Scottish Parliamentary Elections May 2021

[Guest]

Ramsay the Beard is back... yay 

[Granny Danger]

1 minute ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Expected to hang on comfortably in Renfewshire East . . .

They just can't help themselves these BBC hacks.

They remind me of people of a certain age group who make racist comments then are taken aback when you explain it’s racist.  They really appear to be oblivious to their inbuilt bias.

[NotThePars]

6 minutes ago, John Lambies Doos said:

Some English boffin on bbc24 saying that perhaps sarwar could replace starmer as leader of Labour Party. I'm sure the xenophobic north of England will embrace a Muslim millionaire

Sarwar should try this tack when mayo boys slag him off for not paying his staff a living wage

[Busta Nut]

I am perplexed that voting tactically (in a way that is completely opposite from your usual stance) seems acceptable.

[Salt n Vinegar]

Just now, Busta Nut said:

I am perplexed that voting tactically (in a way that is completely opposite from your usual stance) seems acceptable.

Aye, all these fine upstanding socialists voting for the party of food banks, the rape clause and Trident. 

[Mr Pikey]

16000plus Tory voters in Aberdeen east. What a world we live in. 

 

[KingRocketman II]

2 minutes ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

Aye, all these fine upstanding socialists voting for the party of food banks, the rape clause and Trident. 

constitution, flags and sovereignty first above anything else. Socialist principles to the core. 

[Miguel Sanchez]

14 minutes ago, John Lambies Doos said:

Some English boffin on bbc24 saying that perhaps sarwar could replace starmer as leader of Labour Party. I'm sure the xenophobic north of England will embrace a Muslim millionaire

mate it's not been called News 24 since 2008: BBC News (TV channel) - Wikipedia

[John Lambies Doos]

mate it's not been called News 24 since 2008: BBC News (TV channel) - Wikipedia

OK. Thanks

[Hedgecutter]

15 minutes ago, Mr Pikey said:

16000plus Tory voters in Aberdeen east. What a world we live in. 

 

Worth remembering that there's a relatively high proportion of 'white settlers' associated with the oil industry, a very large number of which live outwith Aberdeen City in the neighbouring areas (basically Aberdeenshire East & West).

I'd imagine that there's a higher proportion in Aberdeenshire West though so that's now bound to be an absolute write-off with the combo of them, Scottish yoons and fermers.

Eta: more speculatively, I'd imagine that a good number of English residents would have previously been indifferent to the Holyrood elections, but are more likely to turn up this time around if it helps stop the prospect of them becoming foreigners.

Edited May 8, 2021 by Hedgecutter

[Monkey Tennis]

Something that irks me because I seldom see it properly challenged, is the idea that another referendum would be hideously divisive and damaging.  

Obviously, I know why Unionists trot this line out, but it's a complete revisionism regarding 2014.  The consensus then across both sides was that the entire process was invigorating for our politics. 

I think there was some of the Twitter misbehaviour that characterises everything now, but otherwise, we had huge participation levels, massive turnout, school kid events at the hydro, hustings displays aplenty etc.  Pretty much nobody at the time saw the process as detrimental.

I think it's been allowed to be placed alongside the Brexit one though, with the Jo Cox horror and the ensuing paralysis of parliament.  It's convenient for some to conflate the two.

It just bugs me because those saying how awful another referendum would be, rarely have the reality of last time pointed out to them.

Edited May 8, 2021 by Monkey Tennis

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Mundell still thinks the SNP will get a majority through the list - that can't be right?

[ayrmad]

47 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Evidently, on the last one.

That's on Labour, the numeracy is on my genes. 

[jamieson87]

Surely not. 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Something that irks me because I seldom see it properly challenged, is the idea that another referendum would be hideously divisive and damaging.  
Obviously, I know why Unionists trot this line out, but it's a complete revisionism regarding 2014.  The consensus then across both sides was that the entire process was invigorating for politics. 
I think there was some of the Twitter misbehaviour than characterises everything now, but otherwise, we had huge participation levels, massive turnout, school kid events at the hydro, hustings displays aplenty etc.  Pretty much nobody at the time saw the process as detrimental.
I think it's been allowed to be placed alongside the Brexit one though, with the Jo Cox horror and the ensuing paralysis of parliament.  It's convenient for some to conflate the two.
It just bugs me because those saying how awful another referendum would be, rarely have the reality of last time pointed out to them.

My mum is a Tory voting unionist - she wants an IndyRef2 to put the debate to bed one way or other.

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

No, this will not do. For about the third time on this thread, there is a very economically challenged area, and a great number of people rely on Faslane and Coulport for their livelihoods.  Baillie plays the Unionist card on this at every opportunity, seemingly comfortable with ignoring Scottish Labour policy.  I don't like it but there you go.

The bulk of west-central Scotland is as, if not, more economically challenged. And what exactly has Jackie Baillie - representative of the Labour Party who have held the seat since the late Triassic Period - actually done to improve her local area's economy? She has responsibility as an incumbent MSP. 

There are plenty employed at Faslane/Coulport who live on the other side of the Clyde, yet Unionists do not get an increased vote. And there is no upcoming 'shut Faslane and send the subs to the Thames' vote at Holyrood so Baillie's attachment to those bases should be irrelevant. The voters could elect one of the Swampys from the CND base as MSP and it would make no difference to those jobs. 

Quote

Add to that there is still a religious element to voting here, and again Baillie cultivates that sector.  

Pish. There is not a larger religious element to the electorate than in other seats in the region. A Greenock and Port  fucking Glasgow centred seat has returned SNP candidates for a decade because the priest telling you who to vote for doesn't actually operate any more. 

Quote

She has been the incumbent since 1999 and has been a hardworking MSP since then.  She has also been a good ally to Dumbarton FC in our many travails.  I know her personally and she is at the better end of the personal and performance scale despite me disagreeing with her core political beliefs.

So she has been elected for twenty years, works so hard and yet massive economic disadvantage and a one-trick reliance on submarine bases after all this time is responsible for keeping vote share up. 

Not the strongest record for an incumbent, once you sift out genuine factors from excuses. 

Quote

 

I've never voted for Jackie Baillie and I never will.  So, as ICR has already intimated and I have outlined above, you can imagine how fucking pissed off a lot of us have been as a series of lightweight, afterthought SNP candidates has appeared and failed, when we really need a good respected local candidate.

If you or anyone has a gripe at the failure of the SNP to capture the Dumbarton seat then direct your fucking anger at at SNP HQ rather than the 16K plus of us who did our best.

 

I hate to break it to you, but the modern-day equivalents of Cicero and Julius Caesar are not exactly standing and scraping home anywhere else in the region. Many of the sitting/incumbent MSPs are just as forgettable as the candidate standing in Dumbarton. 

An issue absolutely lies with SNP HQ, but it's got nothing to do with them not selecting the dreamboat Great Local Candidate but rather spending their campaign banging on about list votes all over the country instead of carpet bombing that target seat with Sturgeon, or Forbes, or anyone who the voters don't detest with targeted messages. The campaign restrictions probably didn't help either but the problem is with the campaign rather than the candidate or local factors. 

Edited May 8, 2021 by vikingTON

[Guest]

Derek Stillie horsed. Pleasing

[the snudge]

29 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Just admit youre all a bunch of raging Unionists in Dumbarton

Yeh absolutely the Helensburgh aspect wont have helped, theres probably a lot of work could be done to reassure people in Helensburgh that Faslane would form the heart of a Scottish Defence Force etc, which just doesnt seem to happen. 
 

I've been making that exact point about Faslane for years. Cast iron guarantee that there will be jobs there for those who currently work at Faslane within a Scottish Naval Defence system

[Jacksgranda]

This has been an interesting read, apart from a few pages of tedium of posts posted in the wee sma' oors.

[S7C]

I am struggling to comprehend how Mundell genuinely believes that, unless the list vote for the SNP has been massively underestimated. Seems unlikely.