Comments by "Ash Roskell" (@ashroskell) on "Scottish independence a “long march” away as Nicola Sturgeon resigns | Andrew Marr | New Statesman" video.

  1. I honestly believe that, up to this point, people have voted SNP for their, “other,” policies, which reflect what a pre-Tony-Blair Labour Party. The education system is more accessible to the poor in Scotland, the Health Service is more independent and maintains things like free prescriptions which are palpable benefits to a population with a poorer economy than England. The SNP took ownership of that left of centre ground that was once occupied by Labour, with a more socialist, yet nevertheless pragmatic and self consciously, “fiscally responsible,” stall. I really think that this is what the majority of SNP voters actually vote, “for.” I honestly think that it is only about half of their loyal, regularly-showing-up-to-the-polls, voters, “care,” about independence? And you only have to talk to a few of those people to find out that none of them have the same vision in their head about just how that would work in practical terms. Every time I talk to someone who’s all William Wallace about the issue, they talk vaguely about oil reserves, maybe joining the EU, or about how Westminster is so corrupt but then, in the next breath, half of those types go on to say, “Well, I never bothered to vote last time and I probably won’t next time either.” I’m sure that’s not representative, but it does indicate how there is simply no, “vision,” that the public can sink their teeth into. It’s all vagaries and potentials, which no two people are alike about. I truly believe that if the SNP won a huge landslide and claimed a mandate for a new referendum, they would lose by a bigger margin than they did pre-Brexit. At least, as things are. The scandal that overshadows them now, since the making of this video, makes two for two SNP leaders leaving under a cloud of disillusioning question marks. And Sturgeon’s apparent inability to simply state, “My husband is innocent,” merely serves to make her look potentially guilty . . . of something? Whether that was active participation in embezzlement or simply the complicity of silence, the SNP are not in a good place, now that her, “sudden,” resignation and retirement looks suspiciously motivated by far more than the reasons she offered us.
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