Kenny MacAskill is obviously correct when he says that "it has always been the case that it was for the Scottish Government to set out both the timetable and the means by which it would deliver a referendum by the end of 2023 with or without a Section 30 Order being granted". It is just … Continue reading Also relying on magic
I didn't hear Ian Blackford's address to the crowd gathered on Glasgow Green at the end of the Yes march in Glasgow on Saturday (9 October) and I have been unable to find a full transcript of his speech. It might be more accurate to say that I couldn't hear Mr Blackford's address. My hearing … Continue reading Multiple failures of leadership
Having read the articles in The National today from Kenny MacAskill and Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh I am now firmly convinced that there has been a change of tack by the Alba Party. A change which looks very encouraging. With the election out of the way, the party seems to be putting its dreadful campaign behind it … Continue reading Hope for Alba? Hope from Alba?
...this argument comes from a place of political unreality.Andrew Tickell: Home Rule in this reactionary UK would not answer our problems Reading Andrew Tickell's column in The Sunday National this morning, the phrase "a place of political unreality" struck a chord. This, I thought to myself, could be the strapline for 'brand Scotland'. We are … Continue reading A place of political unreality
The cold, hard political reality is that only the SNP is placed to provide the effective political power that Scotland's cause absolutely requires.
Oversight of broadcasting is a signifier of the nationhood that the British are determined to deny to Scotland.
MacAskill is fast becoming the voice of a growing 'tendency' within the SNP that has turned to questioning the SNP leadership because all the questions that might be asked of the British state and its apparatus are now rhetorical.
My preference would have been that Nicola Sturgeon combine her role as Scotland's political leader and her role as de facto figurehead of the independence movement with a role as the 'face' of the campaign - with the SNP managing that campaign.
How does the party respond to MacAskill's allegation that the SNP relies overmuch on “self-satisfied parroting of opinion poll results” to deflect criticism. What does the party say to that? Well, apparently, a party source told The National: “Sir John Curtice is more positive about recent polling than Kenny.”. It seems this "party source" knows not the ways of irony.
The great mystery… Correction! ONE of the great mysteries is why the SNP is in this position in the first place.
Peter A Bell 