The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson
By Professor John Robertson OBA
Today in the Herald, ‘Scottish’ Labour’s collapse in the latest Find out Now Holyrood poll to 19% in the constituency vote and only 15% in the regional vote, is attributed by Sir Professor John Curtice, to the malign effect of poor Anas Sarwar having Sir Keir Starmer as his boss. You’ll remember that Anas Sarwar is the current Herald politician of the year.
The evidence suggests rather that Sarwar is the dud here, failing to inspire Scots.
The evidence?
Despite Starmer’s current low personal standing in the polls, UK Labour always does better than ‘Scottish’ Labour under Sarwar.
Looking at the last three Find out Now Westminster polls, by the same pollster that the Herald used:
- On 11 December 2024, UK Labour was at 26% while ‘Scottish’ Labour was at only 23%.
- On 4 December 2024, UK Labour was at 23% while ‘Scottish’ Labour was at only 21%.
- On 27 November 2024, UK Labour was at 25% while ‘Scottish’ Labour was at only 12%.
Looking at another UK pollster with a Scotland sub-poll, YouGov, we see
- On 27 January 2025, UK Labour was at 27% while ‘Scottish’ Labour was at only 21%.
There is a clear Sarwar factor here and it’s a negative one. Scots don’t like the rightist, rich, Sarwar. They’d do far better with Monica Lennon, a politician who shares the SNP’s leftist social policies, who has respect for the Yes movement and, I suspect, more of a willingness to stand up to Starmer.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116
About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brown_(Scottish_activis
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”Read my lips …Starmer is a dud ! ” according to a local dentist who wishes to remain anonymous .
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Labour betrayal will lose them much support. Out, out, out.
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Stand up to Starmer? Look at what Starmer did to Leonard, the ELECTED leader of the branch.
There is also Jackie Baillie to consider. She appears to be the sheriff of this little band of rightist anti-Indy brothers, and Starmer gatekeeper for the True Way. How would Monica Lennon get past her, and how big a support has she in the wider party?
gavinochiltree
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Monica Lennon?
John Lennon would be a better leader than Sairwan and he’s been dead for 45 years!
Too soon?
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Sarwar a one trick pony as can be witnessed at FMQs
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Frankly Lennon’s indy leanings cannot rescue Labour’s fate in Scotland – An analogy might be a proposal for BBC Scotland being led by an individual who had NOT sworn to have seen a non-existent email from a Spanish Ambassador, but would that really have changed BBC Scotland from being propaganda factory to an impartial broadcaster ?
Where an organisation is so corrupt that basic honesty and principals are abandoned, a new party or broadcaster will arise from it’s ashes, previous applicants need not apply.
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It seems that no matter how much the media here try to protect Labour and damage the SNP well some of the voters in Scotland are making up their own minds about who is really bad and who is really good, and the recent polls for Scotland are telling us that it is not the media who gets to decide this but the public.
I see too that we have also reached the point now where some within the media are trying to blame all of these bad polls for Labour upon Keir Starmer as the Labour leader, which was also what happened with the Tory party and their various leaders who also ended up being duds as UK PM’s.
However Labour MP’s have been mostly supportive of what a Keir Starmer led Labour UK government have being doing and saying and also they have all been making excuses for Starmer and also making excuses too for the actions and decisions of his chosen Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
Check out the majority of ‘Aye’ votes at WM by a majority of Labour MP’s who were elected in the 2024 GE , that has allowed much of what a Keir Starmer led Labour government has now been able to see pass at WM and so be implemented within the UK.
Look at Ian Murray , he is a classic example of a Labour MP who has embraced and promoted Starmer’s supposed future vision for their UK, mostly though for England’s benefit so far , or so it seems with the various announcements for projects within England that are backed and supported by them as a Labour UK government.
Ian Murray was also formerly a Labour MP who supported remaining in the EU , that is when the Tories were previously in power, and he was also involved in the campaign instigated in 2018 called ‘The People’s Vote’ which was to try and get another EU referendum vote within the UK upon the final Brexit deal.
Now he, like many other Labour MP’s who also supported Remain in 2016, is willing to bow down to his party’s current stance on Brexit, which is to ‘Believe in it and declare that Labour will make it work’.
I guess the many privileges that comes with being a UK government minister are far too good to risk losing for someone like Ian Murray .
Also previously Ian Murray was being promoted as a politician whose supposed political principles saw him publicly reject and oppose Brexit, though these were the same fake principles that were only on public display when Jeremy Corbyn formerly led the Labour party.
I guess Ian Murray only thought Brexit was something he had to reject for his UK until Labour got the kind of leader that Ian Murray could really get behind, like say Keir Starmer.
Surely everyone can see that the supposed former committed Remainer, Ian Murray , is actually someone who is now more than willing to betray both the Remain side with him meekly accepting the Labour party’s position on Brexit and also in him having withdrawn his continued supposed support for the UK having another ‘People’s Vote’ on Brexit.
Do a search online for “EU update 31: Labour backs a public vote Ian Murray”
It comes up as the top article.
Click on it to read it and then see this message “Page not found” which is confirmation that Murray or someone else in Labour has now deleted that former page which promoted that some within Labour, and also Ian Murray, all previously supported having another public vote on the UK re-joining the EU.
However let’s be honest here as to why both Ian Murray and others within the labour party now comply with Keir Starmer’s pro Brexit position, it’s because nobody as a current UK party MP ,current UK party government minister , ex UK party MP or ex UK party government minister ever gets into the HOL’s by always criticising or opposing their own political party, or criticising and opposing some of their own party’s policies or indeed their own party’s most favoured leaders, do they ?
Sarwar is also learning the hard way that talk and slogans are cheap and that despicable actions done by your party at WM will then have negative political consequences for you in subsequent elections within Scotland.
Has Scotland not had to tolerate and suffer enough under various Tory UK governments since 2014 to then now be made to still have to tolerate and suffer under an equally bad new Labour UK government , who seem to be cut from the same Tory party cloth ?
Also the Labour party are now being seen as a party who are desperately trying to emulate the worst parts of the Reform UK party in both their words and their actions as the current new UK Labour government , also Labour may now actually be considered to be even worse than the Tories were when they were in power within the UK.
Someone should tell Keir Starmer that the Reform UK party have already cornered the market in uber right wing support that promotes and endorses Hate , Fear and Division.
Which is mostly happening, as support, within a growing English Nationalist movement within England.
So no amount of similar policies and rhetoric by Labour to that of the Reform UK party will now enable Labour to win over those other voters within his UK, including voters within Scotland, who all, as voters, despise both Nigel Farage and his latest fake political party and so who now may , as voters, also very well start to also despise both Keir Starmer and his Labour party too.
I believe it is referred to as you having “Reaped what you have sown”.
Though with Labour it also may be a case of failing to have sown that which you promised and so now having to reap the damaging future political consequences .
After all not everybody who voted Labour in 2024 were voting For the Labour party in the 2024 GE but they were , as voters , very much mostly voting Against the Tory party.
Now that, for Labour, is not then a basis for them to assume that they will continue to have that same ongoing political success in all future elections within the UK, especially within Scotland, when they have now proven to be even far worse than the previous Tory UK government.
Vote For a SNP Scottish government in 2026 .
SNP win in 2026.
Liz S
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Who will lead Labour in Scotland is whoever suits the Starmer, not who will do the best job, though. It is no secret that Sarwar is leader of Labour in Scotland because Starmer forced out Richard Leonard.
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