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Professor John Robertson OBA
In the Scotsman yesterday Prof Curtice claims:
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party “really are in deep doo-doo”, polling guru Sir John Curtice has said. Sir John, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said the party’s poll rating is arguably at an all-time low.
That’s obviously true but this isn’t:
Pollster Mark Diffley said recent developments were bad news for Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar as his party looks towards the Holyrood election next year. “It’s really bad timing, obviously, for Anas,” he told The Scotsman. “Hugely bad.” He added: “He must think, ‘Will I ever get a clear run to be able to make some progress?’”
Mr Diffley said Labour is polling badly in Scotland because of perceptions of the UK Government.
“It seems to me he [Mr Sarwar] just can’t get on the front foot, really,” he said. “It feels like he’s going into this with one arm tied behind his back with everything that’s going on completely outwith his control, but which is continually negatively impacting his chances. That must be hugely frustrating.” He said Scottish Labour are “hamstrung” by events down south.
This is an old story now – the idea than Anas Sarwar would do better in the polls if it wasn’t for Sir Keir Starmer’s policies.
It’s hard to see the sense in this when it ignores so much.
First, the people now know that, despite BBC Scotland’s attempts to shield him from scrutiny, Sarwar is on record as having publicly supported all of those same policies, including scrapping benefits, closing a Scottish refinery and genocide in Gaza.
Second, the people also know that their new local Labour MP has been loyally voting with the PM on all of those same policies and, I’ve heard, not responding to them.
Third, in the last 10 UK polls, Reform UK has had an average lead over Labour of 10.9 while in Scotland, the SNP has had an average lead over Labour of 14. Labour in Scotland, under Sarwar, are doing worse than Labour in the UK under Starmer.
So, it’s not Starmer to blame but Sarwar and the Scottish Labour MSPs and MPs to blame for being cynical opportunists and/or spineless lackeys
Talking-up Scotland 
If he truly believes that he would do better in the polls if it wasn’t for Sir Keir Starmer’s policies, maybe Anas Sarwar and the Scottish branch of the labour party should support independence and then thrive as their own distinct policies win over the Scottish nation.
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Welcome to our world Mr Sarwar.
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BBC in Scotland, like clockwork, are already ‘on the job’ in promoting the ‘new’ (heard it all before) ‘message’ of the ‘new’ UK (his second shot) SOS against Scotland , one Douglas Alexander….
Top article on the BBC website on both their Scotland main page and also their Scottish Politics page:
“Alexander says Labour can ‘disprove the critics’ “
“The new Scottish Secretary has said Labour can “disprove the critics and cynics” by bouncing back ahead of next year’s Holyrood election“
What critics is he referring to…..?
So the ink is barely dry on his new appointment and already we have the BBC ‘quick out of the blocks’ in them repeating and so publishing aka promoting …….what Labour will (supposdley) do in Scotland ?
So what exactly will that be…….for Labour in Scotland…..?
Well it seems that according to the new YES man representing the UK State it will be for Labour in Scotland to………
Buck the UK trend as somehow people in Scotland will decide to keep voting for the Labour party, the same Labour party that has greatly let us all down as the new UK government ?
Alexander thinks that this unlikely event will indeed happen, thus he is ignoring the current polls, as apparently all it will take for Labour to achieve this is by them doing “hard work, by humility, by listening to people, doing the work on the ground, making the arguments directly to the public” (as he was quoted as saying via this same BBC article).
(That’s propaganda to you and me…..what Labour will really do to try to achieve this mammoth turnaround…. is by them, as per, taking large amounts of money via political donations coming from their wealthy donors and also from various Trade Unions…. also not forgetting the money that they will likely receive from the infamous ‘Labour Together’ , whose Chief Executive is now Jonathan Ashworth, who lost his seat as an MP last year in the UK GE….as there will always be jobs for the boys and girls that Labour know to be loyal ).
Ironically maybe if Labour had actually already done all of these things that Alexander states they will ‘now’ be doing going forward’ ….then they, Labour, would not be polling so badly both here in Scotland and also elsewhere in his UK.
Correct me if I am wrong but should Labour not already have been ” listening to (a lot more of the) people” in their UK….long long before now ?
As in “listening” to those of us as “people” who …….
Opposed Labour cutting the Universal winter fuel payments for Pensioners…..
Opposed Labour deciding to sustain the Tory rape clause ……
Opposed Labour always siding with Israel when it was obvious that Israel were committing genocide in Gaza upon the Palestinian people (men, women & children).
Opposed the cruel ‘changes’ that they , Labour, decided to make and so will now implement on the Welfare Benefit system, that will harm the poorest and most vulnerable within their UK.
Opposed Labour reneging on a pledge that they had formerly made to Waspi women and then not acting accordingly , as they, via many Labour politicians, including Keir Starmer, had formerly pledged that they would act to ensure compensation would be paid to the Waspi women , but only if Labour were indeed elected as the new (next) UK government….
Opposed Labour deciding to adopt the Tory Brexit…..
I mean when will Labour really decide to listen and then actually hear what many of us are saying…..and then , God forbid, actually acting upon what many of us say that we both need and want from a government…..UK or otherwise.
Seems to me and also to many others that Labour are only listening to those specific types of voters who would normally vote for either the Tory party or vote for Reform UK.…as in those voters who currently protest outside Hotels that have asylum seekers within them…..also who voted to ‘Get Brexit done’ and who think that Vaccines are bad and that Net Zero is rubbish…….and who apparently want to Make America Great Again but only if Trump is president ????
As it is obvious that Labour are more than willing to (only) listens to them as voters and so then Labour , as the new UK government, have decided to only act in accordance with what they , as specific voters , want and need from a UK government.
(Which is uncannily similar to what both the Tory party and Reform UK are willing to act upon and so comply with on behalf of these specific types of voters)…
Indeed they , the Labour party, the Tory party and Reform UK too…..are all singing from the same (very unchristian) hymn sheet…..
So sorry if I am ever so cynical on anything , indeed everything, that Douglas Alexander is saying now , has said in the past and will likely also say in the future …..and as statements that will very very likely also be predictably repeated by the BBC in Scotland (as a mini Labour party political broadcast) ……because all that he, Douglas Alexander , is doing now is ‘campaigning (early) for Labour’ prior to next year’s Scottish elections….plus in Scotland we all know only too well…… that all and any Labour pledges made by them to Scotland are not worth the paper that they are (badly) written on……
Liz S
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Re my above comment……..
I see today it , “Alexander says Labour can ‘disprove the critics’”, is no longer, as a top story, on the main Scotland page of the BBC website but it is still the top story (so far) on their Scottish Politics page……..together with two other articles on him…Douglas Alexander
“Who is the new Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander”? – 5th article
And also….still up there…….
“Douglas Alexander named Scottish secretary after Ian Murray sacked” – 7th article
The BBC Scotland PR Labour machine is up and running for this ‘new’ face in this ‘unnecessary to Scotland’ position as a UK government Minister first and foremost….as in one that is very much only a UK government post Ha Ha
Also as to “Who” he “is”………. well we already know the answer to that question….
Indeed he, Alexander, is just yet another subservient toady (as he was before in this same position in the past), and so he is one in a long line of YES men, who only act on behalf of the masters who overrule us all in their UK government and who, as masters, are based in the English parliament within the English capital city….
So far none of them who have held this subservient post as the SOS against Scotland have been in any way distinct or notable within that role, be they Tory, Labour or Lib Dem……for Scotland they only exist in order to try to keep our democratically elected Scottish government in check, that is when our Scottish government is run by the SNP, when Labour were once in charge here then they took their orders from the real leader of Labour….as in the one at Labour HQ……as does the SOS against Scotland also do the bidding of the leader at Labour HQ……
Be prepared for loadsa money to be shovelled into the Scottish elections by Labour HQ to try to get Anas elected as FM…..however the PR via the BBC and much of the other other media in Scotland and the rest of the UK will be free and will also be relentless right up to the Scottish elections next year and may even also include the odd nod (support and PR via the UK media) for other parties in the event that it is a close race between them and the SNP in a specific constituency…..more so the new luvvies of the media……as in the pretend party called Reform UK……though it is what they, as a pretend party, intend to “Reform” that all voters should be wary of and so should fear…..
The UK is broken and it is UK political parties and their UK media who have broken it…..the fix for Scotland is for more people in Scotland to finally realise that the only option they have now is to choose independence and so escape all of the madness that comes with Scotland still being a part of their dysfunctional and broken UK……….
Imagine a country (an independent Scotland) where the Daily Express and other like media was banned…..or rather ‘cancelled’ Ha Ha……..they would be going mental in denouncing Scotland as “woke central”…..better ‘woke’ than wicked….surely ?
We can but dream….and so begin their nightmare….(English politicians having to fend for themselves as they try to run a now former UK that Scotland is no longer a part of – or rather our resources etc are now longer theirs to use and so profit from- and their media are no longer free or able to try to brainwash Scottish citizens with their S**** UK propaganda)…..absolute bliss……and worth trying to attain….surely…..if nothing else just to get some ******* peace from it all !
Liz S
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