Decades of Deference

It was the Scottish Greens' party conference last weekend and we spend a fair amount of time looking at Tommy Sheppard's suggestion that some form of electoral pact be reached between them and the SNP in the 2021 Holyrood elections. How far should the Greens, their supporters, and other nonaligned "Yessers", subsume their values within an SNP dominated drive for independence? This leads us on to the, seemingly inevitable, European Parliamentary elections. Lesley believes that we are crying out for a move beyond simplistic sloganeering during the campaign and that real, detailed exposition of key ideas, in particular freedom of movement, is required. I ask what hope might there be of a united, progressive, electoral Yes front. The recent Hansard Society report has shown a majority of those surveyed would favour a strong leader willing to break the rules in order to get things done. Lesley reflects on this, not merely on a UK/Brexit basis, but in terms of Scottish independence. As promised last week I try my darndest to unravel the complexities of the #weareirish controversy. We also manage to shoehorn in Damascene conversions, SNP bungs, and Scotland beating Brazil at football.