The Alba Party’s failure to secure independence
Involuntarily, the Scottish people have entered a new era of Politics. Since the 2014 referendum, the world of politics has become noisier and scarier. With more to worry about, independence has tumbled down the list of people’s priorities.
During Nicola Sturgeon’s time as First Minister, she was accused of being obsessed with independence. People became particularly fed up during COVID-19, where any talk of independence was seen as a distraction from the pandemic.
The general feeling was that other important things should not be put on hold in order to leave the union and build our own constitution; there didn’t seem to be an appetite in Scottish Politics for another nationalist party.
From the Alba party’s inception in 2021, Alex Salmond made it clear that it was an alternative to the SNP. The SNP, who, since 2014, had failed to deliver on the ‘democratic mandate’ of an independence referendum. The Alba party said it was the “only party who had a clear strategy to deliver a referendum.”
Considering the attitude of the Scottish people, many critics said the party was doomed to fail. A message that was consolidated by last week’s announcement that they were experiencing financial struggle and could not contest in the upcoming Scottish elections.
However, Alex Salmond saw things a little differently. Salmond saw independence not as a disruption, but as gaining the key to unlock Scotland’s future. The Alba party takes the ‘Scottish side’ on all points of contention with the UK government, and it sees independence as gaining the freedom to solve Scotland’s most pressing problems with Scottish solutions.
London is too detached from Scotland and too steeped in conservatism to realise what Scotland actually needs. If you look at the Alba party’s policies, they are distinctly Scottish; they call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza; they say Scotland will not host nuclear weapons; they recognise Gaelic as a crucial part of Scottish history; they want to treat drug addiction like a medical condition by decriminalising drug possession and funding psycho-social support.
This is the idea that Alex Salmond hammered into Scottish discourse during his time as First Minister. It is the idea that brought Scotland to a referendum in 2014 and the one probably remembered by those 8, 269 people (2.3 per cent of the total vote) who voted for the Alba Party in the 2021 Scottish elections.
These voters likely voted from memory because, since 2021, the party’s political campaign hasn’t been half as politically empowering as the run-up to the 2014 Referendum. They took a good crack at being the alternative to the SNP. They released the ‘Wee Alba book’, which set out the ‘new case for independence’, in the new chaos of the world. And, they promised to put legal and political pressure on Westminster for a referendum in a way that the SNP weren’t doing. However, no matter how many times they tried to steer away from the SNP, they always seemed to end up on the same old roads — maybe it was a roundabout.
This is because of one universal truth of democracy: political careers are finite, and when they are done, they are done. No matter how they drove, as long as Alex Salmond was driving, they were never going to get anywhere. He had become an old face, embroiled in a sexual assault scandal, hammering on about independence. You can see why the public was put off. And, his inability to realise how unrelatable he had become gave the impression that the Alba party was not about the people, but about himself. A continuation of his personal dream to lead Scotland into independence, and a personal vendetta against Nicola Sturgeon — the woman whom he accused of “plotting against him” while he was facing allegations of sexual assault.
The Alba party wasn’t unpopular because it was an independence party; in fact, they made a convincing case for it, but they just had really poor media training. Opinion polls are telling us that the majority of people in Scotland currently like the idea of independence, and a nationalist party with a new voice could be in with a chance.
Scotland is in need of a voice that listens to the public’s concerns about the current chaos and relates it to the independence movement. One that lays out why the future of Scotland is more secure and quieter as an independent nation.
“Alex Salmond to resign as First Minister” by Scottish Government is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Related
The Independence Movement Needs a New Voice
The Alba Party’s failure to secure independence
Involuntarily, the Scottish people have entered a new era of Politics. Since the 2014 referendum, the world of politics has become noisier and scarier. With more to worry about, independence has tumbled down the list of people’s priorities.
During Nicola Sturgeon’s time as First Minister, she was accused of being obsessed with independence. People became particularly fed up during COVID-19, where any talk of independence was seen as a distraction from the pandemic.
The general feeling was that other important things should not be put on hold in order to leave the union and build our own constitution; there didn’t seem to be an appetite in Scottish Politics for another nationalist party.
From the Alba party’s inception in 2021, Alex Salmond made it clear that it was an alternative to the SNP. The SNP, who, since 2014, had failed to deliver on the ‘democratic mandate’ of an independence referendum. The Alba party said it was the “only party who had a clear strategy to deliver a referendum.”
Considering the attitude of the Scottish people, many critics said the party was doomed to fail. A message that was consolidated by last week’s announcement that they were experiencing financial struggle and could not contest in the upcoming Scottish elections.
However, Alex Salmond saw things a little differently. Salmond saw independence not as a disruption, but as gaining the key to unlock Scotland’s future. The Alba party takes the ‘Scottish side’ on all points of contention with the UK government, and it sees independence as gaining the freedom to solve Scotland’s most pressing problems with Scottish solutions.
London is too detached from Scotland and too steeped in conservatism to realise what Scotland actually needs. If you look at the Alba party’s policies, they are distinctly Scottish; they call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza; they say Scotland will not host nuclear weapons; they recognise Gaelic as a crucial part of Scottish history; they want to treat drug addiction like a medical condition by decriminalising drug possession and funding psycho-social support.
This is the idea that Alex Salmond hammered into Scottish discourse during his time as First Minister. It is the idea that brought Scotland to a referendum in 2014 and the one probably remembered by those 8, 269 people (2.3 per cent of the total vote) who voted for the Alba Party in the 2021 Scottish elections.
These voters likely voted from memory because, since 2021, the party’s political campaign hasn’t been half as politically empowering as the run-up to the 2014 Referendum. They took a good crack at being the alternative to the SNP. They released the ‘Wee Alba book’, which set out the ‘new case for independence’, in the new chaos of the world. And, they promised to put legal and political pressure on Westminster for a referendum in a way that the SNP weren’t doing. However, no matter how many times they tried to steer away from the SNP, they always seemed to end up on the same old roads — maybe it was a roundabout.
This is because of one universal truth of democracy: political careers are finite, and when they are done, they are done. No matter how they drove, as long as Alex Salmond was driving, they were never going to get anywhere. He had become an old face, embroiled in a sexual assault scandal, hammering on about independence. You can see why the public was put off. And, his inability to realise how unrelatable he had become gave the impression that the Alba party was not about the people, but about himself. A continuation of his personal dream to lead Scotland into independence, and a personal vendetta against Nicola Sturgeon — the woman whom he accused of “plotting against him” while he was facing allegations of sexual assault.
The Alba party wasn’t unpopular because it was an independence party; in fact, they made a convincing case for it, but they just had really poor media training. Opinion polls are telling us that the majority of people in Scotland currently like the idea of independence, and a nationalist party with a new voice could be in with a chance.
Scotland is in need of a voice that listens to the public’s concerns about the current chaos and relates it to the independence movement. One that lays out why the future of Scotland is more secure and quieter as an independent nation.
“Alex Salmond to resign as First Minister” by Scottish Government is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Share this:
Like this:
Related