Bypassing the Road Block 238


I almost never write about somebody else’s article, but this from Barrhead Boy sums up exactly how I feel today. 80% by readership of the pro-Independence new media has been disillusioned by the current SNP leadership to the point of turning against it. Peter Bell, Barrhead Boy, Robin McAlpine, James Kelly, Jeggit, Stuart Campbell, Iain Lawson, and me – I could go on with a dozen more – these were the writers to whom pro-Independence people turned in their hundreds of thousands to escape from the diet of unionist propaganda they were fed from the BBC and papers. These bloggers and independent journalists were, along with the All Under One Banner marches, the heartbeat of Independence. The SNP notably was not that – it had effectively banned discussion of Independence. Long term readers will recall I was even blocked by Murrell from holding a fringe meeting on Independence – when a delegate – at SNP conference, but told I could hold one on another subject.

The bloggers I name are all people who have dedicated their recent lives almost entirely to the cause of Scottish Independence. The 2014 Yes campaign was primarily a street movement, reinforced by bloggers and with real public meetings all over Scotland. I believe only Robin McAlpine spoke at more meetings during the Indyref campaign than I did, and I believe since 2014 nobody has given more speeches and talks on Independence than I. To alienate such dedicated people is astonishing.

How has it happened? Well, the fact that the SNP leadership has won the adoration of the Guardian while losing the support of pro-Independence new media says it all. That is sufficient explanation. There are differences between the pro-Independence bloggers I name, in the extent to which they were SNP members or not, but they have one thing in common. Everybody on that list – along with the leadership of AUOB – has come to doubt the genuine intent of the current SNP leadership to achieve Independence.

A SNP MP told me very recently that they had no doubt Nicola had no intention at all of holding Indyref2. I think it is not unfair also to say that every person on that list is also alarmed by the SNP leadership’s broad adoption of what I might call Britnat values – uncritical support for most British security and defence policies. The strong impression that Sturgeon is much more interested in identity politics than Independence also I think troubles more or less every one of them.

But we are apparently getting a harsh lesson in the limits of new media, in that the strong advocacy of the pro-Independence new media of a vote for the more radically pro-Independence party Alba on the second, list, ballot is showing very little sign of cutting through in opinion polls. The continuing demonisation of Alex Salmond by the mainstream media – taking their cue from Nicola Sturgeon and her constant intimation that the jury in his trial and the judge in the Court of Session both got it wrong – appears so far powerfully effective in electoral terms. The exclusion of Alba from leadership debates, and the virtual exclusion of Alba from news coverage, appears to work.

It is a strong reminder that you cannot judge balance in news reporting by time devoted. Where other parties are asked about their policies, Alba’s rare appearances are dominated by aggressive suggestions that Alex Salmond should be banned from public life. If Salmond featured in media debates, he would answer the same policy questions as other leaders and would be seen to answer them better. The “compensating” interviews he is offered instead are simply an excuse for more personal attacks on him.

I have this message for everybody who believes in Independence. Vote for Alba, who are the only party who will try to gain Independence with you. The SNP manifesto says there should be an Indyref after Covid has passed – a delightfully vague date – and is utterly silent on what happens when both the Westminster Government and the UK Supreme Court refuse the referendum – both of which absolutely will happen. If necessary, the Tories will amend the Scotland Act specifically to ban a referendum without Westminster consent, and the UK Supreme Court, which has always upheld the sovereignty of (Westminster) parliament, will do so again. Nicola will pretend to be disappointed, and make yet another speech against what she herself has labeled “wildcat” or “illegal” referenda and will repeat there are “no short-cuts” to Independence.

I have news for Nicola. Self-determination is not a short-cut. It is an inalienable right guaranteed in the UN Charter.

So vote Alba. I have no responsibility in Alba, I am just an ordinary member. The policy of Alba is to advocate a constituency vote for the SNP everywhere, and a list vote for Alba. You must follow your own conscience, but there are places I could never vote SNP, Edinburgh Central being a good example, though a court order prevents me from telling you why. I shall however be voting for my local SNP candidate in the constituency vote as he has stressed Independence in his election literature.

I regard this election as just the start for Alba. I look forward to participating in democratic debate that shapes its policies. I will be arguing Alba should be against Scottish membership of NATO and for Scotland being neutral and non-aligned, and should be for Scotland becoming a republic. I will also argue very strongly that, should as I strongly expect the SNP break their promises and fail to deliver an Independence referendum by the Westminster elections of 2024, Alba should stand against the SNP in every Westminster constituency. Scotland should be Independent before then and Scotland should not be participating in those elections; if we are, it is a sure sign the SNP have “settled in”.

The SNP contingent at Tory Westminster frankly can do little or no good anyway. I think Sinn Fein have this right. But as long as there are so many well-paid jobs and so much Short money available, the SNP leadership grouping are very comfy indeed with the status quo. Threatening their income and their personal comfort is the only language they understand. Watching the SNP MP’s seduced by lifestyle and effectively forgetting Independence has been gruesome.

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238 thoughts on “Bypassing the Road Block

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  • DunGroanin

    So the Artiste Stranglers at the Groan have launched a section on Scottish Elections 2021 a whole week before the vote ! Let’s see what fair and balanced coverage it has.

    Picture tumbleweed.

    A single hit piece by LippyB aimed at STOPPING the reentrance of Salmond to the Battle deck of the Scottish Parliament.
    It is just a shit piece with dizzy vox-pops and the same old mud slinging the Groaning Goons of ii have adapted to gaslight the voters of the NE.

    It strikes me that if anyone local knows any of these ‘ordinary’ voters whose views are fabricated by the The Lip that Lies, I would like them to be interviewed about their contribution to the article. You know in the journalistic manner – who, what , when, where, how and Why?? For gods sake WHY!! Any chance Barrhead or any locals to the area can follow this up today?

    I don’t expect a single fair and balanced piece out of the Whining Ouanquers of Kings Palace – which is celebrating the final disembowelment of its last remaking Soul and Conscience that made many of us politicised 40-50 years ago.
    Enjoy the last few ‘If..’ panels as Steve Bell let’s rip as he is frogmarched out of the Deep Shit Bastion of Spooks and Whores. The epitome of the Road Block. One side effect is that many blinkered are finally seeing by this defenestration and the hushing up of the background that there really is something rotten in their make believe saintly source of opinion. I am avoiding saying ‘told you so’ to these idiots.

    • Giyane

      Mr Dungroanin

      I despair. How could the idox number crunchers ever be believed if the way was not prepared for the result by muckspreading insults from London?

      You are shaking the very foundation of our democracy by opposing the management of opinion before the artificially constructed result. If the Guardian and others were not salting the roads before the outrage hit the fans of public attention, there would be pandemonium , outrage and revolution at the announcement of the result.

      Our money is QE and our democracy is QE.
      How could you be so yesterday as to imagine it is anything else?

  • N_

    The latest Panelbase poll for next week’s Scottish general election is the first from that company to put Labour clearly ahead of the Tories (22%-20%). (Wikipedia give Panelbase poll results back to September 2017.)

    Anas Sarwar is popular.
    The SNP not winning a majority of seats is now the favourite outcome at Betfair.
    A hard border is exceptionally unpopular – and let’s remember there is some flavour of proportional representation in Scotland, so telling people who live in the Borders and in Dumfries and Galloway that they can eat dirt will harm the SNP even though the party is already unpopular in those areas.

  • Riuch

    I said many times the SNP are breaking the link between now and inp and kicking it into the long grass. It will take years to get back on track and that seems to have been the plan in collusion with the English.

  • Vivian O'Blivion

    Six SNP, MSPs will be “lucky” recipients of interns from the John Smith Centre for Public Service in 2021. These include Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf and Jenny Gilruth. Yousaf and Gilruth are the only two SNP MSPs to have been identified as “opinion leaders” by the US State Department and included in its IVLP.

    The Chair of the JSCfPS is Catherine Smith. From Smith’s bio on the site, Smith “worked in the law … on conflict resolution and democracy building for the London based NGO LINKS, working particularly in the countries of the former Soviet Union.”.
    Q. Why doesn’t that scan? Why needlessly state that NGO LINKS is “London based”?
    A. NGO LINKS isn’t “London based” it’s based out of the University of Arizona and funded by the US Government, National Science Foundation.
    Q. Who also worked for NGO LINKS?
    A. Step up, Stephen Gethins, ex-SNP, MP for NE Fife.

    Also from Smith’s bio on the site. Smith is ” … on the board of the John Smith Trust which runs programmes in good governance for emerging international leaders from the former Soviet Union.
    Q. Who is also a member of the John Smith Trust?
    A. Why, it’s Stephen Gethins again.
    The neo-Con world is such a small cozy one

  • DunGroanin

    Not a peep about the Election the whole weekend in the Brit Press it will hard to manipulate PV’s with a large turnout – the lack of Oxygen of publicity is on an Indian scale of Covid patients.

    Excellent new blog with news of the Road blockers.

    https://jaggy.blog/2021/04/30/tv-bosses-treat-alba-almost-like-the-ira

    Get your and your neighbours arses out and get Indy back on the road – and just like Man U fans telling the Yankee slavers to fuck off – tell the Beeb and it’s minions to do one too.
    Mark their names. Never Forget or Forgive and never pay a penny more to the Propagandists to sell you snake oil!

    SNP 1
    ALBA 2

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