I have yet to hear from any of the gentlemen addressed in this post, so today I dared to make some of what Andrew Baddon, election assistant to Bob Doris MSP, called “political social media posts.”
I am addressing this letter to you because I live in Maryhill, Glasgow, so you are my MP, my MSP and my councillor respectively. Like you, I am also a member of the SNP, and so I was disturbed by an email I received today from Andrew Baddon, election agent for Mr Doris, part of which said:
“God grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush
Rebellious Scots to crush —
God save the King.”
—British National Anthem
I am a member of the Maryhill and Springburn branch of the SNP. Today I received this email:
Dear GM,
All leafleting and campaign activity was suspended yesterday afternoon following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.
Over the weekend, this suspension will continue and there should be no outward campaigning – this means no leafleting and no political social media posts.
Activities can resume on Monday afternoon at noon, following condolence events in the Scottish Parliament.
Yours for Scotland
Andrew Baddon
Election Agent for Bob Doris
SNP Candidate for Maryhill & Springburn
As I am bald, am I exempt from having to tug my forelock?
Prince Philip has died. The only remarkable thing about him is that he lived to the age of 99, which is less remarkable when his pampered lifestyle is considered. An unremarkable racist born into the Greek royal family, we have only heard of him because of whom he married, an equally unremarkable person born into another family institution that should have been abolished long ago.
As he never did anything anyone would have noticed had it not been for his title, it seems odd that Scotland’s political parties have taken a break from election campaigning because of his death — and bizarre that the SNP is making such a gesture for a prince of a nation it intends to leave.
I live near a bar that is a notorious stab inn. A few years ago, there was talk that it might close, and I overheard someone walking by it say, “If they close it, where are the nutters supposed to go?”
This can be taken two ways. One is a typical Glaswegian compassion for “the nutters,” an understanding that even the most antisocial and violent people need community. The other, more practical, point is that if their hangout closes, they will migrate to other bars and make them less pleasant, safe and sane.
In the politics of Scottish independence, Alex Salmond’s new Alba party might serve the same function as the bar I shall not name. The worst bigots and other reactionaries — “the nutters” — now have a party to join, a community of their own, leaving the SNP a more pleasant, safe and sane place. The worst of the worst will join Alba, while the good and the merely bad will stay with the SNP.
“Ye Jacobites by name,
Your fautes I will proclaim,
Your doctrines I maun blame, you shall hear, you shall hear”—Burns
It is fitting that the online launch of the Alba party (the name of which its leader, Alex Salmond, does not know how to pronounce) was disrupted by technical issues, and then had its membership list leaked, because the party represents a time before such technology existed.
I have a dear friend who, like me, is in his mid-50s. We met in the 1980s, and my friend is still in that era. He is a walking time capsule who still speaks the vernacular of 35 years ago — people who would now be called “woke” are “right on,” or they are “trendy lefties.” He is disturbed by the acceptance of transgender people, and declares that there were only two genders until recently, and he does not see why it should change. (I am not making this up.) He also believes passionately in various conspiracy theories, including that the 9-11 attacks were committed by the US government…
In the Holyrood inquiry as to whether Nicola Sturgeon misled parliament, the vote was along party lines, with four SNP members finding that she did not, and the other five — two Tories, one Labour, one Lib Dem and one independent — finding that she did.
Now an independent report by James Hamilton, former director of public prosecutions in the Republic of Ireland, has found that she is not in breach of the ministerial code. This will disappoint her opponents, who have been excitedly demanding that she resign if Mr Hamilton’s report had found against her.
Boris Johnson is the Prime Minister of England, and, if you believe in democracy, it is right and fitting that he should be. In England his popularity, and that of his party, is six points ahead of the party led by Keir Starmer that no longer has any connection to its name.
There can be no democratic argument that Johnson does not represent England. The majority of English voters want him, and they have him.
The majority of Scottish voters do not want him, and we have him. And, as he continues to treat Scotland with contempt, he is proving that, until Scotland is independent, our votes do not matter. In May, Scottish people will overwhelmingly vote for Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP — and we will continue to get what England votes for. Anyone in Scotland who opposes independence opposes their own right to vote.
Richard Leonard has resigned as leader of the Scottish Labour Party. Incompetent, conservative and sexist as he is, I am sorry to see him go, because his incompetence, conservatism and sexism were an asset to Scottish Independence supporters, helping make his party a travesty. He is loved by some of us in the SNP for the same reason we love Boris Johnson (whom some of us think is doing more for Scottish Independence than Robert the Bruce and William Wallace combined).
I would have liked Mr Leonard to remain leader until the election in May, so he could help ensure that the SNP wins by the predicted landslide. While it is hard to imagine the Scottish Labour Party finding someone equally hapless to replace him, whoever gets the job (Jackie Baillie? Anas Sarwar?) is unlikely to be able to repair the damage he has caused his party in the next few months.