GordonS Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 (edited) I think we've forgotten that this is what happens to parties that have been in power too long. Leaders can only ever be forged in opposition. In government everyone that comes through the party has the support of a big infrastructure and then as Ministers they have the civil servants doing everything for them. They lack agency. They have to follow the party line and the communications plans - and the kind of people who take that route are happy to do it. Usually they've never had a job in the real world. As the leaders that got them to the top fall away, those left behind lack the skills and experience needed to replace them - and tougher still, to renew the party while it's in office. The other thing that happens is you accumulate war wounds and those only heal in opposition. Ideological differences become insurmountable and you can no longer maintain a coalition wide enough to present a united front to the electorate and to keep enough voters on board. You also become bogged down by the weight of your mistakes, which are inevitable for anyone running anything this big. In a normal country the SNP would have lost an election years ago and gone through this cycle but the opposition haven't been up to the job of taking them down, for many reasons. Those fretting about seeing independence - maybe you will, maybe you won't. But these movements always come and go in waves and you just have to work so that each wave is bigger than the last. Edited April 29 by GordonS 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyrExile Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 37 minutes ago, houston_bud said: Staying on while they have a leadership election doesn't seem like a wise move. It's a masterstroke. This should see them avoid a snap election and time for things to calm down and steady the ship 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Kinnear Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 I was a member of the SNP for years but left the party about 2 years ago, I’m totally disillusioned with politics now. The party has lost their way and have focused on issues that the majority of the country couldn’t give a shit about instead of focusing on the real issues ordinary folk care about. God knows who can sort the whole shit show out, the UK is an absolute mess and I’ve not got much faith that Labour will make things any better. I suppose at least Humza realised it was time to go unlike Sunak who hangs about like a bad smell. Don’t think I’ll bother voting for a while. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houston_bud Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 2 minutes ago, AyrExile said: It's a masterstroke. This should see them avoid a snap election and time for things to calm down and steady the ship Maybe I've misunderstood. I think having a leadership election is a bad move for the SNP. Maybe it'll end up in a coronation of someone. To me, it made more sense to get their ducks in a row and have someone ready to step in. They've possibly got that and I have no idea what I'm talking about. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oceanlineayr Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 SNP should break convention and appoint as the new first minister...... 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 1 minute ago, Oceanlineayr said: SNP should break convention and appoint as the new first minister...... On a more philosophical note, name one job in politics that Yogi couldn't do better than the current incumbent. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zen Archer (Raconteur) Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 1 minute ago, Oceanlineayr said: SNP should break convention and appoint as the new first minister...... With 3 relegations under his belt, what could possibly go wrong? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 Some polling figures from last year and since. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparky88 Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 9 minutes ago, GordonS said: In a normal country the SNP would have lost an election years ago and gone through this cycle but the opposition haven't been up to the job of taking them down, for many reasons. There's absolutely nothing particularly bad about Scottish opposition politicians. Its like Folk are voting for the SNP who don't give a shit what the party's socioeconomic stance is. This results in shite policy on everything because, at the end of the day, folk will vote for a monkey with a yellow rosette on it to get a second independence referendum. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 Just now, sparky88 said: There's absolutely nothing particularly bad about Scottish opposition politicians. Its like Folk are voting for the SNP who don't give a shit what the party's socioeconomic stance is. This results in shite policy on everything because, at the end of the day, folk will vote for a monkey with a yellow rosette on it to get a second independence referendum. You're entitled to that opinion but I think you're completely wrong, and I think upcoming elections are going to prove that. People said *exactly* the same about monkeys in red rosettes, right up until they went down to 1 MP. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renton Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 22 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said: Mods, please. Heard enough of that non-word when Chuckles was getting his crown. Aye, that's fair enough. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oceanlineayr Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 6 minutes ago, scottsdad said: On a more philosophical note, name one job in politics that Yogi couldn't do better than the current incumbent. Struggling to be honest, he'd purge the corrupt politicians for guid honest laddies. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 8 minutes ago, Harry Kinnear said: I was a member of the SNP for years but left the party about 2 years ago, I’m totally disillusioned with politics now. The party has lost their way and have focused on issues that the majority of the country couldn’t give a shit about instead of focusing on the real issues ordinary folk care about. In reality they focus on both. The media only covers one. Like, did you know that in July last year the SNP made it a requirement that any employer getting a grant from the Scottish Government or an agency had to pay every worker the real living wage? That's £4 billion spending every year. It's already had an impact on low pay and Scotland has the lowest proportion of workers under the real living wage in the UK, with the number falling sharply. Similar things have happened in health, justice, procurement, social care and no doubt other areas that I don't know about. The media do an unimaginably awful job telling us what our parliament and government actually do every day and there's not one of us has a genuine picture of it. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itzdrk Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 34 minutes ago, Raab said: and for me that is part of the problem. The lurch to the left has alienated a sizeable chunk of the broad church. I'm not voting Green or Alba, so I'm faced with voting for a party that I cannot relate to and don't really agree with.... hence spoiled paper. Being a centre right and pro-indy is not a good place to be just now from a voting stance. ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 Yousaf's constituents react to resignation Catriona Renton - BBC Scotland reporter It started to pour with rain here in Humza Yousaf’s Glasgow Pollok constituency in the minutes before he resigned as first minister. I broke the news to several of his constituents. It came as a surprise to some but no great shock to others who have been following the events of the past few days. It would be fair to say that many of those I spoke to were not particularly engaged with what is happening. Others did not even know he was their MSP. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 29 minutes ago, scottsdad said: Mind when, instead of laughing it off, he went in a big huff cos folk had a chuckle at it? 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingscot Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 8 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said: It would be fair to say that many of those I spoke to were not particularly engaged with what is happening. Others did not even know he was their MSP. Doesn't he stay in Broughty Ferry? I've always felt it was poor form when politicians stay nowhere near their constituencies. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 38 minutes ago, GordonS said: I think we've forgotten that this is what happens to parties that have been in power too long. Leaders can only ever be forged in opposition. In government everyone that comes through the party has the support of a big infrastructure and then as Ministers they have the civil servants doing everything for them. They lack agency. They have to follow the party line and the communications plans - and the kind of people who take that route are happy to do it. Usually they've never had a job in the real world. As the leaders that got them to the top fall away, those left behind lack the skills and experience needed to replace them - and tougher still, to renew the party while it's in office. The other thing that happens is you accumulate war wounds and those only heal in opposition. Ideological differences become insurmountable and you can no longer maintain a coalition wide enough to present a united front to the electorate and to keep enough voters on board. You also become bogged down by the weight of your mistakes, which are inevitable for anyone running anything this big. In a normal country the SNP would have lost an election years ago and gone through this cycle but the opposition haven't been up to the job of taking them down, for many reasons. Those fretting about seeing independence - maybe you will, maybe you won't. But these movements always come and go in waves and you just have to work so that each wave is bigger than the last. This is spot on. The SNP came to power in 2007 for goodness sake, to still be in power 17 years later is not normal. The reality is they will probably still be in power in 17 years time. With the electoral set up there the only thing that could stop them forming a government is if there ever was a LAB/CON coalition, and although that does happen at council level, it ain't happening in Holyrood. This latest SNP administration was elected in 2021. Since then we've had the end of COVID and all the fall out and enquiries regarding that, the resignation and subsequent arrest of the lady who led the party into that election, the arrest and charging of the chief executive of the party, the long drawn out and at times bizarre leadership contest that led to Humza's coronation, the extremely divisive recognition bill and hate crime bills, the scrapping of their own green targets, the resultant ending of the coalition with the Greens and the subsequent resignation of the second SNP leader of this parliament. It's not even been three years. Not many parties in world politics would stay in power after all of that in such a short time, the SNP will. They'll get a third FM of this three year parliament sworn in, the show will move on, and they'll still be the largest party after the next parliamentary election. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherrif John Bunnell Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 57 minutes ago, sparky88 said: Looks like Alba/Salmond/Regan have massively overplayed their hand. Telling Salmond and Regan to GTF is of of the few smart things Yousaf has done in the past few days 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.