So here’s an irony for you – I deliberately didn’t include any fundraising link in my previous post, because if there was a chance that I would be taking a prolonged break from blogging, it obviously wasn’t appropriate to be crowdfunding anymore. But three people spontaneously hunted down the link, and a total of £170 was donated as a result – which I’m pretty sure is the biggest amount in a single day for several months! Although that isn’t a silver bullet, it’s obviously a bit difficult for me to completely vanish after that sort of money has been donated. And of course I’ve read all your encouraging comments on the previous thread, and I took representations from The Random Totty From Freedom Square (always by far the most important part of the process). I think what I might do is occasionally keep the blog ticking over, with posts whenever there’s some big polling news or something like that. In your comments yesterday, most of you seemed to value the polling analysis above all else, so there probably isn’t that much of a need to “fill in the gaps” between polls anyway – although doubtless I’ll still feel the burning desire to sound off about some random issue now and again.
At the bottom of each post from now on, there’ll be an unobtrusive link to the general fundraiser only (I think part of the problem has been that the polling fundraiser has overshadowed the general fundraiser). Please ignore it if you’ve already donated or if things are tight. And if you do decide to donate, bear in mind that I’m not promising to post very often, so think more in terms of “buy me a coffee” or “buy me a croissant” rather than “buy me a luxury yacht” or “buy me a 15th Century castle like what Chris Law has got”. The next Scot Goes Pop poll will be along at some point, but I can’t put any sort of timetable on it – just whenever the funds are 100% nailed down.
As for the second part of the equation, namely my involvement with the Alba Party, I’ve had a chance to think about that too. In the previous post, I set out my three options: a) continue standing in internal Alba elections in the future, b) take the opportunity to revert to being a truly independent pro-independence blogger who doesn’t have to self-censor, or c) have my cake and eat it by doing both. I’m coming round to the idea that I’ll probably attempt option c). If it works the same way as last year, I presume there’ll be elections to the non-NEC committees at some point over the next few weeks. For the life of me, I can’t remember what the nomination requirements are for those elections, but if it’s feasible for me to get nominated, I’ll try standing for at least one or two of those committees.
If I was under any lingering illusions about how difficult it’s going to be for someone with my views to succeed in internal Alba elections in the future, the outcome of the NEC election a few days ago completely dispelled them. (In a nutshell, my views are that Alba should not indulge in self-harm or harm to the independence cause by splitting the pro-indy vote at a UK general election – with the possible exception of the two constituencies currently held by Alba, because it’s not unreasonable for incumbent MPs to seek re-election if they wish to do so.) But Alba will not survive, let alone thrive, as a narrow sect. Any prospering party will have to be a broad church to some extent. So for as long as moderates like myself remain in the party, it’s incumbent on us to keep plugging away by putting ourselves forward, regardless of the chances of success.
Over the last eighteen months, an unofficial ‘in-house Alba media’ has taken shape, consisting of both blog content and regular video content. Frequent appearances from leading figures in the party have lended it legitimacy, and a very large proportion of the general ‘chatter’ in Alba circles is related in some way or other to that content. In some ways it’s a good thing that it exists, because it boosts morale and keeps members’ focus on Alba talking points that the mainstream media ignores. But there is also a downside, because it’s created a sort of hermetically-sealed “Alba world” that has drifted away from the rest of the independence movement and also from undecided voters. When Alba people are mostly listening and talking to each other, a reinforcement process takes place and it becomes increasingly easy to lose an instinct for how the rhetoric would sound to an outsider. Here are a few examples of stuff that has become perfectly sayable in Alba circles but is going to (rightly) look a bit extreme to other people, including to the bulk of Yes supporters.
“We’re only going to win a referendum if we stop English immigrants from voting.”
“Covid outbreaks in Scotland are caused by English tourists.”
“Remembering the victims of 300 years of the Union.”
In fairness, the latter example is partly justified by the historical facts, because the Highland Clearances are recognised in many quarters as a form of genocide. But most people in Scotland do not know their history, and if voters start laughing at you when you’re making what you think is a deadly serious point, you’ve got a major problem. For as long as I’m part of Alba, one of my aims will be to try to inject a touch of realism about what will and will not get us a hearing from the wider Scotland out there.
And I won’t be self-censoring in future, or becoming part of an incestuous in-house media that reproduces press releases word-for-word and stays within the comfort zone of party messaging. To be clear, this problem is not a figment of my imagination – when I was on the NEC, there were at least two occasions when it was indicated to me that I couldn’t or shouldn’t blog about certain topics or certain views that I held. I wasn’t entirely sure about the logic for that, because if you look at ruling bodies in other parties (most obviously Labour), they’re often quite factional and disagreement is not in any way swept under the carpet. But initially I could understand the view that there’s a trade-off at play – an elected NEC member has the privileged opportunity to influence the direction of the party in private, even if they have to be circumspect about what they say in public. Over time, though, I became less convinced that the relatively limited scope to express dissenting views in private was really sufficient to justify that trade-off, and now that I’ve come out of the other end of the tunnel (so to speak) I’m even less convinced. So if I get the chance to stand in internal elections in future, it’ll be firmly on the basis of “I’m an independently-minded blogger and freelance writer, I don’t self-censor, take me or leave me as I am”. People may very well say “in that case I’ll leave you”, and that’ll be absolutely fine.
I’d also just like to make the point that I still believe that the electorate for these internal votes is far too narrow – a few hundred conference delegates for NEC elections, and maybe 100 or so for other committees elected at National Council. My view is that all positions of significance should be elected by the whole party membership, and the fact that doesn’t happen can probably be seen as an unfortunate carryover from the culture of the SNP, which has a long tradition of election-by-delegate – it wasn’t all that many years ago that the general membership of the SNP weren’t even allowed to choose their own leader. And remember that Alba conference “delegates” aren’t even actually delegates in the true sense – they’re in fact the small minority of members who have essentially paid a premium to get voting rights. I’m not sure that’s a sustainable system in the long term. All members of the party have a stake in choosing the people who make important decisions. However, the rules are the rules, and until they’re changed we’ll have to work within them.
Lastly, if anyone has complained to IPSO about the Express article, could you let me know? If by tomorrow I haven’t heard that at least one person has done it, I might bite the bullet and do it myself.
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