People take part in a Believe in Scotland march and rally in Edinburgh, September 2, 2023
SNP is on course to retain power in Holyrood as support for independence hit a four-year high of 54 per cent, according to a new poll.
Despite a year which has seen their former chief executive facing charges related to embezzlement, the loss of a leader, a coalition with the Greens and 38 seats at the general election, research since Wednesday’s draft budget suggests the SNP are on course to win 37 per cent of constituency votes and 32 per cent on the regional lists at the next Holyrood elections in 2026.
Writing in the Sunday Times — which commissioned the Norstat poll — expert Sir John Curtice suggests this would give SNP 59 seats in Holyrood, as Labour plunge to a new low of 20, and Reform win 13.
Guardian Exclusive: Election strategy of ‘not being the Tories’ is a timebomb, says Labour-linked thinktank Compass
Keir Starmer’s focus on winning over voters from the centre-right has delivered Labour a large but fundamentally shallow electoral win and a weak mandate to deliver real change, a report from a Labour-linked thinktank has warned.
The report by Compass, titled Thin Ice, argues that Labour should be less worried about losing 2024 voters to Reform UK and the Conservatives than to the Liberal Democrats and Greens, arguing this is the greater electoral risk.
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The Compass report sets out what it says are the fragile foundations of this victory, noting that Labour won 131 seats with majorities below 5,000, and that its total of votes won in the 31 “red wall” seats taken back from the Conservatives was actually slightly lower than in 2019.
“They won [in those seats] because they were not the Tories, because Tory voters stayed at home and because Reform split the regressive vote,” it concludes.
Secretary general of Amnesty International Agnes Callamard holding a press conference, in London, 23 April 2023 (AFP)
Agnes Callamard says it’s time for ICC to charge Israeli leaders with the crime of committing genocide in Gaza
The secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, has urged British politicians to revise their denial that genocide is being committed in Gaza, following a major report by the group concluding that Israel is guilty of genocide.
The world’s leading human rights group on Thursday declared that Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, based on extensive legal and field research covering the period between 7 October 2023 and early July 2024.
“I hope that Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his foreign minister will read through the 300 pages of evidence that we have provided,” Agnes Callamard told Middle East Eye following the release of Amnesty’s report
“Genocide is not a matter of belief. Genocide is not a matter of desire. Genocide is a matter of law. Genocide is a matter of fact.”
Callamard also said the UK, US and German governments may be found complicit in genocide, as a result of their support for the Israeli army.
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“For the last 14 months, we’ve had a few governments that have supported Israel: the United States, Germany, and the UK.
“They have supported them and they have sold weapons. Therefore, they are facing the real risk of being complicit in the crime of genocide,” she told MEE.
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWREGenocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
This article was originally posted 6/12/24 but was deleted, probably my mistake.
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer gives a speech in Buckinghamshire as he set out his Government’s “plan for change” promising a shift away from Whitehall’s “declinist mentality”, December 5, 2024
GOVERNMENTS are never officially “relaunched” because the term is a tacit admission that something has misfired or gone badly wrong.
Nevertheless, relaunches do happen. The last one in British politics was Rishi Sunak’s bizarre and fruitless attempt to present himself as a change agent, challenging the “30-year consensus” at the Tory Party conference in 2023.
But seldom, if ever, has a government had to relaunch itself just five months after its election. The speech by Keir Starmer in a tent in Buckinghamshire is, therefore, a measure of how far his administration has fallen and how fast.
Yet a host of evidence points to Labour’s failure. Starting from an anaemic election result of less than 34 per cent, it is now polling in the mid-twenties.
And the Prime Minister’s personal figures have slumped from a plus 20 positive rating to minus 30 or thereabouts.
It is a political fiasco for the ages and one that only the Tories and Reform UK, both under hard-right leadership, look set to benefit from.
Starmer’s response is encapsulated in the six milestones unveiled today.
These six milestones follow the five missions and the six commitments launched before the general election, which, of course, succeeded the 10 pledges in Starmer’s number-salad of forgettable, or reneged on, policy promises.
This is leadership in the style of a corporate management seminar as if announcing a plan were equivalent to achieving anything. And the increasing velocity with which each initiative follows its unfulfilled predecessor indicates that we are now at the point at which football fans would strike up the familiar chant of “you don’t know what you’re doing.”
