Now, I've been saying this for at least a couple of years. The long slog of starting again from scratch is the only realistic option. The problem with that is that this imaginary new party couldn't contain both Robin and me. robinmcalpine.org/theyre-all-tor…
I like Robin a lot and I have a vast amount of personal and political respect for him. But we disagree too profoundly on too many issues - Net Zero, to pluck one at random - to ever be able to work in the same party. So now we already need at least TWO new parties.
I could name a bunch of other people I like and respect and whose commitment to independence I don't doubt for a moment, but where we'd really struggle to be in the same party. And there's only one answer to that: your party has to only have one policy.
Russell Findlay invites anyone from Scottish Labour (Anas Sarwar isn't present) to stand up and tell him what it is that they know now that they didn't know when they voted for the GRR. He pauses and waits. Nobody does.
Although Mercedes Villalba does stand up and squawk that no harm has ever resulted from self-ID, to some astonishment in the chamber.
Going to do something else for the next 10 minutes while Shirley-Anne Somerville speaks, because I don't want my IQ to drop 50 points.
Here's Mary Lockhart. She's on the board of NHS Fife. And here's her (husband or brother, we're reading conflicting sources), Patricia. Anything becoming clearer?
Here's Patricia when he was still Peter.
Mary Lockhart is quite a colourful character herself.
Watching the Salmond-Sturgeon documentary. Most of Episode 1 is just a history of the SNP. Some funny old footage but not really very interesting, feels like padding. The only notable bit is the presence of Liz Lloyd.
Despite everything that's happened, you get some kind of sense of regret from Sturgeon, Robertson et al, who clearly remember the good times with Salmond. Lloyd is just sheer poisonous hatred, smirking and smearing and knifing. She's grotesque.
There's a very abrupt change of tone in Episode 2. Everyone's got their conspirator hats on and staying on message. If the first episode is showing the human side of politicians, Episode 2 is everything dishonest and venal and ugly about them.