General Election 2024

[hampden_loon2878]

27 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

The alternative to voting SNP is to stick with governments who are assest stripping scotland.

Inflation has risen again, NHS lists at all time high, debt has risen oh and for anyone who thinks the boats and illegal immigration is important, I don't,  the tories have done zip to solve it. 

The tories and Labour have stood by and not only watched but encouraged the slaughter of thousands if not 10s of thousands of people in Gaza. 

Recently they've basically told scotland they have no democratic right to determine its future

But yes let's stick with the status quo, westminster is doing a stellar job for Scotland. 

The problem here is the current snp are doing nothing to stop the asset stripping, even aiding it to an extent, we need to hit the reset button and the hammering at this election will be that reset.

I know a lad, a really good old school intelligent business minded nationalist, had been a member for over 30 years then in haste cancelled his snp membership after Forbes never got in. He then a few months later tried to rejoin and they won’t let him 🤷‍♂️ if he was josh mennie or some other rainbow maniac he would have been welcomed in with open arms.. he’s not the type of member these NUSNP want so time for a total clear out 

[vanderark14]

32 minutes ago, hampden_loon2878 said:

The problem here is the current snp are doing nothing to stop the asset stripping, even aiding it to an extent, we need to hit the reset button and the hammering at this election will be that reset.

I know a lad, a really good old school intelligent business minded nationalist, had been a member for over 30 years then in haste cancelled his snp membership after Forbes never got in. He then a few months later tried to rejoin and they won’t let him 🤷‍♂️ if he was josh mennie or some other rainbow maniac he would have been welcomed in with open arms.. he’s not the type of member these NUSNP want so time for a total clear out 

and therein lies the problem. Too many people want independence but only with who they want to lead the charge for it

 

[Hertsscot]

1 hour ago, hampden_loon2878 said:

I know a lad, a really good old school intelligent business minded nationalist, had been a member for over 30 years then in haste cancelled his snp membership after Forbes never got in. He then a few months later tried to rejoin and they won’t let him 🤷‍♂️

I'm a bit puzzled. Why exactly won't the SNP let him rejoin the party?

[Broath Boy]

1 hour ago, hampden_loon2878 said:

The problem here is the current snp are doing nothing to stop the asset stripping, even aiding it to an extent, we need to hit the reset button and the hammering at this election will be that reset.

I know a lad, a really good old school intelligent business minded nationalist, had been a member for over 30 years then in haste cancelled his snp membership after Forbes never got in. He then a few months later tried to rejoin and they won’t let him 🤷‍♂️ if he was josh mennie or some other rainbow maniac he would have been welcomed in with open arms.. he’s not the type of member these NUSNP want so time for a total clear out 

I voted for Kate but when Humza got in didn’t cross my mind to cancel my membership.

[scotlad]

On 1/16/2024 at 11:49 AM, Orraloon said:

It might be better to start a new tread to avoid clogging up the "News" thread with election stuff that some folk might want to avoid.

My starting point is the boundary changes, which don't seem to be getting reported much by our media. Yet more shifting of power to the the south of England. Scotland loses another two seats whilst England gains another ten, most of them in the south east. IMO, this will help the Tories a bit, but not enough to win the election. 

From an independence point of view, I think the best we can hope for is a hung parliament with the SNPs 30ish seats being enough to cause some chaos at Westminster. All of our media is telling us that Labour will win a landslide, but I'm not so sure. They will win the election ( unless a major war saves the Tories), but even to get a majority, they need one of the biggest swings ever in UK elections. For me, the fact that we are almost talking as though this has already happened indicates two things. 

1. That Labour and Tories are so close to each other, in policies, that so many millions of folk might be prepared to swap their votes within the space of a few years.
2. The people of the UK are very easily manipulated.

Agree with this. The current assumption is a Labour majority is practically assured but I read the other day that they'd need a 12% swing from the last election for that to happen. To put that into perspective, the last time that happened was 1945; even Blair's landslide in 1997 was "only" a 10% swing, although, to be fair, that was based on the 1992 result, which was a lot closer than 2019.

A hung parliament, as far as I can see, is the only way the SNP might - might - be able to negotiate another indeyref in the short to medium term, but it would be the most Scottish thing ever - more Scottish than heilan coos, whisky and heart disease - if that scenario were to present itself only after the SNP has been wiped out! 🤦‍♂️

[scotlad]

On 1/19/2024 at 5:24 PM, PapofGlencoe said:

I don't like a few politicians in the SNP but the sneer from Scottish Labour who've never even ATTEMPTED to convince anybody of their policies; rather waiting for everyone else to inevitably become unpopular makes you sick of the political process. 

👏

All you ever hear from them, particularly that gibbering fuckwit Anas Sarwar, is the word 'change', without any further explanation as to what that might actually mean in practice.

Most of the Scottish Labour crowd at HR have never had to actually deliver anything, with the odd exception like Jackie Baillie, who was a junior minister in Jack McConnell's "Scottish Executive" for a few months before being replaced by Iain Gray.

Scottish Labour become adept at being critical, which is a walk in the park compared to actually having to deliver policies. Part of me would love to see the shock and dread on their faces if they ever found themselves in the position of actuality having to do something.

[Northern Light]

57 minutes ago, scotlad said:

Agree with this. The current assumption is a Labour majority is practically assured but I read the other day that they'd need a 12% swing from the last election for that to happen. To put that into perspective, the last time that happened was 1945; even Blair's landslide in 1997 was "only" a 10% swing, although, to be fair, that was based on the 1992 result, which was a lot closer than 2019.

A hung parliament, as far as I can see, is the only way the SNP might - might - be able to negotiate another indeyref in the short to medium term, but it would be the most Scottish thing ever - more Scottish than heilan coos, whisky and heart disease - if that scenario were to present itself only after the SNP has been wiped out! 🤦‍♂️

I think the one thing that people are not factoring in to the swing calculations is the Reform Party (The Farage type mob) that is polling at about 10% that is by and large ex-Tory voters - remember Farage stood down his candidates from Tory seats last time around. There will be a large number of seats that will switch from Tory to Labour not just because the english voters switch from blue to red but because they don't vote Tory, but rather vote Reform instead almost letting the Labour candidate win by default. I think the real swing needed from blue to red will be a lot less than 12%.

For what it's worth whilst there is no great enthusiasm for Starmer people are just absolutely sick of the Tories so short of some unforseen event they will win a sizable majority I would imagine

[Hertsscot]

1 hour ago, Northern Light said:

For what it's worth whilst there is no great enthusiasm for Starmer people are just absolutely sick of the Tories so short of some unforseen event they will win a sizable majority I would imagine

I don't think anyone has any great enthusiasm for Starmer. It's very different to the end of the Tories when Blair swept to power when there was hope of a real fresh start. With Starmer it's just 'Well it won't be quite as bad as the Tories'. SNP need to be bolder and more visionary in the campaigning. I feel we're too cautious.

[hampden_loon2878]

17 hours ago, Hertsscot said:

I'm a bit puzzled. Why exactly won't the SNP let him rejoin the party?

That’s the question that’s not being answered, he actually had a senior MP question it and apparently someone more senior than him was putting the blockers on, for what? Apparently backing Kate 

[hampden_loon2878]

16 hours ago, Broath Boy said:

I voted for Kate but when Humza got in didn’t cross my mind to cancel my membership.

Not gonna lie, it crossed my mind 

[hampden_loon2878]

17 hours ago, vanderark14 said:

and therein lies the problem. Too many people want independence but only with who they want to lead the charge for it

 

I think the problem runs a lot deeper than that, instead of blairites, it’s now sturgeonites and it’s ripped the party into pieces unfortunately 

[TDYER63]

On 1/17/2024 at 1:34 PM, Orraloon said:

It would depend on whether they had any leverage or not. So far, even with 56 MPs, they have never had any real opportunity to do anything. We just might get lucky this time round and the 30ish MPs could possibly hold the balance? That's obviously a very big "could". But unfortunately this is the reality of the situation we are in. I can't see independence moving forward, unless we get lucky at some point, and get some real influence at Westminster. Of course, we need the voters in England to do that for us. 

I don’t think it will happen but let’s say there is a hung Parliament. I cannot for the life of me see Labour ever looking to the SNP for support. I think they would sooner have a mongrel government consisting of ‘anyone but the SNP’.  Apart from the stushie it would create in England, they would absolutely lose any chance whatsoever of a comeback in Scotland if they were seen to pander in any way to the SNP.

Am I missing a situation where it could happen? 
 

[Orraloon]

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News: "Statehood of a people is not in the gift of its neighbour, it is the right of a people and it is the right of the Scottish people."

[Hertsscot]

1 hour ago, Orraloon said:

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News: "Statehood of a people is not in the gift of its neighbour, it is the right of a people and it is the right of the Scottish people."

 

Can't disagree with that but that won't be official Labour policy.

[Ally Bongo]

50 minutes ago, Hertsscot said:

Can't disagree with that but that won't be official Labour policy.

She said it about Palestine and not Scotland

[RanelaghScot]

It's a bit depressing that yet again the only thing the SNP and Labour have to offer is "No.....WE'LL stop the Tories!!".

I still have a vote even though I've lived 11 years outside of Scotland, I wouldn't use it but then I think of some retired banker living in the south of Spain voting Tory so I'll use mine to even things up.

My vote will be connected to Edinburgh West, if there was an option to vote Scottish Socialist or for another independence party I would as I'm a bit fed up with the careerists and "look at me being a good wee parliamentarian!" act from those amongst the SNP.

That's not on offer though so it'll be a vote for the SNP but as Edinburgh West is full of Tories pretending to be Lib Dems I can't see anything but a Lib Dem win (Christine Jardine FFS...).

 

 

Edited January 21 by RanelaghScot

[Orraloon]

1 hour ago, Ally Bongo said:

She said it about Palestine and not Scotland

I'm sure she thinks that Scottish people should have the same rights as Palestinian people? 😉

Then again, maybe not?

[Hertsscot]

3 hours ago, Ally Bongo said:

She said it about Palestine and not Scotland

Oh. Explains a lot!

[Hertsscot]

3 hours ago, RanelaghScot said:

It's a bit depressing that yet again the only thing the SNP and Labour have to offer is "No.....WE'LL stop the Tories!!".

I still have a vote even though I've lived 11 years outside of Scotland, I wouldn't use it but then I think of some retired banker living in the south of Spain voting Tory so I'll use mine to even things up.

I see that the Tories have now removed the 15 year limit on voting for those living outside the UK. To me it seems crazy that someone who has lived outside the UK for that length of time should get a vote. My understanding is that most of those entitled to vote don't take up the opportunity but the new legislation does increase the number of voters quite significantly and I do suspect most of them will vote Tory.

[scotlad]

I haven't seen the SNP's election campaign film yet but I did see Humza Yousaf on the Laura Kuenssberg show yesterday and wasn't exactly enthused by his latest strategy, which can perhaps be summed up as: "Please Mr Starmer, can we have some more devolution?".🥺

The idea, I guess, is to paint himself as Mr Reasonable in contrast to Labour loudly and flatly ruling out any deals with the SNP. That was a decent strategy 8 years ago when Nicola Sturgeon (who else?) adopted it, but it's some backtrack from the de facto referendum strategy that was being talked about just a few months ago.

[Alibi]

I will vote SNP at the election as there is no real alternative, but if they soft pedal on indy I won't be happy.  Also if they insist on more gender shite. If they do that, they will get hammered.

[Malcolm]

Humzah is inept. No way am i voting snp.  Might have to be the lib dems who are also hopeless, backed the gender shit and also have ACH - so no way ideal.  Or, I vote tory despite everything or maybe even reform if they put up a candidate in my constituency.  Dont really want to vote for any of them.

[kumnio]

32 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

Humzah is inept. No way am i voting snp.  Might have to be the lib dems who are also hopeless, backed the gender shit and also have ACH - so no way ideal.  Or, I vote tory despite everything or maybe even reform if they put up a candidate in my constituency.  Dont really want to vote for any of them.

Humza might well be useless, no idea who Humzah is though.

[Caledonian Craig]

15 hours ago, scotlad said:

I haven't seen the SNP's election campaign film yet but I did see Humza Yousaf on the Laura Kuenssberg show yesterday and wasn't exactly enthused by his latest strategy, which can perhaps be summed up as: "Please Mr Starmer, can we have some more devolution?".🥺

The idea, I guess, is to paint himself as Mr Reasonable in contrast to Labour loudly and flatly ruling out any deals with the SNP. That was a decent strategy 8 years ago when Nicola Sturgeon (who else?) adopted it, but it's some backtrack from the de facto referendum strategy that was being talked about just a few months ago.

Give me your ideas on how to fast track Scotland to independence please?

Holding a referendum regardless of say so from Westminster is pointless as we have seen with the Catalan one.

Holding a defacto referendum was Sturgeon's plan but got no support for it and posters on here were not for it either.

So what is this magic door to Scottish independence?

Even posters on here's love child Salmond only got a referendum purely on Cameron's say so.

[vanderark14]

10 hours ago, kumnio said:

Humza might well be useless, no idea who Humzah is though.

I don't think he is useless. He's just not Alex Salmond or as aggressive as some would like him to be. I was impressed with his handling of the Gaza/Israel situation. Despite what crazy twitter trolls with Watp on their profile pic say, he also made sure the Jewish community in Scotland did not feel isolated. 

My slight complaint would be he's not aggressive enough. Stephen Flynn doesn't hold back in Westminster and I'd like Humza to be more like this. 

One thing I'll say is it doesn't matter if he is aggressive or takes the soft approach, the media in the UK will go for him regardless. Surely he has learned this from salmond and sturgeon. They're still attacking sturgeon now. He has nothing to lose because they're coming for him anyway.