SNP leadership campaign

[RoyalCorgi]

I thought it would be fun for the leadership campaign to have its own thread.

According to Wikipedia, the timetable for the election is:

"Nominations opened on 16 February, and will close on 24 February. Those nominated will then be put forward as options in a ballot of party members, which will open on 13 March, and close at noon on 27 March, with the result announced on the same day by the SNP's national secretary, Lorna Finn."

So quite a short campaign. I don't completely understand how the voting works - it's not first past the post, but a "type of single transferable vote", according to Wiki, which is clear as mud.

Kate Forbes seems to have lost some key supporters by saying she was opposed to same-sex marriage, which perhaps means some of them will transfer to Ash Regan. The only other candidate is our old chum Humza Yousaf, author of one of the most deranged and authoritarian pieces of legislation, the Hate Crime and Public OrderAct, to pass through a UK legislative body in the past 100 years.

Those of you in Scotland, how do you see this playing out?

Probably had to so the Greens would stay on board. After lying about it to mop up some votes of course. A reverse reverse ferret, with a triple pike and backward somersault.

interesting that when Ash's votes redistributed that Kate had 70% of them

Hardly surprising

not surprising but in contrast to his claim that he had significant lead amongst Ash's supporters personally I thought her supporters would support Kate

Yes but no chance to vote him out until May 2025? That is 2 years for him to do a lot more damage.
Next UK General Election is due by January 2025 at the latest.

So depressing, the state of them.

Jesus, what an idiot 😂

Sorry, that was to @dcbc1234 's post about Humza's second u-turn of the day where he is now going to challenge after all.

The Greens and Nicola must have his balls in a vice like grip 😂

@BloodyHellKen How would the Greens know whether or not he has any balls without a chromosome test?! 😂

I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you.

So true. In fact we could all be misgendering him!! 😂

He's not FM yet. FMhas to be voted on by all the MSPs.

Also will be interesting to see what happens with possible pending investigations into missing funds and perhaps even Alex Salmond's court case.

@MarshaBradyo
Why do you think so?

I hope so but interested in hearing more

In my opinion part of the reason the SNP has done so well in elections is the charisma of Sturgeon and Salmond. As much as I don't like either of them they both are impressive politicians.

They are able to spin their way to persuading soft no voters that they are doing a good job despite evidence to the contrary. Voters think they are a safe pair of hands.

I just don't think Humza has those skills, he's a buffoon, whereas I think Kate Forbes does have the impression of competence.

If the SNP are no longer able to command such a great vote share then they lose any claims to have a mandate to demand another indyref.

Yep, agree, Rainbowshit. I don't like Salmond or Sturgeon but they were savvy and could put on a convincing performance, use rhetoric, etc.

Buffoon is about right for Humza. Buffoon with occasional flashes of vitriol.

I strongly suspect it's against international human rights law, but they just count on no-one having the ability/money to challenge it.

They might well change as soon as someone is charged under it.

Well the last doomed court case the SNP did cost the taxpayer 250,000.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64057492

A court case will drag on and be very embarrassing if the SNP lose which expert legal advice suggests they will.

The idea that losing this kind of court case will enrage Scots against the Union doesn't seem to pan out in practice. Thing is it just plays to the base who were loyal anyway and irritates moderate voters. Because it looks like giving the Tories an easy win.

I think you’re right and if he loses the court case it’s a different story to Sturgeon. She loved to hype people up it’ll look more like incompetence from him.

The other question is if he loses votes where do there go. Gender ideology could land here anyway is Labour keep going for it as they are.

The Hate Crime Bill had stalled completely, last time I checked. The police had said they'd be unable to implement it.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/23236382.glimpse-future-hate-scotland/

Conversion Therapy Bill might be another matter, however:

'Aidan O’Neill’s intervention is based on the very real concern that a ‘brave new world’ is shortly to be envisioned in Scotland; a place where parents, religious believers, and others might be threatened with criminal charges for failing to bow down to the progressive tenets of the Scottish state. A world where the articulation of heterodox views on sexuality and biology are censured and members of the public are encouraged to turn in ideological dissenters who have the ‘wrong views’ on issues of identity.'

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/theres-worse-to-come-in-scotland-than-the-hate-crime-bill/

Robin McAlpine is always worth reading for insight:

'That is the biggest question out of all of this – who is actually running the SNP now? Is it really Humza Yousaf? Or if he’s a frontman for a party establishment, who is that establishment any more? This is a big issue. It if is what it looks like to me, Yousaf is the front man of a team of second-rate councillors and third-rate government apparatchiks. That is terrifying.'

https://robinmcalpine.org/fuck-it-thisll-do-said-the-snp/

This seems very true to me. Yousaf was the 'face' chosen by a tiny cabal of power brokers who are now removed. So what is there actually backing him up? He's not a politician of substance. What happens when all the driving force behind a figure head is removed?

Somebody has pointed out on Twitter that Humza needs to greens to vote him in as FM. Could be behind his declaration that he will challenge the s35.

Given the Hate Crimes bill was his handiwork sans greens, I suspect his minders came up with this one by themselves.