Swinney Fails To Impress!
I imagine John Swinney is confiding in this young girl how 'disrespected' he feels about the UK general election being called for July 4th 2023.
Wise beyond her years the school girl seems unimpressed, because lots of people vote by post these days - and postal ballots are easy to arrange.
For example, I am due to be out out of town on July 4th, but I've had a postal ballot for years and will definitely cast my vote on polling day - though not for the SNP
John Swinney: Holding election in school holidays disrespects Scots
John Swinney meets Kirkcaldy school pupils on Wednesday. One senior SNP figure claimed there was “monumental” panic about the timing of the July 4 contest - Photo ANDREW MILLIGAN/GETTY IMAGES
By Kieran Andrews and John Boothman - The Times
Rishi Sunak has been accused of “disrespecting” Scottish voters by scheduling a general election for the school holidays when many families will be abroad.
Pupils break for the summer in Scotland about three weeks earlier than their counterparts in England, which means the July 4 ballot clashes with the traditional holiday season north of the border.
Research suggests that two out of five adults in Scotland plan an overseas holiday in Europe this year — with 12 per cent expecting to take a long-haul break. Many holidays are likely to take place in early July.
The election announcement took senior SNP figures by surprise, with one source claiming there was “monumental” panic about the timing of the contest.
John Swinney, the first minister, criticised Sunak for “perhaps the latest act of disrespect from a Conservative government to call an election during the Scottish summer school holidays”.
Swinney said independence “will be at the heart of the [SNP] campaign” and insisted the party was in a strong position to fight the election.
“Scotland is protected by the SNP,” he said. “People know what they get when they vote for the SNP, they know they get a party that will put Scotland first, and that’s what we are going to do.”
Fergus Mutch, a former adviser to Swinney’s predecessors Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond, criticised the SNP for “whingeing” about the election date, insisting it “isn’t exactly a surefooted way to start this general election campaign”.
He added: “The SNP need to get over that quickly and get on to the issues that matter if they are to stand a chance over the next six weeks.”
Stephen Gethins, the SNP candidate for Arbroath & Broughty Ferry, said he welcomed the election even if he now had to cancel his family break booked for the first week of the school holidays.
He said “as many people as possible” should participate in the election “regardless of how they might be voting”.
“It is disrespectful to hold the election during the Scottish school holidays when many families will be taking a hard-earned break, and I hope that those taking a break enjoy their holidays and remember to use their postal vote,” he said.
The prime minister is expected to travel north on Thursday to launch the Scottish leg of his election campaign.
The latest polling suggests Labour has opened up a ten-point lead over the SNP in a sign that John Swinney is failing to turn around the Nationalists’ faltering fortunes.
Stephen Gethins, SNP candidate for Arbroath & Broughty Ferry, is to cancel his family break booked for the start of the school holidays - Photo KEN JACK/GETTY IMAGES
This would lead to a rout, with the SNP crashing to just 11 MPs from its current yield of 43, were it to be repeated at the general election. Labour, which secured two constituencies in 2019, would become the dominant force in Scottish politics once more, returning 35 MPs.
A number of sources have expressed frustration that Swinney will have a short period to turn around the poor ratings bequeathed to him by his predecessor Humza Yousaf.
“We need more Swinney time,” one MP said. An “election gathering” with Swinney, which was scheduled for June 9 at Perth Concert Hall, is now likely to be brought forward as the SNP has ripped up its campaign plans.
The event included a slot for candidates to have their photographs taken with the first minister, who was giving a speech and answering questions from would-be parliamentarians and party members.
The SNP is struggling to raise funds for a general election year, has no large-scale donors and, according to its most recent accounts, made a loss of more than £800,000 in 2022.
This contrasts with Scottish Labour, which has £500,000 in the bank and donors have pledged that at least the same again will be delivered before the election.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the contest would be a “change” election in an attempt to conflate the 17 years of SNP government in Holyrood with the 14 years of Conservative administrations at Westminster.
“Voting Scottish Labour means booting out this rotten Tory government, maximising Scotland’s influence with Scottish Labour MPs in government, and delivering the change that Scotland needs,” he said.
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, advocated for unionists to vote tactically in an effort to unseat as many SNP MPs as possible. He was previously shut down by Sunak after calling for a pact with other unionist parties that would numerically benefit Labour more than the Tories in Scotland.
“If voters unite in the many seats where it’s a straight fight between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP, we can get rid of nationalist MPs who have never focused on the things that really matter,” Ross said.
In a sign that his party will run a series of mini-campaigns in specific seats, Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, pledged to select “local champions who will work tirelessly” for key constituencies.
He said it was “absolutely within our grasp to have more liberals than nationalists in the next parliament”, which would mean the SNP losing out on the rewards that come with being the third party at Westminster.
Although they are extremely unlikely to win any seats, both the Scottish Greens and the Alba Party are expected to take votes from the SNP, which could prove crucial in tight contests.
Lorna Slater, the Scottish Greens co-leader, whose ministerial sacking by Yousaf preceded his downfall, said that a strong vote for her party “could be transformational, so everybody needs to get out and vote for people and for [the] planet”.
Mhairi Black, the deputy SNP leader at Westminster, will be standing down at the general election - Photo JESSICA TAYLOR/PA WIRE
Alex Salmond, the former SNP first minister and leader of the Alba Party, urged nationalists to desert his former colleagues and follow him to his new group, which he said was “now the natural home for independence supporters”.
Regardless of how many seats the SNP wins or loses, there will be a large-scale changing of the guard for the Nationalists at Westminster.
Prominent MPs including Mhairi Black, the firebrand deputy leader of the party at Westminster, have announced that they are standing down at the general election.
Ian Blackford, the former SNP leader in the Commons, and Stewart Hosie, the former party deputy leader who is running the election campaign, are another two of the nine who will quit parliament when it dissolves.
Labour is hoping that it will add firepower to its Scottish team with its candidates. Douglas Alexander, the former international development secretary, is the most prominent and is standing for the party in East Lothian, its top target seat north of the border.
The party also has high hopes for Blair McDougall, the former head of the 2014 Better Together campaign; Kirsty McNeill, an executive director of Save the Children and former adviser to Gordon Brown in Downing Street; and Martin McCluskey, the councillor and long-standing Labour official and activist.
Rishi Sunak has been accused of “disrespecting” Scottish voters by scheduling a general election for the school holidays when many families will be abroad.
Pupils break for the summer in Scotland about three weeks earlier than their counterparts in England, which means the July 4 ballot clashes with the traditional holiday season north of the border.
Research suggests that two out of five adults in Scotland plan an overseas holiday in Europe this year — with 12 per cent expecting to take a long-haul break. Many holidays are likely to take place in early July.
The election announcement took senior SNP figures by surprise, with one source claiming there was “monumental” panic about the timing of the contest.
John Swinney, the first minister, criticised Sunak for “perhaps the latest act of disrespect from a Conservative government to call an election during the Scottish summer school holidays”.
Swinney said independence “will be at the heart of the [SNP] campaign” and insisted the party was in a strong position to fight the election.
“Scotland is protected by the SNP,” he said. “People know what they get when they vote for the SNP, they know they get a party that will put Scotland first, and that’s what we are going to do.”
Fergus Mutch, a former adviser to Swinney’s predecessors Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond, criticised the SNP for “whingeing” about the election date, insisting it “isn’t exactly a surefooted way to start this general election campaign”.
He added: “The SNP need to get over that quickly and get on to the issues that matter if they are to stand a chance over the next six weeks.”
Stephen Gethins, the SNP candidate for Arbroath & Broughty Ferry, said he welcomed the election even if he now had to cancel his family break booked for the first week of the school holidays.
He said “as many people as possible” should participate in the election “regardless of how they might be voting”.
“It is disrespectful to hold the election during the Scottish school holidays when many families will be taking a hard-earned break, and I hope that those taking a break enjoy their holidays and remember to use their postal vote,” he said.
The prime minister is expected to travel north on Thursday to launch the Scottish leg of his election campaign.
The latest polling suggests Labour has opened up a ten-point lead over the SNP in a sign that John Swinney is failing to turn around the Nationalists’ faltering fortunes.
Stephen Gethins, SNP candidate for Arbroath & Broughty Ferry, is to cancel his family break booked for the start of the school holidays - Photo KEN JACK/GETTY IMAGES
This would lead to a rout, with the SNP crashing to just 11 MPs from its current yield of 43, were it to be repeated at the general election. Labour, which secured two constituencies in 2019, would become the dominant force in Scottish politics once more, returning 35 MPs.
A number of sources have expressed frustration that Swinney will have a short period to turn around the poor ratings bequeathed to him by his predecessor Humza Yousaf.
“We need more Swinney time,” one MP said. An “election gathering” with Swinney, which was scheduled for June 9 at Perth Concert Hall, is now likely to be brought forward as the SNP has ripped up its campaign plans.
The event included a slot for candidates to have their photographs taken with the first minister, who was giving a speech and answering questions from would-be parliamentarians and party members.
The SNP is struggling to raise funds for a general election year, has no large-scale donors and, according to its most recent accounts, made a loss of more than £800,000 in 2022.
This contrasts with Scottish Labour, which has £500,000 in the bank and donors have pledged that at least the same again will be delivered before the election.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the contest would be a “change” election in an attempt to conflate the 17 years of SNP government in Holyrood with the 14 years of Conservative administrations at Westminster.
“Voting Scottish Labour means booting out this rotten Tory government, maximising Scotland’s influence with Scottish Labour MPs in government, and delivering the change that Scotland needs,” he said.
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, advocated for unionists to vote tactically in an effort to unseat as many SNP MPs as possible. He was previously shut down by Sunak after calling for a pact with other unionist parties that would numerically benefit Labour more than the Tories in Scotland.
“If voters unite in the many seats where it’s a straight fight between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP, we can get rid of nationalist MPs who have never focused on the things that really matter,” Ross said.
In a sign that his party will run a series of mini-campaigns in specific seats, Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, pledged to select “local champions who will work tirelessly” for key constituencies.
He said it was “absolutely within our grasp to have more liberals than nationalists in the next parliament”, which would mean the SNP losing out on the rewards that come with being the third party at Westminster.
Although they are extremely unlikely to win any seats, both the Scottish Greens and the Alba Party are expected to take votes from the SNP, which could prove crucial in tight contests.
Lorna Slater, the Scottish Greens co-leader, whose ministerial sacking by Yousaf preceded his downfall, said that a strong vote for her party “could be transformational, so everybody needs to get out and vote for people and for [the] planet”.
Mhairi Black, the deputy SNP leader at Westminster, will be standing down at the general election - Photo JESSICA TAYLOR/PA WIRE
Alex Salmond, the former SNP first minister and leader of the Alba Party, urged nationalists to desert his former colleagues and follow him to his new group, which he said was “now the natural home for independence supporters”.
Regardless of how many seats the SNP wins or loses, there will be a large-scale changing of the guard for the Nationalists at Westminster.
Prominent MPs including Mhairi Black, the firebrand deputy leader of the party at Westminster, have announced that they are standing down at the general election.
Ian Blackford, the former SNP leader in the Commons, and Stewart Hosie, the former party deputy leader who is running the election campaign, are another two of the nine who will quit parliament when it dissolves.
Labour is hoping that it will add firepower to its Scottish team with its candidates. Douglas Alexander, the former international development secretary, is the most prominent and is standing for the party in East Lothian, its top target seat north of the border.
The party also has high hopes for Blair McDougall, the former head of the 2014 Better Together campaign; Kirsty McNeill, an executive director of Save the Children and former adviser to Gordon Brown in Downing Street; and Martin McCluskey, the councillor and long-standing Labour official and activist.
