Conor Matchett

The only thing it is useful for is to blunt the SNP's preferred framing of the election as a referendum on Starmer, in the hope it refocuses the campaign on the SNP's domestic record. It's fundamentally a campaign strategy Hail Mary

The SNP's failure to a) modernise the case for independence, and b) coherently argue for it, remains the most self-defeating failure of their time in office since 2014

If you still can't answer Qs on pensions/currency in a way that people can see the trade-offs, you're just not trying hard enough

SNP in particular still in thrall to Sturgeon's worst habits of solving problems that weren't actually problems (e.g. named persons, offensive behaviour at football, gender - not saying not important to someone, but wouldn't have moved the dial even if they weren't mucked up as badly as they were)

In short, if they win they'll inherit a very difficult demographic, tax, and benefits challenge having committed themselves to changing none of it. Which I'm sure will work perfectly.

they currently should about weekly in parly. Had they not done that, they could, you know, argue that maybe free prescriptions shouldn't be handed to well-off folk, but they can't.

Instead it's just chat about 'waste' and their main NHS offer is cutting the number of health boards to three...

Definitely not. IMO their biggest strategic mistake was in Feb last year committing to not remove the main free 'giveaways' in Holyrood (e.g. free tuition, prescriptions etc.) when they still looked on for winning this May. Has totally boxed them in and committed them to unsustainable spending...

where they are saying lots of things focus groups are telling them, but are actually arguing *for* nothing and ultimately *saying* nothing that changes where voters sit, what they believe, and what they want

Politicians have stopped telling hard truths because they think voters will punish them for it

Instead, they choose to repeat back what they hear on the doorstep and hope being in room instead of the other ones will magically make it all better. Scot Lab the absolute *epitome* of this in Scotland..

In nerdy Holyrood election news, looks like Russell Findaly will stand just on the list "to free him up to campaign across Scotland" - understand most likely West of Scotland region

Douglas Ross did the same in 2021 and it worked - but will ruffle a few feathers internally

Jenrick seems to be explaining why the Tory Party isn't the best vehicle for his personal political ambitions, rather than why he thinks Reform are a better pick for UK voters.

One of my major gripes in 2026 is politicos standing up and saying in one breath "we must end this postcode lottery of services delivered by local councils!" and in the next say "we must decentralise power so local choices are made locally"

Centralisation mostly a symptom of credit-seeking

Police called after Michael Matheson's MUG goes missing from Holyrood COPS were bizarrely called to Holyrood to probe the disappearance of a mug used by shamed ex SNP minister Michael Matheson. Officers were “miffed” at having to investigate the coffee cup mystery at…

EXCLUSIVE: Cops were called to Holyrood after a mug used by Michael Matheson went missing - sparking fury with it labelled a waste of police time

Comes after no police action over Mr Matheson's £11,000 iPad roaming bill for footie he charged to taxpayers...

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1579300...

I'll be blunt, Steve, I'd need a new job.

It's less a question of *who* is there and more *what* is there. No matter what people on BlueSky or elsewhere would like to think, it's a pretty good window into a certain type of politics that is pretty prevalent across the UK, in the same way BlueSky is

I still use Twitter for work but I've almost completely stopped using it for personal reasons because it's just so much nothing. When I'm on holiday I barely touch it and my life is better for it. Without work, I'd be off it. That's no good place for a social media network to be in.

Still get upset at the treatment of Calvin Stengs, now languishing on loan at Pisa despite winning several Champions Leagues and a decade of consecutive Eredivisies with 20 goals a season as a winger in my youth-fuelled AZ Alkmaar side.

As a United fan it feels like we operate like the UK Gov. It's all Comms' fault, not a fundamental problem with how the club is run or what it wants to achieve.

Happy New Year everyone!

Remember, if you haven't bombed a strategically important nation and seized its authoritarian head of state and effectively it's government and industrial economy by January 5, you'll have bad luck all year

Ex-Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun has Lunch with the FT and in one of those instances so rare that you know he didn't sign an NDA, says exactly why as.ft.com/r/e503690d-8...

😑

I've yet to hear a compelling reason why Sarwar wouldn't take Reform's votes to become FM come May 8 if that was the difference between him being FM or out of a job.

Have you met this Scottish Labour party?

Correct.

Point of retweeting Mark's projection is more to make the point that

A) I reckon polls will narrow once the public switches on to a Holyrood election (though not as much as ScoLab need)
B) The SNP's chances of a majority remain miniscule, and pro-indy one is over-priced (as it always tends to be)

People think I'm joking when I say I think Scottish Labour will try to run a minority government if they finish second.

I'm really not, and I think they'll try it even if there is a razor-thin pro-union majority.

It'll be chaos, but who doesn't love a bit of that?

If you can't admit you've broken a manifesto promise (Starmer, Reeves, Swinney), or that you broke Covid rules (Johnson), or tanked the economy (Truss) - why would voters expect someone to have the self-respect to uphold standards on lesser issues? Pathetic across the board.

Extremely fed up of politicians refusing to admit fault over obviously false statements.

It leads directly to how a minister stays on despite blatant misrepresention as the bar is so high for quitting.

Total self-destruction of standards in public life over the last decade

"But the overall impression continues to be of a system loaded against younger workers, paying more to fund older citizens with assets"

A fundamental truth here about our politics as demographics favour short-termist policy designed to win/keep older voters and shaft the younger working population

John Swinney 'lied & breached ministerial code' claim rivals amid call for probe JOHN Swinney should face a probe into whether his own budget “lies” have breached the ministerial code, the Tories demanded. The First Minister has repeatedly refused to admit the SNP breached thei…

EXCLUSIVE: John Swinney should face a probe into whether his own budget “lies” have breached the ministerial code, critics have said

The FM has refused to admit the SNP has breached its election promise to freeze income tax, despite hiking the levies twice

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1564145...

"Had to intervene"? Yikes.

The whole row centres, for me, on this obsession with comms. They clearly wanted to land the whole 'actually our handling of the economy means no major tax rises' schtick. But they have again forgotten the budget is meant to help them get re-elected.

Again, comms over good policy/vision/politics