Nicola Sturgeon has set her sights so low that pretty much any offer Salmond makes is going to look better. And, being the crafty politician that he undoubtedly is, he not-quite-promises no more than he has to. No more than will seem a prize next to the not-quite-promises Sturgeon is putting on the table. Sadly for Scotland, neither of them is offering what we need at this time of our nation's great peril.
"Here is what we know. A majority SNP government will hold a referendum within the term of the next parliament."Richard Walker: This is why Both Votes SNP is best way to ensure independence But we don't know this, Richard. That is a very large part of the problem. In your very next sentence you refer … Continue reading What a mess!
Obviously, any splitting of the independence vote would weaken the Scottish Government's mandate. To establish what I termed a 'super-mandate', the party of government would ideally have over 50% of the popular vote on both ballots. The SNP was always going to be the party of government - barring an unthinkable catastrophe - so the first task had to be 'persuading' the SNP to adopt the Manifesto for Independence. Or at least the critical parts thereof.
This may be the last time Alba will have any leverage with the SNP.
What I'm trying to convey here is a sense of how underwhelmed I am by it all. Which is only significant if one factors in what a politics anorak I am.
In a fantasy world where our political leaders actually listen to the people, this person would tell them that the first thing they must do is repudiate the Section 30 process as an illegitimate constraint on Scotland’s right of self-determination.
Yes activists - including SNP members - didn't remove Nicola Sturgeon from her role as the de facto leader of the independence movement. She never showed any sign of wanting that role other than for the purposes of helping win elections. She never gave the slightest indication of wanting to pursue Scotland's cause. She allowed that cause to languish for nearly seven years giving rise to the frustration among Yes activists which is now becoming anger.
The only reason the polls aren't higher is Nicola Sturgeon's failure to take advantage of these circumstances. It is a failure of strategic political thinking stupefying in its self-serving stupidity. A series of appalling misjudgements - such as committing to the Section 30 process and choosing to fight Brexit rather than the Union - has left the independence movement in disarray and Scotland's cause in a precarious state.
I pour scorn on these 'list parties' for sound, rational, considered reasons which have nothing whatever to do with loyalty to the clique of crazies or their enablers who have done to my party and Scotland's cause such grievous harm.
The problem now facing Mike Russell, who presumably is overseeing the drafting of the Bill, is that he has to lay the groundwork for a referendum without a Section 30 order while the SNP's position is still that Section 30 is the "gold standard" and the only "legal and constitutional" way to have a referendum.
Peter A Bell 