A Voice for Scotland's Anti-Nationalist Majority
It’s only been a few weeks since George Galloway announced his return to Scottish politics, with the aim of taking on Scottish Nationalists in the 2021 Scottish elections. In that time, he has formed a new party @Alliance4Unity, which has gained over 7400 Twitter followers in a week, and received over 1800 letters from would-be candidates (which he says he is having some difficulty processing).
Commentary by Tommi Kerr.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Chancellor of Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, delivered a typically impressive performance in the House of Commons. Outlining the next phase of governmental support for the British people, he spoke passionately about protecting livelihoods before announcing an imaginative set of measures intended to kick-start the UK economy.
The speech – entitled ‘A Plan for Jobs’ – contained several notable soundbites. The measures themselves were eye-catching, with a floundering hospitality sector receiving special attention in the form of a VAT reduction and a new policy dubbed ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ – cue much innuendo on Twitter.
A guest editorial by Matt M.
For some time now, the SNP, under Nicola Sturgeon, has attempted to portray itself as a paragon of virtue and truth. The party proclaims itself as anti-discriminatory, anti-racist, anti-sectarian, and anti all-things-objectionable-to-a-tolerant-and-civilised-society. Defender of the bastion of Jocktopia.
When Nicola Sturgeon strutted her rant at George Square last December, she advised us of her ‘vision’ for Scotland. Apparently, the ‘New Scotland’ is to be open, welcoming, tolerant and inclusive (no Tories please!).
With polls indicating a win for the SNP in the Scottish elections in 2021, and widespread dissatisfaction with the Conservative leadership, Andrew Waddell outlines six things he believes the Scottish Conservatives can do to get back on track.
Instead of criticising Jacob Rees Mogg, or praising Sturgeon’s handling of the crisis, Scottish Conservatives should be hammering home Nationalist failures. It's not like there are few to choose from: from the Nike Cover Up, to the failure to deliver councils their additional funding from Westminster, anti-English racists on the border, the third-worst COVID death rate in the world, and an appalling number of deaths in care homes.
The video above has been viewed over 40,000 times on social media.
Hi I’m Mark Devlin,
We’ve all seen the hideous scenes at the English border where a group of flag-waving Scottish Nationalists, thought it would be fun to tell English people coming to Scotland to f-ck off.
But, really, why should we be surprised when Nicola Sturgeon openly talks about closing the border to the English? Why would we think her followers wouldn’t take action?
A guest editorial by James Bundy.
In a recent commentary, ‘Ireland’s past is not Scotland’s future’, Damien Scott talks about his upbringing in a mixed Catholic-Protestant home. Damien says he is now an atheist and that as religious belief has dwindled in Scotland, politics has replaced it as an article of faith. In effect, he says politics is Scotland’s new religion.
However, as a practising Catholic, I believe my faith does play a fundamental role in shaping my political beliefs, including my view that Scotland is better off as part of the United Kingdom, and that the world is better off because of the United Kingdom.
When will the opposition parties in Scotland learn to fight? Today I was appalled to see yet another weak and compliant message from Jackson Carlaw, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, praising the Nationalists for their response to COVID-19.
This comes on the heels of an earlier tweet where he did the same:
Confidence in the First Minister? W.T.A.F.
Jackson, a wee clue: they are not your friends. They are Nationalists who are destroying our country. Every move they make, every breath they take, is designed to further their ugly Nationalist goal of separation. Everything they do causes division.
Over the past 24 hours there's been quite a bit of discussion about closing the border from England, led by a shameless front-page headline in The National.
There's even a poll with over 5000 signatures that claims trips from England to Scoland are 'international'...
There is about to be a massive second wave of this new virus in England due to Tory ineptitude. The borders of both Scotland and Wales should be closed to all but essential traffic ie commerce. Not casual trips that are in fact international from a COVID hot spot about to get worse.
To my fellow anti-Nationalists: With the deepest of respect, you're doing it wrong.
Every day, I see people arguing on Twitter, trying to counter Nationalist arguments. One thread I've been following on Twitter has literally hundreds of responses trying to convince Nationalists that they are wrong about Scotland’s finances. Of course the Nationalists are wrong.
But has all that discussion done any good? No. Has anyone been converted? No. Has it taken the fight back to them? Rarely. Has a lot of time been wasted. Yes.
This is a guest editorial by Damien Scott, founder of Scottish Opposition Forum.
It has been 22 years since the Good Friday Agreement was reached. After the 1997 General Election and the subsequent referendum on reconvening the Scottish Parliament for the first time in nearly 300 years, the April 1998 event was probably the third earliest political moment that I remember. At my tender age, I didn’t fully understand the details of the peace accord, but I knew it was a significant moment in the history of our country.