The latest Norstat poll for the Times, post Budget, gives the SNP 51 MSPs, Labour 29, Tories 16, Reform 12, Lib Dems 11 and Greens 10 putting a pro-independence majority in doubt.
Pollsters do not ask about the Scottish Socialists because they have not stood since they lost their 6 regional seats in 2007, after an internal split.
However, things have changed as Labour head to the right, losing mass support, and the SNP drift toward the centre, creating a big gap on the left for voters who want democratic socialist policies including progressive taxation, council tax replacement, Waspi women compensation, the removal of the two child benefit cap and the reversal of the winter tax allowance.
A quick, admittedly unscientific x poll, here, found support in the regional vote could be as high as 17%. Even accepting that this is probably optimistic, it seems likely that, with vigorous social media campaigning, the SSP might expect to win around 8 MSPs and to have damaged the Labour vote, with a consequent overall majority for the SNP, Greens and SSP.
I’ve been asking the pollsters to start including the SSP. If they don’t we might be in for a pleasant surprise in 2026.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I’d give them my 2nd vote, if they could come to an accommodation with the SNP.
The Scottish Greens have burnt their bridge as far as I am concerned, & SNP 1&2 was never my preferred choice.
If both can work together on sn indy ticket, it could work.
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In Glasgow it has made no sense to vote SNP List with them sweeping up all the constituencies. So I voted Green on basis that they were pro-Indy and they might nudge SNP to be bit more radical. (Won’t be doing that again.) I know the calculation for SNP List chances will be in 2026. But I’m very inclined to vote SSP for the List. Especially having interviewed two SSP people recently Colin Fox – former MSP – and Liam McLaughlan – teenager in RIC in 2014 and now very persuasive SSP campaigner.
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that should say “calculation for SNP List chances in Glasgow will be different in 2026”
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The SNP are goosed. There is no way they will get 29% when Branchform lands and the Salmond case kicks off.
They are focused on their expenses rather than Indy
We will be well rid of them and we can start again, and the sooner the better
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Abusive language – must remove
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Where did you hear that?
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Alba or SSP. Second vote.
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We have something Unique happening in Scottish Politics at the moment. Every Tory party is openly campaigning for the 2026 Holyrood Election. They are obviously working on the theory that if you tell a lie for long enough, And the gullible will start to think it’s real. But in Scotland, these parties have lost all credibility in the eyes of most voters. We already have polls estimating the result of the election, with suggestions from the 77th brigade on how to change the result if you vote for other Independence parties with your first vote to the SNP. This is the biggest Lie of all, and they will keep repeating it until election day 2026, The SNP wone a Majority of voters once and it can be done again But every pundit will argue otherwise, If you split your vote you run a very high risk of Unionist parties being in the Majority and nothing scares me more than that happening, By not splitting your vote can and will wina a majority and if not they will be able to form a Minority Government it worked in 2011 and nothing about election procedures has changed so it can happen again all it takes is for Independence supporters to vote for the SNP 1 and 2 as the SNP themselves always asks you to do at every election, I know of no party in the world that would tell it’s supporters a lie in the knowledge it could lose them an Election. SO VOTE SNP 1 AND 2 IN 2026!
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“Every Tory party is openly campaigning for the 2026 Holyrood Election”
As are the media in Scotland too.
Plus they all have never stopped campaigning for the No side in the constitutional question, even though they tell us it is now all over and done with as something they do not want to revisit. (as they are afraid that the next time they, the NO side, will lose).
There is no question that if the circumstances are there to be taken advantage of , then another pro UK party, as in the Lib Dems, will form a coalition with the Labour party in 2026 after the election to stop the SNP. who may be the largest party, from becoming the next Scottish government and their SNP leader becoming the FM.
Who will vote for Labour ?
Well not just actual Labour voters but also many voters who normally support and vote for other parties , who as voters, will assume they can vote tactically to try to ensure the SNP are ousted as the next Scottish government.
None of them are thinking straight as far as ‘be careful what you wish for’ or in this instance ‘vote for’ because they , and alas us too, will then get a taste of what our English and Welsh friends have to put with via the Welsh Labour government, also previously the Tory UK government and now the Labour UK government are, as governments, subjecting upon people in both England & Wales.
If Labour and the Lib Dems do form as the next Scottish government, and that then did not make more of them, as voters, realise how lucky they are now with an SNP Scottish government then I am am completely Donald ducked as to what will finally make them , as voters in Scotland, finally see the light.
As a current member of the SNP I will give them my vote in 2026 at what is a crucial election for Scotland and it’s future.
However do others in Scotland know that too ?
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Talking of Socialism.
Channel Four’s Dispatches did a right old dispatch job on the Royal Family last night in a documentary that made you wonder why the Hell did Labour, as a UK government, decided to award them , via public money, an increase of £45 million in their Sovereign grant .
“The Sovereign grant will rise from £86.3m in 2024/25 to £132m in 2025/2026”
Apparently the Royal family ‘need’ to buy two new helicopters however the BBC reported that “Graham Smith, chief executive of anti-monarchy group Republic, said: “We do not owe the royals a living, we do not owe them palatial homes, private helicopter travel or lives of leisure and luxury.”
“Mr Smith added: “They abuse the taxpayer’s trust day in, day out, taking our money to spend on their own private lifestyles.”
The documentary last night by Channel Four’s Dispatches gave details about the Royal Family’s finances including “rent received from the NHS, schools and the armed forces”
“It was reported that the private estates of King Charles and Prince William have received millions of pounds of income from contracts with public bodies and charities”
“Over the past year, these deals with the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall have been worth almost £50 million, it has been claimed”.
“Their contracts with public bodies are said to include a £37 million agreement between the Duchy of Cornwall and the Ministry of Justice to lease Dartmoor Prison, and a £11.4 million deal between Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust and the Duchy of Lancaster to rent a London warehouse over 15 years to store ambulances”
“The estates are not subject to corporation tax and the royals do not pay capital gains tax on the assets they sell. They voluntarily pay income tax on the surplus”
“The programme, Dispatches’ The King, The Prince and Their Secret Millions, reports that details of the rental agreements have not been given to Parliament”
“The documentary raises concerns about the environmental impact of some of the estates’ contracts, including those with mining companies”
“The two private estates are separate to the Crown Estate”
So here’s a thing , is it not a sad sad scenario when we see any member of the Royal family visit an area and then where we witness the public wave their ‘British nationalist’ flags and cheer them, the Royals, on as if they, the Royal family, were somehow being gracious in allowing themselves to be seen by the public who to a large extent , as the public, subsidises them the Royal family.
The same public who moan about the state of their own lack of finances as their energy bills are so high, the food is still too expensive here in the UK and overall life as a UK citizen, governed by a UK government , where also a Royal family is leeching of us the public , is then just a tad ironic that many of that same public still want a Royal family to exist in their UK.
Wills, as in Prince William, we are told cares about Homelessness and indeed only this week there was a documentary with him (also known as a puff piece to promote him as being caring) which was called “We can end homelessness” which well now, post the Dispatches documentary , seems to be a bit rich in him asking all of us to help do our bit, as the public, so as to help end homelessness, when he and his ‘Daddy’ are reaping mega profits and paying “no corporation tax” from their estates and also “do not pay capital gains tax on the assets they sell”.
Aye well many of the public do already care about homelessness and many of us give our hard earned money (donations) to charities who support homeless people, and some of us also give our time as a volunteer with homeless charities, and we are not the ones living in luxury in large opulent palaces , driving top of the range cars, wearing designer clothes and eating the finest food are we ?
Maybe we in Scotland can bookmark all of this above information when Prince William interferes in the next Independence Referendum, at Gordon Brown’s behest, and tells us that we , Scotland, are Better Together (the revamped version) with his England which he will say is “with the UK” (but is actually the same thing really for Wills and others who support the UK).
That’s the same Prince William who like the rest of the Royal family are supposed to not interfere in Politics , as in them giving their personal opinion upon it, but we did witness his Granny in the last independence referendum, at the behest of David Cameron the then Tory PM, add her tuppence worth to the debate where she was reported as saying “she hopes people will think carefully about the future”.
I bloody well wished we had “thought more carefully about the future” , as if we (some of us that is) had indeed done that, then we would not (all) be in the dire position we currently are because we , or rather some of us, decided to remain within her UK. (obviously then failing to think carefully about the future based on what we knew had already happened (to us) in the past with us being a part of their UK).
Next time I hope we are ready to make the right decision for the future of Scotland and then post independence we can hopefully perhaps then decide to “dispatch” the Royal family in the same way as the Dispatches documentary did .
More money for Scotland and it’s people minus those who leech upon us (of which there are many and not all are royalty).
Ha Ha (hollow laugh).
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Would you be willing to stand?
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