WHAT A WEEK THAT WAS?

WELL WHAT A WEEK THAT WAS.

Week one is now behind us. Lot’s happening, hugely exciting, thousands joining, pretty much a MSM blackout, a lot of smearing in public with panic behind the scenes amid the Unionist and SNP in a real tizzy. Huge reliance by Alba on social media to spread the word. Stunning progress over the week.

Until 2pm on Friday 26th March 2021 very few people knew of the existence of the Alba Party. As the news reached the Party Headquarters of the Unionist Parties and SNP HQ the first signs of shock were gradually overcome as they entered the contest to see who could throw the most negatively and smears in the first few days. Sadly the current First Minister run out an easy winner in that particular race. Mr Salmond showed no signs of being affected by it at all. I think Mr AS must have warned him it would happen. He told me it was to be expected. He said to me “Iain this is going to be a very dirty and ferocious campaign because ALBA is a huge danger to the Unionist parties but also represents a different threat to the SNP, not a danger of them losing seats but losing the monopoly power in the Parliament over the future of the campaign to win Scottish Independence. There are many within the SNP leadership who will not be happy with that at all, particularly the glacierists”

As I have mentioned previously Mr AS had told me to expect an early poll and sure enough less than 60 hours later the field work started on a poll. It was crucial to get this done early, before people learned much or anything about ALBA. It was hoped it would serve three purposes. The first was to ensure lowball figures to put a negative spin on the whole venture. It did achieve this as the headlines advised Mr Salmond was dead in the water from the start. It was also intended to be used by the other Parties to be able to argue that ALBA must not be permitted to participate in the TV debates and to receive minimal TV coverage as they were “too small, and irrelevant”. More on that later but ALBA was excluded from the BBC DEBATE. The third objective was to depress those thinking of joining ALBA. Without doubt this particular hope was a huge failure.

The 3% level of support, for a Party that had just been created, that probably the vast majority of Scots and neither yet heard about at the time of polling or that had not yet announced its candidates or policies, had already secured the voting support of 120,000 Scots was great news and was a big boost. At about 1% a day rise in support was great. 

So here we are, a week has passed. Thousands have joined, indeed in one week ALBA now has a bigger membership than the Scottish Liberals have managed, in their various guises, in more than a century.

The Party has announced 32 candidates, excellent candidates in the form of 18 women, 14 men that includes 6 present or former Parliamentarians, 7 serving councillors, 2 economists, business people, a World Champion boxer, covering all sections of the community including BAME and the disabled. A true cross section representative of our entire nation.

We have held our first Candidates Conference and new policies were passed, some of which will be announced this week. Next weekend will see our first Woman’s Conference where discussion will be led on important issues of crucial importance in this election like GRA and the dangerous Hate Crime Legislation.

Campaign materials have been sourced and will be delivered this week. A big Fundraising Appeal is being crowdfunded to raise more money so we can compete on a better footing than anyone expected.

The bloggers, or as we are now known “the new media” wing have put in huge, round the clock efforts, to get the ALBA presence everywhere and get the message out why voting both votes SNP just elects Unionists and makes winning Independence more difficult. I am very proud of that work, we have some really great bloggers on our side. They will be of crucial importance in the weeks ahead. They are reliable and loyal, unlike the MSM, most of whom are on the payroll of the Union.

Finally, the most important of all. YOU. The people who have spread the word, by sharing articles, tweeting articles, retweeting articles and facts, spreading by word of mouth the ALBA message to your friends and families, work colleagues etc.

So where are the unionists three initial targets now? Well the headlines as I write this is that ALBA is now 6% in the polls and already tipped to win six seats with 240,000 voters planning to support them next month. The membership of the Party, the percentage in the polls, the forecast number of seats are all now greater than the Liberal Party leader Willie Rennie can manage.If he is on the TV coverage then surely the larger Party, the Party forecast on current polls to win more votes and seats must surely be included? .Finally thanks to the early lowball poll, Alba members and supporters have fresh energy and are enthused by the excellent advances secured over the course of the first week.

In less than a week, the ALBA PARTY has DOUBLED our support from 0% a week ago to 3% a few days later to,in less than a week, 6% or in other words 240,000 Scots now plan to vote ALBA PARTY on the list on May 6th. What’s more Mr AS and I think this is just the start. At 1% growth a day we could be in a fantastic position very soon. Current levels of support already give us 6 seats in the Parliament at the direct expense of the Tories and Labour. We want more!

Do not ignore the importance of not only winning the seat from the Unionists, we are also cutting out their money. Money that is used to host offices, pay full and part time staff all working every day to block Independence. As we win these seats we win the funds to create pro Indy offices, staffed with full time and part time staff all working for their constituents and building confidence in Independence. We win independence by weakening the forces of Union and replacing them with the forces of freedom.

As for coverage in the MSM it will be impossible to ignore us much longer as this progress continues. We are already the “story” of this election and like all good stories it builds up more and more until we reach the end of the first chapter on the 6th May. It will have a happy ending. Mr AS is also sure about that.

Mr AS told me to remind you that you are all part of this story, that its all our country’s story. We can build that better Scotland. We can be free. We must act now with real determination and effort to create the best possible platform for it to happen.

We are on the way from misery to happiness today, as two recent recruits would put it!

We are all in each other’s hands. Let’s do our very best!

I am, as always

Yours for Scotland.