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Clearly his ego is the driving force here. The arch manipulator being manipulated? Possible but I doubt it.
Cherry has tweeted a clear statement that she is just taking a break and fully intends continuing her role as an SNP MP.
MP Kenny MacAskill quits SNP for new Alba Party
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-56550195
I always thought him to be a richard. this proves it.
Kenny MacAskill is an utter fanny. Never set foot in East Lothian unless it was a photoshoot.
Total bell end Salmond is welcome to him, although he says he will carry on "serving" East Lothian !! Who the hell for ??
Always hated the guy, setting the Lockerbie bomber free aside he's always been high on my tool radar.
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Auld Lecherous BAWBAG Alex!
All Ladies Be Afraid
Neale Hanvey defects from SNP to new Alba Party
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-56555096
All Lairy Blokes Aboard?
Wonder if any women will be joining.
Another Diddy
"in 2019 he was was suspended by the SNP for using anti-Semitic language on social media."
so is ALBA going to be the tartan tories as so far they all appear to be from the right of the party and Socially conservative.
what I don't understand is why a person elected under whatever banner be it SNP, Labour, Tory can suddenly jump ship and not have to let the local electorate decide if that's what they want. Because they are there to serve those who voted for them, many will vote for the party rather than the person.
If you change party allegiance there should be another by election.
Its because you vote for an individual not a party
i would like to make changing parties included in the reasons for a recall petition but this has always been the case
Oh dear
THOUSANDS of people have had their data leaked by Alex Salmond’s new party just hours after it launched – which could cost them as much as £17 million.
The Herald on Sunday can reveal that the names of more than 4,000 people who have signed up to attend Alba Party events were visible to the public due to a fault in the party’s website.
Among them appear to be members of the SNP’s ruling body.
From the herald
Its because you vote for an individual not a party
Not sure about that, I've voted for some proper bellends before rather than the other political parties.
But the tick on the ballot paper goes against a named person. Its not like a closed list election where you vote for a party.
No disagree on that if you are a die hard Tory you're not gonna vote for the labour person because they seem nice
It's all about party politics
You reason for voting for a person may be their party affiliation but you still vote for an individual
Salmond is doing the SNP a favour … it’s like a purge of their most questionable MPs, voluntarily.
Is Salmond preparing a party for right and centre right voters post independence? I don’t see the Conservatives taking that role.
But the tick on the ballot paper goes against a named person. Its not like a closed list election where you vote for a party.,
even at Holyrood on the regional list it doesn't work like that does it? Andy Whightman is still an MSP having quite the greens.
It feels like there should be some mechanism, but not necessarily automatic - if someone wants to take a moral stand and quit the party then there's a major disincentive if you are likely to lose your seat; similarly, it would be a very big stick for parties to wave at people who won't play their games.
Holyrood lists you still vote for individuals IIRC Or is that the local elections?
The thing that'll hurt the SNP most is that nobody really knows for sure who is Team Nicola and who is Team Alex, yes you have the obvious ones, it'll just bring more uncertainty.
The sad thing is that the SNP have been a bit lost in the last few years, losing the referendum hurt, it caused the Salmond thing and the fallout is now being seen, after stewing for a long time, guessing the same thing will manifest with a lot of the voters and party campaigners, which is a shame really, as there was real promise this time round, but Salmond wasn't one for giving up power easily.
There are real issues in the SNP over concentration of power, control freakery and diddies infiltrating it for their own ends. None of which is solved by this
He is not corrupt.
I think thats a bit of a stretch
He might be corrupt... But lets say, his motivations here probably aren't corruption, it's all about self-publicising and self-importance.
Losing the referendum did not cause the Salmond thing. The Salmond thing caused the Salmond thing!
Indeed so far as I can see most if not all the allegations if that's what the phrase "salmond thing" refers to allegedly happened before the referendum.
When i say the Salmond thing i meant it in regards to losing the referendum meant he effectively walked the plank, his shot at being the president of scotland and place in history gone for the foreseeable, after that it's been a slow burner until now, but having created a whole new party, at a time like this, for me, shows what kind of man he is.
Who knows though, maybe this whole Alba thing will be good for the SNP, give them a bit of impetus and renewed momentum, they've not had a real threat north of the border for a long time, and been a bit broad spectrum in terms of their political compass.
Tommy Sheridan has joined! He thinks ALBA will be progressive
Alba is supported by Wings over Scotland who has got steadily more unhinged to the point that if you offer any support for Sturgeon he bans you from his facebook page. Also supported by Craig Murray that well known conspiracy nut. Both post pieces on the net full of obvious falsehoods.
A few more failed SNP politicians have joined - all seeing the end of their careers in the SNP so join this rag tag bunch instead
Judge a man by the company he keeps.
Tommy Sheridan has joined!
😂
are we watching some sort of reality tv documentary, where the producers throw in new names every so often to bolster the ratings just so can watch the car crash ending?
Tommy Sheridan has joined!
Is having been a High Court defendant a requirement for joining Alba?
OMG
Cllr McAllister said: "I am delighted to join the Alba Party. As a Councillor, and the former SNP National Women’s Convener, I’m really looking forward to working with my colleagues in the Alba Party to ensure women’s rights are front and centre of the new Scottish Parliament I hope to be a member of."
to ensure women’s rights are front and centre
This is just a dig at the trans debate amongst the SNP
It is. There’s a Venn diagram of three issues that seems to almost form one neat circle:
- push for UDI before another referendum
- push back against rights for trans people
- ongoing personal admiration of Salmond despite everything
The trans rights issue is not clear cut in my view - which is why the GRA has not been put into law yet as it has obvious flaws but is being pushed hard by a rather nasty bunch ( all IMO of course)
the main problem with the GRA as originally formulated is that it has no protection for women only safe spaces
Judge a man by the company he keeps.
Nicola and Alex worked, campaigned, socialized and led the SNP together for 20+ years. That she claims she only discovered he was behaving inappropriately when the formal investigation started when she was FM is frankly implausible
Its rather amusing how little support Salmond is getting even on pro independence social media - even those pages who are supporting him people are showing they understand that ALBA is going to reduce the amount of pro independence MSPs by splitting the vote
I would also like to know who is funding ALBA
And now racist, anti vaxer Alex Arthur is up as a candidate.
Despite having a name like a X Factor winner, it turns out he used to be a boxer. He also uses Twitter to describe homeless Romanians as "Big juicy over fed pigs", offer thoughtful insights such as suggesting to someone with HIV that they should have worn a condom and liking a post that said, eloquently, "**** Gypsies".
Classy
He has also used the I'm not racist, some of my friends are black defence with a tweet recently saying "I actually have Romanian friends"
Its okay though as he has released a statement saying that he is not racist and we have all misinterpreted him.
Carry on.
“in 2019 he was was suspended by the SNP for using anti-Semitic language on social media.”
so is ALBA going to be the tartan tories as so far they all appear to be from the right of the party and Socially conservative.
I would argue it makes ALBA appear more from the left, women's rights/ trans debate also cuts through the left
Holyrood lists you still vote for individuals IIRC Or is that the local elections?
You vote for a party, which lists the names. If one of those names dies/resigns as an MP the next name is automatically appointed (not sure what happens if there are no more names).
Losing the referendum did not cause the Salmond thing. The Salmond thing caused the Salmond thing!
Indeed - some might even say that Salmond was the thing that lost them the referendum!
ALBA is going to reduce the amount of pro independence MSPs by splitting the vote
Is it? If they are only standing in the regional lists then the number of SNP local constituency MPS will be unaffected. I suspect most people who buy into the "spread two votes for independence" logic are already voting SNP/Green - I doubt that many people who pop a cross beside "Green" are immediately swayed that "Alba" is a better choice.
Obviously, at Holyrood it could (often does) come down to one or two MSPs so it might matter but I'm doubtful it will make that much difference in the mix of all the different voting combinations and reasons ("I hate Sturgeon", "I hate Salmond", "Green party are pointless", "anyone but a tory", "Green party if it hadn't been for trans/womens rights", "Alba if it hadn't been for womens/trans rights", "Alba if Tommy Sheridan wasn't on the list", "SNP both votes if it wasn't pointless", "SNP both votes because the #saidSo", "Maybe its time to give Sarwar a go" etc...) - especially given that I don't see them getting more than ~5% of the list vote unless he does some shenanigans like "Alex Salmond for Independence" again - which the Electoral Commission should really but a stop to (and for the others doing the same stuff)...
I've never understood why a party didn't just make a formal distinction between say, "Labour Local" and "Regional Labour" to maximise their vote, with a pre-agreed coalition. It would be gaming the system but not sure if there is some technical barrier.
Nicola and Alex worked, campaigned, socialized and led the SNP together for 20+ years. That she claims she only discovered he was behaving inappropriately when the formal investigation started when she was FM is frankly implausible
Is that what she claimed - I'm not sitting through 8 hours of witness testimony again, but I don't think she said that. In fact I'm sure she said she heard murmurings previously but never saw anything herself. The thing is, sexual predators are rarely the sort of people to do so in front of other people who would disapprove of their behaviour.
I would argue it makes ALBA appear more from the left, women’s rights/ trans debate also cuts through the left
I don't think the interplay between trans-rights and women rights is really a "left" / "right" issue.
Its rather amusing how little support Salmond is getting even on pro independence social media – even those pages who are supporting him people are showing they understand that ALBA is going to reduce the amount of pro independence MSPs by splitting the vote
I think the most like thing is swapping Green list MEPs for Alba MSPs. John Curtice guessed that Alba might get 7% of the vote. I did the numbers for the West Region assuming that half Alba support was former Greens and half former MSP. On that basis Ross Greer (Green) loses his seat to Alba. A secondary effect is that the SNP have even less chance of picking up a list MSP in the West Region.
Is it? If they are only standing in the regional lists then the number of SNP local constituency MPS will be unaffected. I suspect most people who buy into the “spread two votes for independence” logic are already voting SNP/Green – I doubt that many people who pop a cross beside “Green” are immediately swayed that “Alba” is a better choice.
At the moment greens get around 9% of the list vote. If alba splits that then neither greens nor alba will get any list seats. 5% threshold
A lot of the green vote is a pro independence vote - maybe half? who knows
Its certainly more than possible in my view that they will take enough votes from the greens to lose them representatives without gaining enough votes to get enough representatives themselves to make up for the damage to the greens
Hopefuly they do not get enough votes to get any representation but its certainly possible and even likely IMO that splitting the pro independence list vote 3 ways will be enough reduce the total number of pro independence msps
TJ, I'm not convinced that those people who have been voting SNP/Green for the last few elections are going to hop on an SNP/Alba card. They will tempt some SNP/SNP people to SNP/Alba almost as a protest vote for the SNP but I like to think that people who voted SNP/Green in the past have a level of voting sophistication that's not swayed by Eck.
Does anyone know what the actual SNP/SNP and SNP/Green and SNP/Other split is anyway? I have a suspicion that the typical voter ticks both boxes the same anyway, and doesn't really understand the system.