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27 Mar, 8 tweets, 3 min read
Yesterday Alex Salmond insisted again and again his new party wasn’t about damaging his old one in any way, indeed his efforts would be of assistance.

And today...
As I said in my piece yesterday, danger for SNP is this all becomes about the ongoing conflict between Sturgeon and Salmond, an ongoing reminder to voters of all which has happened in recent months- and that Salmond forces Sturgeon into conversations she doesn’t want to have.
And though Salmond insists Alba can’t damage them because they’re only standing on the lists, it conveniently forgets the fact that a) what the SNP want most is a majority of their own, which they think Johnson cannot ignore.
And b) the 2011 majority (which Salmond secured and the only one in the Parliament’s history) was achieved not only through domination in the constituencies but the lists too. It was the lists where it was lost in 2016. So disingenuous of Salmond to claim Alba can’t damage them
More info on the AMS system here 👇
And direct link to last night’s piece here
If this is just about securing a supermajority why does it involve defections?
But of course it’s not just about a supermajority- it’s about formalising the split and fissure which has been taking place within the SNP for some time.

SNP in Westminster have been famed for their (public) unity at all costs. No longer.

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More from @lewis_goodall

Lewis Goodall Profile picture
26 Mar
Scottish Electoral system explained

Going to be a lot of talk about whether Salmond's new party is going to work and who it might effect

Thought might be helpful to run through how Additional Member System (AMS) used in Holyrood (and Senedd in Wales) works. Here we go.
AMS (a proportional system used since the inception of the Scottish Parl in 1999) is made up of two components (and electors have two votes) the constituency vote and the regional (list) vote. Together they make up the 129 MSPs.

First the familiar bit, the constituency vote.
Scotland is divided into 73 constituencies. These are all elected (a la Westminster) by First Past the Post. The candidate which gets more votes than all the others (even if it's just one). The remaining votes count for nothing.
Read 9 tweets
Lewis Goodall Profile picture
26 Mar
NEW: Alex Salmond is re-entering frontline politics. He’s has announced that he’s starting a new pro-independence party, “Alba”- says the party will contest the May Holyrood elections.

A remarkable next stage in Salmond’s long goodbye from the SNP and his former colleagues.
Note the tag line on his backdrop “For the Independence Supermajority”

His sell isn’t that this will damage the SNP but instead will augment support for independence in the Scottish Parliament, rather than damaging the SNP.
Three things to say about that

1) this could be true in the sense that Scottish Parliament used AMS and you have two votes. But it’s always going to risky to game game and if Alba were to secure a decent proportion of the SNP vote on the list, it could still damage them.
Read 13 tweets
Lewis Goodall Profile picture
25 Mar
EXCL: I understand that the Variant and Mutant Taskforce (a joint body of PHE, JBC and Test&Trace) has written to Matt Hancock to inform him they've traced Covid variants being imported to the UK from countries not on the red list incl. France, Germany, USA and others in Europe.
The variant they're especially concerned about is the South African variant (B.1.351) and I'm told that PHE has instructed its regional teams to prioritise contact tracing of that variant over the others "until further notice".
This is of especial concern because internal estimates suggest that the SA variant might reduce vaccine efficacy to sub 50% (though data is shaky).

Officials are also worried because they calculate 24% of the SA cases they've traced don't have a foreign travel connection.
Read 14 tweets
Lewis Goodall Profile picture
25 Mar
NEW: big news in public transport/local govt. @AndyBurnhamGM announces that Greater Manchester will be taking the region’s bus network out of private operator control.Will be the first time it’s happened in England outside London since the bus networks were privatised in the 80s.
Burnham’s words 👇
For those not familiar with this- most of England’s bus infrastructure (save London) is not intensively regulated. Routes, costs etc are set by the companies with limited control by public authorities. That’s been the case since privatisation in the 80s.
Read 5 tweets
Lewis Goodall Profile picture
24 Mar
NHS staff in Scotland (minus doctors) to be offered a 4% pay rise. Raises the issue again in London and pressure on Westminster ministers. Their equivalent proposal has been for 1%.
UK ministers say 1% is “what we can afford”. Obvious question flows- why does the Scottish government consider the matter differently?
Reminder too, this comes on top of the £500 bonus the Scottish and Welsh governments have offered NHS and social care staff in their countries. No such bonus has been offered in England.
Read 6 tweets
Lewis Goodall Profile picture
24 Mar
NEW: Robert Jenrick confirms that the government will be sending commissioners to run several parts of Liverpool City Council for at least three years.

Says inspectors' report paints a "deeply concerning picture" and a "dysfunctional culture" in the council.
Steve Reed (Labour Shadow Local Govt Sec) says that the Labour Party will be launching a review into the Liverpool Labour Party. Says the party will take action over any wrongdoing.
Jenrick says that commissioners will have power over regeneration, highways and property management in the city.
Read 8 tweets

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