[Tubby Isaacs]

She certainly has but you can’t say she never supported independence.

[The Weeping Angel]

There's also this claim that she left because the SNP were protecting a sex pest

[Tubby Isaacs]

SNP councillor tells an Asian Labour councillor that "as a new Scot", she might be not be aware of the political background to the bedroom tax.

I don't think she meant anything more than "this might be before your time"- the Labour councillor doesn't have a Scottish accent, so may have moved to Scotland/UK recently. But it's not a great look. She's referred herself to the appropriate committee.

[kreuzberger]

Does she think the Tories will automatically select her as a candidate?

Why not? Tories seem to like thick people.

Rats boarding a sinking ship - that's a new level of stupid.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Rats boarding a sinking ship - that's a new level of stupid.

In the 90s, England were getting stuffed by Australia and picked Martin McCague who had grown up in Australia but had been born in Northern Ireland. The Aussie media called him "the first rat to join a sinking ship".

[Tubby Isaacs]

Is this thread title coming true? This would be absolute disaster for the SNP. Most seats for Labour, with the Tories and Lib Dems probably holding all of theirs (maybe a coupe extra).

[Tubby Isaacs]

Not particularly good for them here either.

It's a shame really, because the proposals are progressive and everywhere needs to raise more tax, even if the advocates seem to be exaggerating the amount they'd raise. But Scotland doesn't seem to be all that different to anywhere else in terms of how much it likes paying tax. So I guess it'll be more calling everyone else Tories.

[Abernathy]

Just watching Yousaf’s conference address on the telly box. Humza’s doing his best having been dealt a shitty hand, bless him, but the whole speech is fundamentally dishonest(the Hamas bit at the start aside). Applause line for saying “I have no idea what Keir Starmer stands for”. [here’s a clue, Humza, it ain’t fucking Scottish independence].

The first line on the first page of the SNP manifesto will say “vote SNP for an independent Scotland”.
Wasn’t that Ash Regan’s idea, rejected out of hand by Yousaf during the leadership contest ?

And Scotland will “go directly to the bond markets”. Not even sure exactly what that means, let alone whether it’s even legal.

The party faithful will give him the standing ovation of course, but in my view, it’s ringing hollow.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Council tax freeze again. All parties do this but can’t be good for local government. There’s a fair bit unspent from before, maybe they’re going to use that.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Just watching Yousaf’s conference address on the telly box. Humza’s doing his best having been dealt a shitty hand, bless him, but the whole speech is fundamentally dishonest(the Hamas bit at the start aside). Applause line for saying “I have no idea what Keir Starmer stands for”. [here’s a clue, Humza, it ain’t fucking Scottish independence].

The first line on the first page of the SNP manifesto will say “vote SNP for an independent Scotland”.
Wasn’t that Ash Regan’s idea, rejected out of hand by Yousaf during the leadership contest ?

And Scotland will “go directly to the bond markets”. Not even sure exactly what that means, let alone whether it’s even legal.

The party faithful will give him the standing ovation of course, but in my view, it’s ringing hollow.

Scotland's had these borrowing powers for ages, apparently. Which is confusing because the latest sly soundbite is "Scotland's budget is fixed by Westminster".

Borrowing isn't cheap for anyone right now, but I suppose there's always a case for some well chosen capital projects.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This doesn't sound particularly helpful from the Deputy First Minister. I wonder if Humza will still be about for the next Holyrood election.

[Tubby Isaacs]

No great surprised here. Yousaf pulled a major policy out of his arse for something to announce at conference. But lots of people do that. I'm actually relatively impressed the FOIA was dealt with so quickly. Not many politicians or governments would have done that..

[Tubby Isaacs]

I appreciate the personal circumstances, but this seems sub-optimal.

[Youngian]

I appreciate the personal circumstances, but this seems sub-optimal.

That’s Sunak’s level of whataboutery. Did Humza mention Liam Byrne’s note?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ha ha. Perhaps he said Sarwar "wanted to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister".

[The Weeping Angel]

[mattomac]

“Holding back the tears”

I’m sorry he is only in this mess because he tried to avoid fessing up and paying for it.

[Youngian]

Don’t they have wifi in Morocco? This isn’t malevolent corruption but a case of not wanting to admit you’ve been a right plonker.

[mattomac]

All I can think of is he had use a dodgy service to watch the match or a VPN hence he had to use his own data.

Of course if it was just kids being silly a simple “oh I made an error, here you go”, sorry would have sufficed.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Pretty bad attempt to bullshit their way out of the situation, which was easily solved by fessing up and taking the £11,000 hit, which I'm sure could have been spread out a bit or covered by a loan from the SNP. The public hates stuff to do with the expenses, and this will add to an impression that they've been in power too long among even a section of Yes supporters.

Yousaf's visibly not up to Sturgeon's standard too. And specifically, I wonder if that rather daft speech where he reads out senior positions and says "White" after them has been viewed by a lot of voters. He had a point of course, but better to make it in abstract terms instead of picking out actual people. I can imagine some Reform Party goon doing that with non-white senior politicians.

Whatever it is they're not doing that well at the moment. The Westminster by-election was maybe sui generis, with Ferrier and Labour being able to bring in massive firepower for a one off (from, shock, England and Wales). But they're losing out in regular council by elections too.