{"id":56789,"date":"2015-08-27T03:40:17","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T03:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/?p=56789"},"modified":"2015-08-27T03:40:17","modified_gmt":"2015-08-27T03:40:17","slug":"dont-blink-scottish-politics-is-fast-and-furious-these-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project1-m9gb2xku8.live-website.com\/?p=56789","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Blink! Scottish politics is fast and furious these days."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/scottish_independence_referendum.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-56801\" alt=\"scottish_independence_referendum\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/scottish_independence_referendum-300x193.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"193\" \/><\/a>A most amazing thing has been happening in Scotland in the year since the Scottish people rejected independence.\u00a0 The Scottish National Party has emerged from its Independence Referendum defeat to dominate the Scottish political world and it is on a trend toward a\u00a0practical exclusivity that has some Scots a wee bit concerned.\u00a0\u00a0SNP\u00a0membership is up by 75,000 since the Independence Referendum having just recently broken into 100,000 territory.<span style=\"color: #ffff00\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0Just as important as the remarkable membership growth are the numbers of SNP\u00a0public officials those members are electing. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffff00\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"> Last May, just a few months after rejecting independence, the Scottish people seriously culled their political landscape by abandoning the SNP&#8217;s\u00a0two major\u00a0political rivals &#8211;\u00a0the Scottish branches of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrat party.\u00a0 In the United Kingdom 2015 General Parliamentary\u00a0Election, Scotland chose 56 of it&#8217;s 59 Ministers of Parliament\u00a0from the ranks of the\u00a0SNP.\u00a0 That was a cool 50 more SNP Ministers than had been sent to London for the 2010 UK Parliament.\u00a0 Not only did Labour and the LibDems lose significant numbers in Parliament, almost all of the party icons &#8211; the high leadership of the Scottish branches of the Labour and LibDem organizations &#8211; were electorally ousted in one fell swoop.\u00a0 They were replaced with SNP warriors. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffff00\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/bike.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-53982\" alt=\"bike\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/bike.jpg\" width=\"276\" height=\"276\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/span> <span style=\"color: #ffff00\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">As SNP membership numbers continue to grow, political forecasters are generally united in predictions of a continued SNP majority at the Scottish Parliament when Scotland goes to the polls in May 2016 to choose the next\u00a0Scottish Parliament. The latest Scottish poll on the matter shows 62% support for the SNP for next year&#8217;s Parliamentary contests.\u00a0 The only question it seems, is how dominant will the SNP majority be?\u00a0 One Scottish political commentator has suggested that &#8220;&#8230; right now, nobody would write off the SNP\u2019s chances of taking all 73 Scottish parliamentary constituencies in next May\u2019s Holyrood election.&#8221; (<\/span><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotsman.com\/news\/euan-mccolm-the-battles-before-holyrood-election-1-3866301\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Scotsman, August 23, 2015). <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, that same journalist has noted that the SNP is so very dominant that the real political battles are occurring now, months prior to the election,\u00a0within the SNP party structure to determine who will stand in 2016 as an SNP candidate.\u00a0 The Scottish version of party primaries will determine whether incumbent SNP MSPs will keep their right to even stand for reelection. What are\u00a0the other political parties in Scotland are doing in response to this SNP open field romp?\u00a0 The traditional Labour\u00a0powerhouse in Scotland continues to lick its wounds while it remains tangled up in a\u00a0bloody struggle to find a new\u00a0UK Labour leader.\u00a0 The last Labour party leader &#8211;\u00a0Ed Miliband &#8211;\u00a0stepped down with his head hung low\u00a0immediately following last May&#8217;s electoral debacle.\u00a0 The battle to name a new leader has been so nasty and divisive that some Scots believe that the Labour party may not survive it.<\/p>\n<p>At the very least, many believe it not likely that Labour will be able to get it together to mount a serious challenge to SNP dominance next May. The LibDems seem less of a threat than Labour and for decades the Conservative (Tory) party has failed to grab much oxygen in Scotland. Given the unpopularity of the Conservative government at Westminster in center and\u00a0leftward leaning Scottish households, there is little reason for optimism on the Tory front in Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>So there sits the SNP, in government with a majority that is almost certain to grow significantly in the next election cycle burdened with a day to day governmental\u00a0mandate that is occasionally at odds with the party&#8217;s founding mission &#8211; independence &#8211; and almost always stealing time, attention and focus away from pursuit of that enduring Scottish goal.\u00a0 The SNP has campaigned itself into\u00a0a\u00a0potentially unmanageable position where it\u00a0must now run a devolved Scottish Parliament when it&#8217;s core mission is to deliver an independent Scotland &#8211; two fundamentally distinct &#8211; and possibly contrary\u00a0jobs.\u00a0 More than a few believe that the cause of Independence is getting lost in the shuffle.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/w1440.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-56798\" alt=\"w1440\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/w1440-300x197.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" \/><\/a> The realization of this still developing political\u00a0imbalance in Scottish politics has triggered a few interesting responses from the legendary Scottish left. In 2003\u00a0Scottish Parliament included six MSPs representing the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and seven from the Greens. It has been suggested that since those halcyon days the Scottish radical left has\u00a0collapsed now having little influence left at Holyrood (Scottish Parliament).<\/p>\n<p>The radical left may have collapsed at Holyrood but a new political alliance will &#8220;rise&#8221; from the ashes this Saturday as a new Scottish political element is born. The name is &#8220;RISE&#8221; and it stands for Respect, Independence, Socialism, Environmentalism.\u00a0 Pretty concise and says pretty much everything about the new group.\u00a0 RISE has been billed as a grassroots anti-austerity movement,\u00a0built upon the foundation of\u00a0the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and the Scottish Left Project (SLP). RISE plans to stand candidates for election in May&#8217;s Holyrood elections and is billing itself as a replacement for Labour in Scotland and the continuing heartbeat of Scottish Independence.<\/p>\n<p>Whether RISE will even survive to see the 2016 elections is not certain.\u00a0 One thing is certain though.\u00a0 If you want to keep informed on the big picture of Scottish politics and the independence question, be sure not to blink.\u00a0 Scottish politics is still on the move.\u00a0 If you want to dig a bit deeper into RISE, a political &#8220;alliance&#8221; not a party that is based upon the Spanish Podemos movement, check out these two articles from two very different perspectives:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotsman.com\/news\/euan-mccolm-new-rise-alliance-is-doomed-to-fall-1-3868723\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The New RISE Alliance Is Doomed To Fall<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotsman.com\/news\/lesley-riddoch-on-the-rise-a-new-left-wing-force-1-3866753\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">On The Rise: A New Leftwing Force<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote id=\"pullquote-0\"><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A most amazing thing has been happening in Scotland in the year since the Scottish people rejected independence.\u00a0 The Scottish National Party has emerged from its Independence Referendum defeat to dominate the Scottish political world and it is on a trend toward a\u00a0practical exclusivity that has some Scots a wee bit concerned.\u00a0\u00a0SNP\u00a0membership is up by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1260,582,12,1427,1430],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-independence","category-scottish-diaspora","category-scottish_news","category-scottish-politics","category-watching-scotland"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Don&#039;t Blink! Scottish politics is fast and furious these days. -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/project1-m9gb2xku8.live-website.com\/?p=56789\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don&#039;t Blink! 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