Just THREE days to save independence: the John Swinney strategy motion MUST be amended, or the dream could be over

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With less than three months of the year to go, the 2025 Scot Goes Pop fundraiser is still short of its target figure.  If you'd like to help keep the lights on during the several months it will take me to find out whether an alternative funding model is viable (realistically it could be a wait of around four months or more), card donations are welcome HERE.  Or, if you prefer, direct donations can be made via PayPal.  My PayPal email address is:  jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk

Many thanks to everyone who has donated so far.

Vote James Kelly #1 for the SNP National Executive Committee: why I'm standing and what I believe in

As you may already have seen on a certain other blog, I've put my name forward for the forthcoming SNP internal elections, which will take place over the weekend.  I'm standing for election to three committees: the National Executive Committee (NEC), the Policy Development Committee, and the Conferences Committee.  I've made a video to explain my reasons for standing, which are mainly to give people who broadly share my views on the way forward on independence strategy, and on the need to reverse the hollowing out of internal party democracy (a problem that exists across all major political parties) someone to vote for.  The first half of the video explains my thoughts on independence strategy, and the second half gives you an overview of my broader political outlook and views on other policy areas.  Some of that might seem like motherhood and apple pie stuff, but in this day and age I'm not sure anything can be taken as read.

Incidentally, if you spot any errors in my explanation of how the voting process works, please let me know so I can correct it.  I've done my best to get it right, but I can't be 100% sure on every single detail.

The Alba Party's days could be numbered as the disgraced former General Secretary Chris McEleny chooses his moment to unleash "the full wrath of a Mad Dog"

Back in the spring, I exclusively broke the news on Scot Goes Pop (based on what I'd been told by a reliable source) that the Alba Party's disgraced former General Secretary Chris McEleny was refusing to step down as the party's Nominating Officer, and that under Electoral Commission rules, the Alba leadership had no power to remove him against his will.  This left Alba in the extraordinary position that a man they had just expelled was in total control of the list of candidates they put forward for elections, and indeed had the power to block any Alba candidates from being put forward at all.  McEleny's controversial Somerset-based blogger mate "Stew" swiftly ridiculed what I'd revealed, implying it was no more than a figment of my crazed imagination, but even at that stage a lot of the story was easily verifiable from information in the public domain on the Electoral Commission website, and now the rest of the story has been fully confirmed by the Sunday National, who several months later are the first mainstream media outlet to pick up on this latest crisis for Alba.  They have a quote from McEleny in which he openly admits that he has remained the party's Nominating Officer since his expulsion.  It appears that the Alba leadership are betting the house on legal action proving enough to dislodge McEleny without having to do any sort of deal with him - but based on my reading of the rules, that seems to be an extreme long shot.

A commenter on the previous thread asked for my reaction to the Sunday National piece, and you can hear it in the video below.  A key question, of course, is what McEleny's motivations and intentions are - if he's just making a symbolic gesture and trying to make the Alba leadership sweat a bit, the consequences may not be all that severe.  But if he's genuinely planning to use his full powers as Nominating Officer to block candidates from standing, it may be checkmate for Alba and they may be forced to start afresh by registering a new party with a new name.

Those of you who have been suffering withdrawal symptoms from my extensive Shannon Donoghue coverage earlier in the year will be delighted to hear that she does get a passing mention in the video.  But please take this opportunity to update your Donoghue-related fan merchandise, because the Wedding of the Century has now TAKEN PLACE and she's therefore now called Shannon Cullen.

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With less than three months of the year to go, the 2025 Scot Goes Pop fundraiser is still short of its target figure.  If you'd like to help keep the lights on during the several months it will take me to find out whether an alternative funding model is viable (realistically it could be a wait of around four months or more), card donations are welcome HERE.  Or, if you prefer, direct donations can be made via PayPal.  My PayPal email address is:  jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk

Many thanks to everyone who has donated so far.

"Brexit 2 - This Time It's The Kitchen Sink" is coming - and we mustn't squander this second opportunity to use the shock to win independence

Given how consistently the Tories have been trailing in a poor third place in the vast majority of GB-wide polls, it's easy to dismiss anything they say or do these days as a total irrelevance.  But in my view, Kemi Badenoch's announcement that a Tory government would withdraw Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights really does matter, because it actually does make it significantly more likely that "Brexit 2" will happen.  That's for two reasons - 

1) There are up to four years left to go until the general election, which leaves plenty of time for Reform to implode, just as every Farage project in the past has ultimately imploded.  If that happens, the Tories are much more likely to pick up the pieces than Labour.

2) If Reform don't implode, they may yet need the Tories as a junior coalition partner if they are to form a government.  Badenoch's decision removes any chance that Reform would have to give up on ECHR withdrawal to seal the coalition deal.

So there's now probably a 75-80% chance that within five years, Britain will be in the dubious company of Russia and Belarus as the only European countries outside the ECHR and outside the Council of Europe.  That will be a shock to the system of liberal unionists in Scotland, and if we strike while that shock is at its most raw, there'll be an opportunity to bring a significant minority of those people over to the Yes side and win a decisive majority for independence.  

But as we learned from squandering the opportunity that Brexit 1 offered to win independence, the window of opportunity will be limited, because over time liberal unionists get used to new realities and reconcile themselves to them.  So we'll need to be ready and this time there can be no procrastination.

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With less than three months of the year to go, the 2025 Scot Goes Pop fundraiser is still short of its target figure.  If you'd like to help keep the lights on during the several months it will take me to find out whether an alternative funding model is viable (realistically it could be a wait of around four months or more), card donations are welcome HERE.  Or, if you prefer, direct donations can be made via PayPal.  My PayPal email address is:  jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk

Many thanks to everyone who has donated so far.

Objectively, by far the most effective way of making Scotland's and the UK's Jewish population safer would be to pressurise Israel to end the genocide

Below is my video response to the despicable comments that have been made by Netanyahu sympathisers in the mainstream media, and on social media, suggesting that anyone who marches for Palestinian rights, or who supports Palestinian statehood, or who calls the genocide what it is, is somehow responsible for the atrocity in Manchester.

With less than three months of the year to go, the 2025 Scot Goes Pop fundraiser is still short of its target figure.  If you'd like to help keep the lights on during the several months it will take me to find out whether an alternative funding model is viable (realistically it could be a wait of around four months or more), card donations are welcome HERE.  Or, if you prefer, direct donations can be made via PayPal.  My PayPal email address is:  jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk

Many thanks to everyone who has donated so far.

Could the *real* support for Scottish independence be 60% or higher? The SHOCKING clue hidden in the Norstat poll's data tables - plus fresh evidence that the beleaguered Alba Party are hurtling towards TOTAL WIPEOUT next May

The data tables for the new Norstat independence poll were released yesterday - and as expected they confirm that the poll was weighted by recalled 2014 referendum result, a practice that other polling firms like Ipsos have warned could be a serious mistake due to the danger of false recall after such a long period of time.  In the video commentary below I reveal exactly what the independence results were on Norstat's unweighted numbers - and I pose the question of whether this means Yes have had a sustained lead on the ground for many years, but that fact has been effectively concealed from us by dubious polling methodology.  I also take stock of another poor poll result for Alba, which firmly suggests Alex Salmond's former party is heading for zero seats next May.

The Scot Goes Pop fundraiser for 2025, launched eight long months ago in January, has been inching closer to its target figure...but can it get there?  Many thanks to everyone who has donated so far.  If you'd like to help Scot Goes Pop stay afloat during this prolonged transitional period while I seek to find out whether video blogging is viable as an alternative funding model, card donations are welcome HERE.    Or, if you prefer, direct donations can be made via PayPal.  My PayPal email address is:  jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk

Another way of helping is by subscribing to my YouTube channel (which I must stress is completely free!).  I need to reach at least 1000 subscribers and I'm currently on 620.

A pro-independence majority for the FOURTH Norstat poll in a row - meaning that the SETTLED WILL KLAXON is sounding ever more insistently

I've gone old-school and reverted to audio-only for my commentary on the new Norstat poll, which shows a substantial pro-independence majority (Yes 53%, No 47%) and a commanding SNP lead in Scottish Parliament voting intentions.  I consider the significance of there now seemingly being three polling companies, rather than the previous two, which are consistently showing Yes ahead, and in particular the significance of the fact that this is happening even though Norstat haven't yet abandoned the questionable practice of weighting by 2014 recalled vote (as far as I know).  I also question what the Sunday Times, who commissioned the poll, are playing at with the downright odd way they've presented the results - most notably their burying of the self-evidently newsworthy independence result.

You can listen by following the direct YouTube link, or via the embedded player below.

The Scot Goes Pop fundraiser for 2025, launched eight long months ago in January, has been inching closer to its target figure...but can it get there?  Many thanks to everyone who has donated so far.  If you'd like to help Scot Goes Pop stay afloat during this prolonged transitional period while I seek to find out whether video blogging is viable as an alternative funding model, card donations are welcome HERE.    Or, if you prefer, direct donations can be made via PayPal.  My PayPal email address is:  jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk

Another way of helping is by subscribing to my YouTube channel (which I must stress is completely free!).  I need to reach at least 1000 subscribers and I'm currently on 612.

53% back independence in BOMBSHELL poll: panic grips Westminster as Norstat knock up another natty number

Incredibly, after a summer of practically no Scottish polls, we've now had four in the last week, and three have had voting intentions numbers.  The latest is from the regular Norstat series for the Sunday Times.

Should Scotland be an independent country?

Yes 53% (-1)

No 47% (+1)

This run of Yes-majority polls from Norstat is now far too sustained to be coincidental, and it's really strange in a way, because Norstat's predecessor Panelbase was for many years one of the more No-friendly companies, and to the best of my knowledge they haven't changed their methodology - they haven't abandoned 2014 weighting or anything like that (even though in my opinion they probably should).  The most logical explanation is therefore that Yes support has indeed risen markedly - and yet most other polling firms haven't really picked up that trend.

One of the problems with this switching-to-video-blogging malarkey is that there are some times of day when it's not really feasible to drop everything and make a video, which means I'm not reacting quite as quickly to new polls as I was with conventional blogging.  I'll need to have a think about how to square that circle in the future, but with a bit of luck I'll have a video about the Norstat poll within the next 12-24 hours.  In the meantime, here are a few of my tweets from yesterday.  I've said it before and I'll say it again - there is NOTHING that triggers the Brit Nat hordes quite like a tweet about curling.

I must admit I don't recall *quite* this level of BBC coverage when Scotland won the World Curling Championships five months ago.

— James Kelly (@JamesKelly) September 27, 2025

I went to the Freemasons' Grand Lodge in Edinburgh for Doors Open Day. I expected to see blindfolded men kissing toads, but instead there was a woman on the organ playing Pet Shop Boys hits, Underneath the Arches and Ghostbusters. Is there no end to these people's perversions?

— James Kelly (@JamesKelly) September 27, 2025

And as you can see from the memorabilia, they're not beyond supporting separatism *on occasion*... pic.twitter.com/gnyaAB1z9x

— James Kelly (@JamesKelly) September 27, 2025

Here I am sitting in the Grand Master's chair. A rare old treat for a baptised Papist. pic.twitter.com/VolH9ujljU

— James Kelly (@JamesKelly) September 27, 2025

YouGov seats projection is good for the SNP - but it's also a wake-up call that powerfully demonstrates why John Swinney's independence strategy needs to be amended

The new YouGov MRP seats projection in Scotland is rather neat, in the sense that it exactly reverses the result of the 2024 general election, giving the SNP 37 seats and Labour 9.  However, that does still mean that the SNP would fail to win around one-third of Scottish constituency seats at Westminster, which will hopefully be a timely wake-up call as SNP members approach a conference in which they will have to decide whether to back a John Swinney plan which bets the house on literally being able to win 90% of the Holyrood constituency seats.  It's just not going to happen, and the Swinney plan desperately needs to be amended.  Find out all the details of the MRP poll in my video commentary below.

The Scot Goes Pop fundraiser for 2025, launched eight long months ago in January, has been inching closer to its target figure...but can it get there?  Many thanks to everyone who has donated so far.  If you'd like to help Scot Goes Pop stay afloat during this prolonged transitional period while I seek to find out whether video blogging is viable as an alternative funding model, card donations are welcome HERE.    Or, if you prefer, direct donations can be made via PayPal.  My PayPal email address is:  jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk

Another way of helping is by subscribing to my YouTube channel (which I must stress is completely free!).  I need to reach at least 1000 subscribers and I'm currently on 600.

SNP roar to sensational 17-point lead as "Scotland in Union" propaganda poll hilariously BACKFIRES

Let joy be unbounded, because Scotland in Union's legendary propaganda poll is BACK - but it hasn't exactly produced the results they were banking on.  Find out all the details in the video below.

The Scot Goes Pop fundraiser for 2025, launched eight long months ago in January, has been inching closer to its target figure...but can it get there?  Many thanks to everyone who has donated so far.  If you'd like to help Scot Goes Pop stay afloat during this prolonged transitional period while I seek to find out whether video blogging is viable as an alternative funding model, card donations are welcome HERE.    Or, if you prefer, direct donations can be made via PayPal.  My PayPal email address is:  jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk

Another way of helping is by subscribing to my YouTube channel (which I must stress is completely free!).  I need to reach at least 1000 subscribers and I'm currently on 582.