The Scottish Politics thread

Saddleworth2 said:
Nah. Scotland isn’t ready for me.
Click to expand...
Nonsense.
Sadds for Prez.
Magic for Scottish ambassador to England.
Coatigan - hmmm that’s a tough one, minister for justice.
Bluethru minister for defence.
Kirkstal - what do you fancy? Some sort of cultural attaché.

Who else?
Thornieback - minister on the fence?

How many more of you there fancy a job in the new Republic of Scotland.

Me auld mate Bob Johnstone could be Scottish ambassador to the new 32 county federal Ireland.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
Although very different in most ways we have what may be a similar scenario in the Republic regarding the youth vote, who see Sinn Fein as the only viable alternative to FF or FG.
Click to expand...

Meant to respond to this. I have said this before, but I see SF now as where snp were circa 2007-2010. A bit of a nothing to lose vote of hopeful protest. At best a needed fresh shake-up, at worst, can't be any worse than the established parties that get a bit of a well deserved kicking. Obviously putting the difference of extremity of their pasts aside.

Most that voted snp then, didn't give a fuck about independence, it wasn't really on their agenda. The small traditional core would have, but the bulk of new votes came on social issues, and being fed up with the big parties' complacency.

And that was arguably snp's strongest government, a minority one that worked their socks off, fought for real change, and brought some big things in, particularly for the youth. And those that on this thread today (who live here) understandably can't stand them on their current politics or record, are either lying through their teeth or blindly ignorant if they don't admit that those years had a big positive impact on everyone, including them. Hampered by a wider recession and austerity of the Tory party.

To the point they won the 2011 election with a mind boggling landslide, in a system pretty much designed to avoid a majority. Again, it wasn't on a promise of independence, but rather change and reaping rewards of the performance of the previous term. Independence, when the referendum plans were announced, was polling at a max 15%. That government continued to deliver that type of change, but ended up putting much of their energy into the push for independence, and it became a big distraction.

By the end of it and the 2016 election, people had either shifted their stance on independence (the biggest portion), bought into their policies and ability as a party regardless of a 'threat' of independence, or completely lost faith in the big parties. Or a bit of all 3, and snp now are where they are, the biggest party without any credible threat. Eventhough their performance over the last two terms has not lived up to the first two, and is probably still slipping.

It helps of course that the other parties in Scotland offer no real challenge or an option. Particularly the UK wide ones. Labour are a nothing party, I honestly don't understand why anyone would want to vote for them (here in particular). They are just a useless blob of self preservation, with their only real strength in being party of a much bigger pointless blob that has many voters in England based on being good 50-15 years ago, and the simple fact that they are not the Tories. Lib-dems are the opposite. In Scotland they are actually a fairly capable party with some good policies that would appeal to many. But unfortunately they are part of a bigger bulk that is a total non-entity down south. The Tories are the Tories, not much of a difference north and south, but traditionally don't appeal to many, even with hoovering up the unionist vote of a useless Labour. The Greens are an ambitious party not that dissimilar to the snp, but probably seen as too much of an underdog to draw votes, and possibly going a bit too far in one direction.

Back to your observation and the SF comparison, I haven't been following that much, but certainly the mood around their rise, and the inability of other big parties around them seems quite familiar, and I find it very reminiscent of the early snp years here.
 
Coatigan said:
Meant to respond to this. I have said this before, but I see SF now as where snp were circa 2007-2010. A bit of a nothing to lose vote of hopeful protest. At best a needed fresh shake-up, at worst, can't be any worse than the established parties that get a bit of a well deserved kicking. Obviously putting the difference of extremity of their pasts aside.

Most that voted snp then, didn't give a fuck about independence, it wasn't really on their agenda. The small traditional core would have, but the bulk of new votes came on social issues, and being fed up with the big parties' complacency.

And that was arguably snp's strongest government, a minority one that worked their socks off, fought for real change, and brought some big things in, particularly for the youth. And those that on this thread today (who live here) understandably can't stand them on their current politics or record, are either lying through their teeth or blindly ignorant if they don't admit that those years had a big positive impact on everyone, including them. Hampered by a wider recession and austerity of the Tory party.

To the point they won the 2011 election with a mind boggling landslide, in a system pretty much designed to avoid a majority. Again, it wasn't on a promise of independence, but rather change and reaping rewards of the performance of the previous term. Independence, when the referendum plans were announced, was polling at a max 15%. That government continued to deliver that type of change, but ended up putting much of their energy into the push for independence, and it became a big distraction.

By the end of it and the 2016 election, people had either shifted their stance on independence (the biggest portion), bought into their policies and ability as a party regardless of a 'threat' of independence, or completely lost faith in the big parties. Or a bit of all 3, and snp now are where they are, the biggest party without any credible threat. Eventhough their performance over the last two terms has not lived up to the first two, and is probably still slipping.

It helps of course that the other parties in Scotland offer no real challenge or an option. Particularly the UK wide ones. Labour are a nothing party, I honestly don't understand why anyone would want to vote for them (here in particular). They are just a useless blob of self preservation, with their only real strength in being party of a much bigger pointless blob that has many voters in England based on being good 50-15 years ago, and the simple fact that they are not the Tories. Lib-dems are the opposite. In Scotland they are actually a fairly capable party with some good policies that would appeal to many. But unfortunately they are part of a bigger bulk that is a total non-entity down south. The Tories are the Tories, not much of a difference north and south, but traditionally don't appeal to many, even with hoovering up the unionist vote of a useless Labour. The Greens are an ambitious party not that dissimilar to the snp, but probably seen as too much of an underdog to draw votes, and possibly going a bit too far in one direction.

Back to your observation and the SF comparison, I haven't been following that much, but certainly the mood around their rise, and the inability of other big parties around them seems quite familiar, and I find it very reminiscent of the early snp years here.
Click to expand...
That’s the most thoughtful and accurate post in the 355 pages of this thread so far mate. Well done.
 
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