Conor Matchett

Scottish Labour: "But Barrhead and Hamilton!"

Sums up Scottish Labour's challenge next May

Nat support down on 2021/22 highs but Labour are not benefitting enough from straight switchers *or* from Westminster incumbency and Tory tanking

Instead Reform are nicking votes Labour need to win next May. A massive vibe switch needed to reverse that

NEW: Holyrood 2026 will NOT have an overnight count

Instead, votes will be counted on the Friday after the polls close

Nervous waits all round and, critically, more time for spin/narrative setting for winners and losers...

It is also why her levels of approval UK-wide infuriated so many Scottish opponents. They could see through it, no-one who knew anything about Scottish politics and (much of) her domestic record, however, saw anything but the spin/rehearsed lines

The last left-leaning politician to have this in the UK was Nicola Sturgeon - an absolute master of scripted authenticity

The performance only slipped when the 'authenticity' of the responses met the reality of the politics she faced (on gender, independence, to a lesser degree Covid).

The SNP's record on child homelessness is appalling and unforgivable, but this is *yet another* example of how all they will have to do during the Holyrood 2026 campaign is point at Sir Keir Starmer's record

It's completely sinking Anas Sarwar

There was a point during Covid (and after STL licences were brought in) where the Edinburgh market was flooded with dozens of very, very obviously ex-Airbnbs with high production value pics landlords just don't take. Described as a "welcome but not purposeful effect" by a minister... Aye right...

Ash Regan quits the Alba Party and with that decision, the spectre of Alex Salmond finally recedes from any meaningful impact at next May's election

Alba now surely dead and buried.

My overall takeaway from Labour conference was both that they are spending far too much time talking about an election that is four years away, and that they are not really doing enough damage/change to make the 2029 inheritance that difficult to have easy, early wins

When Harry Met Sally just tops every rom com ever written. Unbelievably good.

A few days after Labour Conference, here's my take on what it means for Scottish Labour

They're a party that feels high on copium, dragged down by a party chief they know is a bust but can't change

Barrhead getting repeated mentions at Conference, which for me is further evidence of senior SLab folk being high on copium

EXCLUSIVE: Snooty Tory MSPs forced party chiefs to order upmarket pizzas — after they moaned about Domino’s ones.

The politicians staged a revolt over the takeaway meals delivered to Holyrood during a debate that went on for hours longer than usual.

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1540029...

Anas Sarwar's argument at Labour conference is for the party not to be "shy" on their achievements

It's effectively a belief that comms, not policy or vision, is what's dragging the party down

Not sold.

Thanks @scotvoting.bsky.social

Reason No. 1 not to call the UK's new digital ID a "Brit Card"

I think it's comfortably 3/4% above even their best case thinking at this point

The Reform figure is believable. The Scottish Green figure is presumably plucked from Ross Greer's deepest fantasies...

Embargoed poll out from Survation later that is far, far, far, far, far more believable on almost every metric than this pish from FindOutNow

Or: "Nigel Farage continues to put forward unserious plans which would leave Britain poorer and our growth stunted. The PM is already working hard to grow our economy and leave working people better off by cutting bills through GB Energy, upgrading worker's rights and increasing the minimum wage."

Set Jamie Hepburn on them

Whether or not they clock that before the weeks prior to May 2029, I doubt.

At some point, other political parties will clock that Farage's policy announcements are not about anything other than driving British politics in a generally favourable direction *for him*, so that by 2029, the sort of relatively 'unpopular' and extreme policies are the opposite

Three first ministers, a police investigation, and the total collapse of the internal (and visible external) discipline of the SNP makes the 2021/24 and 26/29 Holyrood comparisons a bit moot imo

Unless it all happens again, of course

More broadly, it should come as no shock that some young people's response to economic strain is the far-right, and some older, pensioners soon-or-already's response to a potential threat of their economic monopoly is also the far right, which blames "others" for eroding the limited cash available

France and Britain are in thrall to pensioners Mounting fiscal crises show how not to handle the demographic crunch

Brilliant from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com

Benefits and social care spending in Scotland is to pensions in the UK - politically difficult, ruinously expensive, and ever-increasing policy decisions which ignore fundamental failures of post-2008 governments and economies.

www.ft.com/content/d419...

SNP's plan to 'fiddle' Scotland's damning NHS stats revealed RECORD long waits for hospital appointments are set to be cut in a claimed “fiddle”, we can reveal. Thousands of cases where patients miss or cancel appointments will be axed from the stats. The mo…

EXCLUSIVE: The SNP have quietly changed how no-shows and cancellations count towards waiting list targets, artificially reducing the number and length of long waits

The change will make it easier to hit election promises and was last night branded "sleekit"

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1533841...

Meaningless whiffle.

Saying you can be trusted with the economy means nothing if people's food bills continue to rise above the rate of already (in terms of recent history) historically high inflation every year.

Labour seem incapable of recognising this.