Quote of the day 1st April 2021

"Salmond knows fine well why Holyrood has regional list MSPs. They are to correct any imbalance after the first-past-the-post contests for constituency MSPs. List MSPs are allocated to ensure that Holyrood ultimately reflects the views of Scotland as a whole.


This democratic safeguard, long held as Holyrood’s big advantage over Westminster, is what Salmond wants to undermine. His goal is a parliament that deliberately fails to mirror public opinion. His aim is disproportional representation.


If his plan succeeds and many SNP supporters back Alba with their list vote, Holyrood will be skewed. It will have a far greater proportion of independence-supporting MSPs than the proportion of independence supporters in the Scottish nation. A further consequence would be to disenfranchise Scots who voted for mainstream opposition parties. They would end up with far fewer MSPs than they deserve.


To call this “gaming the system” is too kind. This is an attempt to subvert the system. The loophole exploited is not a feature, it is a bug. Salmond is trying to cheat democracy using the kind of trick you might find in a tinpot republic."


"The magnitude of this moment has not yet been grasped by some in the independence movement. Salmond’s party is a threat to constitutional nationalism in Scotland. It jeopardises everything the SNP has ever fought for, and every victory it has won. It could turn a historic opportunity into a lost cause.


The case for Salmond’s supermajority is bogus. It has zero political utility to the case for independence. It may do lasting damage by bringing the contentious concept of a supermajority front and centre in the constitutional debate."


"By normalising the idea that a supermajority is required on big constitutional issues, Salmond has sold the pass. He has made it harder to argue that a simple majority is all that is required. The broader nationalist movement may well rue this day."


(Kenny Farquharson, extracts from article called "Salmond’s supermajority is an obvious scam" which you can read in full here.)

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