As for the grass roots, we pull out the tough old weeds and start again. Pick up our movement from where it left off. It’s already happening along the lines of single issues when it comes to protest against buffer zones, GRR threat, climate change, visiting fascists, immigration raids. No need to carry a saltire or meet pro-independence or party membership criteria, but our movement can grow from these issues, where an independent Scotland makes good sense.
Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation has been extremely unsettling for our movement, but while the opposition and media hang around like vultures waiting for the spoils, it’s been clear to many of us for some time now that the splits don’t just exist within and between the independence parties. Grass roots will rot like everything else if neglected or poisoned, and Common weal was no longer a suitable political home for me once the Salmond, Wings and Gender Critical influence wormed its way in.
Maybe I was looking at those creative new ideas for what they embraced rather than what they excluded but the Scottish Green Party feels like a significantly more reliable political home. However, I have continued to lend my votes to my progressive SNP MSP and MP. No issues there until now, but as the potential for a right wing First Minister looms large the SNP has to earn my vote and it could be the time to grow the Greens.
I could just wait for the result and avoid speculation and fear, but the genie has crept out of the bottle and we can’t put it back in, especially if the movement implodes as a result, or even if not. To date we’ve learned that a collection of SNP members, percentage unknown, have an Alba frame of mind. They and their preferred candidates have somehow managed to dismiss almost overnight everything that has been achieved in the Sturgeon leadership. The expressed intentions to quickly cast aside a progressive base for the sake of some perceived expediency has left mouths agape, from the left of the Yes movement through to the unionist opposition with their tacky popcorn stunt..
This unknown percentage of members will vote for Kate Forbes or Ash Regan because ‘great leadership/will bring us indy’ while choosing to believe that Kate will keep her word and represent all of Scotland despite her 1950s values despite the fact that the Tories already have their own party and progressives will leave in droves. Ash will…sorry no idea, bring Alba and rightful leader Salmond to the party?
To borrow the terminology from one Twitter user who speaks for many; there is a willingness to park ‘peripheral issues’ until ‘after independence’. Some are too ashamed to admit that they mean let’s throw the LGBT community under the bus. Some don’t care. One way or the other the SNP needs a clear-out and this contest will at least do that, but it’s really not worth it if the cost is a further uphill struggle to retain and grow hard earned rights and respect. So much better if they sober up before they vote.
There’s no shortage of material out there that would support the fear of progressives but apparently we’re being intolerant of intolerance and Kate’s brand of Honesty is what counts. Whataboutery around Humza’s Muslim faith won’t get us anywhere. It’s a dead end. This is about values and there’s nothing to suggest that any individual or minority grouping, LGBT or other, need be threatened by Humza’s leadership. I’ve not allowed myself to become swamped in the mire of Kate’s Christianity, except to speculate that one Jesus Christ was probably as ‘woke’ as they come.
As Gary Lineker has opened the debate about Nazis and fascists, let’s bear in mind that the slow burn of culture wars represents by proxy the rejection of ‘the other’. This deadly form of predation runs counter to the advances that have been made in recent decades, but there’s a more subtle subtext. If you’re cis, male, white and believe at heart that they’ll never come for you…Wrong. They’ve been slowly eroding your/our rights since Thatcher. Why do you think you’re having to strike instead of receiving fair wages, gongs and titles? They’re boiling us like a frog, every working-class person. Working women know this. We’ve lost 6 or 7 years of state pension in the name of equality, just as some of you want to reverse the progress of Trans rights in the name of ‘women’s rights’ or ‘safeguarding’.
We feminists, real ones will manage fine without your support in that respect thanks. Now just stop letting the patriarchy divide and rule. We are all the Red Wall now. How easily some drop their moral compass in pursuit of leadership.
The ‘Murrells’ conspiracy grows exponentially from a rabbit hole dug by McAlpine, Salmond, Wings and others circa 2020 when a pre Alba rush of indy-impatients from across the left/right spectrum joined the We-hate-Nicola/SNP club, All Under One Conspiracy Banner. The rabbit hole is inhabited by various well platformed establishment figures, now furthering the conspiracy to suggest rigging of the process itself. They look ridiculous, though it is quite terrifying to think that a leadership candidate is endorsing the idea that some other establishment cult has united to ensure a Humza victory. Even more so when you consider that the real anomaly is that some of those MSPs who voted for progressive policies, such as GRR are now endorsing Kate Forbes. Each candidate has the STV system to contend with and nothing can be gamed to ensure a winner.
As for the grass roots, we pull out the tough old weeds and start again. Pick up our movement from where it left off. It’s already happening along the lines of single issues when it comes to protest against buffer zones, GRR threat, climate change, visiting fascists, immigration raids. No need to carry a saltire or meet pro-independence or party membership criteria, but our movement can grow from these issues, where an independent Scotland makes good sense.
