Salmond v Sturgeon round 4. What next?

[Cismyfatarse]

New thread.

@Happinessisawarmcervix apologies. I didn’t mean all SNP voters/members. I follow a lot of disillusioned ones on Twitter. But there is a group who defend anything done by Sturgeon et al and seem blind to any possible wrongdoing. And the wheesht for Indy lot.

I realise I phrased my post badly before.

I'm rather impatient for the results of the committee, Hamilton inquiry etc, although I also fear it will come to nothing.

Joanna Cherry has been so good on women's rights and others, I would hate to see her give up public life (but could understand it given the abuse she faces) - it is about time we got behind talented people who make a difference, we've been mired in party based politics for so long.

Some committee updates, hopefully accurate ones: mobile.twitter.com/andywightman/status/1371221012570865667

@Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum

I am starting to see SNP more like North Korea in the making. You don't speak out against the party and your regime is unable to feed the citizens.

Drip drip drip of the Nationalists - its subtle

No political party should control what we say to each other .

Loving the civil servants being relocated to Scotland - maybe they can sort out SG 😂

What are the nexts steps with committee ?

[quote WouldBeGood]@Happinessisawarmcervix apologies. I didn’t mean all SNP voters/members. I follow a lot of disillusioned ones on Twitter. But there is a group who defend anything done by Sturgeon et al and seem blind to any possible wrongdoing. And the wheesht for Indy lot.

I realise I phrased my post badly before.[/quote]
Sorry also and thank you - I shouldn’t post in the early hours!

There are so many of us who have left in despair but as you say, there’s another large group for whom the leadership can do no wrong.

Joanna Cherry is a great lawyer. And professionally she was good to excellent at holding the current government to account for the benefit of Scotland. I liked her professionalism and she kept me on my toes! Good.

Her replacement is joke! Worse for Scotland. Like being pressured by a blancmange.

Agree on JC. She also clearly still abides by the principle of professional integrity and independence of thought.

Interesting interview with Charlie Falconer. His focus is a critique of how the position of the LA has been compromised by the personalities involved and their relative strength of character.

www.holyrood.com/news/view,lord-falconer-wolffe-has-been-corrupted-by-politics-16951

Not sure how instrumental Lord Falconer was in setting up the role in the first place. He may be reluctant to acknowledge the inherent flaws being exposed. The issues around the independence of the LA date back to the Holyrood Devolution settlement in 1998 and were exacerbated by the setting up of the Supreme Court in 2009.

Correct link
www.holyrood.com/news/view,lord-falconer-wolffe-has-been-corrupted-by-politics-16951

No idea why link is broken but works if you copy the whole url.

According to the poll covered in this thread, very little of what we've been discussing is cutting through to the public at large

Link to twitter thread

Which certainly tallies with the SNP thinking that pushing wildly unpopular legislation (HCB) is worth gambling even at this point, because most are unaware of what the SNP are doing & the manner in which they go about their business.

Certainly a depressing smack of reality - the SNP appears unassailable no matter how incompetent. This is extremely unhealthy for such a small country.

Judging by conversations I had at the weekend about the HCB and Salmond enquiry I think it's certainly true that neither of these issues are on the radar of a lot of people. The drip feed of legal advice from the SG was, I think, a deliberate tactic to ensure that only little things are revealed at once and only the most interested will bother to join the dots to get the very ugly picture underneath it all. Ears did prick up when I said that the HCB covered your own home though - that may be a line too far for some, if the message can get out there.

Shadowy bear in mind that thread is written by an SNP activist from an SNP supportive perspective. It is not surprising that NS still has more support than others as she has the largest voter base. However it is striking that her support in most areas has dropped from over 50% of the electorate before Christmas to mid 40s in line with her Party polling.

Also notable the thread focuses on movement from Feb-March rather than earlier which would show much more downward movement.

If I were to write from the opposite perspective I would probably highlight:

1. 9pt fall in NS popularity and 11 pt fall in SG popularity over the month
2. 7pt increase in Anas Sarwar popularity which in fairness tweet thread does pick up.
3. 7pt fall in popularity of NS amongst Yes voters and 9% increase in unpopularity among No voters. Also now net negative among Labour voters.
4. There have been significant falls in perceptions of NSs' honesty (47%) and trustworthiness (45%). She used to poll much higher than her Party support but is now polling the same or perhaps lower.
5. Lots of people choosing neither on NS vs AS and only 52% find NS "more" believable.
6. While the SNP leads on "most trusted" it is below its overall poll rating in all areas. Its highest rating is only 41% for healthcare which is striking given the sentiment up to now on handling of the pandemic.

Lies, lies and statistics and then you have polling and interpretation thereof and all that.

Thanks Sempre, I didn't pick up the background of the person posting.

Good to have a more balanced overview but still worrying if the underhand tactics employed by SNP/Scotgov are paying off i.e. minimising the impact of all their underhand dealings by drip feeding. It's really frustrating seeing this.

I keep asking myself - where is the Scottish media? Who is actually holding the SNP/scotgov to account? Parliament seems ineffective (when the chair of an enquiry can send a letter to the DFM about the withholding of legal advice, and then vote against a VONC for that same behaviour, you know this system isn't robust enough to handle things properly). Sturgeon has been getting far too easy a ride in this whole scenario.

Absolutely agree MSM have been asleep at the wheel. Starting to look at lot more than that tbh.

The print media are currently running LOTs of negative stories. Scotsman, Herald, Sun, Record, Sunday Post, Mail etc etc.

However any time anything gets near a TV aerial it gets glossed away.

I just worry about how all the fall in popularity will translate to the vote.

Otoh my late teen new voters never watch TV News or current affairs so the glossing and spinning has no reach. Even if I were relaying it to them, in common with most 18-30, they have very little regard for the views of their elders. They are a key demographic for the SNP.

@TheShadowyFeminist

Thanks Sempre, I didn't pick up the background of the person posting.

Good to have a more balanced overview but still worrying if the underhand tactics employed by SNP/Scotgov are paying off i.e. minimising the impact of all their underhand dealings by drip feeding. It's really frustrating seeing this.

I keep asking myself - where is the Scottish media? Who is actually holding the SNP/scotgov to account? Parliament seems ineffective (when the chair of an enquiry can send a letter to the DFM about the withholding of legal advice, and then vote against a VONC for that same behaviour, you know this system isn't robust enough to handle things properly). Sturgeon has been getting far too easy a ride in this whole scenario.

On one of the previous threads I raised a similar point about the lack of tenacious journalism in Scotland. It looks a bit cosy between the SNP, the SG, the Law Officers and a press that was given 3 million in a grant to keep ticking over by the SG.

Scotland would need a much more robust constitution for independence, but of course, the circumstances after 14 years are scarcely encouraging of that process. It suits those who have power. I would not expect it to change, only grow as a problem.

This is why nationalism is such a fast acting poison in a country - you need to join in to get on. The closeness of these groups is not an accident, because actually they stand to gain a lot of power if independence comes with the current structure. Therefore, the interest in scrutiny appears to be dim.

Some very valid points made on this page and the previous one. I think that part of the problem is the starting point of Nicola Sturgeon. She’s done little other than bang on about independence and having another referendum. But still we have no answer on currency. Or lender of last resort. The SNP plays to the fact that vast swathes of the electorate and completely disinterested in this sort of question and slogans eg Bairns not Bombs are catchy. It is completely disingenuous to be advocating for an independent Scotland with zero plan or transparency around how this will be set up and what it will cost. When people will follow this blinding they will follow her blindly.

@LexMitior absolutely- it is totally bizarre that we’ve ended up in a situation where a lot of the scandals have been broken by the Sunday Post.

I've noticed the papers doing a better job of Scottish politics coverage than tv media, started buying them again for that reason.

The Sunday Post have occasionally been surprisingly bold with stories, for instance the Glasgow School of Art corruption/misuse of donated funds.

A more effective opposition would help. Talk about an easy ride since Ruth Davidson stepped down.

Maybe the new leaders will try to make their mark. We can but hope.

What next we ask? Maybe this?

www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/why-things-could-be-about-to-get-worse-for-nicola-sturgeon-brian-monteith-3165553

This gupta/aluminium thing is starting to stink.

£5m cost per job? That'd make a nice slogan. And if there an example of Scottish govt 'attracting' foreign investment then god help us!