Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Kate Forbes is against a number of progressive policies: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64747672

I think the SNP dodged a bullet electing Humza instead of Forbes

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I think you’re reading your own social assumptions onto it without any real understanding of Scottish social attitudes or politics. As I’ve already said, public polling consistently put Kate Forbes ahead of the others, in many cases because of her conservative outlook. Scotland is not Islington.

You only need to listen to what the opposition parties in Scotland are saying this evening to understand just how much they wanted Humza Useless to get the job rather than Kate Forbes.

Here, try reading some Scottish political commentary from someone who knows what he’s talking about: https://news.stv.tv/politics/bernard...icola-sturgeon

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I don't live in Islington and I am half Scottish. My grandfather was a piper in a Scottish regiment, my father was born in Scotland and I have a sister and brother both living in the Highlands, who I talk to regularly about Scottish politics. I know more about Scotland than your snide remarks imply. Arrogance is not a good look.

What I do know is that the tide of demographics favour independence. The younger voters, by far, favour independence and as the older voters pass on, this view will get more & more entrenched. There is also a large majority in favour of gay marriage in Scotland, a policy that Forbes could and would not support.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I also had friends and family here for decades before coming to live here (which I have done for 20 years). Sitting here daily surrounded by friends, acquaintances and strangers, the Scottish press and TV, and lacking the inevitable constraint of getting my news filtered by family, I can say with confidence that your earlier comments simply don’t align with reality. If you don’t actually live here then you’re getting your news from a limited viewpoint coloured by your own assumptions.

Humza Yousaf is the SNP establishment placeman. Nothing much will change under his watch, which is a bullet not dodged but very much to the brain for the SNP given the problems it faces. In particular, the SNP’s desire to merge health and social care, a policy he has been intimately involved with as health secretary, is in serious trouble and facing opposition from local authorities and trade unions. If he lacks the political skill to deliver one flagship policy he’s unlikely to thrive as FM in charge of the whole lot.

The chickens will have very come home to roost by the time the next Holyrood election comes round in 2026, by which time the SNP will have been in power for 19 years. Yousaf has done nothing to show he has the political skill required to defy gravity and win another election, and much to suggest he lacks that ability.

Kate Forbes was the one the SNP heirarchy very much did not want in charge yet she ended the contest with 48% of the support - this from paid up, politically engaged members of what is supposedly an extremely politically progressive party. The reality is, the SNP has for the last 20 years been what the clique running it has decided it is, and not at all reflective of its wider membership except on the narrow issue of independence. This is unsurprising given that the SNP is really just a single issue pressure group forced to act as a full-on political party in order to secure its core aim.

Forbes’ social conservatism was popular with - or at least tolerable to - almost half the SNP’s membership, and she was notably more popular with the public at large than either Yousaf or Regan (net approval ratings -8, -20 and -24 respectively).

https://news.stv.tv/politics/humza-y...lic-poll-finds

To sum it all up … the only way you can conclude that the SNP has dodged a bullet by choosing Yousaf is if you personally approve of what he represents in terms of a socially progressive Scotland. Because based on actual facts - prior competence in office, likely ability to win a difficult election, alignment with actual Scottish social values - he’s a distant second to Forbes.

Which is why every opposition leader in Scotland with the exception of the Greens was celebrating last night.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

And yet, you still posted it…

You didn’t answer the question - why wouldn’t he be in the SNP?

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

You wilfully misrepresent what I said. My point was that if Forbes was chosen, she would have been a liability relating to progressive social issues that are important to a significant number of (younger) Scottish voters. You may not personally appreciate this point but it does not make me wrong.

I think you need to appreciate that other people can have different viewpoints and not always conclude that yours is always the only authoritative one.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I appreciated your point perfectly well, and I disagree with it. The SNP would not have struggled with a socially conservative leader running it despite the views of younger voters. The polling data doesn’t support that view. In addition to what I’ve already posted, you can also add the fact that Scotland, as in the rest of the UK, has a turnout bias towards older voters.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I agree, The best thing that could happen is dissolve the SNP. Scottish would flourish without them, I would never vote for them and anyone trying to get rid of the Monarchy is not my cup of tea,

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

And so it begins..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...team=editorial

https://news.sky.com/story/kate-forb...ousaf-12844341

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Well it proves he’s got no intention of uniting the party. A warning sign to the “small c” conservatives who support independence that Chris alludes to that their principles and values don’t have a home in his “big tent”.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

An exceptionally dim-witted move. Whatever her beliefs, naked political calculation ought to have warned him against publicly humiliating a rival who got almost as many leadership votes as he did. He had better hope the winds are at his back for the next couple of years because if for a moment it looks like he’s not steering the ship to another impressive victory there are now a heck of a lot of people who will be less inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, or show loyalty.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

27 of the 28 that have Ministerial/Cabinet posts publicly backed Yousaf.

The other tweeted they couldn’t back an FM who would have voted against same sex marriage on about day 3 of the campaign.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

At least we all know what to expect for the next 2-3 years. Forbes has landed on her feet here, she can sit on the backbenches while she pops out a young family, then challenge for the leadership again when Useless makes a mess of things in 2026.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Do you think he will last that long, Chris? He’s not been successful in any of his previous ministerial posts and he’s already made his first mistake which resulted in the candidate scoring just less than him in votes telling him where he can stick his offer of a junior position in his Cabinet.

So he’s already got nearly half the party against him and his current supporters will soon become disillusioned with his incompetence.

He won’t last five minutes.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I’m not even sure it’ll take that long.

If Scottish Labour (despite their own uselessness) make inroads at a likely Starmer win at the next general election, the prospect of aligning their manifesto for 2026 with UK Government objectives (but better under devolution) might see a nervousness among MSPs fearful for their own seat on the gravy train.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

One thing I haven't heard mention is where are the SNP going to get the money they need to run Scotland, as more people live in London than live in Scotland.


I guess the Indy voters are wearing blinkers until the realise that their free prescriptions and uni will suddenly end.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Fairly even handed analysis here…

https://www.economicsobservatory.com...onomic-success

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

The new leader is described by his family as "Naughty (been done for speeding amongst other gaffes), but nice

His friends say that people underestimate him at their peril in this 15 minute profile of him at the weekend:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001kprv

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

You can file this under ‘crisis PR’, the crisis being entirely of his own making.

Here’s an alternative view:

By Alex Massie, paywalled in the Times at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/y...lure-dn9n5qpsx

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Is todays news something to do with the recent surprise changes to the top of the SNP?

https://news.sky.com/story/man-58-ar...ances-12850333

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

We will never know for certain, but the funding scandal has been bubbling for some time now and it was always going to blow up at some point. To be honest Sturgeon’s skill set is presentation and party management/discipline but when it comes to devising and delivering a coherent policy programme she was hopeless. There are a raft of measures now in place or shortly to come into force that will cause one major headache after another for Humza Useless over the next few months and any or all of them may have contributed to her sense that the time had come to bail out.

Just yesterday we had the unedifying spectacle of a rapist getting community service for repeatedly attacking a 13 year old girl. The judge was compelled to go easy on him because he was 17 at the time he committed rape and thanks to the SNP the sentencing guidelines are now so heavily tilted in favour of rehabilitation rather than punishment, the judge had little choice.

In Scotland as conceived by the SNP you’re mature enough to vote in a general election at 16, you’re mature enough to decide to change legal gender at 16, but at 17 you’re not mature enough to fully understand that rape is wrong. There there now, why don’t you go and weed the community vegetable patch for a couple of weeks.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Apparently not a good day to bury bad news … not if you’re the SNP anyway, as Polis Scotland start digging up Pete & Nippy’s back garden :rofl:

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...1&d=1680708422

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Wtf is going on here, police incident tents, spades and digging, this has Fred West vibes…?

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Buried voting slips ?

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

A little more information in this BBC report.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65187823

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

:D:D

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Looks more like investigating Peter Tobin than Peter Murrell.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Not good for the SNP going forward l would imagine.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Maybe they're looking for the £600,000 that went AWOL.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Digging up the garden does seem overkill. Do they really think they buried receipts in the back garden?

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Well last month Sturgeon said there was nothing left in the tank. Maybe she meant the septic tank.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I think we can guarantee Scotland won't be turning to the Tories. They are sensible people. Good news for Sir Keir.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

The Scottish Conservatives are looking to the rural seats, where they will be concentrating their campaigning.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

They could win some uninhabited Isle I guess....

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Their best hope under no neck Ross.

Mr Nicola Sturgeon released this evening without charge.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Fraud police probing 'missing' funds from SNP seize £110,000 motorhome from Nicola Sturgeon's in-law's drive
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...aws-drive.html

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

That motorhome was only resting on my driveway!

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

A Lab/Con coalition in Scotland?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...r-to-oust-snp/

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

:D:D

92-year-old with a new motor home. Nothing to see here, officer!

---------- Post added at 10:01 ---------- Previous post was at 10:00 ----------

I suspect a fair few people in Scotland won't need his suggestion to do this. They will want to send a clear message to the SNP.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I'm guessing the indy ref is dead in the water?

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

It may be Easter Sunday but that’s one way to ensure there’s no resurrection of Scottish Labour.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

:D:D:D

Immaculate timing!

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

No less than the party president and acting chief exec, Mike Russell, said as much this week. Now they no longer have Sturgeon daily telling them it’s just around the corner they have finally stopped, looked at their offer and realised they have never actually come to terms with why they lost in 2014 and even if they set to work answering those challenges now, fewer and fewer people are willing to listen to them.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

They were looking for MI5 Plants :erm:

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Red card Ross slapped down by CCHQ

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...abour-oust-snp

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

It’s an interesting one that … in purely mathematical terms he’s right, there is still a tendency for unionist votes to split three ways while the Nat vote is still mostly with the SNP, and recent evidence suggests Scotland still largely votes on constitutional lines (although the SNP’s recent self-immolation might just change that). However I can well understand that the high heid yins of ‘the natural party of government’ down in London could have a hard time understanding why any Tory politician would choose to talk like a Lib Dem.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

The sorry saga continues: Humza Yousaf says SNP's auditors resigned six months ago but he's only just found out.

https://news.sky.com/story/scottish-...-know-12855153

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

His interview on BBC Reporting Scotland last night made him look like the unpopular kid in sixth year who only found out about the cool houseparties the morning after they’d happened.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

lol, Kate Forbes must be pretty happy not to have inherited the mess he has.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I’m sure she thinks she’s dodged a bullet right now, yes. Though in her case, the platform she stood on would have allowed her now to be properly outraged in TV interviews (as she was openly critical of the government’s prior record). Humza Useless has the disadvantage of being the continuity candidate who stood on a ‘things are basically OK, let’s do more of the same’ platform, with the open backing of those in the party hierarchy who, it now turns out, didn’t trust or respect him nearly as much as they said they did.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Depends on what approach the person takes. "Nothing to with me" or "I'm going to get to the bottom of it all".

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

And the sorry saga continues to continue … SNP insiders claim the SNP Motorhome was bought to use as an election battle bus in 2021. Humza Useless says he only found out it existed after he became party leader (and read about it on a police warrant listing items to be seized).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...itics-65264713

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

In a way, I find it pretty depressing and pathetic how lame our corruption is. Undone for a crappy motorhome that sits unused in a drive, rubbish. If this were America we would be talking a secret family, a mansion paid for by corporate lobbyists maybe even a wiretap on their political opponents.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Seems crazy that a major purchase and problems with the auditors wouldn't have been discussed at a senior SNP level.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

When the party leader and the party chief executive share the same bed, it can be discussed over breakfast and nobody else would know :shrug:

The clique at the top of the party was in reality a little bigger than just Mr and Mrs Murrell but not very much bigger.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Link

How have they managed to get away with this for so long?

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

There are a couple of main reasons. First because they’ve been winning elections, which has allowed a personality cult to develop around those at the very top, and those personalities have been able to demand everyone else shut up and leave them to get on with winning. Second, because of a phenomenon called ‘wheesht for indy’ … a great many people within the nationalist movement have always known the SNP is amateurish and could see perfectly well that its record in office was patchy at best, but as it is the only mainstream party committed to Scottish independence there has been something of a self-imposed vow of silence about it all. They didn’t want to criticise the SNP because if the SNP’s reputation was tarnished it might lose power and that would set back the cause of independence for years.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

More bad news for the SNP this morning.

https://news.sky.com/story/man-71-ar...ances-12859902

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I confess I wasn't sure if this was the latest thread on the SNP or whether it was the "Help me stash my cash" thread I should be looking at. :D

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Sooner they are all gone the better, life with the SNP has been a disaster .

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Careful what you wish for. We have labour and they are a collection of you can't do that brigade. Waiting for adverts for people to walk with red flag , coming to a motorway near you . 1of April prank was 20mph speed limit on a bad part of a motorway, no one disbelieved it :shocked:

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

The difference is that Welsh Labour are a lot of unreconstructed dinosaurs who have been in power ever since devolution. They’ve never had to change because there are still too many people in the Valleys who’ll vote for a monkey as long as it’s wearing a red rosette. You can add to that the fact that your average Plaido still looks like they’ve escaped from a badly organised twmpath and hasn’t yet worked out why nobody else thinks an independent nation state called Wales is a good idea. I.e. they’re not a credible alternative government in the way the SNP has been here in Scotland. There is no serious challenge to Labour, and therefore no need for them to critically appraise themselves and work to do better.

When enough working class voters in Scotland allowed themselves to believe that their priorities were best served by the SNP, not Labour, then the tide turned and Labour lost power. The SNP did this by presenting itself as a pragmatic, centre-left party that believed in independence for Scotland but wasn’t obsessed with it.

There are natural ceilings on the Tory and Liberal votes in Scotland and the SNP’s reign will end as and when Scottish Labour gets its act together and starts effectively pointing out that the SNP is no longer centre-left and is no longer pragmatic about its campaign for independence. It has lurched to extremes, thanks to its ill-advised coalition with the Greens, and it is now becoming clear that its obsession with viewing everything through an independence campaign prism has contributed to a lot of what is now going speciatularly wrong for them.

At the next Holyrood election we are likely to be rid of the SNP, most likely to get a minority Labour administration in power instead. Hopefully, with the knowledge that their vote is earned, and not an entitlement, we will get a little less of the pettifogging county hall-type antics you are subjected to in Wales.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Maybe you have not been looking at Westminister? The Tory Peer Mone and her PPE VIP lane funded £10 million superyacht, etc.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

The Nats certainly haven’t forgotten. Whenever some new revelation has come out over the past couple of weeks the whataboutery on the Twitters has been strong indeed. :D

Mind you, this week they’ve moved on from insisting Westminster is still worse, to insisting this whole affair is a Westminster conspiracy. I guess it’s not surprising, Nicola and her pals have spent years talking up their moral superiority over other politicians, so the utter headbangers who hang on her every word can no longer conceive of what’s happening to them in any other way.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Your obsession with trashing the SNP is leaving you blinkered. You revel in the corruption of the SNP yet are muted on a similar level of sleaze in the party you support.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

In a topic based discussion forum, it’s generally considered acceptable to discuss the topic indicated by the thread title without it being constantly necessary to set out what you think on a range of other issues. I’m pretty sure you already knew that though.

As for ‘revel[ing]’ well absolutely yes I am. I suspect you don’t realise exactly how this is playing out in Scotland right now, all over the press and TV every morning and evening. The SNP has for years sold itself as a fundamentally different beast than anything on show in ‘Westminster’ (code: England) and has been quick to lecture others on their perceived shortcomings whilst, it seems, happily indulging (and disguising) their own.

So forgive me if I enjoy a little deep-fried schadenfreude this week. It tastes fab.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Ultimately, for unionists corruption has always been (and always will) be at the core of their politics. The fact it’s the SNP makes it novel.

Tory corruption will be the useful shield given that’s at taxpayers expense at far greater quantity. So while Chris enjoys the echo chamber of the state broadcaster and unionist chip papers it’s far from certain the extent it will resonate meaningfully in the medium to long term with the independence supporting electorate who long gave up on the dying media that symbolises the union so well.

That said, to defend Chris, some of this pantomime is objectively funny.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I don't disagree that it is a clown show but the serious subject of Executive corruption shouldn't just based on your tribal preferences. If you are going to bang on about how bad the SNP corruption is, then be objective and be consistent. That is all I am saying.

Also, the constant use of the playground taunts e.g. Hamza Useless (or whatever) just cheapens the debate. YMMV

---------- Post added at 13:13 ---------- Previous post was at 13:10 ----------

I am not saying it is. I am saying be consistent and be proportionate. I mean, funnelling 100's of millions to your mates is not in the same league as secretly buying a caravan with Party funds :)

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Well this is the thing the Tories don’t have anything left. Getting practice in throwing stones from the sidelines will serve them well for their period out of office after the next General Election.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Yes I knew that. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy :D

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

There is of course an independence-supporting echo chamber that assumes #BBCbias is a given amongst those of a similar constitutional mind and that ‘nobody’ watches it any more. They then get surprisingly uptight when it says something they don’t like, given that it’s supposedly talking to an empty room.

There is some early polling that suggests the SNP’s fortunes are on the wane while support for independence remains in the mid-40s (excluding don’t knows). Being the party most associated with The Cause really isn’t going to save them, though it will be useful, for Labour in particular, if the SNP goes on assuming it will, right up to polling day when it will be too late.

In the long run, a broad yes movement permanently decoupled from one political party is more likely to produce a broader, more credible proposition, anyway. Yessers with an ounce of common sense ought to see that, and to be fair when I dip into their Twitter echo chambers, the thinking ones increasingly do.

You’re right, though, it is very, very funny. Have you seen the clip of the man from Govan trying to film the SNP Motorhome through the bars of the police pound, and getting righteously cross when challenged by two shady coppers who didn’t seem to want to identify themselves?

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Oh it’s absolutely tangible if you name a unionist media platform viewership down, readership down, listenership down.

Believing the state broadcaster should be impartial is irrelevant as to whether those watching or listening are simply doing so in God’s waiting room.

Scandal after scandal has bruised both the Labour and Conservative parties over the years but never killed either off, there’s no real reason to expect an existential crisis for the SNP. If anything at Holyrood the D’Hondt formula will ensure in the absence of any upsurge in another pro-independence party (who?) they’ll remain the largest within that bloc, and so either the Government or largest opposition party.

It’s a long way to the next Scottish election although almost certainly Yousaf won’t make it that far.

Although the man was clearly “a character” as they say it was very dystopian.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Hardly worth her own thread but the Hon. Member for the Student Union Bar is stepping down at the next election.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66101123

I’m sure it has absolutely nothing to do with polling that suggests many traditionally Labour seats in west/central Scotland which the SNP has held for the last 10 years or so, may return to the fold next time round.

Mind you, if it really is because of the toxic working atmosphere at Westminster, which is the reason she has cited herself, then she’s just another SNP hack who is clearly only happy with a toxic atmosphere when its caused by their campaigning. Other forms of toxicity are clearly unacceptable.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

More likely she has her eye on Humza’s job. Will no doubt find herself near the top of a regional list in 2026.

A wash and a haircut and she will be a whole new person. Easy enough done since she’s cosplaying as it is.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I wouldn’t be surprised if she does end up in Holyrood, though the chances of her getting an image makeover now are pretty slim I’d have thought. She gets dressed in the dark and that’s not going to change (to be fair, so do I, and I’ve never changed either :D )

A rando on Tw*tter this evening described this scenario as a ‘chicken run’, exiting Westminster right when she’s at greatest risk of getting unseated anyway, and then stealing a seat from another would-be SNP MSP. I have to say, when you look at the three leadership candidates from earlier this year, I’m not at all convinced of her chances of getting the job any time soon, or whenever wee Humza throws in the towel. Despite having held a clutch of salt-of-the-earth working class seats for the last decade the SNP really are still tartan Tories in their DNA and Mhairi’s Angry Clydeside Trot act isn’t likely to impress the voting membership. Let’s not forget the highly socially conservative and very middle class Kate Forbes was within a hair’s breadth of winning the race last time and most likely would have done without the outgoing leadership leaning on everyone to vote for wee Humza.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I’m not convinced of her chances either - your analysis is quite sound. But I’m sure she’s delusional enough to believe she would have a chance.

Right now the party apparatus if it had any competence (I know, I know) would be trying to position someone as the obvious heir because right now Forbes would wipe the floor with any of them. There’s no more mud to sling, we all know who she is and what she believes.

I’m not even sure who the party approved candidate would be should a vacancy arise.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

SNP MP Mhairi Black, what an utter embarrassment she is.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

A bad night for the SNP last night in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-67009605

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

On the basis of last night’s by-election result, or anything close to it, at the next general election, the answer to the thread title is still no, and rather more no than it’s been in quite some time.

The Nats crashed more than 16 points in Rutherglen and Hamilton West; Labour won with a 20% swing to finish on more than 58% of the vote. Say what you like about turnout, tactical voting and covid, that’s not a good look for Wee Humza Scooter and a swing of even half that size next year will see the Nats lose half their seats in Scotland.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67024848

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I'm not sure this swing can be taken as a significant fall in support for independence. To assume that a vote for anyone other than the SNP is a vote for the union and status quo is far too simplistic.

I would read this result as far more likely to be a determination that the next party to form a government in Westminster will not be the Conservatives.

While the SNP haven't exactly covered themselves in glory of late, people vote for many reasons and the priority would seem to be getting rid of the Tories above another vote on independence which, let's face it, is not on the cards any time soon.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I don’t hear anyone suggesting this.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

More no implies a fall in support. I just don't think it's the primary reason for the swing by a long chalk. Support for leaving the UK will ebb and flow and I think turfing out the Tories is the bigger priority right now, regardless of the view on the constitutional question.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

… in which I made no comment whatsoever about sentiment, but rather addressed the question of ‘will Scotland leave the UK’? ;)

It doesn’t matter how popular independence is as a sentiment, at present there is no effective political vehicle for it other than the SNP (though I admit I’m stretching the definition of ‘effective’).

If the SNP’s electoral fortunes wane, then whatever likelihood there was of Scotland leaving, reduces. Hence, what I actually said, which was:

It’s a simple observation of process. Though I do understand it’s really difficult in Scotland right now not to assume the discourse consists of little more than ‘nat’ or ‘yoon’ crowing.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I am happy for Rutherglen and South Lanarkshire to win with such a great amount of votes , it was a horrible wet day so I was afraid people might stay indoors, but the ones who voted done us proud, Hope the rest of Scotland take notice and get rid of the SNP,

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Congratulations on your new MP Nashville :D

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Thanks. Chris,

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

More SNP mess. Shuld not have denied it.
https://www.ft.com/content/ee282626-...0-735bd7b69742

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Other sources are quoting £7,345.69 for 3.8GB of data to stream a football match. That's an insane rate at about £2 per megabyte. I don't know where they were but it should be published because at that charge, even regular browsing could run up a painful bill.

It's hard not to have sympathy as it could have happened to anyone but most of us don't have a departmental budget to dip into and using public money to pay it should not be done.

I suspect he either denied it out of embarrassment or wasn't aware of the cost per MB. I doubt many people would imagine a football match costing anywhere near that. We are all too used to cheap, unmetered broadband these days.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Morocco...

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Doh! Teach me to skim read :-)

That's Morocco off my hols list

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

Could have been worse - O2 can charge £7 per megabyte there.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

The strangest thing is that with all that’s gone on since his holiday - resignations, leadership race and campervans nobody thought 11 grand was a price worth paying to avoid the story until after it came out.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

As always, it’s the cover up the gets you. That they still don’t get that is a concerning glimpse into what an amateurish operation the SNP currently is.

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

When the details were emerging at first I was slightly sympathetic - nobody knew the rates being charged but a search indicates that EE on some tariffs can go as far as that.

At approx 1.5GB bad timing of some app updates or an iOS update would easily take you into that ballpark.

However the breakdown by day was pretty damning.

As Chris alludes to in the post above - someone somewhere should have thought 11 grand would stand out. Approximately doubling the whole bill for Parliament in a year, it doesn't take too many FOI requests to get to who and when. A free dice roll for some journalists or opposition researchers.

If my organisation claimed I'd used up hundreds of pounds of mobile use - never mind thousands - my first instinct would be to find out where and when. So the idea it took until last Thursday for his 'family to own up' stretches credibility. Would he not raise the figure with his family and whether he should pay it when first approached?

Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
 

I personally think the bigger problem is that a provider should be allowed to run up an £11,000 data bill, that is the crime here not allowing his kids on his iPad