It takes a remarkable level of shallow-thinking to suppose that there might be a single universally appropriate method of communicating any idea, never mind a contentious political message. Pete Wishart is up for the challenge. He would have independence activists paralysed by fear of upsetting someone. One gets the distinct impression that his preference would be that we all submit our comments to his office to be approved before publication. And the strong sense that most of them wouldn’t make it through.
Let us not forget that the man who would be king of the censors is the same clown who proclaimed his desire to be dragged to the Speaker’s chair in the British House of Commons. The kind of unconsidered outburst that might have even the most committed advocate of free speech reaching for the blue pencil.
Read Wishart’s latest mindless mumblings from Perthshire and you’ll be treated to the self-styled master of political communication interrupting his celebration of the SNP’s success in the recent election to spin an embarrassingly feeble and self-serving excuse for the SNP’s failure to motivate its own support in the 2017 snap UK general election. I can easily imagine knowledgeable professional communicators physically cringing as they read this. I can hear the tone of breathless incredulity as they wonder aloud why an experienced political operator would mar his party’s moment of triumph by reminding everyone of a past episode which positively pleads for the veil of discretion.
I can feel their foreheads crumple like discarded Christmas wrapping paper as they discover Wishart compounding this crass indiscretion by attributing the SNP’s electoral success, not to the party’s electoral offering or the efforts of the party’s army of activists, but to a tactical blunder by the party’s opponents!
Astonishingly, this individual who is evidently all but totally lacking in any awareness of how his own words are perceived purports to know exactly what the entire electorate is feeling and thinking. A feat which is facilitated by regarding said electorate as a homogenous entity whose responses are so mechanical as to be totally predictable.
Perhaps it’s not so surprising that someone capable of such inanely simplistic generalisation could be sufficiently shallow-minded as to suppose it possible that a script might be devised which campaigners could recite on the doorsteps and win instant converts to the cause of restoring Scotland’s independence. Wishart’s idea of political campaigning is disturbingly reminiscent of the programmed performances of telephone customer service operatives in businesses where their sole function is to act as a protective barrier shielding incompetent managers from disgruntled clients.
The death-blow to his credibility comes as Wishart mocks the foolishness of the Tories thinking that “Scotland 2019 was exactly the same as Scotland 2017”. An observation which, while undoubtedly accurate, fair reeks of dumb hypocrisy when placed alongside his insistence that the independence campaign now – or whenever Nicola Sturgeon decides to start it – must employ exactly the same strategy as for the 2014 campaign. Apparently, Scotland changed dramatically between 2017 and 2019, but not at all between 2012 and 2020.
Imagining that the obsessive ‘positivity’ of the first independence referendum campaign might still be appropriate in present circumstances is every bit as plainly idiotic as the notion of a single form of words which might have a magical effect on voters. It’s in the same league as Pete and The Postponers’ previous chart-topping inanity, ‘Optimum Time‘.
Pete Wishart has become a tribute act to himself!
If you find these articles interesting please consider a small donation to help support this site and my other activities on behalf of Scotland’s independence movement.
Peter A Bell 
Jesus Wept.
The Wishart glacial paced, coastal erosion method of campaigning.
The one think that really angers me is. Let’s wait till we make sure we can win. You win in a fecking campaign, not a fecking opinion poll!
You go when you get the opportunity. You don’t hang around in the Doldrums waiting for the right wind to push your ship.
It’s called inertia when you do feck all. Sick listening to this eejit. Too comfortable at WM. Too afraid to challenge authority. Too afraid of failure.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I do like Pete Wishart for who he is and I think it’s helpful to know where he stands. It is the more ambiguous politicians that are the most unpalatable to me.
While I like Pete, I also remember that Pete and the SNP (who I voted for) are the vehicle of change and that we are the engine (or perhaps the other way around.) The SNP are in desperate need for our voices in which to guide them to our will. Such was the case with the “Named Persons Act”; a loathsomely impractical proposal that was so unpopular even in the ranks of the SNP’s diehard followers that they were forced to abandon it. This is a good model. They work for us. All we have to do is to keep reminding them of that.
Pete Wishart is no different in this regard. Despite his own machinations, he works for us and we need to remind him to make good on the power we’ve thrust on him.
LikeLike
You flushed your credibility down the pan with that dishonest pish about the Named Person measure. Which wasn’t an Act. Making your ignorance of the matter obvious to all.
LikeLike
A bit uncalled for, don’t you think? Act – scheme, shite – jobbie, same thing.
I’m not an apologist for Pete Wishart, I’m merely saying that we have a golden opportunity to have these politicians carry out our political desires. And if I like the guy to add into the bargain I consider it a bonus.
As for my “ignorance”, well I’ll leave that up to fair mindedness of the audience and leave the straw men at home.
LikeLike
Totally called for. When somebody is peddling British Nationalist SNP-BAD shite, someone else has to call them out for it.
LikeLike
I think it’s called paralysis and it is self-induced. Only when Johnson has brought forth his pronouncement of the FM’s request for a S30 Order will we have some idea about where we have to go from there. My greatest fear now is that he will agree to it, but with a very early referendum because of Brexit. If that is so, the non-persuadable will win again. As you say, Mr Bell, I have never met a British Nationalist/Unionist/English Nationalist in any campaign from my early years who ever was open to reason or cogent argument. Most often, I met hostility and downright abuse. I don’t know where all those who believe in this method have been campaigning, I really don’t. In some parallel universe, perhaps?
LikeLike
When I read Jane Cassidy’s article in The National my despair for the SNP increased.
LikeLike
There is no way to tell which article you’re referring to.
LikeLike
Brits see any suggestion of an independent Scotland as a personal attack on their property.
They see Scotland as a possession. Hence the instinctual lashing out and derision of its status. Much like an abuser in a relationship. They don’t value the person they are with. They only want the property and the assets of that person. They need to keep that person down to maintain authority and control.
This strategy has served very well on the Brit Scots suffering from terminal Stockholm syndrome .
The British identity is something people like me have no concept of. I grew up being a Scot , and that is all I ever felt. Naturally that leads people like me to independence.
Brit Scots are abused, but don’t know they are abused. Pete wants to try and treat these people with kind words and reasoning.
He hasn’t thought for a minute that some people can never be free until you drag them kicking and screaming to freedom.
However once they see the truth , there is no going back. A bit like the Matrix!
LikeLike