with a failure to be honest about how tricky and potentially destabilising the process of independence negotiation and delivery wil be.
This thread could discuss the article for whoever can be bothered to read it, but also for discussing the emergence of what will be a new political reality in Scotland from the middle of 2026, with the party very likely to be a rump opposition in Holyrood following the next parlimantary elections. It might be a thread to take us up to those elections and the SNP's final Fred Dibnah moment.
I recognise that the author Jonathan Shafi hardly has a stellar political record himself, from his pisspoor failed attempt to shut down the Radical Indepoendence Campaign, to his involvement as a leading figure in Scotland's now-defunct clowncar SYRIZA equivalent, RISE (2015-16). Fortunately he seems a much better analyst than strategist. I think it's a really insightful piece.