Thursday, January 31, 2019

SNP, the Fake News Political Party of 2019; Key SNP figures have been told by SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon to prepare for possible election, dogged by failure, dogged by sleaze, dogged by internal civil war, Nicola Sturgeon isn’t leading a unified party, you can’t expect a ‘small’ woman to make the ‘hero’ call and pull the plug


















Dear All

In these weary days of fake news, the goal in the SNP seems to be deflection for the Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon story, from the SNP civil war, and from Nicola Sturgeon in general. To that end, we get this piece of nonsense, key SNP figures told by Nicola Sturgeon to prepare for possible election.

Is the noose of destiny tightening around the throat of Nicola Sturgeon?

Is it better to go out as a defeat First Minister and tuck that FM pension away than to hang around and see Team Salmond plot and plan for her exit! Although any excuse will do to bolt, we should be careful about this election scare story. Has Nicola Sturgeon got enough ‘Scottish roubles’ put away, has she a fallback position of another job in the wings? The fact that SNP parliamentarians have been told by Nicola Sturgeon to prepare for a possible Scottish election if the government at Holyrood fails to pass its budget today doesn’t impress me.

Nicola Sturgeon gets a lot wrong and she isn’t any good at strategy despite the hype by the press as a canny politician. That muck of her being a thinker has no place in the history of Scotland, from botched job to botched job appears to be the history of Sturgeon in political office of State.

Health was a disaster.

Face of indy was a disaster.

Law career turned out to be a dud.

The Scottish Greens by use of the discredit list system see themselves in a position to extent pressure to get through their agenda. The only thing good about a Holyrood election is that it might suppress their votes and help get rid of some of those clowns. An election doesn’t help Sturgeon; her minority government only stands to lose seats and voter share. Of course this seems like a ‘tactic’, a tactic used before way back in 2009, when an SNP minority government had its budget defeated by the Scottish Parliament. Salmond as First Minister then threatened to go to the polls before the deadlock was broken.

Elections cost money and are a risk!

If the purpose of Sturgeon’s possible election is to secure a fresh mandate from the electorate to secure another referendum on independence, she is onto plums; the issues in the Scottish NHS will feature highly in any possible election. And given the number of child who have died under Sturgeon’s watch with her new handpicked Health Minister, you can feel how uncomfortable would be. Nicola Sturgeon uses children as ‘props’, this is part of her ‘Chief Mammy’ agenda to stay in power, the illusion of being liked and popular.

The use of a Trojan horse in history is well known, publicly, the government has stated that it is focused on getting its spending plans passed and is confident of reaching a compromise. If they are confident then what is Nicola Sturgeon saying re election?

I would suggest she is laying a false trail of bird seed, the closer the turkeys get to the oven, the more they will want to turn back and save their skin. Scottish Green leader Patrick Harvie is a turkey who doesn’t want the pleasure of hopping into the gas oven.

In what must be laughable, Finance Secretary Derek Mackay is appealing for MSPs to “act responsibly”, this is a man who betrayed his wife and kids and is calling for MSPs to “act responsibly”?

How does that work when we all know he is a rocket?

Mackay must secure the support of the six Green MSPs to pass his budget, with all other opposition parties committed to voting against it, we are in this situation due to the list system, I have always favoured smaller MSP constituencies so that MSP must win a mandate from an area they stand in.

Scottish Greens Patrick Harvie has dismissed suggestions his party could bring down the government by rejecting the SNP’s budget as a “myth” but this type of ‘soap opera’ doesn’t play well with the voters. Scotland is in political flux, no one going to the polls at this time can guarantee that they will keep their seat. The only exception in general is those who may it to the top of the list, minus a few places where special circumstances exist.

SNP committee convener Gillian Martin used the fable spectre of a second Scottish independence was at risk to a Green MSP by tweeting:

“You’ve seen the way the other parties coalesce against us to try and bring down the government. Since 2014 everything for them is about defeating the pro-Indy Parliament.” She added: We are at risk of an election that might see pro Indy parties lose seats and put us in a weaker position.”

The writing is on the wall for Holyrood 2021, we are looking at a hung parliament, a parliament that cannot get a referendum bill through, anything between now and then is meaningless.

Nicola Sturgeon has no decent record to lead the SNP into an election, high tax, bad services, ineffective government and she is a bitter angry woman who needs pushed out the door.  

At present Polls show the SNP remains in the lead in Scottish Parliament voting intention, but that the nationalists have lost ground. Can you seriously imagine Nicola Sturgeon pulling the plug for an early election when so much bad PR is swirling around her personally?   

Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser claimed uncertainty around the budget showed the SNP were “unfit” for government which is an open secret. He added:

“The SNP has neglected the day job so badly that it’s now struggling to get the single-biggest responsibility taken care of. Nicola Sturgeon is so resigned to the weakness of her own administration; she’s been forced to rally the troops for another election.Hers would be the first government in the history of the Scottish Parliament to call an election because it couldn’t pass a budget. That would be a shameful legacy, and shows just how unfit the Nationalists are for government of any kind.”

Rallying the troops this time might not be so easy, you don’t plunge a party not unified into an election, because you find that even in your own side, there are people with an interest in seriously seeing you lose.

Scottish Liberal Democrat campaign chair Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

“We’ve made clear to the SNP that we want a budget that focuses on education, mental health and local government funding. “If their inability to get a budget through necessitates a new Scottish Parliament election then I have every hope that people in Scotland will want to use that to eject the Nationalists.”

Quite so ma’am!

A Labour spokesman said:

“No credible anti-austerity party would propose” the draft budget put forward by the SNP”.

If I was Scottish Labour, I wouldn’t want a Holyrood election at this point in time being the third party in Holyrood, the ground operation isn’t exactly dynamic at the moment.  

Finally, the only reasons for Holyrood election is if Nicola Sturgeon wants out the door, or wants to gamble, but since she would be gambling FM ‘roubles’, I don’t think she has the mind to pull the pin. The Scottish Greens in a way are like the SNP at Westminster, people see them as useful idiots, a few coins thrown their way will probably see them back in their cage and the ‘soap opera’ will be over. The high drama, the cliff hanger will yet again prove to be a huge letdown at Holyrood.

Who is up for an election?

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

3 comments:

  1. So the nats are facing hung parliament even with the Greens on side?

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  2. No chance of it happening George much as people would like it, as you say the greens will eventually support them. However any compromise that raises taxes on people will eventually backfire hopefully come the next election, Richard Leonard would do well to remember that as well. I don't think my salary is that large for what I do and the prospect of being taxed even more on it annoys me.

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  3. Same as the Yellow Vests then.

    ReplyDelete