Alba Stereo System

[jobotic]

Help me understand:

Stronger together - EU.
Stronger not together - UK.

The nationalists' policy has the consistency of bullshit.

Bad faith or wilful ignorance?

[Paul Calf]

Did the UK have to ask the EU's permission to have a referendum to leave?

Are you explicitly equating Scottish independence with Brexit? I thought you weren't supposed to do that.

[Dr Trouser]

Did anyone watch the debate? Ross was awful, Sturgeon looked knackered and Sarwar came off best. Rennie was all right but what is point Lib Dems? I'd never heard of Lorna Slater before but she seemed to do ok for the Greens. There was an elephant in the room by the name of Alex though...

I might have to vote Lib Dem - they appear to be the only ones who want to address the issue of 1,000s of teachers on zero hours contracts delivering a wank curriculum to attain a sub par education. Willie did get heated in parliament and Sturgeon sort of laughed it off. Mrs. Trouser (primary teacher) is not amused

[the hum]

Bad faith or wilful ignorance?

Sealioning

[Pinball]

Assuming you mean me, I am not a troll.

[earl_sleek]

i think it shouldn't be allowed for politicians to switch parties so easily after they've been elected

I agree - it should automatically trigger a by-election.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Ahead of most elections, there is a row over TV debates.

Alex Salmond has just announced he is writing to Ofcom to argue his party should be involved in debates ahead of Holyrood election.

We'll be discussing criteria @bbcpodlitical
later.

https://twitter.com/nickeardleybbc/status/1377592354559905793

lol

[GMTV]

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/scotland/2021/04/war-woke-meaning-alba-party

I hadn't quite appreciated that the SNP was being seen as increasingly woke, and there was disgruntlement within the party about this. It sounds like alba is aiming for the tartan tory vote essentially? I guess the alarm bells had been ringing for some time that the SNP was beginning to buckle under the weight of the political spectrum it was holding together.

[greencalx]

That was my impression. The SNP has done exceptionally well in holding their conservative and progressive wings together- it seems that both sides understood that their dream of independence could be achieved only by maintaining unity in spite of differences on the economic and social spectrum across the party. I guess by appealing to a more progressive base that was dissatisfied with Labour's offering to build a sizeable pro-independence coalition might be seen by traditionalists as "becoming woke".

I am however surprised that the cracks are showing now. My expectation was that they would continue to sit on their differences until such time as independence was achieved, and then split along more traditional left-right lines. Of course it's impossible to hold it together forever... but I would have thought the more viable strategy was to get another majority SNP government installed to provide a mandate for IndyRef2 and then campaign like fuck to get the vote out.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I guess even the conservative side of the SNP could see that providing services better than the ones down south (even if they don't really believe they should long term) was an easy winning strategy.

[the hum]

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/scotland/2021/04/war-woke-meaning-alba-party

I hadn't quite appreciated that the SNP was being seen as increasingly woke, and there was disgruntlement within the party about this. It sounds like alba is aiming for the tartan tory vote essentially? I guess the alarm bells had been ringing for some time that the SNP was beginning to buckle under the weight of the political spectrum it was holding together.

It's a culmination of the explosion in membership that occurred post-2014; membership increased nearly five-fold at that point and has been more or less at that level ever since. The new members are predominantly younger and more progressive, and, seven years on, some are now inching into positions of relative influence. Sturgeon was part of a "young team" that came onboard 20 years earlier, who themselves are sufficiently progressive enough to more or less harmonise with the newest group with little conflict. For a section of SNP boomers though all this is the pits. Lost count of the amount of boomer twitter accounts ranting along the lines of "I've been an SNP member and campaigner for 50 years, and GRA is a disgrace" etc.

I guess there's a duality issue with the SNP, in that they're the vanguard of indy, but are also a party of government, and hence must have parameters and coherent domestic policy positions. Remains to be seen how extensive and damaging this split is, but it may turn out to be not at all a bad thing, and at this point in time they seem to be gaining more members than they're losing.

[idunnosomename]

fucking hell

https://twitter.com/AlbaParty/status/1378621743884070913

[canadagoose]

fucking hell

https://twitter.com/AlbaParty/status/1378621743884070913

Disappointing, but they are rich middle-aged white men, so them supporting Alba shouldn't be a surprise.

[Cuntbeaks]

Wrong thread twat

[Dayraven]

Wrong thread or subtext about Salmond?

[Zetetic]

Any evidence yet of whether Alba is convincing many people to sign up to their "hack the additional member system" plan of SNP-in-constituency-plus-Alba-in-regional?

[stonkers]

Any evidence yet of whether Alba is convincing many people to sign up to their "hack the additional member system" plan of SNP-in-constituency-plus-Alba-in-regional?

Initial polling had them on about 3%, ie. Not Very Good.

[the hum]

Any evidence yet of whether Alba is convincing many people to sign up to their "hack the additional member system" plan of SNP-in-constituency-plus-Alba-in-regional?

Ballot Box Scotland are projecting they'll pick up 5 seats, following the most recent poll which put them on 6%: http://ballotbox.scot/. They're also suggesting George Galloway's batshit Alliance For Unity will pick up a seat in the South of Scotland (presumably George himself).

List vote projections though are a very thorny issue with a ton of margin for error and massive regional variations, and which way the seats fall is heavily dependent on what happens in the constituencies (since the list acts as a corrective measure). In the Highlands for instance, you have not only the SNP's best chance of a list seat (because the LibDems will almost certainly win both the Northern Isles constituency seats), but also the Greens vying for a second seat, the Alba factor, and Andy Wightman standing as an independent.

[Gulftastic]

What pops in my head every time 'Alba' is mentioned:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TD6B67yICg