I am asking for a friend.
I had an article in The National yesterday that was headlined:
I had this note in response from a friend in Scotland:
Aye, I hate them too.
I didn't feel anything like as much animosity to a gentle-minded liberal like David Cameron as I do about these hard-right nationalists in the new Labour Party.
Meanwhile The SNP vote continues to rise and for the first time ever Reform is clearly the third party in Scotland. It's a clusterfuck.
Scotland is in desperate need of a new, competent pro-indy party of the left-centre-left. Such an entity if organised properly would do very well indeed in Holyrood.
You don't know a sympathetic person with a million quid who fancies trying out an actually left agenda in government somewhere in the UK?
I am not a fan of big political donations for obvious reasons, but compromises have to be made in the world we live in.
If anyone has the funds, I will be happy to forward a cheque.
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You need a lot more than, and you know it.
“a gentle-minded liberal like David Cameron”
I’m sorry but which planet is that man living on. Cameron gave us lies about the banking crisis, austerity and “strivers vs skivers” He also wrecked Libya.
It was a comparison
Everything is relative
Sounds like an attempt at humour but not from a true supporter of Scottish independence.
I think you got the last bit wrong
“trying out an actually left agenda in government”
I’d drop the “left” – just gives ammo to the chimps that run the Uk media.
An alternative approach wrt a new party is through collective action to form community xyz (with the xyz anything you want).
Citizens working together to acheive a common good – & then forming political groups based on that could be one way forward.
Agreed
People power is the way forward but how do we motivate cold, hungry, trampled on people to take an interest in tired, unfair and totally uninspiring politics?
I understand that the ‘Yes’ Campaign in the last Scottish Independence referendum was funded by a lottery winner.
Scotland already has – by any standards of real-world comparison – a “competent pro-indy party of the left-centre-left party”, the SNP – and it has the unstinting support of a very broad and generous base. I write as a life-long supporter whose funds (well below your dreamed of riches) go to it, as the by far the best, real-world option for changing the politics of my country and, in the after-shock, of this benighted island. I know that the battle, which you rightly wage for the SNP, and indeed the Scottish Greens, to liberate themselves from neo-liberal economics is not yet won but at least we members are fighting it in a political context which has shown many signs of striving for the right societal conclusions. (The list is considerable and an enormous contrast with the crass series of disasters which have constituted the governments of the ‘U’ K in the last 15 years.) The key to breaking free is our independence and in the battle for that the other battle can also be won, both en route and especially in the realisation of our goal.
Candidly, anyone who links the utterly deplorable rise of Reform with the continuing rise of the SNP vote as “a clusterfuck” has no serious interest in Scotland’s independence nor in its good government. It all sounds like bait from a frustrated and disillusioned old Labourite. Maybe that goes with their party’s taste for big donor politics – and a party that lead the No campaign last time around.
Nigel
Interesting, but the SNP is neither pro-Indy or left of centre and has not been for a long time. The whole Sturgeon era was based on that. The leadership is inclined to neither right now. The person who wrote to me knows that. I think s/he is right, and wants both the things s/he refers to. They have never been in Labour.
Richard
Well, Richard, your views are yours – but as an active member of the party and setting them in the face of the facts, I’m afraid that I find them ridiculous. The SNP is absolutely committed to achieving Scotland’s independence, if it was not I would not remain in their ranks and I think you will find it is the heart and centre of the party’s Holyrood election campaign in 2026. As to its left of centre positioning, I don’t know what litmus tests you have in mind. Mine are pragmatic and it passes those in the real world of contemporary politics by a large margin in a number of areas from university fees, to prescription charges, to ameliorating awful policies forced upon us (bedroom tax and two child cap), to a real NHS for which ministers take responsibilty (as not in England), to Child Payment – and more; and all that is before we get to nuclear weapons, to which the party remains resolutely opposed – and also its stance on many foriegn policy issues – and persons.
There are many ways in which it could be better and more radical and it definitely needs to shrug off the tendency to the widespread neo-liberal economic blinkers – but those are struggles and causes – as Alex used to say of the main issue – not lost but only, as yet, unwon and in which your critical voice is a most welcome force.
Anyway, I and my circle of friends and active members can, at least, recognise and feel that we have a politics that is real and can still achieve something that will happen and make for a better world. After decades of professional life in England, I sympathise with the political desert by which you and so many good people must feel surrounded. There is a more hopeful land just over the Border and people who would like to find a more promising purpose should come here. Failte!
Oh come on, Nigel.
You know I watch Scottish poloticvs in some detail.
The leadership has no clue at all as to how to achieve independence and no apparent drive to achieve it. They are far too comfortable with politics at Holyrood.
They are also neoliberal to their cores or the Growth Commission would not have happened.
And I helped Tim Rideout with his 2019 currency resolution. The leadership ignored it.
I do not doubt the SNP membership. I doubt its leadership since Alex. He was the exception, and apologised until the a;st tome we met for getting the currency issue wrong.
We will have to disagree.
Friends can.
Indeed we do disagree and we can do so quite amicably.
It was party members, including me, that voted for Tim’s motion and who support him and his group to this day. The leadership is broader than it used to be, in both Alex and Nicola’s times, and much more open to the members’ campaigns and that will tell.
And, like Kanga, “We’ll see!” – both of us.
🙂
Sorry for being a spoil sport but if they had a spare million they wouldnt want to support your ideas because they would end up losing that and then some more.
In any case that spare million would have been amassed quite likely in a classic capitalist way off the backs of working people. That in itself would change most people so your pool off possible donors is extremely small if any at all. They would want something for themselves in return. A fairer society might not cop it for them.
Therein lies the locked in failure of a wealth extraction money centric culture.
Wow, that’s negative.
And do you not realise anything about synchronistic enablement?
Perhaps it is negative. You wouldn’t be the first person to say that. But I have not seen evidence of a rich person alying with someone of yours (and incidentally my) views. There was Robert Maxwell for a while with Daily Mirror but he turned out to be a bad apple – to be polite. I don’t know what synchoronistic enablement is but it might be what the management consultant of yore termed synergy. If so the motives are diametrically opposed. I can’t see any synergy. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Did you see the monbiot article today? Their synergy aligns with destruction of nature because it gives them the short term gains. That’s the synergy that I see working for them. I don’t see any of the capital class rising to the challenge of destruction of life on earth. I only see them doubling down.
Negative perhaps but you know as well as I do how bleak it looks out there.
So, the challenge is how do we get the message across to the mass public and create a swell support. Your blog is doing that but it’s fight against a Tsunami.
That is a debate worth having and getting lots of input and ideas. Unfortunately the left is bereft of ideas on this so far to my knowledge but you may be able to inject this question out there to put together some cohesive ideas.
A millionaire isn’t going to come to our rescue. But if there is one out there I am retiring soon and would happily give my time and energy to this cause. I am negative but down and out.