Last night, looking like the lead singer of an ageing re-formed and touring Frog Chorus, Alex Salmond announced his new Alpaca (or something) Party. The twitter/blogger gammony; parts of the ageing alt left, the transphobes and the creepy men who tell us that being a creepy man was acceptable when we were young (I was born in the sixties), cheered at Mr Toad croaking, “We all stand together!”
By the way, I keep seeing this defence, “sexual inappropriateness, sleezyness, abuse, rape… was acceptable in our day,” even though in real life, back in the day, we called them creepy, rapey men. We called them perverts and gropers. We literally jailed them for being rapey, gropey men when they were caught. The odd thing is when they are defending behaviour as, “look, it was acceptable in our day,” they are absolutely saying this behaviour, like that of the various BBC kids TV and pop presenters was fine. They are saying that if you lived in the seventies, it was acceptable, nay imperative to grope, maul and rape women. It really wasn’t acceptable then and really, truly can’t be excused now. And won’t be by most of the electorate. These people are slime.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever join a political party again. I was a totally committed member of the SSP from 2002-2015, and a supporter for longer, but left under a drizzling cloud of stinking, pissy acid when I questioned what I felt were too many regressive compromises, for example throwing all of our resources into “taking Morningside” in 2017 for our stoic leader (who had been a tireless unelected and unelectable leader at that time over a decade), and more so Glasgow for a strange smaller almost unknown, distrusted SWP/ISG byproduct (Rise) we had for some reason poured ourselves into. And I left after the resultant backlash on many of us who had questions, doubts and who opposed drowning our newly re emergent party in this puddle of stupid ego.
Rise fell apart after the election, and activists who had stayed the course spoke about funds and activists being diverted to two candidates the small vanguardist leadership faction approved of. Thousands of pounds diverted in vanity projects like photo sessions and billboards and car fleets, while long time well known hard working local activists struggled to get a leaflet or two printed. The SWP campaign and organise as the SWP campaigns and organises. All of this kind of campaigning and throwing activists and their money at one or two candidates has been done before (with many paper candidates finding out they were paper candidates half way through the campaign). George “Slinky Cat Man” Galloway did it with his Respect Party, using up the SWP useful idiot activist conveyor belt and money strategy to get him elected. And of course, the SSP had a previous disaster after they had almost made it out of the, one trick pony trick party. Tommy “slimy mini-toad” Sheridan had had his own “this is acceptable, creepy behaviour” scandal and had schlepped his way into the swampy wilderness he ironically named Solidarity.
What is it about Scottish men who are fawned over by cult like followers, that they feel they can paw women with their greasy flippers and somehow get enough people outside the circles of bam on Twitter to vote for them? Aye, Sheridan can pull together enough folk to fill a wee hall or crowd around a small stage and throw money in a magical disappearing bucket, but he has never been able to claim back the same amount of voters he had before his exposure as a very naughty boy and convicted liar. Why Salmond thinks he can do the same after admitting inappropriate behaviour towards members of literally half the electorate is beyond me. But hell, he’ll go for it, and those bam pounds collected for a party effort will of course, Galloway/Rise/SWP/ISG like, be syphoned off for HIS re-election campaign, not the election of candidates across Scotland. I expect a lot of disgruntled gammon after the election, going at each other with Twitter and blog posts as accusations fly like pitchforks.
The Alba/Alpaca Party is a diversion; one of money, activists and one the Unionists, especially the diversion seeking Tories love, as the real issues of our time are bypassed for one man and his creepy wee frog croaking vanguard.
My vote for independence will be going to the SNP, and the un-gammon progressives in the Scottish Green Party. The Frog Chorus Gropey Money Tour 2021 will sink in to the ego swamp with Rise, Solidarity, Gorgeous in a leotard George Galloway.