For very technical reasons to do with Alba’s internal election rules, I was given an unexpected opportunity today to submit a few lines about my thoughts on the party’s general election strategy. Having done that, I thought I might as well share what I’ve written with Scot Goes Pop readers, because it will hopefully be of interest to anyone voting in the Membership Support Convener election, and the general NEC ballot that will follow at conference.
“My view on general election strategy is simple: whatever resources Alba commit to the election should be totally concentrated in the two constituencies we are defending, and perhaps also in support of Angus MacNeil in the Western Isles, to the extent he feels that would be helpful. Success in those three constituencies, whether in the form of outright wins or substantial vote shares, constitutes by far the best opportunity to build Alba’s profile and credibility, and to propel us towards a Holyrood breakthrough in 2026. Putting up Westminster candidates in other constituencies would be a lose/lose, because it would deflect resources (especially human resources) away from the priority seats, and would risk creating a mythology among independence supporters that Alba were responsible for needless Labour and Tory victories due to a widespread split in the pro-indy vote.”
I think we all know from the mood music that the above advice is unlikely to be heeded in full, but nevertheless it’s my honest view and I believe the reasoning is fairly inescapable. Alex Salmond has said that Alba’s main strategic focus must be on Holyrood 2026 – that’s entirely right, and with that in mind I really do struggle to see the logic of spreading our resources too thin with risky interventions in too great a number of seats in Westminster 2024, which of course is a first-past-the-post election. However, the SNP have made any number of far bigger strategic missteps in recent years, so if Alba make a collective decision I’m dubious about, I’m sure I’ll come to terms with it.
It would perhaps be easy to caricature my views as cautious and always veering towards the least belligerent strategy, but the reality is that if I had been on the NEC a few weeks ago I would have been strongly arguing for Alba to stand in the Rutherglen by-election, as long as there had been a big name candidate. And I’m not being Captain Hindsight in saying that, because I repeatedly said so at the time on this blog. It was a missed opportunity to build Alba’s profile and transform Alba’s credibility, and again, I don’t really understand the thinking behind the decision.
One thing I would add is that if I’m elected to the NEC, I would strive in the same way as I did in 2021-22 to be a voice of realism about where Alba truly stands in respect of public opinion, and the challenge it faces in reaching the level of support required to win a decent number of list seats in 2026. As long-term readers will remember, I was a bit disturbed last year about an analysis of the local election results that I felt was somewhat divorced from reality. There was a seductive argument being put around that any voter who had ranked an Alba candidate higher than any party other than the SNP could be counted as a likely Alba list voter, which to be blunt is nonsensical. In many cases, these were people who had voted SNP 1, SNP 2, Alba 3, or even SNP 1, SNP 2, SNP 3, Alba 4. The obvious likelihood is that they would have been “both votes SNP” in a Holyrood election, and yet they were being prayed in aid as an indication that Alba’s “real” vote was much, much higher than 2%, that very substantial progress had been made since the Holyrood election the previous year, and that the party was already firmly on course for multiple list seats – all of which unfortunately was without foundation. I believe that list seats
are absolutely attainable, but we’re far more likely to get there if we’re honest with ourselves about the distance we still need to travel.
Of course I entirely understand that in an attempt to generate momentum, it can sometimes make perfect sense to publicise poll results suggesting 20%+ of voters would consider voting Alba, and to point out the number of list seats that could theoretically translate into. But the problem kicks in if we start to internalise that messaging and take it too literally ourselves, which I sometimes feel is exactly what is happening. As I always point out, Archie Stirling commissioned a YouGov poll in 2007 which showed 20%+ of voters would consider voting for his new Scottish Voice party – but on election day a few weeks later, only 0.1% actually did so. Archie Stirling-type polls count for little in the real world. I don’t want us to get into a groupthink belief that 20 list seats can be easily won through enthusiastic campaigning, and then wake up on the day after the election wondering how on earth we’ve ended up with zero again.
Six or eight seats, which might be won on around 6% of the national list vote, will be a Herculean effort. That would be a tripling (in fact almost a quadrupling) of the Alba vote from 2021. We need to have a hardheaded, rooted-in-reality think about where those extra votes might come from and how they can be won over.
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If you’re a member of the Alba Party, and haven’t yet voted in the party’s internal elections, I’d be grateful if you’d consider giving me your first preference for Membership Support Convener. The email link to vote should be in your inbox from just over a week ago.
