Reply to: Bye Bye Nicola

[KinooOrKinog]

Glad to see her go at last. The whole Adam Graham debacle was the final nail in her coffin imo.

[Zigenare]

If I was an SNP MP in Westminster, I'd be very happy with the status quo. Fully funded lifestyle in London would be a great benefit, while being able to spend summer months in Scotland.

Visits to Scottish embassies and consulates available too! A snip at ~£9m per year.

[d000hg]

Yet the Scottish electorate is happy to return an SNP government and vote against independence.

Indyref in 2014 saw a 55:45 % result in favour of No with 1.6m voting yes
While SNP got 50% of the vote in 2015 this was with with 1.5m votes so broadly they align, and that 50% figure was a massive gain from 2010 (20%) and had slumped to 37% by 2017 - SNP gained popularity immediately post-indyref so it seems entirely reasonably to estimate 45% were pro independence and pro SNP in 2014.

[Protagoras]

Every SNP member and politician wants independence.

Yet the Scottish electorate is happy to return an SNP government and vote against independence.

SNP represents a threat to the unionist Westminster parties, in return for which Scotland seems to do quite well in terms of per capita public spend (17% above UK average in 21/22). I reckon that voting SNP but against independence makes a lot of sense. It encourages Westminster to over-allocate resources to Scotland. Same applies for Wales (13%).

Until the SNP can deliver services in Scotland significantly better than those in England and really demonstrate benefits I can't see independence looking attractive.

If I was an SNP MP in Westminster, I'd be very happy with the status quo. Fully funded lifestyle in London would be a great benefit, while being able to spend summer months in Scotland.

[malvolio]

Boris hollowed out the Tory party you (and others) love.

Really? By adding another hundred plus MPs...?

Cameron wanted Corbyn to go and Blair wanted Duncan-Smith out because they need the opposition to challenge them so they have better policies.

Nonsense. Doesn't even make sense.

Every SNP member and politician wants independence. So if it isn't Nicola, Alex, Blackford or Flynn pushing for it someone else will come out of their party and will.

Of course the SNP do - or at least, ambitious career politicians will go with the SNP as a good way to get elected to either Holyrood or Westminster but that doesn't mean they actually believe the party line. However, Scotland as a whole has realised two things: They are much worse off by any sensible measure than they were when Sturgeon took over and that they are in no fit state to make it as an independent country. If anything there will be a swing back to Labour (much to Starmer's delight of course) and they need a devolved government able to address those issues, not chase a fantasy that disregards a clear majority against their apparently single policy.

[SueEllen]

Don't believe I ever said that, As usual you are reading things that aren't there.

You can't argue that he did though. And then he was pointlessly dumped by a menagerie of disaffected no-hopers (including quite a few of the newly gained red wall people who wouldn't even have been in the House without him) and replaced by a raving loony who was then displaced by a tax-and-spend vacuum who ain't going make a dent in the locals, never mind a national election.

Boris hollowed out the Tory party you (and others) love.

Cameron wanted Corbyn to go and Blair wanted Duncan-Smith out because they need the opposition to challenge them so they have better policies.

Nicola, on the other hand, won on the back of a relentless campaign about Scotland becoming a free country, which appealed to enough of her countrymen who were happy to ignore her governments abject failures. And you say Brexiteers are deluded...

Every SNP member and politician wants independence. So if it isn't Nicola, Alex, Blackford or Flynn pushing for it someone else will come out of their party and will.

[malvolio]

And yet when it's Boris who wins a landslide and then cocks everything up, you praise him as" the only one who can deliver an election result".

Don't believe I ever said that, As usual you are reading things that aren't there.

You can't argue that he did though. And then he was pointlessly dumped by a menagerie of disaffected no-hopers (including quite a few of the newly gained red wall people who wouldn't even have been in the House without him) and replaced by a raving loony who was then displaced by a tax-and-spend vacuum who ain't going make a dent in the locals, never mind a national election.

Nicola, on the other hand, won on the back of a relentless campaign about Scotland becoming a free country, which appealed to enough of her countrymen who were happy to ignore her governments abject failures. And you say Brexiteers are deluded...

[d000hg]

Yeah but the objective is not to win landslides, only a blinkered fool would believe that.

And yet when it's Boris who wins a landslide and then cocks everything up, you praise him as" the only one who can deliver an election result".

[Uncle Albert]

Going back to her roots: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/the-krankies

[WTFH]

Who was it that said a country get the government it deserves...

Exactly - being convinced that leaving the union would be far better than staying in, thinking that the rest of the union needs them more that they need the rest of the union, rather than trying to work with the union to improve it, always trying to work against it, and blaming the union for everything while accepting no responsibility themselves.

It’s almost like… never mind.

[saptastic]

No as every SNP politician talks about independence.

well who would have thought

[SueEllen]

Do think this will derail the independence train - woo hoo

No as every SNP politician talks about independence.

[saptastic]

Do think this will derail the independence train - woo hoo

[malvolio]

She has been hugely successful in terms of election results... SNP has a majority in Scotland and a total landslide really. To the extent a big part of her job was to do well in elections, that is an unconditional success a bit like Boris getting the 'red wall' landslide only moreso.

Yeah but the objective is not to win landslides, only a blinkered fool would believe that. The objective is to govern Scotland to the best of your ability under the general remit of the devolution agreement. And n that she has spectacularly failed. And that huge majority also means that there is nobody to challenge the causes of that failure.

Who was it that said a country get the government it deserves...

[d000hg]

Sounds rather like she's realised her single minded devotion to one lost cause is getting in the way of everything. Also sounds awfully like she's ignoring her party's many failings across areas like education and health but, quite naturally, is emphasising her many successes, such as, erm...

She has been hugely successful in terms of election results... SNP has a majority in Scotland and a total landslide really. To the extent a big part of her job was to do well in elections, that is an unconditional success a bit like Boris getting the 'red wall' landslide only moreso.