Dear All
Yapping Yousuf has made his top ten predictions for 2010, so let us go through and have a swatch.
1/The SNP will get less than 10 MP's at the General Election as the 2-horse race message sinks through and Scotland speaks out against the Tories.
There is a two horse race in Scotland but it is between the SNP and Labour, people vote on local issues and local personalities even at Westminister’s General Election.
The Tories are dead in Scotland, one MP. The idea that the people of Scotland are going to vote Labour because of what is happening in England is nonsense. In Glasgow, the people think local.
2/ Glasgow will return to being an all-Labour city after Labour win Glasgow East.
This SNP have never held a seat won at a by-election at a General Election, so more of a statement of reality backed by facts. However, John Mason is a good MP with a good track record. His record speaks for itself; he can get re-elected if he tries very hard. Margaret Curran is a bad candidate and not very well liked, she is also lied to the people regarding both her employment history and where she lived during the Glasgow East election.
3/ There is no referendum on Scottish Independence.
The SNP Government is a minority so doesn’t have the ability to pass a referendum bill by itself.
4/ Michael Schumacher wins the F1 championship to cement his reputation as one of the greatest sportsmen the world has ever seen.
Could do, could not, not interested.
5/ The 'historic' concordat fall apart as the cuts start to take effect and councils wish to raise council tax to stop the pain of the cuts.
Labour enforced cuts to the Scottish budget could see the concordat fall apart but even Steven ‘bin laden’ Purcell and the Labour Council of shame in Glasgow will think twice before shoving up council tax.
6/ SNP councils surprisingly are at the forefront the rebellion, unwilling to take the flak so John Swinney can claim another year of a council tax freeze.
Wishful thinking on Yousuf’s part but not unimaginable.
7/ Celtic win the league (a man can dream...!)
I personally would shut down Rangers and Celtic to help kill the sectarian problem, both these clubs are the blight on Scottish Society, the sooner the City of Glasgow gets rid of them the better.
8/ Charles Clarke will call for Brown to go half a dozen time, somehow it will still make the papers.
Hardly a prediction, Clarke hates Brown for sacking him.
9/ There will be another Scottish Government reshuffle before the General Election but Swinney, Sturgeon and MacAskill will stay.
Given that Swinney, Sturgeon and MacAskill haven’t put their foot in their mouth unlike Mike Russell, I would say that is fairly certain.
10/ At least one Scottish story from a blog or about a blog will lead the news agenda again
The Mark MacLachlan story will surface again as he is taking his former employer to a tribunal.
I predict that the Mike Russell will lose and the SNP will not wish to go through a damaging PR exercise where several SNP figures are outed.
One thing that Yousuf didn’t put on his list is the possibility of Labour winning the General Election.
The SNP can win more of their current 7 seats but only if they are radical, in Glasgow, they stand a chance of winning 3 out of 7.
The SNP need to pick 3 seats the seats are Glasgow North, South and East at the General Election.
They need to interview all current activists and strip them out of the remaining four seats of personnel.
These activists need to be trained in presentation skills.
There also needs to be a drive to recruit more members to become active and that means training programmes across the range of campaigning funded by the party.
If these measures are addressed in full then the SNP can possibly return 3 MPs to Westminister instead of recording 7 losses.
Is there the political will for such radical thinking?
Who knows but at present the SNP are staring total defeat in Glasgow in the face.
Yapping Yousuf has made his top ten predictions for 2010, so let us go through and have a swatch.
1/The SNP will get less than 10 MP's at the General Election as the 2-horse race message sinks through and Scotland speaks out against the Tories.
There is a two horse race in Scotland but it is between the SNP and Labour, people vote on local issues and local personalities even at Westminister’s General Election.
The Tories are dead in Scotland, one MP. The idea that the people of Scotland are going to vote Labour because of what is happening in England is nonsense. In Glasgow, the people think local.
2/ Glasgow will return to being an all-Labour city after Labour win Glasgow East.
This SNP have never held a seat won at a by-election at a General Election, so more of a statement of reality backed by facts. However, John Mason is a good MP with a good track record. His record speaks for itself; he can get re-elected if he tries very hard. Margaret Curran is a bad candidate and not very well liked, she is also lied to the people regarding both her employment history and where she lived during the Glasgow East election.
3/ There is no referendum on Scottish Independence.
The SNP Government is a minority so doesn’t have the ability to pass a referendum bill by itself.
4/ Michael Schumacher wins the F1 championship to cement his reputation as one of the greatest sportsmen the world has ever seen.
Could do, could not, not interested.
5/ The 'historic' concordat fall apart as the cuts start to take effect and councils wish to raise council tax to stop the pain of the cuts.
Labour enforced cuts to the Scottish budget could see the concordat fall apart but even Steven ‘bin laden’ Purcell and the Labour Council of shame in Glasgow will think twice before shoving up council tax.
6/ SNP councils surprisingly are at the forefront the rebellion, unwilling to take the flak so John Swinney can claim another year of a council tax freeze.
Wishful thinking on Yousuf’s part but not unimaginable.
7/ Celtic win the league (a man can dream...!)
I personally would shut down Rangers and Celtic to help kill the sectarian problem, both these clubs are the blight on Scottish Society, the sooner the City of Glasgow gets rid of them the better.
8/ Charles Clarke will call for Brown to go half a dozen time, somehow it will still make the papers.
Hardly a prediction, Clarke hates Brown for sacking him.
9/ There will be another Scottish Government reshuffle before the General Election but Swinney, Sturgeon and MacAskill will stay.
Given that Swinney, Sturgeon and MacAskill haven’t put their foot in their mouth unlike Mike Russell, I would say that is fairly certain.
10/ At least one Scottish story from a blog or about a blog will lead the news agenda again
The Mark MacLachlan story will surface again as he is taking his former employer to a tribunal.
I predict that the Mike Russell will lose and the SNP will not wish to go through a damaging PR exercise where several SNP figures are outed.
One thing that Yousuf didn’t put on his list is the possibility of Labour winning the General Election.
The SNP can win more of their current 7 seats but only if they are radical, in Glasgow, they stand a chance of winning 3 out of 7.
The SNP need to pick 3 seats the seats are Glasgow North, South and East at the General Election.
They need to interview all current activists and strip them out of the remaining four seats of personnel.
These activists need to be trained in presentation skills.
There also needs to be a drive to recruit more members to become active and that means training programmes across the range of campaigning funded by the party.
If these measures are addressed in full then the SNP can possibly return 3 MPs to Westminister instead of recording 7 losses.
Is there the political will for such radical thinking?
Who knows but at present the SNP are staring total defeat in Glasgow in the face.
These ideas were communicated to a senior SNP figure on the 23 rd November 2009.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
2 comments:
I wouldn’t put too much stock in what Mr Yapping says. I imagine that the hidden agenda there is huge and it wont be too long before we see his name on some party list or other.
Dear Munguin
You have to look at what the opposition is up to, their thoughts and deeds.
I can see Yousuf on a party list myself somewhere, regional MSP perhaps.
With Labour, there is always a hidden agenda,, say one thing do another.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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