Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp seems very pleased with himself. In his terms, yesterday’s event in Edinburgh was a great success. That’s all very well. But after the cheers have died down and the crowds have all gone home, what are we left with, apart from maybe feeling good about ourselves? Do we have any more reason today to think the SNP Scottish Government has some idea how to restore Scotland’s independence than we did yesterday? Which shouldn’t be difficult given that yesterday it was evident that they were totally clueless. There were lots of rousing speeches. But where is the substance?
Of course, I’ll be castigated for being ‘negative’. But I have never in my life sung Kumbaya. I don’t do happy-clappy. I do realpolitik. I know what is involved in ending the Union and restoring independence. I recognise that it will require a lot more than carefully crafted rhetoric in the sunshine. I’ll be positive when I’m given reason to be.
All the Business for Scotland march and rally succeeded in doing yesterday was to gather together a crowd of the already persuaded. The idea that they’ve given the British political elite a “shock” is pathetic nonsense. The British don’t care. They too will be looking for the substance behind the speechifying and the sloganeering. They too will find none. Far from delivering a “shock” to the British state, yesterday’s proceedings succeeded only in reassuring them that the Scottish Government poses no threat to the Union.
I am not alone in recognising the cluelessness of the SNP leadership. Whining about my ‘negativity’ won’t alter that cluelessness. Those of us who aren’t prepared to be palmed-off with platitudes and promises and glittering generalities will only be persuaded that the SNP leadership is not clueless when we see actual evidence of them having a clue. Had Humza Yousaf or any of the others on that platform yesterday said even one word about the Scottish Government’s proposals for restoring Scotland’s independence, it might have inspired some confidence. But there was nothing. Not a word.
There are countless questions that the First Minister might have addressed had his concern been to convince doubters such as myself that he appreciated the reality of Scotland’s predicament and had some practical ideas on satisfactorily resolving the situation. The key question, however, relates to the matter of parliamentary competence. Unless and until Humza Yousaf demonstrates that he understands the importance of this question and at least looks as if he is considering ways of addressing the issue of parliamentary competence, he and his government will continue to look clueless and of no use whatever to Scotland’s cause.
And what is true for the First Minister also holds for the self-declared spokespersons for the “mainstream” independence movement. Over to you, Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp.
Peter A Bell 
Can’t disagree with any of that Peter.
We’ve spoken before about the SNP’s privileged position to be the vanguard of the Independence movement. Way back in 2014 and beyond, the SNP quite rightly held that honour and used their skills and expertise to grow a movement that came within a hairsbreadth of gaining our objective, Independence. It was a movement, of their Party and more; a pantheon of the like minded, who needed the drive; the force; the vision, of their Party for our common goal.
Alas no more it would appear.
I’ve not read any of today’s stuff about yesterday’s event, although I don’t expect much.
I haven’t woken to the cacophony of “It’s On!”; “Humza Hits Home!”; “Here We Go! Again.”
So I guess it’s slippers back on; carrots back out; Lochaber no more; and the ever increasing decline …… of a Party bereft of honesty, integrity, transparency and numbers.
Vanguard?
Vanquished.
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Has Humza or the SG received a call from the PM south of the border? Answer no and their not likely to ever.
While the SNP play for devolution but pretend they want Independence the rest of us including the EU are really waiting for something to happen, which in the real world with the SNP and Humza as leader, nothing will. This was a pantomime all about stop the dwindling membership, loss of revenues and public support.
Will Scotland vote for Independence, yes I believe they will and this is probably the reason why both government north and south of the border will not allow us to express that view, here lies the Cul-de-sac everyone talks about for me Salmond hasn’t learnt any lessons in the last 9yrs and he’s made Alba a small version of the SNP.
The problems with Scotland isn’t the UKG, its the SNP, they are the real problem and if we allowed them to continue using us like pawns to their own ends, Scotland will still be hearing the same old that we heard yesterday its time to take Scotland future away from the political classes who really are happy with the status quo and get behind Salvo. Its funny how the march yesterday is in all the papers and on TV, but yet AUOB marches aren’t. We all know the SNP isn’t for Independence and wouldn’t it be dreadful if the SNP was to collapse as a party, well it would for the Unionist.
Today Humza will do nothing and tomorrow Sunak will say nothing and on Tuesday the SNP and all the people making money out of Independence will carry on as if they have won a victory, well a victory never wins you the war.
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FFS Peter, you are such a hypocrite. You castigate me on another thread for alluding to plans for debate at conference about the route to independence, as you believe they should be a closely guarded secret until then, …. then whine;
“Had Humza Yousaf or any of the others on that platform yesterday said even one word about the Scottish Government’s proposals for restoring Scotland’s independence, it might have inspired some confidence. But there was nothing. Not a word.”
It is becoming ever more evident you’re just an opportunistic malcontent …. like all the others.
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Here and on the last thread you’re looking directly into a mirror and describing accurately what you see, but you fail to realise – it’s a mirror.
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You are an idiot and a fucking liar. I have NEVER said those “plans” should be kept secret. I have explicitly and repeatedly said precisely to opposite. You even quote me urging that Humza Yousaf speak of those plans while claiming I “believe they should be a closely guarded secret”! You are a cretin.
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On the “Different doesn’t mean better” thread, in response to my alluding to plans on a new route to independence from the SNP membership, you literally wrote;
“But then it occurred to me that what you might have been failing miserably to refer to clearly is the memberships’ plans for conference next month. In which case, you shouldn’t even be mentioning it”.
I repeat, you literally wrote;
“In which case, you shouldn’t even be mentioning it”.
When it comes to your statement;
“You even quote me urging that Humza Yousaf speak of those plans while claiming I “believe they should be a closely guarded secret”!
That WAS my point. In this article, you want Yousaf to give you every detail while on the other thread you claim I “shouldn’t even be mentioning it”. That is hypocrisy 101. Your comprehension skills are lacking Peter. At least where those you rail against are concerned.
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The quote from Yousaf reported doesn’t confirm this but if it’s true, it is a bit of an advance:
“He asked the crowd gathered at Holyrood to imagine the moment in the future when the Scottish Independence Bill to repeal the Act of Union is passed by the Scottish Parliament.”
I think it’s up to the conference in October, and hold my judgement, though not any slight pressure I can bring on the backsliders.
GMK doesn’t toe the SNP line though, and one way of bringing effective pressure to bear is to make yourself influential from within. He has a big organisation behind him, and I’ll not write him off yet either.
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I don’t suppose any source has been provided for that ‘quote’.
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Watch for yourself.
The links are timestamped for the relevant sections:
Jamie Hepburn MSP (Minister for Independence)
1 hour 13 mins 28 secs
https : // http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76sota9rnlg&t=4408s
Humza Yousaf (First Minister of Scotland)
1 hour 59 mins 08 secs
https : // http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76sota9rnlg&t=7148s
One notable feature is the way these Politicians attempt to set the framing that it is the crowd, the people, that must take the actions to bring the goal closer. Thus avoiding taking any responsibility for what they will / should / must do.
Transparently obvious, typically brainless.
Very little to no content of any substance.
Anyone expecting any more must have been disappointed.
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Did Humza Yousaf actually ask the crowd gathered at Holyrood to imagine the moment in the future when the Scottish Independence Bill to repeal the Act of Union is passed by the Scottish Parliament? If so, what were his actual words? That’s what I want to know.
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I recall that happening, but I would have to watch the live feed to find the exact words.
…
OK. so I watched it for you.
time 1hour 05 mins 54 sces
“the people of this country… are suffering from a cost of union crisis”
…
“imagine a Scotland…”
time 1hour 07 mins 12 sces
“Lets give them a vision”
“imagine”
“imagine”
“imagine”
“imagine”
“imagine”
“inspire”
“inspiration”
so it is in the context of a word salad of glittering generalities of ‘imagination’ and ‘inspiration’
2:10:28
“imagine that moment where Scotland becomes an independent country”
“imagine” the vote has been won
imagine
2:11:07
“imagine that moment when the presiding officer looks at the results of the motion in front of them and announces that the Scottish independence bill, which will repeal the act of the union has been passed by a majority of that Scottish parliament.”
There, I transcribed it for you.
How significant is this? We shall see.
More glittering generalities? Another carrot?
Does Humza have a secret plan?
If people are going to form an opinion, I would suggest they listen to the speech.
Tune in next week independence-seekers!
😉
The SNP party machinery have been trailing their Programme For Government.
We can but live in hope.
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Thank you. I may be wrong, but I suspect Humza Yousaf would not wish to be questioned on the implications of that remark. One hell of a lot has to happen before such a Bill can get to the point he wants us to imagine. I very much doubt that he has anything meaningful to say about how we reach that stage. Because it involves the most important question of all. The question of how the Scottish Parliament acquire the competence to pass a Bill repealing the Act of Union. Or even debating it.
There is, of course, only one way the Scottish Parliament can acquire that competence, and that is to take it. To assert it and defy the British state to challenge the fait accompli. Will Yousaf acknowledge this? He can’t be considered serious about restoring Scotland’s independence until he does.
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In an interview at the end of the event he also said:
“Our Plan A has never changed”
“We have to continue to get democratic mandate after democratic mandate”
“We have to mobilise the power of the people”
“… in order to create the political conditions where it is impossible to ignore that demand for Independence”
“The next means where we can test that proposition nationally will be through the General Election”
“A vote for the SNP is vote for Scotland to become an independent nation”
“If you want to test a proposition for popular support you do that through a referendum”
That was all in a 1 minute, 45 second interview.(https://twitter.com/ginadavidsonlbc/status/1698015293614813511).
Humza Yousaf at his most Clueless.
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… if they don’t win a majority of votes but do win the most seats…
“if that happens, on our proposition of independence,
then we will take that as a mandate to negotiate how we put that proposition in to effect.”
So that’s clear then!
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Precisely.
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Desperately trying not to say the words ‘section thirty’.
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“We have to mobilise the power of the people”
And then ignore them. Aye. That’ll work.
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Meanwhile the National continues its smear campaign against Ewing who supports Forbes, and even directly against Forbes herself:
“Third of MSPs calling for short term lets delay lobbied by AirBnb”
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23763246.third-msps-calling-short-term-lets-delay-lobbied-airbnb/#comments-anchor
Ummm, how many MSPs get lobbied about a whole range of issues?
The AirBnB issue has absolutely feck all to do with Independence. Like GRR, like DRS, like heat pumps, or any of the assorted baggage the faithful try to attach to Independence, with the actual result that support for Indy stays the same, but support for the SNP continues to drop.
Madness.
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The SNP mindset has to change. It’s a pressure group for Independence unless it believes Scotland can be a nation state without the consent of the U.K. government.
There has been no discussion about that , just off-the-cuff derisive remarks.
We can be independent in 15 months by dissolving the union.
There can’t be a transition period. That work has to front loaded before the election. A majority yes vote at the GE means the day after we dissolve the union.
If no negotiated agreement pre the GE then the former U.K. is effectively put into suspended animation without the consent of the two former partners .
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“Gordon MacIntyre Kemp, founder of Believe in Scotland, said an estimated 25,000 people had been on the march.” (https://archive.ph/5mbzB#selection-1875.3-1875.182)
Other estimates suggest something different (https://wingsoverscotland.com/to-another-world/).
Perhaps GM-K should rename his organisation ‘Make Believe in Scotland’. Hyperbolic claims really just makes him look foolish.
Either way, what is the follow-up plan?
“Let’s take the energy that we feel from today – let’s galvanise ourselves, let’s get out there, let’s take that message out, speak to your friends, your neighbours, your family”
This is it according to Jamie Hepburn, Minister of Independence. (As an aside, does Mr Hepburn report to Angus Robertson, Constitution Secretary? Or do they job share but both keep 100% of the salary?)
Well, what do you know? I would never have guessed that! After all the electoral mandates, the begging ‘Gold Standard’ requests, the ’11 point plan’, the deferring of Scotland’s self-determination rights to the UK Supreme Court, the ‘de facto referendum’ wheezes – all 10 iterations – it’s down to … us.
The ‘Summer of Independence’ was condensed into one bright sunny afternoon in early September where the First Minister spoke with his usual incoherence, when interviewed, about elections being used to negotiate Independence if the SNP achieved a majority of votes, or seats or something. He didn’t seem quite sure. (He can’t be faulted for consistency in that respect).
But Humza Yousaf was sure that the SNP have to “continue to get democratic mandate after democratic mandate” and that there was no “rabbit that I can pull out of a hat”. The performance of a representative of the Leporidae family caught in the headlights of a motor vehicle would probably be more assured than the FM any time he is asked to describe the process – any process – for achieving the reason for being of his party.(https://twitter.com/ginadavidsonlbc/status/1698015293614813511)
Some people have assigned the moniker of ‘Useless’ to the current FM on account of his respective performances at running the Justice, Transport and Health departments of the Scottish Government. I’m not sure whether that is a fair assessment or not but, judging by his performance to date as FM and, in particular his utterings on the path to Independence’ he and his colleagues are, as Angus Brendan MacNeil first stated, completely ‘Clueless’.
It’s going to stick.
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Yousaf says what he thinks people want him to say, and relies on people only hearing what they want to hear. He’s a demagogue, and good at it.
That was not a compliment.
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Yep, whatever gets him through the day … or the next 5 minutes.
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Postcolonial theory refers to the posture of the compromised dominant national party as one of ‘petrifaction’: aye, rabbit in the heidlichts, an inability to move, much as we see with the SNP since 2015.
‘Neutrality’, in other words. ‘Continuity’ and status quo, even. A lack of innovation clearly evident. Little prospect of a ‘petrified’ national party leadership doing anything like liberating a people and nation.
Hence the ongoing prevarication, absence of strategic focus, the excuses and deceit, and finger pointing by the rupture-creating ‘legal’ tendency toward the ‘illegal’ tendency, the latter seeking to move forward with greater urgency and commitment.
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