Next permanent Scotland manager

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

5 hours ago, ICTJohnboy said:

Surely whoever gets the gig should be given every chance to demonstrate what they could be capable of achieving for Scotland and for the Indy cause?

Talk of resigning if you don't get who you want is pathetic.

No its not, Humza Yousaf is an arrogant, incompetent man who has failed in every role he has ever held, I would never vote for any party led by him. 

[HTG]

2 hours ago, ICTChris said:

Ash Regan has said that if pro-independence parties get more than 50% of votes in a Westminister or Holyrood election, she’ll use this as a basis to begin negotiations for independence.

 

I'll be interested to see who she is going to negotiate with. The UK govt (colour irrelevant) are simply and implacable opposed to such negotiations. They'll cite the Supreme Court decision and refuse to open the door.  

The question has been asked thousands of times since that Supreme Court decision - what is Scotland's democratic route to independence or a referendum - and there is a point blank refusal to answer it. That's because there is no answer - there is no democratic route unless England says so given that they make every decision for the UK on grounds of population. 

Where that leaves Scotland in the long term is anyone’s guess. The fight for Indian independence would likely have been far longer had Britain not been totally fucked by the war. 

[Ludo*1]

Keith Brown has ruled himself out.

[ICTJohnboy]

8 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

No its not, Humza Yousaf is an arrogant, incompetent man who has failed in every role he has ever held, I would never vote for any party led by him. 

 

So who would you vote for?

Does independence not matter to you?

[renton]

23 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

Keith Brown has ruled himself out.

Aye, this could end up being a far narrower field than had been supposed.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

9 minutes ago, ICTJohnboy said:

 

So who would you vote for?

Does independence not matter to you?

Of course it matters, but day to day life also matters, I get that a large degree of things the SG has to do is in mitigation of westminster, so i rarely actually criticise things which are funding issues at their heart ie budget. But they also have to succeed when they implement policy, legislation and provide competent leadership. IMO he has failed to prove this, indeed hes actually very arrogant and believes he is doing a good job when its abundantly clear he isnt. 

You cant go about screaming ‘but youve got to vote for him or you dont care about independence’ , i do, ive voted SNP all my life, ive been a member, ive engaged with their ministers and elected officials at every level, i firmly care about it. But i also care about what kind of Scotland my wee boy is growing up in today, going to a school which is overcrowded because the SNP council massively messed up its calculations and built a school a third the size required. Youve got local authorities saying they are going to narrow their curriculum, libraries and community resources closing.  West Dunbartonshire announcing today plans to close schools on a friday to save money, the fact that this may happen is an absolute disgrace, we are not going forward as a society and that is incredibly worrying. 

Humza Yousaf oversaw criminal justice reforms which mean a 16 year old who is arrested on suspicion of rape can refuse to be interviewed and essentially stop an investigation there and then, simply because the legislation is ill thought out and full of loopholes. Domestic abusers released from custody instead of going to court  return and hurt their victims all over. Under his leadership there has never been as few front line police officers (figures are massively massaged) available to respond to 999 calls, many spending most of their time in turn now making up for a lack of mental health provision, Yousaf is a common denominator here, allowing numbers to degrade and then piling the pressure by not having enough ambulances or cpns. Then courts, an absolute riot, cases taking 3.5 years and sometimes more to reach a court.

 
I believe that there will be a competent figure within the SNP ranks who can come forward and ‘unfuck’ the mess, but he is absolutely not it and if it took a short spell out of government to come to that realisation if an incompetent leader is elected then fine. 

[Richey Edwards]

3 hours ago, gannonball said:

I forgot he existed, and I was happier that way.

I forgot he existed until he was mentioned at my uncle's funeral by the pastor.

[ICTJohnboy]

22 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Of course it matters, but day to day life also matters, I get that a large degree of things the SG has to do is in mitigation of westminster, so i rarely actually criticise things which are funding issues at their heart ie budget. But they also have to succeed when they implement policy, legislation and provide competent leadership. IMO he has failed to prove this, indeed hes actually very arrogant and believes he is doing a good job when its abundantly clear he isnt. 

You cant go about screaming ‘but youve got to vote for him or you dont care about independence’ , i do, ive voted SNP all my life, ive been a member, ive engaged with their ministers and elected officials at every level, i firmly care about it. But i also care about what kind of Scotland my wee boy is growing up in today, going to a school which is overcrowded because the SNP council massively messed up its calculations and built a school a third the size required. Youve got local authorities saying they are going to narrow their curriculum, libraries and community resources closing.  West Dunbartonshire announcing today plans to close schools on a friday to save money, the fact that this may happen is an absolute disgrace, we are not going forward as a society and that is incredibly worrying. 

Humza Yousaf oversaw criminal justice reforms which mean a 16 year old who is arrested on suspicion of rape can refuse to be interviewed and essentially stop an investigation there and then, simply because the legislation is ill thought out and full of loopholes. Domestic abusers released from custody instead of going to court  return and hurt their victims all over. Under his leadership there has never been as few front line police officers (figures are massively massaged) available to respond to 999 calls, many spending most of their time in turn now making up for a lack of mental health provision, Yousaf is a common denominator here, allowing numbers to degrade and then piling the pressure by not having enough ambulances or cpns. Then courts, an absolute riot, cases taking 3.5 years and sometimes more to reach a court.

 
I believe that there will be a competent figure within the SNP ranks who can come forward and ‘unfuck’ the mess, but he is absolutely not it and if it took a short spell out of government to come to that realisation if an incompetent leader is elected then fine. 

 

Thanks for your full and meaningful reply.

I'll get back to you on this!

[Ludo*1]

Mairi McAllan has ruled herself out now.

Surely to f**k it's not between Cherry's pal and Humza? That'd be soul destroying.

Robertson simply has to declare he's in or this will quickly become a shitshow.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Ludo*1

[ScotiaNostra]

Roberston and Forbes will both enter but leave it late I think

[Trogdor]

There really is no outstanding candidate is there? 

[DrewDon]

Regan is a no-hoper. 

Yousaf seems to be quite divisive, and I think there are legitimate question marks over his judgement too. Quite regularly seems to get himself caught up in petty controversies. I saw his approval numbers yesterday and they didn't seem great. 

Forbes is a social conservative, and I frankly don't know a huge amount about her politics aside from the fact that she is extremely unconvincing on a number of social issues. Also a bit cynical about how much The Times seem to be pushing her at the moment. 

Robertson would be my choice almost by process of elimination, even if he is relatively uninspiring. I always liked him when he was the leader at Westminster, although obviously being First Minister is a very different role. 

[orfc]

1 minute ago, DrewDon said:

Regan is a no-hoper. 

Yousaf seems to be quite divisive, and I think there are legitimate question marks over his judgement too. Quite regularly seems to get himself caught up in petty controversies. I saw his approval numbers yesterday and they didn't seem great. 

Shat himself when he realised the nursery owner he was accusing of racism turned out to be of South Asian origin themselves. Dropped it last week funnily enough

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/07/humza-yousafs-family-drops-discrimination-case-against-nursery

[welshbairn]

Neil Gray's out, backing Yousaf. It's all happening too quickly for my liking.

[ScotiaNostra]

supposedly Yousafs people were saying hes Sturgeons choice, though you cant believe what the papers say

[alta-pete]

3 minutes ago, orfc said:

Shat himself when he realised the nursery owner he was accusing of racism turned out to be of South Asian origin themselves. Dropped it last week funnily enough

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/07/humza-yousafs-family-drops-discrimination-case-against-nursery

I saw that earlier. My hot take is he/his wife came across as a bit of a twat, maybe played the ‘don’t you know who I am’ card, the nursery owner concluded they looked like too much trouble and frustrated the attempt to get the child in. Humza/wife then double down on the ‘don’t you know who I am’, resort to two-bob bully tactics and it all blows up from there.

[Salt n Vinegar]

Maybe the party members should keep one vital factor in mind when deciding who to vote for. 

An entertaining aspect of Holyrood life is that special time every week when the First Minister routinely swats Dross about the head and, in a political sense, pulls Dross's underpants up and over his head.

Who would Dross be most embarrassed about doing it?

[ScotiaNostra]

11 minutes ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

Maybe the party members should keep one vital factor in mind when deciding who to vote for. 

An entertaining aspect of Holyrood life is that special time every week when the First Minister routinely swats Dross about the head and, in a political sense, pulls Dross's underpants up and over his head.

Who would Dross be most embarrassed about doing it?

that rules out Robertson then

[parsforlife]

2 hours ago, welshbairn said:

So long as candidates aren't advocating repealing same sex marriage or gender reform legislation or banning abortion, I don't think there's an need to interrogate them too deeply on their religious beliefs. People can hold different religious and secular beliefs simultaneously, plenty Catholics are pro choice and contraception, they just don't bring it up while they're in church or have their religion hats on. Not all moral beliefs need to be absolutist, there should be room for ambiguity.

Absolutely f**k that,  you don't get to wear 2 hats,   you are either a decent person in parliament, in church, in public etc or your not a decent person at all.   If your not calling for actively change in your religions policy but hoping you can just ignore their scumbag view in public you are a c**t,  I don't care what you privately think about religion, but if you don't call out c***s cos you went to the same place on a sunday how the f**k can you expect respect?  

1 hour ago, HTG said:

I'll be interested to see who she is going to negotiate with. The UK govt (colour irrelevant) are simply and implacable opposed to such negotiations. They'll cite the Supreme Court decision and refuse to open the door.  

The question has been asked thousands of times since that Supreme Court decision - what is Scotland's democratic route to independence or a referendum - and there is a point blank refusal to answer it. That's because there is no answer - there is no democratic route unless England says so given that they make every decision for the UK on grounds of population. 

Where that leaves Scotland in the long term is anyone’s guess. The fight for Indian independence would likely have been far longer had Britain not been totally fucked by the war. 

So long as UK gov block peaceful means( referendum, 'defato refs' whether at Westminster or Holyrood,  or anything unthought of ) life becomes very difficult and I don't just mean in parliament. Late 2000s-2014 had a reasonable amount of cross-party respect politically to win things in debate, even if occasionally playing dirty.  It looks like that is closed and I could easily go to ridiculous extremes if another non-violent route isn't opened up*

*just to be clear I'd absolute despise any effort to move indy into a violent movement

[Lyle Lanley]