The Scottish Politics Thread

[Slick]

Objectively I think Swinney is much more convincing than Yusaf and will probaly help stop the SNP slide. Perhaps a bit naive of the opposition partied to expedite his downfall

The GE will be really interesting. So many finely balanced seats in Scotland.

Not sure I agree with the first bit, there is a lot of eye rolling and sentiments of same old, same old, so I’m not sure he is going to achieve much in terms of the polls. Re Humza, it might have been fun to keep him on for a while but he was genuinely terrible and doing damage so I’m personally very pleased he has gone

[Big D]

I don't agree with Kate Forbes on a range of issues, a few of which I will never agree with her on, particularly the more obvious ones, but the pile on from the Greens is laughable as it is only because they got kicked out of government.

Finance secretary is probably a more important role than deputy FM and they worked happily along side her.

[Slick]

I don't agree with Kate Forbes on a range of issues, a few of which I will never agree with her on, particularly the more obvious ones, but the pile on from the Greens is laughable as it is only because they got kicked out of government.

Finance secretary is probably a more important role than deputy FM and they worked happily along side her.

They are showing themselves to be what they are, a sixth form geek club. It's very frustrating not to have an effective and sensible Green Party in Scotland.

[robmatic]

I don't agree with Kate Forbes on a range of issues, a few of which I will never agree with her on, particularly the more obvious ones, but the pile on from the Greens is laughable as it is only because they got kicked out of government.

Finance secretary is probably a more important role than deputy FM and they worked happily along side her.

It is also somewhat ridiculous that it is about her social conservatism when they were perfectly happy about a mosque-attending Muslim FM and mainstream Islamic views on family values are somewhat regressive.

[Tichtheid]

Scotland’s vulnerable marine life not properly protected, campaigners warn

Scottish government accused of missing deadlines to take action on overfishing and effects of climate breakdown

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/art ... tion-areas

[Blackmac]

Scotland’s vulnerable marine life not properly protected, campaigners warn

Scottish government accused of missing deadlines to take action on overfishing and effects of climate breakdown

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/art ... tion-areas

Missing and moving deadlines seems to be a constant theme. They basically seem incapable of doing anything right.

On another note I see Swinney is rejecting the standards committee's recommendations on Matheson. They really do feel they are beyond reproach.

[Slick]

Scotland’s vulnerable marine life not properly protected, campaigners warn

Scottish government accused of missing deadlines to take action on overfishing and effects of climate breakdown

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/art ... tion-areas

Missing and moving deadlines seems to be a constant theme. They basically seem incapable of doing anything right.

On another note I see Swinney is rejecting the standards committee's recommendations on Matheson. They really do feel they are beyond reproach.

Can he do anything about it? I'd seen that the vote on 27 day ban from Parliament was split along party lines in the committee, but the not getting his MSP salary for 56 days was unanimous.

It seems really daft to be challenging it, most people had moved on and he's now brought it back into the spotlight.

[Glaston]

Taylor Swift, uber alles for the Scots.

"A number of homeless people have been sent out of Edinburgh to make way for tourists ahead of Taylor Swift performing in the city, BBC News has learned."

[Biffer]

Taylor Swift, uber alles for the Scots.

"A number of homeless people have been sent out of Edinburgh to make way for tourists ahead of Taylor Swift performing in the city, BBC News has learned."

That’s a slight misrepresentation. The people staying in some social accommodation for homeless people will be moved to Aberdeen for the weekend while they rent out the rooms to Swifties in order to get some cash in to help more homeless people.

[Slick]

The Scottish Government is reportedly set to hand back £450m to EU bosses after failing to allocate the cash to economic and anti-poverty projects.

The Scottish Government is reportedly set to hand back 28 per cent of European structural and investment funding in was given in the last six years after being unable to spend the cash on economic and anti-poverty projects.

The Sunday Times reported that schemes to help employment, education, training and social inclusion as well as initiatives aimed at supporting small and medium-sized businesses are included in the areas to lose out on funding.

Wales is set to return nine per cent of its funding, England six per cent and Northern Ireland two per cent.

The programme is set to close this month, meaning the funds are set to be unspent and will need to be returned to Brussels.

According to EU data, Scotland has already returned €199 million from the fund, and has now been unable to spend another €331 million that formed part of the six-year programme - equaling almost £451 million at current exchange rates.

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, said: “Our NHS is in crisis, child poverty is stubbornly high, and economic growth is sluggish — that the SNP government is handing back half a billion pounds of funding while Scots face crumbling public services and infrastructure is a dereliction of duty and negligence on a remarkable scale.

“Vital projects across Scotland are being left high and dry while the SNP allows vital funding to slip away. Scots should not pay the price of SNP incompetence.”

Douglas Ross, Scottish Conservative leader, said: “This is waste and negligence on an unforgivable scale. The SNP have poured half a billion pounds down the drain.

“This funding could have been spent on vital infrastructure across Scotland, yet SNP incompetence has lost it for good. This is up there with the ferries scandal when it comes to the SNP government wasting taxpayers’ cash.”

The funding project was replaced by the UK shared prosperity fund following Brexit.

It was reported that Scotland has been suspended from applying for the funding pot on five occasions. A 2105 EU report stated a suspension had occurred because of “deficiencies in first-level management verification, audit trail” and “irregularities regarding eligibility of expenditure, rules on audit trail”.

In 2019, the EU said in a separate report that “inadequate verification of public procurement procedures and related expenditure; lack of verification whether declared costs relate to actually delivered services/achievements” caused another suspension.

But Mr Swinney said that "almost all of” the outstanding expenditure “will be spent”.

He added: “The EU funding programmes have not reached their conclusion. They will reach their conclusion over the next 12 to 18 months.

"My expectation will be that almost all of that funding will be spent and essentially dealt with as a consequence of the EU programme.”

I'd love to know more about this. On the face of it it seems criminally shite, but not entirely surprising. So bad, that I think there must be something missing. Anyone know any more? I'm not particularly satisfied with Swinney's statement which sounds all too familiar.

[Biffer]

Looks like Dougie's commitment to Holyrood isn't as solid as he wanted everyone to think. Preparing for a career in Westminster?

[Slick]

Looks like Dougie's commitment to Holyrood isn't as solid as he wanted everyone to think. Preparing for a career in Westminster?

He really is an arse. Reminds me a bit of Ted Cruz

[S/Lt_Phillips]

Looks like Dougie's commitment to Holyrood isn't as solid as he wanted everyone to think. Preparing for a career in Westminster?

He'll fit right in - if he can win the seat! Do we know what the polling looks like up there? It's a new boundary (I think?), so may not be easy to predict?

[vball]

Looks like Dougie's commitment to Holyrood isn't as solid as he wanted everyone to think. Preparing for a career in Westminster?

He really is an arse. Reminds me a bit of Ted Cruz

I often used to fly the Monday morning Red Eye from Inverness to Edinburgh and Iain Blackford and Ross were often on the same flight sitting quiet near each other. On landing they would start chatting and laughed a lot. Probably just enforces that having radically different points-of-view and arguing/debating them does not mean you cannot be civil, friendly and respectful.

[Slick]

Looks like Dougie's commitment to Holyrood isn't as solid as he wanted everyone to think. Preparing for a career in Westminster?

He really is an arse. Reminds me a bit of Ted Cruz

I often used to fly the Monday morning Red Eye from Inverness to Edinburgh and Iain Blackford and Ross were often on the same flight sitting quiet near each other. On landing they would start chatting and laughed a lot. Probably just enforces that having radically different points-of-view and arguing/debating them does not mean you cannot be civil, friendly and respectful.

Oh yes, for sure. I used to spend a fair bit of time in The Strangers Bar, and others, at Westminster. Most folk got on very well and across party lines. It's all a pantomime really, one of the more outspoken SNP MP's was a very popular character and had genuinely good friends from all the parties that seemed to be constantly on the piss.

[Biffer]

Wee Dougie’s expenses being investigated

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckvvzv4pvj1o

[Slick]

Wee Dougie’s expenses being investigated

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckvvzv4pvj1o

These people are so stupid

[inactionman]

Wee Dougie’s expenses being investigated

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckvvzv4pvj1o

Resigning as Tory leader:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceddenl8xz4o

[robmatic]

Wee Dougie’s expenses being investigated

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckvvzv4pvj1o

I don't get it. Wouldn't the SFA or whatever pay his travel expenses for matches?

[Slick]

Wee Dougie’s expenses being investigated

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckvvzv4pvj1o

I don't get it. Wouldn't the SFA or whatever pay his travel expenses for matches?

Probably, but they never miss an opportunity for a bit of double dipping.

[Tichtheid]

With all due respect, fuckity bye ya wee shite

[Blackmac]

Wee Dougie’s expenses being investigated

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckvvzv4pvj1o

I don't get it. Wouldn't the SFA or whatever pay his travel expenses for matches?

Probably, but they never miss an opportunity for a bit of double dipping.

Looking at some of the expenses he claimed it looks very dodgy and pretty close to criminal.

[Paddington Bear]

Wee Dougie’s expenses being investigated

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckvvzv4pvj1o

I don't get it. Wouldn't the SFA or whatever pay his travel expenses for matches?

How thick do you have to be to do something like this?















Rhetorical question, to be clear

[Big D]

Good he can get to fuck along with Matheson.

[Big D]

Putting this question here as it is adjacent to being relevant to Scottish Politics given the desire to be in the EU and the Scottish Green Party.

With outlets referring to the rise of "the extreme right" or "far right wing" over the weekend in the EU elections and the Green Party being accused by opponents as "extreme/radical left wing" in some of their views, are these really "extreme" views? Or is it now more culturally acceptable for labels of extreme right or left to be thrown about as society seems less capable of debating and disagreeing with each others views?

Clearly there will be extreme views from some parties but it seems far more common to use the "extreme" or "far" or "radical" tags.

[Blackmac]

Putting this question here as it is adjacent to being relevant to Scottish Politics given the desire to be in the EU and the Scottish Green Party.

With outlets referring to the rise of "the extreme right" or "far right wing" over the weekend in the EU elections and the Green Party being accused by opponents as "extreme/radical left wing" in some of their views, are these really "extreme" views? Or is it now more culturally acceptable for labels of extreme right or left to be thrown about as society seems less capable of debating and disagreeing with each others views?

Clearly there will be extreme views from some parties but it seems far more common to use the "extreme" or "far" or "radical" tags.

Yeah it's got ridiculous. I even saw the D-day commemorations referred to as an event pandering to the far right.

[Tichtheid]

The one that makes me chuckle is Trump referring to Biden as radical hard left.

Radical hard left, to my mind, is an unreconstructed Stalinist, or a violent Anarchist, it’s not the Green party. The Greens like all parties or movements had a radical faction, especially in continental Europe 20 years ago or more, but that “Deep Green” movement is not part of mainstream Green politics now, they are akin to a brand of Anarchism that wants to tear down industrial civilisation

[Tichtheid]

‘Fresh start’: undecided Edinburgh voters agree Tories haven’t delivered for Scotland

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... p-scotland

An interesting point that comes out of this article is the desire to have a strong voice in Westminster for Scotland - are Scottish Labour going to have that or are they just going to be subsumed into the UK Labour Party?

[Slick]

‘Fresh start’: undecided Edinburgh voters agree Tories haven’t delivered for Scotland

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... p-scotland

An interesting point that comes out of this article is the desire to have a strong voice in Westminster for Scotland - are Scottish Labour going to have that or are they just going to be subsumed into the UK Labour Party?

As I said on the other thread, I hate the rhetoric on this point from the SNP that only their MP's will "stand up for Scotland". It's all wrapped up in the divisiveness promoted by Sturgeon and Yousaf that if you are not SNP you are against Scotland or don't care about Scotland. It's a shit stance to have.

I think a strong Scottish contingent in the Labour ranks will have a much, much stronger voice than a small opposition group. What have the SNP actually achieved in Westminster? They have frequently behaved like infants and are essentially a protest party and have affected pretty much zero change.

The counter is of course that the Scottish Tories have done fuck all as well, and that is completely true, but I'd like to think the Labour cohort can't be anywhere near as self serving and supine as the Tory Scots.

[Tichtheid]

‘Fresh start’: undecided Edinburgh voters agree Tories haven’t delivered for Scotland

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... p-scotland

An interesting point that comes out of this article is the desire to have a strong voice in Westminster for Scotland - are Scottish Labour going to have that or are they just going to be subsumed into the UK Labour Party?

As I said on the other thread, I hate the rhetoric on this point from the SNP that only their MP's will "stand up for Scotland". It's all wrapped up in the divisiveness promoted by Sturgeon and Yousaf that if you are not SNP you are against Scotland or don't care about Scotland. It's a shit stance to have.

I think a strong Scottish contingent in the Labour ranks will have a much, much stronger voice than a small opposition group. What have the SNP actually achieved in Westminster? They have frequently behaved like infants and are essentially a protest party and have affected pretty much zero change.

The counter is of course that the Scottish Tories have done fuck all as well, and that is completely true, but I'd like to think the Labour cohort can't be anywhere near as self serving and supine as the Tory Scots.

You never been much of an SNP fan, from your posts here.

Stephen Flynn comes out well in that focus group.

Currently the SNP hold 43 Westminster seats out of 57, I think that's right. It will never happen, but just suppose Labour win 50 of those 57 seats, on current projections Labour are on course to win 472 seats, with a high projection of 511 out of the 650 seats available. (the most recent polling I can find for Labour in Scotland is that Lab hold a 1 point lead over the SNP)

I don't think you have to be pro-independence or an SNP voter to want Scotland to have a strong voice, but with at very best wishful thinking, 10% of the seats (more likely far fewer) doesn't deal you a winning hand in any negotiation and I personally feel that Scottish Labour will be toeing the party line for a good while - they will be looking for the full weight of the Labour machine behind them at the Holyrood elections which are two years away.

[vball]

Good point re Labour wanting to get itself in order.

I keep forgetting this is a UK election and not a Scottish one. So even if the SNP get hung out to dry, it matters little in the actual running of Scotland.
Doubt Labour will give Scotland any more than the Tories do/did.

[Slick]

‘Fresh start’: undecided Edinburgh voters agree Tories haven’t delivered for Scotland

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... p-scotland

An interesting point that comes out of this article is the desire to have a strong voice in Westminster for Scotland - are Scottish Labour going to have that or are they just going to be subsumed into the UK Labour Party?

As I said on the other thread, I hate the rhetoric on this point from the SNP that only their MP's will "stand up for Scotland". It's all wrapped up in the divisiveness promoted by Sturgeon and Yousaf that if you are not SNP you are against Scotland or don't care about Scotland. It's a shit stance to have.

I think a strong Scottish contingent in the Labour ranks will have a much, much stronger voice than a small opposition group. What have the SNP actually achieved in Westminster? They have frequently behaved like infants and are essentially a protest party and have affected pretty much zero change.

The counter is of course that the Scottish Tories have done fuck all as well, and that is completely true, but I'd like to think the Labour cohort can't be anywhere near as self serving and supine as the Tory Scots.

You never been much of an SNP fan, from your posts here.

Stephen Flynn comes out well in that focus group.

Currently the SNP hold 43 Westminster seats out of 57, I think that's right. It will never happen, but just suppose Labour win 50 of those 57 seats, on current projections Labour are on course to win 472 seats, with a high projection of 511 out of the 650 seats available. (the most recent polling I can find for Labour in Scotland is that Lab hold a 1 point lead over the SNP)

I don't think you have to be pro-independence or an SNP voter to want Scotland to have a strong voice, but with at very best wishful thinking, 10% of the seats (more likely far fewer) doesn't deal you a winning hand in any negotiation and I personally feel that Scottish Labour will be toeing the party line for a good while - they will be looking for the full weight of the Labour machine behind them at the Holyrood elections which are two years away.

I'm certainly not much of an SNP fan now, but I have voted for them in the past for the reasons above. I think they have completely wasted their 43 seats and could have achieved a few things if they were more willing to cooperate rather than just being, frankly, a 6th form protest group. I do like Flynn actually, and I was hoping he would get a better grip of things down there and actually start working for all of Scotland. That doesn't really seemed to have happened but it has been difficult circumstances with a melt down government and Labour who know they don't need them at the moment, so we will see what happens.

I do disagree on the Scottish Labour MP's, I think they will be a lot more robust in defending/prioritising Scotland's interests, if no other reason than they have seen what happens when they don't. But also having spoken to a couple of the candidates away from the election fever I get the impression that they have already committed as a group to do this.

[Tichtheid]

I do disagree on the Scottish Labour MP's, I think they will be a lot more robust in defending/prioritising Scotland's interests, if no other reason than they have seen what happens when they don't. But also having spoken to a couple of the candidates away from the election fever I get the impression that they have already committed as a group to do this.

Well, we'll see, but I will come back to this in a year/eighteen months

I have my doubts.

One of the problems is that I don't see anyone of the stature of John Smith, Robin Cook, Gordon Brown, George Robertson or Donald Dewar, just the first names that spring to mind - is there anyone to look out for?

[Slick]

I do disagree on the Scottish Labour MP's, I think they will be a lot more robust in defending/prioritising Scotland's interests, if no other reason than they have seen what happens when they don't. But also having spoken to a couple of the candidates away from the election fever I get the impression that they have already committed as a group to do this.

Well, we'll see, but I will come back to this in a year/eighteen months

I have my doubts.

One of the problems is that I don't see anyone of the stature of John Smith, Robin Cook, Gordon Brown, George Robertson or Donald Dewar, just the first names that spring to mind - is there anyone to look out for?

Short answer is no, I don’t think so. I quite like Ian Murray the current Shadow Secretary of State but don’t really know much about the new intake. There are very few politicians of that stature across any party now though, which is a real issue in itself

[Paddington Bear]

‘Fresh start’: undecided Edinburgh voters agree Tories haven’t delivered for Scotland

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... p-scotland

An interesting point that comes out of this article is the desire to have a strong voice in Westminster for Scotland - are Scottish Labour going to have that or are they just going to be subsumed into the UK Labour Party?

As I said on the other thread, I hate the rhetoric on this point from the SNP that only their MP's will "stand up for Scotland". It's all wrapped up in the divisiveness promoted by Sturgeon and Yousaf that if you are not SNP you are against Scotland or don't care about Scotland. It's a shit stance to have.

I think a strong Scottish contingent in the Labour ranks will have a much, much stronger voice than a small opposition group. What have the SNP actually achieved in Westminster? They have frequently behaved like infants and are essentially a protest party and have affected pretty much zero change.

The counter is of course that the Scottish Tories have done fuck all as well, and that is completely true, but I'd like to think the Labour cohort can't be anywhere near as self serving and supine as the Tory Scots.

You never been much of an SNP fan, from your posts here.

Stephen Flynn comes out well in that focus group.

Currently the SNP hold 43 Westminster seats out of 57, I think that's right. It will never happen, but just suppose Labour win 50 of those 57 seats, on current projections Labour are on course to win 472 seats, with a high projection of 511 out of the 650 seats available. (the most recent polling I can find for Labour in Scotland is that Lab hold a 1 point lead over the SNP)

I don't think you have to be pro-independence or an SNP voter to want Scotland to have a strong voice, but with at very best wishful thinking, 10% of the seats (more likely far fewer) doesn't deal you a winning hand in any negotiation and I personally feel that Scottish Labour will be toeing the party line for a good while - they will be looking for the full weight of the Labour machine behind them at the Holyrood elections which are two years away.

To some extent playing devil’s advocate here (and accepting that ‘branch office’ criticism has some merit in various cases):
The SNP held the balance of power in the 2017 Parliament and failed to use it to change the direction of anything, or to achieve their aim of independence. If anything, they contributed unwittingly to a harder brexit.

What is it that they stood up for Scotland on, in a meaningful rather than symbolic way?

[Tichtheid]

The SNP held the balance of power in the 2017 Parliament and failed to use it to change the direction of anything, or to achieve their aim of independence. If anything, they contributed unwittingly to a harder brexit.

I'm not sure what you mean here, before and after the 2017 election, even if every SNP member at Westminster voted with Labour, there still wouldn't have been enough votes to beat the government, can you clarify this so I might be able to answer the question?

The SNP's position was always remain, although there was some feeling among more hardline indy people that independence should also mean independence from Europe, that was never the official party policy. I'm not at all sure how they can be held responsible fro Brexit when they held the vast majority of seats in Scotland, thei policy was to remain part of the EU and every council area in Scotland voted that way in the Brexit referendum.

What is it that they stood up for Scotland on, in a meaningful rather than symbolic way?

They were the third party in both 2015 and 2017 at Westminster with fifty odd seats, in what way were they supposed to "stand up for Scotland" when the two other main parties held around ten times as many seats between them and despised the SNP's reason for being?

For the record I'm not particularly a supporter of the SNP, but I do favour autonomy for the Scottish people (ie everyone who lives in Scotland, from whatever origin) and Scotland as a member country of the EU.

[Paddington Bear]

The SNP held the balance of power in the 2017 Parliament and failed to use it to change the direction of anything, or to achieve their aim of independence. If anything, they contributed unwittingly to a harder brexit.

I'm not sure what you mean here, before and after the 2017 election, even if every SNP member at Westminster voted with Labour, there still wouldn't have been enough votes to beat the government, can you clarify this so I might be able to answer the question?

The SNP's position was always remain, although there was some feeling among more hardline indy people that independence should also mean independence from Europe, that was never the official party policy. I'm not at all sure how they can be held responsible fro Brexit when they held the vast majority of seats in Scotland, thei policy was to remain part of the EU and every council area in Scotland voted that way in the Brexit referendum.

What is it that they stood up for Scotland on, in a meaningful rather than symbolic way?

They were the third party in both 2015 and 2017 at Westminster with fifty odd seats, in what way were they supposed to "stand up for Scotland" when the two other main parties held around ten times as many seats between them and despised the SNP's reason for being?

For the record I'm not particularly a supporter of the SNP, but I do favour autonomy for the Scottish people (ie everyone who lives in Scotland, from whatever origin) and Scotland as a member country of the EU.

Sure, what I mean is that May was dependent on what 8 DUP MPs, who beyond being nutjobs were totally unreliable and beyond any real discipline. The SNP had c.50 MPs in a party which until very recently has had absolute iron discipline.

SNP and the Tories have worked together plenty in the past. May clearly wouldn’t have given a referendum, but they had the ability to massively shape brexit and public policy in that parliament, and chose not to

[Tichtheid]

The SNP held the balance of power in the 2017 Parliament and failed to use it to change the direction of anything, or to achieve their aim of independence. If anything, they contributed unwittingly to a harder brexit.

I'm not sure what you mean here, before and after the 2017 election, even if every SNP member at Westminster voted with Labour, there still wouldn't have been enough votes to beat the government, can you clarify this so I might be able to answer the question?

The SNP's position was always remain, although there was some feeling among more hardline indy people that independence should also mean independence from Europe, that was never the official party policy. I'm not at all sure how they can be held responsible fro Brexit when they held the vast majority of seats in Scotland, thei policy was to remain part of the EU and every council area in Scotland voted that way in the Brexit referendum.

What is it that they stood up for Scotland on, in a meaningful rather than symbolic way?

They were the third party in both 2015 and 2017 at Westminster with fifty odd seats, in what way were they supposed to "stand up for Scotland" when the two other main parties held around ten times as many seats between them and despised the SNP's reason for being?

For the record I'm not particularly a supporter of the SNP, but I do favour autonomy for the Scottish people (ie everyone who lives in Scotland, from whatever origin) and Scotland as a member country of the EU.

Sure, what I mean is that May was dependent on what 8 DUP MPs, who beyond being nutjobs were totally unreliable and beyond any real discipline. The SNP had c.50 MPs in a party which until very recently has had absolute iron discipline.

SNP and the Tories have worked together plenty in the past. May clearly wouldn’t have given a referendum, but they had the ability to massively shape brexit and public policy in that parliament, and chose not to

My memory of the events of that time was that any co-operation between the SNP and Tories was made impossible by the demonising campaign waged whereby there was a fear and loathing kicked up about Labour working with the SNP and the SNP dictating to England.

Retrofitting blame for a hard Brexit on a party which was fundamentally opposed to it and was “othered” deliberately by the government is quite a reach, imo.

[Wylie Coyote]

Wee Dougie’s expenses being investigated

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckvvzv4pvj1o

I don't get it. Wouldn't the SFA or whatever pay his travel expenses for matches?

Probably, but they never miss an opportunity for a bit of double dipping.

Annnnnndd he’s been cleared. Won’t get anything like the coverage of the original news story of course.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clee60wnd5qo

[Biffer]

As I said on the other thread, I hate the rhetoric on this point from the SNP that only their MP's will "stand up for Scotland". It's all wrapped up in the divisiveness promoted by Sturgeon and Yousaf that if you are not SNP you are against Scotland or don't care about Scotland. It's a shit stance to have.

I think a strong Scottish contingent in the Labour ranks will have a much, much stronger voice than a small opposition group. What have the SNP actually achieved in Westminster? They have frequently behaved like infants and are essentially a protest party and have affected pretty much zero change.

The counter is of course that the Scottish Tories have done fuck all as well, and that is completely true, but I'd like to think the Labour cohort can't be anywhere near as self serving and supine as the Tory Scots.

You never been much of an SNP fan, from your posts here.

Stephen Flynn comes out well in that focus group.

Currently the SNP hold 43 Westminster seats out of 57, I think that's right. It will never happen, but just suppose Labour win 50 of those 57 seats, on current projections Labour are on course to win 472 seats, with a high projection of 511 out of the 650 seats available. (the most recent polling I can find for Labour in Scotland is that Lab hold a 1 point lead over the SNP)

I don't think you have to be pro-independence or an SNP voter to want Scotland to have a strong voice, but with at very best wishful thinking, 10% of the seats (more likely far fewer) doesn't deal you a winning hand in any negotiation and I personally feel that Scottish Labour will be toeing the party line for a good while - they will be looking for the full weight of the Labour machine behind them at the Holyrood elections which are two years away.

To some extent playing devil’s advocate here (and accepting that ‘branch office’ criticism has some merit in various cases):
The SNP held the balance of power in the 2017 Parliament and failed to use it to change the direction of anything, or to achieve their aim of independence. If anything, they contributed unwittingly to a harder brexit.

What is it that they stood up for Scotland on, in a meaningful rather than symbolic way?

Can you point to a Scottish MP where the branch office thing doesn't have merit?