by Richard A » Wed May 12, 2021 5:34 pm
Yes, the result for Alba was decidedly disappointing. Interesting, at the other end of the spectrum, when Nigel Farage (who strangely is as passionate about preserving the United Kingdom as he is about attacking the European Union, but there you are), fell out with UKIP and set up his own party, he got supporters to desert UKIP and join his new Brexit Party en masse. UKIP is still around, but pretty much an irrelevance - while Farage had the political sense to rebrand the Brexit Party as the Reform Party and accept that not only is Brexit done but the Tories have become its champions, UKIP has become, sort of, the cousin of AfD and Marine Le Pen's rebranded party (whose name I've briefly forgotten). And with Priti Patel as anti-immigrant as she is - refugees only to be treated as refugees if they come through the official gates, which she keeps firmly locked - even that mantle has been taken over by the Tories. While Farage keeps his political activity simmering while trying to go back to being a financier.
So the question is: how come Alba was not able to dent the SNP in the same way? And what future for a) Alex Salmond and b) the independence cause now?