Scottish Independence Talk

[Ally Bongo]

Has anyone thought through what will happen if a miracle happens and John Swinney resigns as leader of the SNP on Monday ?

Will he have to stand down as First Minister ? 

Obviously the Unionists and their media will be all over it like a rash with SNP chaos - however with the election a year away i can't see them pressuring for Parliament to be dissolved and have a Holyrood election - only to do it again in a year's time

Will the leadership campaign be a long drawn 3 months ?

Who is likely to stand - Flynn , Forbes (Can't see it) , Cherry, Robertson ?

It's a hideous mess but the SNP cant go into the next election with Swinney as leader - even if he has a complete Volte Face and goes open armed to the other Indy Parties

Edited June 7, 2025 by Ally Bongo

[Ally Bongo]

https://wingsoverscotland.com/what-we-dont-know-now/

And since Labour and the SNP have no meaningful policy differences other than independence, and the SNP have already given up on independence, what that amounts to is a great big fat load of “as you were

[TDYER63]

13 hours ago, Ally Bongo said:

Has anyone thought through what will happen if a miracle happens and John Swinney resigns as leader of the SNP on Monday ?

Will he have to stand down as First Minister ? 

Obviously the Unionists and their media will be all over it like a rash with SNP chaos - however with the election a year away i can't see them pressuring for Parliament to be dissolved and have a Holyrood election - only to do it again in a year's time

Will the leadership campaign be a long drawn 3 months ?

Who is likely to stand - Flynn , Forbes (Can't see it) , Cherry, Robertson ?

It's a hideous mess but the SNP cant go into the next election with Swinney as leader - even if he has a complete Volte Face and goes open armed to the other Indy Parties

I haven’t thought about the consequences as there is not a hope in hell of it happening. John thinks things are improving.

 

 

[Orraloon]

https://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2025/06/on-subject-of-electoral-illiteracy.html

[Ally Bongo]

2 hours ago, TDYER63 said:

I haven’t thought about the consequences as there is not a hope in hell of it happening. John thinks things are improving.

 

 

Genius John realises he has been shit and promises .........more carrots (see last paragraph)

[King Of Paisley]

Noted that turnout for the Hamilton by election was down 16% from 2021. Coincidentally, the SNP vote share was down by the same margin on Thursday. A sign that traditonal SNP/indy voters stayed at home, like what happened in Rutherglen?

[scotlad]

On 6/6/2025 at 2:52 AM, scotlad said:

It's worse than that; instead of attacking Labour the dozy bastard was busy sticking up for Anas Sarwar because he reckoned Reform were being mean to him. Anas Sarwar - a man who wouldn't piss on John Swinney if he was on fire!

And the thanks Swinney gets for standing up for Sarwar is this:

 

"Dishonest, shameful..." "Lack of ambition..."

What vile man Sarwar is, and what a fool John Swinney was for defending that arsehole.

[hampden_loon2878]

3 hours ago, King Of Paisley said:

Noted that turnout for the Hamilton by election was down 16% from 2021. Coincidentally, the SNP vote share was down by the same margin on Thursday. A sign that traditonal SNP/indy voters stayed at home, like what happened in Rutherglen?

the only thing the snp can take from this is that it was a bye election and older labour voters are more likely to vote in a by-election, but that is clutching at straws a bit 

[StirlingEgg]

57 minutes ago, scotlad said:

And the thanks Swinney gets for standing up for Sarwar is this:

 

"Dishonest, shameful..." "Lack of ambition..."

What vile man Sarwar is, and what a fool John Swinney was for defending that arsehole.

Would be great if Swinney stood up and said that 😃

[Ally Bongo]

4 hours ago, StirlingEgg said:

Would be great if Swinney stood up and said that 😃

I think Swinney is losing the plot 

He has probably redacted that much that he forgets everyone has been calling for this for at least 3 years

Nevermind - just as he was quick to call his ludicrous anti Reform convention i'm sure he will be on the phone to Kenny MacAskill first thing tomorrow

A fucking charlatan that thinks our heids button up the back

[TDYER63]

I know most people on here already know this but since it was a BBC news item yesterday thought I would just remind folk. This is full article but have highlighted parts below. 

Get a grip Scotland. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdedjnw8e85o.amp
 

It is 1am on 3 June. A near gale force wind is blasting into Scotland. Great weather for the Moray East and West offshore wind farms, you would have thought.

The two farms are 13 miles off the north-east coast of Scotland and include some of the biggest wind turbines in the UK, at 257m high. With winds like that they should be operating at maximum capacity, generating what the developer, Ocean Winds, claims is enough power to meet the electricity needs of well over a million homes.

Except they are not.

That's because if you thought that once an electricity generator - whether it be a wind farm or a gas-powered plant - was connected to the national grid it could seamlessly send its electricity wherever it was needed in the country, you'd be wrong.

The electricity grid was built to deliver power generated by coal and gas plants near the country's major cities and towns, and doesn't always have sufficient capacity in the wires that carry electricity around the country to get the new renewable electricity generated way out in the wild seas and rural areas.

And this has major consequences.

The way the system currently works means a company like Ocean Winds gets what are effectively compensation payments if the system can't take the power its wind turbines are generating and it has to turn down its output.

It means Ocean winds was paid £72,000 not to generate power from its wind farms in the Moray Firth during a half-hour period on 3 June because the system was overloaded - one of a number of occasions output was restricted that day.

At the same time, 44 miles (70km) east of London, the Grain gas-fired power station on the Thames Estuary was paid £43,000 to provide more electricity.

Payments like that happen virtually every day. Seagreen, Scotland's largest wind farm, was paid £65 million last year to restrict its output 71% of the time, according to analysis by Octopus Energy. 

Balancing the grid in this way has already cost the country more than £500 million this year alone, the company's analysis shows. The total could reach almost £8bn a year by 2030, warns the National Electricity System Operator (NESO), the body in charge of the electricity network.

It's pushing up all our energy bills and calling into question the government's promise that net zero would end up delivering cheaper electricity.

 

Could 'zonal' pricing lower bills?

Supporters of the government's plan argue that, as long as prices continue to be set at a national level, the hold gas has on the cost of electricity will be hard to break. Less so with regional – or, in the jargon, "zonal" - pricing.

Think of Scotland, blessed with vast wind resources but just 5.5 million people. The argument goes that if prices were set locally, it wouldn't be necessary to pay wind farms to be turned down because there wasn't enough capacity in the cables to carry all the electricity into England. 

On a windy day like 3 June, they would have to sell that spare power to local people instead of into a national market. The theory is prices would fall dramatically – on some days Scottish customers might even get their electricity for free.

 

[scotlad]

On 6/8/2025 at 9:49 PM, StirlingEgg said:

Would be great if Swinney stood up and said that 😃

I think I detest Sarwar even more than I did Ruth Davidson. She too was over-promoted, over-protected and deceitful, flip-flopping faster than Usain Bolt on his holidays, but she could at least speak well and occasionally appeared capable of independent thought. Sarwar, on the other hand, appears to possess no redeeming qualities either as a person or a politician.

Edited June 10, 2025 by scotlad

[TDYER63]

On 6/8/2025 at 8:51 PM, scotlad said:

And the thanks Swinney gets for standing up for Sarwar is this:

 

"Dishonest, shameful..." "Lack of ambition..."

What vile man Sarwar is, and what a fool John Swinney was for defending that arsehole.

IMO this says more about Sarwar than Swinney. If Labour supporters , or anyone for that matter, cannot see the difference between Swinney and Sarwar in terms of decency and integrity then I wish them the best of luck with Sarwar as FM. 

I think the campaign was very poor by the SNP by focusing so much on Reform , and I think Swinney is too weak generally, but I dont think it was wrong to call out Reform for that particular advert. 
 

[Hertsscot]

2 hours ago, TDYER63 said:

Could 'zonal' pricing lower bills?

Think of Scotland, blessed with vast wind resources but just 5.5 million people. The argument goes that if prices were set locally, it wouldn't be necessary to pay wind farms to be turned down because there wasn't enough capacity in the cables to carry all the electricity into England. 

On a windy day like 3 June, they would have to sell that spare power to local people instead of into a national market. The theory is prices would fall dramatically – on some days Scottish customers might even get their electricity for free.

 

Thanks for posting that article. I was intending to post it myself but you beat me to it 

It seems pretty clear that no Westminster Govt, Tory, Labour or Reform would contemplate allowing Scottish households or businesses having lower bills than England. Broad shoulders of the Union and all that.

[Hertsscot]

2 hours ago, scotlad said:

I think I detest Sarwar even more than I did Ruth Davidson. She too was over-promoted, over-protected and deceitful, flip-flopping faster than Usain Bolt on his holidays, but she could at least speak well and occasionally appeared capable of independent thought. Sarwar, on the other hand, appears to possess no redeeming qualities either as a person or a politician.

It's not just Sarwar. It's Scottish Labour's blatant hypocrisy. This from Scottish Labour Social Security spokesperson Paul O’Kane, as reported in the Herald:

"The last Tory government left our public finances in chaos but Labour has made good progress cleaning up the mess it inherited. The Winer Fuel Payment is a devolved payment in Scotland and Scottish Labour has long been clear that we want to see it reinstated for the majority of pensioners up here – but despite their loud spin, the SNP voted against our attempts to do so...The SNP must not go ahead with plans that would rob poorer pensioners in order to fund payments for millionaires."

Absolute brass neck. Iirc they caused the situation in the first place by Reeves axing WFP at short notice without informing the Scottish Government.

SLab then did their normal trick of demanding that the SNP mitigated cuts caused by the Westminster Labour Govt., cuts that had been supported by Scottish Labour MPs!

[Ally Bongo]

A group of SNP rebels held a secret meeting on Monday night to discuss replacing the FM after last week’s by-election defeat, The Herald has learned. They’ve given him 2 weeks to change course — or face a “bloodbath” at conference.

The Herald

[Orraloon]

7 hours ago, Ally Bongo said:

A group of SNP rebels held a secret meeting on Monday night to discuss replacing the FM after last week’s by-election defeat, The Herald has learned. They’ve given him 2 weeks to change course — or face a “bloodbath” at conference.

The Herald

Any Idea who these "rebels" are, and which direction they want him to take? 

[Ally Bongo]

1 hour ago, Orraloon said:

Any Idea who these "rebels" are, and which direction they want him to take? 

Presumably those that don't realise power was taken away from Conference ...

If there are any it will be some of those at the back 

[hampden_loon2878]

2 hours ago, Orraloon said:

Any Idea who these "rebels" are, and which direction they want him to take? 

i have a feeling it could be the woke brigade,, with mcallan at the head,, i could be completely wrong and is a complete guess  

[Ally Bongo]

3 minutes ago, hampden_loon2878 said:

i have a feeling it could be the woke brigade,, with mcallan at the head,, i could be completely wrong and is a complete guess  

Surely as Swinney is a continuation of Sturgeon the wokies will want him to remain particularly if any new leader is able to throw off the Sturgeon shackles 

I would have thought it would be the Ewings, Michelle Thomson, Ivan McKee et al 

[hampden_loon2878]

15 minutes ago, Ally Bongo said:

Surely as Swinney is a continuation of Sturgeon the wokies will want him to remain particularly if any new leader is able to throw off the Sturgeon shackles 

I would have thought it would be the Ewings, Michelle Thomson, Ivan McKee et al 

i am not to sure tbh as its who is he upsetting the most? the left hate KF with a passion and he made her deputy. ewing, michelle are retiring, maybe they might chuck in a grenade on the way out.

[Toepoke]

21 hours ago, TDYER63 said:

 If Labour supporters , or anyone for that matter, cannot see the difference between Swinney and Sarwar in terms of decency and integrity then I wish them the best of luck with Sarwar as FM. 

Indeed...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/02/04/labour-work-with-reform-to-oust-snp/

 

[scotlad]

On 6/10/2025 at 2:15 PM, TDYER63 said:

IMO this says more about Sarwar than Swinney. If Labour supporters , or anyone for that matter, cannot see the difference between Swinney and Sarwar in terms of decency and integrity then I wish them the best of luck with Sarwar as FM. 

I think the campaign was very poor by the SNP by focusing so much on Reform , and I think Swinney is too weak generally, but I dont think it was wrong to call out Reform for that particular advert. 
 

Oh, very much so. It was unnecessarily harsh and ungracious of Sarwar. If he's serious about being FM he should start acting like one; grow up, be less bitter and try and act like a statesman.

(I don't think he actually is serious about being FM, I think he just wants to improve Labour's electoral fortunes in Scotland in the hope it will earn him a peerage, but I could be wrong).

[scotlad]

9 hours ago, hampden_loon2878 said:

i have a feeling it could be the woke brigade,, with mcallan at the head,, i could be completely wrong and is a complete guess  

I agree. I suspect it is them rather than a faction who would like the party to do what it was set up to do and make the case for Scottish independence once in a while. The wee "rural Perthshire" and "Presbyterian schoolmaster" jibes sound like the kind of ammo wokies might fire.

(I kind of get where they are coming from there actually, although I thought Swinney was Catholic; not that I care a jot about his faith or anyone else's)

There are probably people within the party - not necessarily anyone well known, most probably party functionaries - the real power behind the throne - who fear for their futures if the party either carries on the way it is going or goes in another direction entirely. HJ hasn't entirely killed gender woo-woo but he has dialled it down, and the wokies might see that as a sign of things to come.

[Ally Bongo]

There is going to be fuck all left of Scotland 

Up to 400 jobs are at risk after a bus manufacturer announced plans to move operations to England.

Alexander Dennis, which has factories in Falkirk and Larbert, said it was considering moving manufacturing to a site in Scarborough.

The plans would see work at the Falkirk site discontinued, while the Larbert site would be closed after current contracts are completed.