Alex Salmond.

[BFTD]

7 minutes ago, carpetmonster said:

You angling for a job mate?

Hey, if I'm going to be hanging around outside women's toilets anyway.

...Christ, there's going to come a day when people actually start doing that, isn't there.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

It's no good having name recognition if no one likes you. Salmond is going to be dogged by journalists like the one today who asked if he was still "A Bully and a creep" - quoting of course, his own defence lawyer.
Likewise it's a fairly well established precedence that the list only parties don't get invited to the debates, so he is going to struggle for air time, and in those debates, Ross is inevitably going to say something about Salmond and Sturgeon teaming up, and Sturgeon's answer is going to slap Ross about while getting some digs into Salmond at the same time.
It's hard to see how he, and his party manage to get anyone uncommitted to vote for them given the likely media coverage. He was marmite in 2014, and unpopular with women. All the polling to date shows him coming off a lower in credibility and believability vs Sturgeon on the whole fiasco. Is he banking on his hard-core coming out en masse for him, as not sure, currently, many others would.

Given the press and the Tories have been banging on for months about a Salmond-Sturgeon feud, it's a hard sell that they're suddenly best pals again.

[SANTAN]

3 minutes ago, The Ghost of B A R P said:

Think this might be where you and me part company, Stormzy boy...

If there are 80 or 90 pro-independence MSPs in Holyrood, the tide turns completely.

The checks on the SNP built in to D’Hondt  are finally removed. This has been the elephant in the room for years... and it’s more than a touch ironic that it’s taken in-fighting, rather than planning, to bring it about.

 

So in that theoretical situation do you think Bojo allows a referendum? 

I can easily see an election with the SNP throwing as much mud as they can at Alba, I think there is an easy (political) argument that would be made about a lack of unity. 

If the SNP embraced Alba it could be a different story, all ifs and buts right now but I think the part where we can agree is even as a Unionist I have empathy for the YesDas and the utterly stagnant approach the SNP seem to be going for. 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Apart from BARP is there anyone else going to vote for the roasters?

[carpetmonster]

3 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Hey, if I'm going to be hanging around outside women's toilets anyway.

...Christ, there's going to come a day when people actually start doing that, isn't there.

Only in Graham Linehan’s w**k fantasies, fortunately. 

[renton]

22 minutes ago, The Ghost of B A R P said:

I know, what is it about a comfortable pro-independence majority in the parliament they don’t like, eh?

Presumably you'd be similarly easy, if it's the Greens that do well, and make up a comfortable majority for Indy?

Edited March 26, 2021 by renton

[carpetmonster]

1 minute ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Apart from BARP is there anyone else going to vote for the roasters?
 

I can only vote in Westminster elections, not Holyrood. But also no, Salmond can go and grope himself. 

[The Ghost of B A R P]

5 minutes ago, renton said:

It's no good having name recognition if no one likes you. Salmond is going to be dogged by journalists like the one today who asked if he was still "A Bully and a creep" - quoting of course, his own defence lawyer.

Likewise it's a fairly well established precedence that the list only parties don't get invited to the debates, so he is going to struggle for air time, and in those debates, Ross is inevitably going to say something about Salmond and Sturgeon teaming up, and Sturgeon's answer is going to slap Ross about while getting some digs into Salmond at the same time.

It's hard to see how he, and his party manage to get anyone uncommitted to vote for them given the likely media coverage. He was marmite in 2014, and unpopular with women. All the polling to date shows him coming off a lower in credibility and believability vs Sturgeon on the whole fiasco. Is he banking on his hard-core coming out en masse for him, as not sure, currently, many others would.

People were queuing up to blather about his ‘popularity’ ratings a few weeks back... who would have imagined that someone not active in politics, falsely accused of sexual offences, and relentlessly smeared for a year and a half wouldn’t show up very well, eh?

Their target will be something like 10-12% on the list vote; appeal to a core and the disaffected might well be enough to pull that.

Edited March 26, 2021 by The Ghost of B A R P

[Scary Bear]

Was The Yes Party taken? Surely that would be the one to go for. 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Theoretically if Alba actually took enough seats to prop up a majority then there are a hell of a lot of angles big Bojo will attack from. The infighting and the past 6 months have torpedoed any chance of that situation working practically imo. 
I think if you want Indy then you'd want the Greens to retain their seats buuuut the best part is neither of these options will result in a referendum. 

Actually the “infighting” is over. Any further fighting between the current SNP leadership and the people they fell out with is now “outfighting”

The first past the post system forces people who don’t like each other to hang together for the sake of the party under PR they don’t

Whether this development is good news or bad news from any given partisan agenda is difficult to say but widening our electoral choices is good for democracy

And I reckon that Joanna Cherry would do a better job of holding Sturgeon’s government to account than the likes of Davidson or Ross

[The Ghost of B A R P]

3 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Apart from BARP is there anyone else going to vote for the roasters?
 

But you thought it would be bad for the Unionist parties!

What is it about a comfortable pro-independence majority in the parliament you’d don’t like?

[BFTD]

2 minutes ago, renton said:

Likewise it's a fairly well established precedence that the list only parties don't get invited to the debates, so he is going to struggle for air time, and in those debates, Ross is inevitably going to say something about Salmond and Sturgeon teaming up, and Sturgeon's answer is going to slap Ross about while getting some digs into Salmond at the same time.

That would take a total brass neck considering that the Farage Party teamed up with the Conservatives at the last Westminster election so, yes, that's something that DRoss is guaranteed to do without batting an eyelid.

[SANTAN]

1 minute ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

 

Actually the “infighting” is over. Any further fighting between the current SNP leadership and the people they fell out with is now “outfighting”

The first past the post system forces people who don’t like each other to hang together for the sake of the party under PR they don’t

Whether this development is good news or bad news from any given partisan agenda is difficult to say but widening our electoral choices is good for democracy

And I reckon that Joanna Cherry would do a better job of holding Sturgeon’s government to account than the likes of Davidson or Ross

 

I get your point on a technical level but there are still some SNP members that are sympathetic to Salmond to the point there could still be some technical infighting if anyone kicks up a fuss, I don't think that's actually very likely tbf. 

I disagree about Davidson but would probably agree about Cherry over Ross but she's an MP anyway so perhaps I'm uninformed or missing something but she can't exactly hold Scottish Government to account anyway? 

I agree about the overall widening of electoral choices though. 

 

[Scary Bear]

I see they are having a policy launch on 6th April. Need to wait and see what their policies are before giving them the time of day.

[The Ghost of B A R P]

6 minutes ago, Stormzy said:

So in that theoretical situation do you think Bojo allows a referendum? 

I can easily see an election with the SNP throwing as much mud as they can at Alba, I think there is an easy (political) argument that would be made about a lack of unity. 

If the SNP embraced Alba it could be a different story, all ifs and buts right now but I think the part where we can agree is even as a Unionist I have empathy for the YesDas and the utterly stagnant approach the SNP seem to be going for. 

No idea. But the game would be materially changed. And Johnson won’t be around for too long...

This ‘lack of unity’ you talk of won’t matter at all, as long as there’s unity of purpose regarding independence.

Who are the ‘Yes das’, btw?

3 minutes ago, renton said:

Presumably you'd be similarly easy, if it's the Greens that do well, and make up a comfortable majority for Indy?

The Greens are not a dependably pro-independence party. They won’t lift a finger to move things forward on independence; they’ll just negotiate concessions on other policies.

As my Viking brother said above (sorta), I now think there’s every chance their sanctimonious, hypocritical student-politics is routed once and for all.

If that’s all Alba achieves, it’ll be worth it.

[Gordon EF]

Without some drastic change in the polls, the only way we get an SNP minority relying on Alba to form a pro-independence majority parliament is if Alba take significant vote share off the Greens on the list. I think there's very good reason to think that won't happen as you can draw some very significant lines between the types of folk who're likely to vote Green and those who're likely to vote Alba.

[Granny Danger]

17 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Or one of these?

Please no.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

But you thought it would be bad for the Unionist parties!
What is it about a comfortable pro-independence majority in the parliament you’d don’t like?

There's a difference between those who are on P&B and the electorate - there may well be enough voters out there to get one or more Alba MSPs.

If you missed it earlier - I did say this was win-win for the SNP - it will either decrease the number of Unionist list MSPs or it will crash & burn.

[vikingTON]

27 minutes ago, renton said:

It's no good having name recognition if no one likes you. Salmond is going to be dogged by journalists like the one today who asked if he was still "A Bully and a creep" - quoting of course, his own defence lawyer.

Likewise it's a fairly well established precedence that the list only parties don't get invited to the debates, so he is going to struggle for air time, and in those debates, Ross is inevitably going to say something about Salmond and Sturgeon teaming up, and Sturgeon's answer is going to slap Ross about while getting some digs into Salmond at the same time, and any retort after the fact is going to be lost. He's gonna get kicked around a fair bit.

It's hard to see how he, and his party manage to get anyone uncommitted to vote for them given the likely media coverage. He was marmite in 2014, and unpopular with women. All the polling to date shows him coming off a loser in credibility and believability vs Sturgeon on the whole fiasco. Is he banking on his hard-core coming out en masse for him, as not sure, currently, many others would.

It's suicidal to make too many bold predictions right now, but there's certainly a universe in which this works to Sturgeon's benefit by visibly detoxifying the SNP from the Salmond affair and taking away some of the circular firing squad over transgender issues by putting it all in a separate box. 

It'll all of course depend on what fraction of the votes go where, but I think it's assume to say it'll be tiny fractions and not huge chunks of the vote being moved under its current leadership. 

Edited March 26, 2021 by vikingTON

[The Ghost of B A R P]

1 minute ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

There's a difference between those who are on P&B and the electorate - there may well be enough voters out there to get one or more Alba MSPs.

If you missed it earlier - I did say this was win-win for the SNP - it will either decrease the number of Unionist list MSPs or it will crash & burn.

I think you’ll have seen I very much did not miss it...

But good to know you’d be ok standing alongside ‘roasters’ in the cause of independence. That’s actually always been a requirement.