Dear All
There were one million Scots who voted to leave the EU in
the referendum of 2016, this is an incredible number when you consider that the
entire political and media establishment on both sides of the border were
ranged against the people.
I have done a lot of campaigns in my time, and being in the
EU campaign was one which I will always remember because it was done on a
shoestring, with very little time, resources and people.
On the night of the count, some Leave activists in Glasgow
were slightly down as Glasgow in every seat went Remain, I wasn’t, as I
explained to them, it is the UK wide total that counts, and we had done very
well. In three areas of the City of Glasgow ,
over 40% was achieved for Leave.
In the Pollok Constituency, I was leading the campaigning with very limited resources and no real support, managed to get 40.8% of the vote.
One thing which I will always remember was my appearance as a panellist on the
Gordon Brewer Radio show facing off against the distinguished Ming Campbell and
SNP MEP Alyn Smith.
They lost the radio debate and they knew it, particularly
Alyn Smith who leave the BBC fuming.
In Buchanan
Street , I was one of the founders of the street
stall which had a major impact in delivering what was a very respectable total
of votes; basically three people started the ball rolling, Ben, James and me, the
early attempts were not particularly productive until I joined the team. After
the re-launch, the stall became a huge success and was joined by other people
which saw the output go to several thousand leaflets a day handed out.
Many people who dropped by the stall weren’t just Unionists;
we had a decent number of SNP supporters who expressed their support for
the Leave campaign. Having conversations which them was a challenge because I
put it to them that if they truly believed in Scottish Independence why did
they would they want to hand over control to Brussels .
Either you believe in independence or you don’t, the SNP don’t
believe in independence; that was clear from their pro EU stance, and as the
records shows their efforts along with their cash was missing, they pushed the
load onto the Unionist Remainers to carry. On the day of the vote in one of the
biggest polling stations in Glasgow
at Govan, the SNP didn’t turn up till 4.45 pm. They turned up at the Glasgow
Count in droves to claim the ‘victory’ but hadn’t done any work. This was them
doing spin. I saw Kezia Dugdale at the Glasgow Count and spoke to her in
passing, I was surprised to see her, I suspected that there would be some sort
of victory party which in the end didn’t happened.
As the results poured in, it became clear that the Remain
Campaign had lost the vote, the early celebrations in hall at the Glasgow Count
swiftly turned to shock; Nicola Sturgeon had yet again backed the wrong horse.
She had been involved in two losing referendums and the people of Scotland had said no as part of the UK .
The SNP leadership see Brussels as a gravy train, and a
place for future employment opportunities, and having that ripped away from
them was unacceptable, you see it didn’t matter if the ordinary people of
Scotland suffered by uncontrolled immigration or enforced migrant quotas, just
as Nicola’s crew got their little ‘pot of EU gold’ to keep them in an elevated
lifestyle.
The SNP under Nicola Sturgeon were willing to sell out Scotland
rather cheaply.
SNP voters mainly working class were “driven away” by the
party’s strong anti-Brexit stance. Having gambled that people would keep voting
SNP regardless, the Nats woke up to the shock that the people weren’t as stupid
as they hoped for, and as such this led to “heavy losses” at the General Election.
Having shown their true colours, people saw the SNP leadership as they really
are and what they are is shallow.
The damage that was down has accelerated the decline of the
SNP vote, they went in the 2015 election which they expected to be a cakewalk
and got handed their ass, 21 seats lost and others hanging by a handful of
votes. This has been confirmed by the results and by an academic study of the
vote. Academics from the British Election Study found 4 in 10 voters who backed
the SNP in 2015 and then voted Leave switched to another party because of Europe . The Labour Party leadership under Corbyn has been
quick to accept the vote because to put your face to the wind in respect of
direct democracy is stupid.
Professor Ed Fieldhouse and Chris Prosser of Manchester University also
found the Scottish Tories prospered by Nicola Sturgeon dropping the ball and to
a certain extent so did Labour in Glasgow, next election three seats in Glasgow
will see Labour allocate resources to it, Glasgow North East, Glasgow East and
Glasgow South West.
The academics said:
“The EU referendum clearly cut across the divisions over
Scottish independence.”
This was true, even an SNP member out of Sturgeon’s branch
was active in the Buchanan Street
stall; he was willing but not very experienced.
The referendums have been useful in establishing and defining
Scottish voters political identities, the tricky part for the Scottish
Conservatives comes next, can they managed to keep on-board everyone until the
next Holyrood election when I suspect that they will mount a serious campaign
to attempt to win the election and become the Scottish Government. In that
election unlike this one in 2017, the Tories under Ruth Davidson will need a new game plan because
they must fight in every constituency and that is a problem for them. To fight
in every constituency requires a huge increase in Tory membership so that they
can have activists fighting for every seat and the list vote.
Finally, prior to Nicola Sturgeon going on holiday, she
announced a re-launch of her failed Government and by default leadership, this
isn’t going to pan out well, the SNP is in a downward spiral and they know it.
Can they change this around, well they have a few years but what they don’t
have is a narrative.
Imagine where the SNP would have been politically if they
had backed Leave?
Greed and stupidity however stopped this; some people can be
‘bought’ for a few pennies which sums up Nicola’s crew!
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
5 comments:
Way to screw the pooch - we're talking Clinton-level incompetence her.
What about the upcoming USA/UK trade deal, what exactly is Scotland going to get from all this. Considering our arse hole of a leader tried to get the half Scottish American president banned from the UK - I reckon, not very much' I can’t see Trump being nice to any Scottish representation. Sturgeon is a traitor to the Scottish people, a traitor to Scottish nationalism. She is now a liability to the SNP; a liability to Scotland, a liability to everyone in our country. How is this complete idiot still our FM?
is she still going?
is it really necessary to show her hideous face, can't you use paint to put a bag over her head.
Dear Anon
I haven't used photoshop much however, I will see if I can find a suitable bag which is bio-degradable as a test pic to see how you like it.
I take it you are not a fan of Nicola?
She will be upset.
George
Post a Comment