political notes , do not read
I read an article on X from a Glaswegian SDP supporter about Scottish politics, the situation on the ground, and the May election, so I am replying to it here. Please ignore the post as you won’t know what I’m talking about, but if you’re interested in politics/movements etc. it might be interesting to read. I also like discussion.
If Glasgow is to get any kind of traction in May, and that is a very, very short time, then it needs to get good. Personally, I do not see Craig Houston getting that many points, but if you want to back this horse I will tell you how I’d approach this locally. First I’ll discuss the issues.
Stop complaining about bloc voting, so out-manoeuvre it. Bloc voting is a legitimate political tactic, so do it yourselves. Getting people to agree online is not enough. Map out the areas of Glasgow, door-knock, and make sure whoever is online is in absolute lockstep to push out the political opposition.
May is too short a time. Just a disclaimer. I think SDP will get pumped. Might be a small protest vote for SDP. I imagine if anyone gets the vote it will be Reform (simply due to presence) who will do nothing for Glasgow. Regardless of this, everyone needs to get in line with Restore Britain for 2029. This consolidation is happening in England, I want to see it in Scotland. It’s part of the process, but in terms of ‘now’, I could be surprised but I think it’s too soon. However, I would still lean on SDP because Reform would never merge with Restore, but SDP would in a heartbeat.
‘Seeing the truth’ = angry moralising != votes. Filter local and internet anger into a disciplined core of organisers in Glasgow who know exactly how the two-vote regional list system works. And DIRECT the public. There is a lot of agreement on X about the current predicament, but not much directing.
Stop moralising. Stop trying to convince people on the back foot that you are ‘right’ and they are ‘wrong’. If you are trying to convince people of the ‘truth’, that includes the media, the council, politicians, etc. That is heavily weighed against you, and I do not like how bitch-made that looks. You ARE the truth; it is a done deal, so let us move. All mistakes by the opposition will prove you right with no words.
I get that everyone is angry, axe girl, etc., and you feel betrayed, people need to ‘wake up’, but that is how movements lose. To win, you need to be cold and calculated. You need strict organisation and tactical voting.
Tell people who to vote for; no infighting. Agree on a common premise and DIRECT people on who to vote for. Vote X for the constituency, Party Y for the regional list. Anyone who fucks around gets expelled. See (but on a larger scale): Ben Habib and Advance from Restore.
Exploit the D’Hondt method (target the list vote). Holyrood uses AMS (Additional Member System). This is where the ‘second vote’ (regional list) is designed to make parliament more proportional. See here for further info: https://electoral-reform.org.uk/why-holyroods-voting-system-still-favours-larger-parties/
In this case, it means FPTP constituency seats (I know there has been a ‘revolt’ against the SNP recently, but I am talking about the ‘deep seats’ dominated by the SNP) are an uphill battle, potentially unwinnable (definitely on this timeline). The focus should be the regional list vote. You message voters to ‘give the second vote’. The Scottish Greens do this. The Alba Party with Salmond explicitly aimed for this. Why? Because winning constituencies, even in ‘protest vote’ times, is extremely difficult for smaller parties. This requires COORDINATION and CLEAR MESSAGING.
Message control. I cannot stress this enough. Coming from a lower-middle-class background, I know what I am talking about here. When ‘normal’ people walk past protests, the first thing they hear is, ‘We’re the good guys; the opposition is evil’, and they mentally shut down, say something offhand about ‘Why aren’t they working?’, and move on with their day. This happens EVEN when they still care about the big issues, such as the NHS, the lack of housing, council failures, and ‘Why has my area changed, who are these strange people, and what is happening?’
This is why you see some horrific crime reported in the news, and the people who want to fix it are doing the WWE Rob Van Dam ‘vote for me’ gesture by pointing at themselves, but ordinary people (I am not talking far-left, but just culturally ‘stewed’ individuals) go, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t vote for the far right’, because it conjures images of 20th-century mistrust in voting for anyone with a solid moustache. It is scary to them. When you start ranting about truth, good, and evil, you scare them. I do not make the rules. There is something about the British that makes them worried about spiraling into ideology. This is what made Gerry Adams so frustrating, because he always came across as a gentleman, even when everyone knew he had ties with the IRA. I am not suggesting that, by the way. Just saying.
So, what do I mean about message control?
Do not say anything you would feel ashamed to say to your granny.
If you’re actually aligned with the party in any official sense, stop the podcast bro ‘Isn’t it terrible?’ and ‘We’re being invaded!’ rhetoric, and keep it strictly kitchen table. NHS strain, housing, the council, safety, demographic realities (if you are going full legal and illegal migration, spare the value judgements and focus on numbers, cohesion, etc.).
The usual protest etiquette; no balaclavas. Dignity, dress sense. I know this sounds ‘petite bourgeois’ of me, but don’t be a scaff. It doesn’t mean wear your Sunday Best but it does mean having a wash. Trust me, it goes a long way. Keep it community-focused. Guard it from suspicious outsiders. For example, the first whiff of an Israel flag undermines your whole protest. This is known as ‘flag creep’. Your area, your community.
Build the counter-bloc. I cannot stress this enough. If other demographics can do it, and they are still only concentrated in certain areas of Glasgow, there are still majority Scots elsewhere. If there cannot be a counter-bloc, we only have ourselves to blame; it would be an embarrassing lack of organisation.
Post-election. Do not go away. Attend every council meeting. Do FOI requests like fuck for everything from housing to spending and court files. LEGALLY challenge the New Scots strategy. We talk about the latter like it is a conspiracy theory in the shadows. It is not. It is a legitimate, government-sponsored framework. Why we do not seem to have lawyers on this boggles the mind. But that goes back to strict messaging, etc. It is a legal challenge based on definition; it does not have to be about the ‘-isms’ or this, that, and the other. It just needs to challenge it. You will be called all the ‘-isms’ like those who called out the grooming gangs, but see how they kept going. Clear-headed, focused, in the lane.
I will lay out general stages, but because I am not a leader or anything, I am talking hypothetically.
Stage 1: Scottish Elections (Create a beachhead in Holyrood)
It is probably going to be Reform countrywide (I reject Reform), but that is the momentum at the moment. If you want to get Craig Houston in one of the regional list seats in Glasgow (there are seven seats), exploit the AMS and the D’Hondt method used in Holyrood, as mentioned earlier.
To get the sixth or seventh list seat, Houston does not need a majority, but something around 5% to 7% of the total regional vote.
For vote discipline, you DIRECT your base: ‘Vote for whoever you want on the first ballot (constituency), but every single second vote (regional) goes to the SDP.’
People in the SDP and Reform need to discuss this behind closed doors if you are not to split that vote. My prediction, since Reform are roaches, is that they will not agree to this. The only way to get around that is to signal that Reform will do 1) fuck all, and 2) they are yesterday’s men, because they are civnat neolibs who do not give a fuck about Scotland. That is if you do not want that 6% split.
Stage 2: Houston Gets In
Step 1: Shut the fuck up.
Step 2: Do what Lowe did and immediately legally demand data. Submit FOIs on housing, the NHS, the ‘New Scots’ strategy, and council spending, then funnel that back into his base to build localised anger and turn it into votes.
Stage 3: Consolidate with Restore Britain (Westminster)
We do this because we are engaging with problems much larger than independence or the Union; it is, in fact, an existential struggle for the people on the island. Why? Because we move from Holyrood’s proportional system to Westminster’s ‘first past the post’ system. Divided populist movements get absolutely pumped under this. Look at UKIP prior to 2016.
This means falling under an ‘umbrella’. The SDP (or whoever is around at the time) merges with Restore Britain, and Houston becomes one of the Scottish faces of Restore. In this case, the primary enemy in terms of votes is ‘Reform’, but enough of that for another day.
I will end this by returning to ‘moralising’. While it is important to get people ‘on side’, too much moralising puts people off. There is wave after wave of crime on Twitter, which does ‘shock’ people into who they vote for, but it gets too close to victimhood or outrage bait, creating a lot of panicked, hopeless, demoralising inertia, but not much movement. On the other hand it let’s people vent and ‘feel good’ about speaking ‘truth to power’ but again, nothing happens.
In this case, if we are to copy political parties of the past (and I have a feeling Restore is doing this), we need a two-lane strategy.
Let the internet do the moralising, while the official party remains cold, professional, and solutions-focused.
Lane 1: (The Base) The moralisers. This is the independent and citizen journos, metapolitical thinkers such as Millennial Woes , anon accounts, podcasters, and memes. Get people angry enough to care, or hopeful; evoke some sort of emotion to get them off the couch.
Lane 2: (The Party) Political Vehicle and Pragmatist Leadership
This is the SDP and Restore Britain.
I cannot stress this enough: their job is to present themselves as calm, rational, common-sense adults in the room who can actually fix the mess the internet is raging about.
They should never merge with Lane 1 but should stay separate, and that is for many good reasons. Because, as stated before, do not alienate the ‘normie’ voter. Lane 1 can greet about reverse-colonisation, but for Lane 2 it must be a rationalised discussion, not yelling ‘Invasion!’ or ‘The end is nigh!’ because it’s no’ helpful for the role. You talk about realities; it is just framing, really. The media will attack anyway because they are part of the ideological state apparatus, but as Bowden said, everything can be framed in a way that is high enough level that they cannot get you, and ‘everyone’ will know what you mean. Finally, if we keep saying ‘We’re being invaded’ and being Debbie Downers, that is not going to get anyone to the voting booth. It should be about power and outcomes.
The end.