Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

Did you know that you're paying for @pritipatel to see a diet consultant?

🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/IVp5wbXAxg

— Lloyd🛡️Hardy (@lloydhardy) March 26, 2021

who among us hasn't blown over two grand at an Albanian electronics store using taxpayers' money?

Breaking: Alex Salmond to stand for Holyrood for new pro-independence Alba Party. He will be the leader

— Paul Hutcheon (@paulhutcheon) March 26, 2021

So Alex Salmond's launching a new party the Slimy Alleged Rapist Party Alba. Here's hoping it's the biggest disaster in electoral history.

(xp) !!!!!

"He will be the leader". Now there's a surprise.

The launch has been a hilarious series of cock-ups.

This fucking guy.

How would supporters of this bill justify physical police interference were it to be enforced at an NHS march for pay, regardless of lockdown measures?

Should they set the dogs on nurses and doctors who've worked their butts off and received a measly, barely-existant pay rise?

Do they really love the NHS or do they just like clapping?

Either way, if the bill goes through it's worth remembering that standing on your doorstep banging a saucepan counts as a noisy "annoying" disturbance and could get them arrested.

Terfs got a tough choice ahead of them now. xp

Jesus, he's got that cunt Stuart Campbell as one of the 'journalists' asking him questions.

at least you can i.d. him from all the other Stuart Campbell's in Scotland as he's a spectacularly ugly gobshite!

Even my mum thinks Alex is a total arsewipe and she's completely uninterested in UK politics. But as a regular Russia Times watcher she remembers his show!

It does look like Alba is attracting all the rockets the SNP has been struggling to work/deal with for a while. Because they’re only standing for lists it also doesn’t really risk the indy majority. At very worst they end up relying on him for coalition but that seems far-fetched rn

Will 🍒 join?

should be called The Rocket Party

Touchy Eck’s Rocket Federation

this is good news for Sturgeon's vision of the party: she'll hopefully retain figures like Mhairi Black and Stewart McDonald from the left of the SNP while losing the likes of Joanna Cherry. Which means she'll be able to stop humouring the absolute nonsense coming from the committed TERFs etc.

But it will be interesting to see, even with Salmond's personal reputation in tatters, just how popular this Alba party is. People believe that the SNP are popular in Scotland because we're a more socialist-leaning country, but I don't think that's as accurate as it seems. Given a choice of visions for Scottish independence, I'm not confident the results won't be disappointing.

I don't think the country is nearly as socialist-leaning as it likes to think of itself being, no — but there's an entrenched difference in the kind of conservative it is: it's much more of the Dominic Grieve-type of unionist than it is the Brexit-type. Was some really interesting polling on this last month. Tory plan to deal with this appears to be to "splash cash while we wait for Sunak" because he polls well in Scotland and with both types of Tory, unlike Boris.

Nothing speaks to deep-seated political conviction like forming your own vanity party

Maybe some kind of "ladies join free" offer idk

Surely their aim is to split the Indy vote and then sweep back in to the SNP once Sturgeon is ruined?

Feel like just ban politicians tbh

I wonder if Brian Souter will throw Alba some money too.

at least you can i.d. him from all the other Stuart Campbell's in Scotland as he's a spectacularly ugly gobshite!

And all the other spectacularly ugly gobshites.

god scottish politics is an embarrassment. it did feel like it was about time there was an alt-nat party to be set-up, but i feel like there won't be a big move towards salmond's party from snp msps (i could be wrong) as it's still obviously the biggest show in town, and will still be in power after the election. but i can't imagine they won't get at least a few elected off their list through a decent amount of votes and could potentially become a fixture. the only thing that would give me a little hope in the future of scotland is if it's a total failure and salmond becomes a galloway/sheridan type, but i doubt that will happen

have reached the point where i despise nationalists and unionists equally

fuck the union and stick your saltire up your arse basically

Surely their aim is to split the Indy vote and then sweep back in to the SNP once Sturgeon is ruined?

exactly

this is good news for Sturgeon's vision of the party: she'll hopefully retain figures like Mhairi Black and Stewart McDonald from the left of the SNP while losing the likes of Joanna Cherry. Which means she'll be able to stop humouring the absolute nonsense coming from the committed TERFs etc.

I suspect siphoning off lunatic fringe headbangers and fanatics to Slimeball's new party will only help the SNP in the long run.

This is a popular take on Twitter today, I have no idea if this is true or not

I think this Alba launch may play very strongly for the SNP. There’s lots of moderate Indy supporters who’ve been uncomfortable about voting for the party of late due to its radicalised Salmond wing. They’re now gone in an instant, leaving the SNP looking safe again for moderates

— NeilMackay (@NeilMackay) March 26, 2021

It’s like Tom says and seems right - the independence movement is becoming too big and mainstream for one party to encompass anyway and without the need for FPTP you can split without jeopardising the project in a way that eg UK Labour just can’t.

Nationalising ScotRail aside, both factions are relatively right though. A properly left pro-Indy party wld be interesting

A political party named after an ILXor is a first though.

somebody's never heard of Norway's Geiru G Alliance

i dare not watch anything related to the launch but is everyone mispronouncing alba? (there's an "a" sound between the "l" and the "b")

Looking forward to the splitters forming the Left party.

I'm voting for A Puppy.

I think this Alba launch may play very strongly for the SNP. There’s lots of moderate Indy supporters who’ve been uncomfortable about voting for the party of late due to its radicalised Salmond wing. They’re now gone in an instant, leaving the SNP looking safe again for moderates

Sounds like the melt vision of a Corbyn-less Labour, wonder how that's going

we of course had not one but two trot parties at the last scottish parliamentary election RISE (the coalition of the Radical Indepence Campaign and the Scottish Socialist Party) and the Tommy Sheridan vehicle Solidarity and they got a wopping combined vote of 1.1%

possibly more like "was Vote Leave better or worse off with Farage and Leave.EU as a separate thing to point the headbangers at?" xp

Slight difference there is that the SNP have the advantage of having been 20-odd percent ahead in the polls for yonks.

(xps)

i feel like there is an undercurrent in the snp that wants a more left-wing vision, especially among younger post indyref members. but they are allowing their energies to be subsumed into the move for indepenence. there's almost an attitude of "no politics until after independence" from a lot of nationalists. it seems salient that the elements of the party that actually are more restive are the "salmond was fitted up", "we hate trans people" and "lets just do a UDI" types (a fairly circular Venn diagram one would imagine, though not totally)

yeah, that.

there's been one candidate defection so far, Eva Comrie, who was top of the list for the snp in mid-scotland and fife (and so effectively guaranteed a seat) will stand for alba instead.

her twitter account appears to be locked so i can't confirm my suspicions regarding her views haha

I can confirm your suspicions.

This transphobic diatribe from Eva Comrie, Number 1 on the Mid Scotland & Fife list is disgusting. #TransWomenareWomen #TransLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/dWGqPrI9K2

— Leeze 😷 (@Ms_Leeze) March 11, 2021

I hate Scottish politicians who pepper their stuff with 'couthy' Scots words.

"am gey feart o trans wummin so a um"

the Scottish version of Jess's bab-isms

just read a good moniker for fans of Wings over Scotland on a Celtic forum i'm on "Stu Anon"

lol nice