Graeme Spence is a founder of Vive Ecosse and an organiser for Indy X. He has a strong background in political campaign management, including roles as a former election agent and organiser for the ALBA Party, and as a former Chief of Staff to Douglas Chapman MP. Additionally, Spence has experience as a campaign organiser and architect for a Dunfermline MSP and recently headed a national leadership election campaign.
December Deliberations
On this ViveEcosse podcast we have a chat about some of the big issues in Scottish Politics this December;
Available on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon via: https://anchor.fm/vive-ecosse
In a stunning expose of how Labour UK believe Scottish Labour will perform at the next Westminster General Election, Keir Rodney Starmer has conceded it to the SNP already.
As you can see reported by Theo Usherwood, Political Editor of LBC – that Starmer is already saying he wonāt do a deal with the SNP, predicting an SNP win rather than his own branch office.
It further reveals how little Starmer has his finger on the pulse, as following a pro-Indy win at the next election, Scotland will be transitioning to independence, due to the Supreme Court ruling UK Parliamentary sovereignty is unbreakable and Scotland would have just won the vote that powers that particular engine.
In this example letās say Nicola Sturgeon is the negotiator, she would be effectively playing both parties off against each other anyway, to get the best deal for Scotland. I donāt see why Scottish voters would care what rump UK gets left with once the deal is done. If they get left with another Tory Government, thatās what they voted for. Scotland is not responsible for poor decision-making south of the border.
Likewise, outside the Scottish Labour member & supporter voting pool – no one actually thinks Scottish Labour are ready to do anything useful. 72% of people disagree that Scottish Labour is ready to form the government. Will we cope without that lot in charge?
If we squint through and get beyond the fact Starmer forgot Scotland just became independent and is negotiating and transitioning due to the defacto-ref. Keir shows his naivety about how the UK Government and election system work.
You see in the event of a hung parliament, without a deal being done to have a workable majority, you enter confidence and supply. There are only a few outcomes here.
Letās take that last example for a moment, if I donāt buy a donut at the stipulated price, I donāt get to complain when the next person in line buys the last one on some sort of āI deserve it moreā rampage.
Pay the price, get the goods. Rodney gets his donut if he pays the Scottish donut stall.
You will notice, Starmer has conceded the Scottish Election to the SNP, heās conceded the UK election to a stalemate, heās forgotten how we form the government, all while demanding the only party to have won anything – denies the only winning mandate – because otherwise, we would need to explain to voters why a party, that few of them voted for, isnāt getting to do the job, few of them had confidence it could even do.
Strategist Starmer or Ridiculous Rodney?
Today we got called out for sensationalist opinion pieces, which is partially true, we’re excitable creatures here at ViveEcosse. Where we aim to platform as many diverse voices across the independence movement as we can.
However, itās a good point, weāve been a little mental recently due to the carnage in the news. So tonight, itās a little bit softer, weāre going to do a piece on something weāve discussed endlessly – how to make good campaigning messages. Itās not thrilling but weāre going to make the guide.
First up, you need to have a rather good policy or campaign in mind, running absolute drivel, or copying a national campaign and adding your local area name doesnāt generally work. This needs to be an important topic for your locale.
Secondly, write it up in full, have a full explanation and briefing document for the whole plan, exhaustively written out to its full extent. Share this with your campaign team and ask them specifically, poke holes, find questions, play dumb and work out the oddities.
Thirdly, take your massive campaign document and summarise it, as 100 words, then as 50 words, then as one sentence, and finally as a three/four word āstingā. This is where we take a policy and make it a soundbite. The closer to natural language or common phrases it is, the better it will do.
Fourthly, it’s time to format that large document, give it a nice set of headings, give it a front cover, including an upfront summary, and your three short versions of it, on the first page.
Fifthly, create a video – around 2 minutes, explaining what this campaign is, what it aims to do, and what the ācall to actionā is – such as what you want the viewer to do.
Sixthly, you need to make some square images for social media, such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You use these as your promotional tools.
Lastly, you need to find some āfirst followersā, these people will like/share/support your work. They will comment and break the initial ice that stops others from interacting with it.
You may notice something, at ViveEcosse we try to follow this format with almost every post!
First, we write our draft, then we cross-check each other’s work, we then format it properly, we take that article and add a short title, plus add some tags as our short sting on topic, we jazz it up for social media with a link and an image for every article in our house style (youāll have seen our images on social media – vibrant purple). We then talk about the articles we cover on our podcast to ensure we have a full circle of content. We post the images to social media with links back, before posting to our Signal group of supporters to ask them to assist with the sharing (there’s a link at the bottom of the page to join).
While we do this for our blog, we wanted to share the 7 key steps to making a successful campaign or shareable item. This piece needs your critical opinions as it will feature in a nicer format in our upcoming book and magazine.
Stephen Flynn takes over as SNP Westminster Group leader and all of sudden it’s been a little bit of hype for some under-hyped and overly cosy now backbenchers.
It will be of no surprise to ViveEcosse readers who the latest resignations from the SNP front bench are, as they’ve featured in our coverage last week.
First up is Pete Wishart, who holds the title of longest SNP MP at Westminster, something that he seems remarkably proud of while arguing there was no need for a leadership change.
We understand that the change was demanded by SNP MPs who felt the leadership of Angus Robertson, and then through Ian Blackford, seemed to be less about settling up, and rather more about how to settle down.
The comfort and lofty titles of Westminster had an appeal to many MPs and they felt that they could be ‘Stronger for Scotland’ while in effect having no real output. Sure the UK Government has never been called out in so many words, or in so many vivid depictions of evil, however, the only time they were beaten – was when Joanna Cherry decided to go off-piste and take them to court.
Pete Wishart has served SNP well and is a loyal supporter of whatever the party decides each week, however, he is not, someone who will rock the boat. I can understand why he felt the change was not required in the world in which he inhabits – it seems all that can be done is being done.
The backbenchers however mostly disagreed. The Tuesday club decided the time had come. Amusingly choosing the Westminster leader is a very quick affair, the old kicked out, and the new one installed without bothering to ask anyone outside the group. Perhaps expediency is better – i.e Liz Truss, given the mess we see when the whole party gets a say.
Secondly, not to be outdone, certain to be ousted ‘Defence Chief Spokesperson’ Stewart McDonald chucked out his resignation before Flynn even had to ask. Stewart’s largest contribution was a sort of whinge letter to NATO, who had no idea he was, and those who do know who he is – largely thought it nonsense.
Joanna Cherry who would have actually been an asset to the front bench has decided to remain focussed in the Joint Human Rights Committee as chair, showing considerable skill in getting every opposition party to support her in the role. A loss for the SNP but a smart move for Cherry, who can keep tabs on progress from the side.
Nothing of value has actually been lost, as these two enjoyed the comfort of the green bench a bit much. We still await the actual output of the shake-up from Stephen Flynn, which is sure to be some excitement.
Iām becoming bored of Labour, not because they are a cohort of deck shufflers, that have no real ideas or plans, but the grift it taking on new levels.
Above is the whole five points they could be bothered to write down, no plan or strategy with them, no details.
So when they post nonsense like this
They say āitās time for changeā. But what is the change? You see in elections you can be the campaign for stability or change.
Is it possible the Labour Party are unaware that Gordon Brown was the last Labour leader in power? That it was Gordon that lost the election and propelled the Tories into power for over a decade?
How can the man who lost last time, be the change?
Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar are that hopeless, that theyāve had to dig out the former heavyweights to add some credibility. Government in waiting or government of the past?
The reason the Labour Party got wiped out in Scotland was due to utter uselessness and entitlement to power that they took the electorate for granted.
Douglas Chapmanās predecessor was exposed by his constituents for using an expensive private transport service, rather than just using the airport bus. Douglas happens to use his free bus pass avoided expensing it at all.
Labour are currently feeling a bit emboldened with the UK wide loathing of the Conservative Party, but make no mistake theyāll snatch defeat from the jaws of victory before the next election. Planless, strategyless, democracy denying – none of it holds up terribly wrong.
