To the north of Scotland, where in Aberdeen the SNP conference has begun. Activists are gathering, once again, to try and figure out how exactly Scotland might achieve independence after a decisive 2014 referendum, a Supreme Court slap down and, er, almost 20 years of substandard SNP rule. Best of luck, chaps!
The party’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn bagged the opening speech this morning, kicking off the conference in his usual punchy style by taking pops at his opponents. First up was an ornithology jibe directed at another politician from the north-east. Celebrating new murals that had sprung up around Aberdeen, Flynn quipped: ‘One of my favourite installations is a giant seagull painted on the side of a building at the junction of Willowbank Road and Holburn Street – or, as we now call it, Douglass Ross corner.’ Cue the jeers. Mr S has been rather confused as to why Holyrood has had such an obsession with the birds lately. Something for Flynn to look forward to next year, eh?
Then the Aberdeen South MP directed his focus on a party that has seen its popularity in his own constituency soar in recent months: Reform UK. ‘We of course played host to the Tall Ship Races, world renowned, and some 400,000 people attended the city and visited our fantastic local port,’ he told his audience:
Unfortunately, there was one vessel that wasn’t able to dock due to a crew member having links to Russia… Who knew that Nigel Farage was aboard?
Crikey! It comes after the ex-leader of Reform in Wales (until 2021) pleaded guilty to having accepted bribes from Russia, although there is no suggestion that Farage had any knowledge about or connection to this case. The SNP should know all about links to Russia, given their very own pro-independence patriot and former first minister Alex Salmond hosted a show on Russian state television for almost five years – only suspending it after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Predictably this hasn’t ever been the subject of a nationalist speech…
And it wouldn’t be an SNP conference opener if it didn’t attack Westminster. ‘We don’t need a Labour government in Scotland that will look every bit like the one that is failing us in Westminster,’ Flynn fumed. Pulling no punches, he mocked Keir Starmer’s decision to sack Scotland Secretary Ian Murray for the ambitious Blairite that is Douglas Alexander:
You’ll remember that when he decided to fire Ian Murray, he angered almost every Labour MP from Scotland. Everyone except for Douglas Alexander that is…
Not that Flynn would know anything about defenestration, eh?
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