William Wallace did not turn to Andrew Murray at Stirling Bridge and say “I am not fighting alongside you, I hear you’re hard on your tenants.”
A declaration of interest. At the SNP conference in Glasgow in March I was feeling very down. Having been rejected at candidate vetting by the SNP leadership, and the fact leaked to the press with resulting brouhaha, I was effectively cold-shouldered at what was a very managed loyalist mass rally. I spent a lot of time on my own and people I knew were positively walking away to avoid me.
As regular readers know I am bipolar, and I know that when I am severely depressed my perception can be wrong. But in the SNP club a few weeks later a very sensible gentleman told me he and his wife had been appalled at the way I was treated at the conference. I am pretty confident it was not a distorted perception.
Anyway, I was sitting on my own in the conference hall when Michelle Thomson came and sought me out, sat with me and chatted to me. I have no doubt that her motive was simple personal kindness. I should add that the next day Chris Law did much the same.
In Scotland we have had five days of Michelle being treated by the media as though she were the Yorkshire Ripper. The BBC, who never once managed to ask Jim Murphy about the Henry Jackson Society, have been on 24 hour Thomsonwatch, including aggressive doorstepping a la Sky News.
I am not going to set out the detail of the case here, but highly recommend that you read Wings on the distortion of the issues, and Lallands on the legal position. Both are excellent, but to me neither quite clearly delineates the most essential point.
To preface that point, let me restate that Michelle is not under investigation, and her own role is unclear.
The key point is that at no time was any vendor selling their house ripped off. This is not a case of distressed people dispossessed, and the attempts by media and politicians to make it appear that way are tendentious.
The worst that allegedly happened is this. A and B are in cahoots. Mr Smith sells his property to A for an agreed market price. A then sells to B for market price plus 20 grand. The bank gives a mortgage for this, but A quietly gives the extra 20 grand back to B under the table.
The fraud is on the mortgage company which has been tricked into giving a higher mortgage than it otherwise would have. The fraud in no way harms the original vendor. The fraud does not even harm the mortgage company provided the mortgage is paid – and there is no accusation of default. What the mortgage company has lost is that it has as security an interest over a property with a false value.
But again, unless there were a default, it has actually helped the mortgage company too as in the weird world of banking its larger loan is an asset not a liability on its books.
So it is a fraud, but not one perpetrated on poor vendors. It is a trick played on the ludicrous banking system. Clever, dishonest but not morally outrageous. I repeat again, there is no evidence or even legal accusation that Michelle Thomson was involved in any of this. But in any case it is nowhere near as immoral as starting an illegal war with consequent deaths of millions of people. Lets get a grip.
I have never claimed to be perfect. All of us have done things wrong in our past. For me the Independence referendum campaign transcended all that. It was a millenarian movement, a time when people envisaged a world renewed and more just. That phrase about living in the first days of a better nation carried enormous resonance. It was the defining moment of my own life despite coming in its Autumn. Those of us in the frontline of the Yes campaign underwent a kind of emotional rebirth. Sins were wiped clean. It was a sacramental experience, and will lead on to that better world in an Independent Scotland in short time.
It sparked England’s chance for change with Corbyn.
I don’t care what mistakes people made before the Yes campaign. By dedicating themselves to that social movement, they wiped the slate clean.
Which leads me on to Tommy Sheridan. Neither Tommy nor Michelle will thank me for lumping them together, given the very different circumstances. But the continued shunning of Sheridan by pro-Independence organisations from Rise to the SNP is ludicrous.
Most ludicrous of all is the language parroted by the left about Sheridan, that “A space containing Tommy Sheridan is not a safe space for women.” You find it here in the comment by Edward Bonobo. You find it in this article by Tommy Ball. I have had it repeated to me several times.
One answer to this is that it is even more dangerous to be in organisations that teach members to parrot catchphrases, as opposed to think.
In what way precisely is proximity to Tommy Sheridan dangerous to women? If it were true that he has a Svengali like irresistible sexual appeal – which appears to be the nub of the accusation as far as I can make out any sense from Tommy Ball’s article – then surely there is not a woman in Scottish politics not warned against it by now? Is it not rather demeaning to women to argue they would not be capable of protecting themselves from Tommy Sheridan? What precisely about being in the same “space” as Tommy Sheridan is unsafe for women? What does “space” mean in this context? Room, meeting, city? The argument about “safe space” is clearly a nonsense.
I do not know the truth about the sexual shenanigans of which Tommy was accused by Murdoch. Nor do I in the least care if they were true. I have done all that kind of stuff. Often before tea. I do know that Sheridan was jailed for perjury, and that Coulson lied in court at the same trial but the judges ruled that it was OK for Coulson to lie, but not for Sheridan. I know there are allegations that Sheridan pressured other people to lie for him. I do not know if it is true, but I have had so many friends – of both sexes – ask me over the years to give them an alibi for marital infidelity I am not shocked by that. I am afraid to say that in my younger days I have asked that myself.
None of which explains the sheer hatred and bile poured out at Sheridan. This is a man who liberated poor families from the destitution and humiliation of warrant sales, who led the anti-poll tax campaign, who sparked the Murdoch phone-hacking revelations and has been repeatedly arrested and even jailed outside Faslane – trying to make the world a “safer space” for everyone. This tribute is undoubtedly true:
You supported individuals in the community; both in parliament and in the street, you were able to use your undoubted powers of oratory to press home your cause; you led the Scottish Socialist Party to considerable electoral success; and your contributions to the anti-poll tax campaign and the abolition of warrant sales will become part of the fabric of Scottish social and political history.
It was said by Lord Bracadale as he sentenced him to three years in prison for perjury in the Murdoch case.
Tommy Sheridan proclaims his innocence, but in any event he has undoubtedly made mistakes in life. But his achievements are very important, and the continued vindictiveness of the sex-negative feminists and their followers on the Left is extreme. Tommy has been to jail. Is offender rehabilitation only something the political classes claim to believe in because they don’t actually expect to meet any ex-convicts in their sphere of life? The attempt to dress the vicious vindictiveness up as warding off a present danger to women from Tommy Sheridan is intellectually ludicrous.
I shared a platform with Tommy Sheridan at Caird Square, Dundee on Sunday. I was not asked to speak until the gloaming, when 95% of those attending had gone home, but I accepted that and got on with it because I will do anything, anywhere to promote the cause of Independence. The SNP boycott of the event because Tommy was there cannot possibly be helpful if Independence is really the aim.
The Independence movement has a vast and powerful army arraigned against us. The entire British state, their corporate masters, the transatlantic neo-cons, both state and corporate media, the security services. For God’s sake, we need to be absolutely united if we are to reach our goal.
We need all of us. We must value all of us; as people, not robots. We should not be trying to project some corporate media image of a totally fake and hypocritical groomed perfection.
We have tremendously powerful enemies. We only have each other.
Our enemies lie before us. We should not look askance at our allies.
I once saw Tommy share a platform with George Galloway about a decade ago in support of Rose Gentle’s loss of her son in Iraq and the fraudulent war that gave rise to it. It was the most moving and powerful speech I have ever heard. I told him so via twitter having explained to him that I still think of that speech today.
Bloody well said Craig !!
I am in total agreement – speaking as a member of women for independence,I have never understood why we are so unforgiving of Tommy Sheridan. As you say – we know those who are our enemies .Whatever his personal failings – he is a great orator and has given unselfishly to the cause of independence since his court case .
Mr Murray, I am sure many people, like myself, enjoy your well structured, highly informative, well researched and very interesting blog posts. Because you structure your arguments so well, I feel that even people who do not agree with you should at the very least be drawn into the convincing nature of your arguments.
I do not think you should feel down about not being selected as a parliamentary candidate by the SNP, but relieved at a lucky escape. You would certainly not be allowed to continue making blog posts on such a wide range of subjects. Your views are completely normal, sane and logical: but such is the world in which we live that the media would call you an extremist if you were an MP or MSP. Even the SNP has to contort itself to fit into and go along with this weird new paradigm and neo-liberal nightmare in which we live. The Telegraph introduced Nicola Sturgeon to its readers as someone who “hates Thatcherism” — as if it were a mental disease!
The independence movement gains so much from being a broach church. We have the SNP in the two parliaments and then there is the wide range of excellent speakers from Mr Sheridan and RISE on the far left to the likes of Business for Scotland in the centre ground. So there is something for everyone. I believe you should continue doing what you are doing at the moment — or, at the most, move to Berwick and stand there as an independent on an “SNP policies applied to England” platform.
Michelle Thomson and Tommy Sheridan both did so much, selflessly, in the independence campaign and anyone who doubts Tommy’s genuine goodness is kidding him/herself. And we have such a wealth of people outside the SNP — Lesley Riddoch, Jeane Freeman, Cat Boyd, Isobel Lindsay, Susan Archibald, Lindsay Jarrett, I could go on and on (notice that they are all lassies, by the way!) — that I think it is important to look both ways, both before and after indy, and a great team both in the SNP and OUTSIDE the SNP is vitally important to Scotland’s well-being.
You’re making too much sense Craig!
This is a really good post. The people who cold-shouldered you probably did so because they are trying too hard to keep or gain approval. Like most politicians they don’t have the freedom to be authentic. That’s why they can’t give a straight answer to a straight question like Jeremy Corbyn. I hope he doesn’t change because people have had enough of spin and image. The SNP will lose support from people if they carry on down that path of deciding who is in their gang and who isn’t.
“As regular readers know I am bipolar, and I know that when I am severely depressed my perception can be wrong. ”
Can happen to sensitive souls Craig. Stay well and strong. Get into regular exercise–even just brisk walking. You have that wonderful park just behind your building. Natural endorphins can pick you up enormously. And if not, wtf, take a mild anti-depressant. Amitriptyline @ 25mg nightly is great–you’ll sleep better with it too.
Finally, consider dropping a few kilos. Rule: no carbs after breakfast if you can help it; and, certainly not at night at dinner. Great for self-esteems.
Good luck!
PS Eat more cashew nuts–the tryptaphan supposed to do good for the brain!
—–
[ Mod: Caught in spam-filter ]
Tommy Sheridan has been a thug since his time in Militant and is a personal friend of Paul Ferris, a very senior figure in Glasgow’s gangland.
As for him being the leader of the anti-poll tax campaign, this was the man who along with his pal Steve Nally called for informers to come forward and name those who were involved in the riot in London on 31 March 1990.
A mistake? Absolutely not. In a later book he published in Glasgow, he defended himself by saying that Glasgow’s anarchists (who to some extent were a market for him, and some of whose leaders were so idiotic or creepish as to consider themselves friends of his, because they knew him and he was famous, supposedly left wing, and came from the lower orders) were salt-of-the-earth working class, but London’s anarchists, who had (in his imagination) been the main contingent among the rioters and arrestees in London, were terrible middle-class types – as, according to Sheridan the identities of those who were arrested and jailed verified!!
What he said in that book is horseshit on too many levels for me to list here, but the main point is that this scumbag defined himself as an enemy of the rioters and alleged rioters, brave men and women who were subject to very real repression by the police and media and judiciary.
He saw a lot of the episode in terms of gang rivalry, being furious, along with other Militant thugs, that many of his party’s members defected to Class War after the riot. Which wasn’t exactly surprising, given the leadership’s belief that working class people can’t riot by themselves, therefore an organisation must have been behind it, which could only have been Class War. So off went a lot of Militant members, thinking “hey, we’d better find about this Class War group – they sound pretty good”. In actual fact, no organisation was behind the rioting.
And by the way, I know what I’m talking about.
Frankly I was pleased to see this piece of filth, this cocaine addict who thinks he’s God’s gift to women (funny he has to pay for sex, then), this thug who for decades has pushed his weight around, who trained in the thuggish Militant organisation in Glasgow, went up the ladder to friendship with Paul Ferris, who can hardly walk past people he’s ever had a disagreement with without dragging his knuckles along the ground, and who has had a lifelong penchant for calling his opponents of all kinds “grasses” (what a stupid cunt), went to jail. Fuck him, this mirror-loving poser who thinks he’s John Maclean Mark Two. Victim of the Murdoch press, my arse!
Big error of judgement here, I’m afraid, Craig.
—-
[ Mod: This poster has variously posted as “N_”, “John T”, and with this latest handle.
Kindly choose one ID, and stick to it if you wish to continue posting here. ]
Click here to watch Tommy Sheridan, this piece of filth, condemn the men and women who rioted against the poll tax in London. This interview took place in the immediate aftermath of the violence, when the police were hunting down hundreds of alleged rioters.
Sheridan knew what side he was on.
Oh and by the way, this was the riot that brought down Thatcher.
—-
[ Mod: This poster has variously posted as “N_”, “John T”, and with this latest handle.
Kindly choose one ID, and stick to it if you wish to continue posting here. ]
Spot on Craig .
… BUT: if B accepts the lender’s mortgage offer, signs on the dotted line to indicate acceptance, while all the time knowing the price has been inflated, and in the expectation of 20 grand back ‘below the table’ …?
I know nothing about the allegations made about any specific people in the case referred to – absolutely nothing. I hadn’t even heard of them until I read about them here. But I do know that mortgage fraud is often highly organised, almost always involves both solicitors and surveyors (professions widely known for their crookedness) as well as bank representatives. In Scotland, a lot of the introductions between buyers and sellers of houses (a role ludicrously called “estate agency”) are made by solicitors, whereas in England and Wales they are mostly done by “estate agents”, but these guys are always well in with local property scum (developers, speculators, big landlords) and they are ALWAYS ALWAYS on the lookout for punters who don’t know the value of their houses.
Give a local solicitor in any part of Britain the sniff of a mortgage fraud and he’ll salivate and drool all over the place. (Obviously there are some decent solicitors who do things like human rights cases and all sorts of other cases; I’m talking about the kind of moneygrabbing scum who have big signs in their windows saying “PROBATE” and “REMORTGAGING” and who can’t do fuck all unless it’s printed on a card in 5 points for them to follow, or something they can tell their clerks to cut-and-paste from a “precedents” book, and who are usually well in with criminal gangs.) Hell, the smile on the solicitor’s face will be the sort he gets when someone says their old mum’s 92 and wants to make a will and they themselves are 64 with a dicky heart and never got married and don’t really understand all this financial stuff.
So – and I am not talking about whatever specific case this is about, of which I know nothing – please let’s not say that mortgage fraud typically doesn’t shit on the ordinary people who’ve got houses to sell, because typically it does.
—-
[ Mod: This poster has variously posted as “N_”, “John T”, and “You must be joking about Tommy Sheridan”
Kindly choose one ID, and stick to it if you wish to continue posting here. ]
From the heart Craig, and excellent. My first flirtation with party politics was almost joining the LPYS in the later 1980s when Tommy Sheridan was the contact for enquiries on a handbill picked up during a demo (the subject/issue of which I cannot even recall, maybe the looming Poll Tax or less likely, as later, the introduction of Student Loans) including a march up Viccy Rd., to Queens Park, concluding with speeches there with much hilarity as whatever was being said seemed inaudible to almost everyone there, and no attention was paid to it by any of the large crowd. My enquiry promptly lead to a very kind and welcoming handwritten letter in reply from Tommy Sheridan. With that was received the membership form, but I didn’t proceed as the form and the £5.00-ish cost was to be returned to Labour’s Walworth Rd. London HQ and I felt monies raised in Scotland for political campaigning and purposes should be retained and used in Scotland. I was probably moving towards Independence then. The LPYS itself soon ceased to exist and other distinctly Scottish Socialist parties had not yet emerged. My second flirtation was joining the SNP immediately after the 2014 referendum, scunnered by the result, and as much by the despicable spineless, broken rotting media and the lying Better-Together participants and their revolting antics. Soon then I attended an unexceptional branch meeting – I expect they’re all dull – where the local SNP MEP spoke briefly near the end about ‘Devo-Max’, and that the focus now had to be on ‘more powers’, it was a sombre dis-spiriting occasion after the energy of the semi-detached from the SNP Yes campaign and movement. That was my first and only such meeting, health problems, including bouts of unpleasant hypoglycaemia, resulting from attempting to comply with a strict regime mandated by my dietitian, precluded my being able actively to participate much then and probably in the future and I soon after left the party by returning my membership card to the SNPs Edinburgh HQ after hearing of their failure to select you as a prospective Westminster parliamentary candidate, it certainly wasn’t the last straw, it was a factor but party politics simply wasn’t ever for me. My support and longing for independence has not dimmed, I expect a referendum held now, or at any time in the forseeable future would be a romping success in favour of Independence.
Hope over Fear, its meaning, is indeed apt, even in the days of the poll-tax if it were coined then, it would have been so, as what had to be overcome particularly in the west of Scotland was the Scottish psyche’s fear not only of debt, but of the stigma of debt, the maintenance of an artificial respectability when behind closed doors for many it was a world of Provident Cheques for school clothes, red final warnings, and robbing Peter to pay Paul -the monstrous imposition of the charge itself was simply too much for too many to bear. The large anti-poll tax demos down South, indeed the poll tax itself in England, was still a long way off, but in Scotland the people had already broken free then for a moment in time, can do so again at any time of their choosing so easily, and this time, next time, it will be for keeps.
“The fraud is on the mortgage company”.
Please let’s not talk as if mortgage companies are as pure as the driven snow.
What I’m saying is that if mortgage fraudsters (who include almost all local solicitors) can get hold of a house for below market value they will, and they will do so not with their own money but with borrowed money, using a shill. What they say to the mortgage companies is neither here nor there, and is usually a load of old cock they’re all mates down the Rotary or freemasons – and may involve front operators, but the long and short of it is that they’re a bunch of professionals working together to cream money off of punters whenever they can.
The banks and funds that stump up the money are in with it. Craig is right of course about the multiplier effect.
—-
[ Mod: This poster has variously posted as “N_”, “John T”, and “You must be joking about Tommy Sheridan”
Kindly choose one ID, and stick to it if you wish to continue posting here. ]
Very heart felt post..Thanks Craig
” The Independence movement has a vast and powerful army arraigned against us. The entire British state, their corporate masters, the transatlantic neo-cons, both state and corporate media, the security services. For God’s sake, we need to be absolutely united if we are to reach our goal.
We need all of us. We must value all of us; as people, not robots. We should not be trying to project some corporate media image of a totally fake and hypocritical groomed perfection.
We have tremendously powerful enemies. We only have each other.”
By coincidence, only tonight i was Thinking (Again) about Having you in Inverclyde.. But thoughts of SNP attitude cropped up..Well as you say – Independence is the ulterior hope… or should be.. Bypass them if we can. I know some Local Socialists.
Peace
Spot on Craig and the SNP behaved abominably that day I and my fellow organiser have been the subject of orchestrated character assassination by the SNP. I have since cancelled my subscription of the organisation and will be writing the full story shortly. The Dundee SNP have caused irreparable damage to the cause of independence and should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves
[ Mod: This poster has variously posted as “N_”, “John T”, and “You must be joking about Tommy Sheridan”
Kindly choose one ID, and stick to it if you wish to continue posting here. ]
@ John T’ommy SheridaN_
Please continue posting. Great stuff.
Excellent, Craig. I still find it hard to understand how Coulson, and his criminal bosses, were allowed to cash in the Get Out of Jail Free card that those working for the empire are all given.
Tommy Sheridan ran afoul not only of the ruling class, who were shocked by the success he had in talking common sense to plain people, but that saddest of all groups the sectarians on the left, without whom life on the right would be a lot harder.
Of course Tommy made mistakes, so have we all and so have most people but none of us ever dreamed of tearing down the NHS, killing a million Iraqis or making poor disabled people beg for crusts.
A sobering,passionate,wise and very human post Craig.
Thank you.
You’d be better getting them all to fuck Craig and simply concentrate on yer ain blog and buiks.
This will nourish you,your family and your future.
A man with a heart and principles-such as yourself-will only ever be hurt and disappointed by swimming in the same swamp as these slime.
Your health and sanity are more important than the bullshit games these vacuous grasping fuckwits play.
Play your own better game outside theirs.
Jives: “A sobering, …”
Not so sobering for you though, eh Jives? I get the impression you only start posting once you’re sufficiently refreshed. 😉
A very moving post, Craig. I too, question why Sheridan is shunned. OK, the man had (and probably still has) faults. But he has virtues too – and – none of us are perfect.
The Christian edict – that we see the splinter in our brother’s eye, but not the mote in our own – has always resonated powerfully with me.
As for Michelle – I had the good fortune to hear her once and was most impressed by her as a human being. Her warmth, intelligence, humility and general positivity just shone. No wonder they want to destroy her.
But don’t you see, Craig? How they are crucifying her? What more would they have done to you? You who have a past they could rake over? You are brave, but also vulnerable. You had a narrow escape in not being selected. Count it as a blessing in disguise.
There are no prizes for dead heroes. We need everyone to survive the field of battle if we are to win. Your blog is so important to me and must be to so many others. Go well, thrive, survive, and keep up the fight.
N_ and other pseudonyms, I too was there at THE London anti-poll tax march and demonstration, only learning of the ugly turn events had taken on disembarking from the return coach in Glasgow early in the morning the next day. I had toyed with the idea of remaining in London as I had an interview in St Albans a couple of days later, but instead returned home, slept, sobered up, only then to return to London by train. Many of those I had travelled down with for the march or I knew who had also went, were shocked at the scenes which took place, seen by them only on TV, and resented that the peaceful, positive event we had particpated in had attracted or been hijacked by others intent on a senseless wrecking spree. The worst I can recall is late in the day some ugly scenes when a breakaway group intent on heading towards parliament, an attractive idea which almost all the marchers in tow would have blindly followed, were blocked by the sudden appearance of lots of police. One lasting unfortunate effect it had was to discourage a great many people, necessary people, for a long time, from participation in future such events, in any kind of legitimate peaceful protest, essential in a proper democracy. And that was probably one outcome the window smashing ‘anarchist’ louts were probably most proud of and the state and the Tory government in the long run relieved by.
Please no heroes. Who said it would be easy?
The Tories are underfunding the NHS in England in order to try and say it is unaffordable. Give £20 a week tax cut to pay £30 a week private health insurance.
The tax evading Non Dom owned British Press are in decline.
Tommy, Michelle etc have committed no crime are all doing fine. ‘Hope over Fear’ Rallies are great and getting full support. It only needs a 5 % swing and support for Independence is rising.
Mortgage lenders get their own valuation. Often use the same charter surveying company.
Mortgage fraud – used to be an prisonable offence – I’ve met them in prison. It’s also a very common offence so I thought they must have changed that rule by now.
As to bipolar, I know someone who had a breakdown after visiting an old sanitorium in Berlin, which was probably used for mind-control experiments by the Nazis. In my opinion no human being who does not possess a certain level of sensitivity to evil can ever be a whistleblower. The people are who blind to evil do tend to think that not being blind to it is a thought crime.
I wouldn’t wish ever to have another breakdown myself. Spiritual growth hurts like hell, and I would recommend it urgently for the Zionist neo-cons who support IS and takfiri Islam. Satan was cast out for thinking he was better than Adam.
Royals To Shine Spotlight On Mental Health
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be marking World Mental Health Day by meeting young people who have battled the issue.
http://news.sky.com/story/1567024/royals-to-shine-spotlight-on-mental-health
They would be better employed shining their ‘spotlights’ on the deplorable lack of mental health care and beds under this Conservative administration.
For instance, youngsters in Devon who should be in hospital spend nights in prison cells as there is nowhere else for them.
Mentally ill girl’s two days in police cell ‘heartbreaking’
25 January 2015
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-30917334
Assistant Chief Constable Paul Netherton spoke out.
‘Mr Netherton told BBC News the girl had been arrested at Torbay Hospital on Thursday after a breach of the peace and sectioned under the Mental Health Act on Friday because she was “obviously very unwell”.
“We shouldn’t have children, a schoolgirl, staying overnight in a custody block,” he said.
According to the officer, 750 mental health patients had been placed in police cells across Devon and Cornwall so far this year.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-30261980
Typically, Cameron deflected Corbyn’s criticism and passed the blame on to GPs!
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/clinical/mental-health/cameron-points-finger-at-gps-over-lack-of-mental-health-provision/20020120.article
Brave post Craig. I didn’t know about bipolar or its effects.
The Royals get £40Million a year, cost £400Million a year and have a personal fortune of £Millions. They engage in illegal wars but do not invade their air space. Thry are suppose to be impartial but lobby secretly on many issues.
Most of the people in prison have mental health issues and drug/drink addiction. Proper care and counselling would resolve their issues, help society and cost less. Thatcher ‘Care in the community’ Prison. People are dying because of it. The cost of the illegal wars/tax evasion and banking fraud would have covered it. Trident wiould cost £100Billion.
The NHS in England is underfunded £2Billion already, as the Tories try to privatise it. Against the majority wishes and against the public interest.
“This latest opinion poll is entirely consistent with every other poll since the May wipe out of the red, yellow and blue Tories. For those who doubt the absolute science and logic which underpins the argument that voting SNP 1st and 2nd is a wasted vote and helps no one but the unionists please take note. If 52% of the electorate uses their 2nd (List) vote for SNP it amounts to 4 MSPs… Yes folks, its not an opinion or a ruse or a clever trick. It is the very essence of the dual election system used for Holyrood elections. Because the SNP win so many First Past The Post seats (72 with 56% of the constituency votes) they only win 4 (read that again..ONLY 4 SEATS…) despite winning 52% of the List votes cast.
The beneficiaries of the SNP winning so many 2nd (List) votes are who? THE UNIONISTS…They keep their seats by and large because the YES Family refuses to use their 2 votes wisely.
If you really want to promote the YES Cause, if you really want to wipe out the red, blue and yellow Tories next May then you should cast your 1st (constituency) vote for the SNP (PRO-INDEPENDENCE, ANTI-TRIDENT, ANTI-AUSTERITY) and your 2nd (List) vote for another Pro-indy, Anti-Trident, Anti-austerity party. Sure I want you to vote SOLIDARITY wherever you stay in Scotland with your 2nd vote. But if not SOLIDARITY then give it to another pro-Indy party. If you give your 2nd vote to the SNP you will not only be wasting your 2nd vote but worse than that you will assist the pro-unionist, pro-Trident and pro-Austerity parties. Put Cause before Party. Think with your head and your heart. If you don’t think 52% of the 2nd vote delivering only 4 MSPs for the SNP constitutes a wasted vote then I don’t understand your definition of a ‘wasted’ vote.
So there you have it YES Family. Vote SNP 1st vote. Another pro-Indy, anti-Trident, anti-Austerity party with your 2nd (List) vote. That is how to maximise the chance of IndyRef2 and elect an independence supporting Scottish Parliament.” Tommy Sheridan.
http://www.thenational.scot/politics/labour-dying-on-their-feet-and-corbyn-and-dugdale-might-have-made-things-worse.8555
The advice is to give second preference votes to another anti-austerity, anti-Trident pro-Independence party because otherwise it is a vote for the Unionists.
I can see the logic. Living south of the border and being English I am very pleased with Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour Party and believe that although the media have waged war against him the populace is well and truly behind his policies. It is the same reflection of disillusionment as Scotland had with London dictating and pulling the purse-strings. I believe too we need to seize this opportunity to take back what the people have produced. “We need all of us.”
Dear Mod,
Please can you tell me an address at which I can email you.
(If you don’t want to do this publicly, please email me at the address out of the three I’ve given that looks most genuine, which actually is genuine.)
Thanks.