Scotland Matters Social Evening 2025

Despite the snowy weather, and 14 who couldn’t make it around 34  Scotland Matters supporters from all the main pro UK parties including some elected representatives gathered for a social evening in Aberdeen on Jan10– some even travelled up from Edinburgh and Inverclyde. It was preceded by an informal session with a politically diverse group, exploring ideas for pro UK campaigning, methods, material and themes for potential use in the run up to the Scottish elections. These were noted for consideration by Scotland Matters and the political parties (See summary below).

It was a great evening, meeting up with likeminded people and enjoying a buffet, humorous quiz, chat and the inevitable raffle. We hope to repeat this in Edinburgh and Glasgow area in the next few months.

Summary of Ideas

It was generally acknowledged that what many presumed was the demise of the SNP following the UK General Election, was premature wishful thinking. With Labour’s short-lived honeymoon and subsequent drop in popularity, Tories still nursing their wounds and trying to rebuild their reputation under new leadership, Lib Dems attracting disaffected voters from both parties and the emergence of Reform as a serious contender, is all advantageous to the SNP. This allows them to continue their usual simplistic argument: we (the Scottish people)  tried the main parties, they’ve failed Scotland and we’d be better of separating.

They will try to capitalise on the 4-way fight splitting the pro UK vote and the reality that there is limited time for any of the other parties to turn things around before the Scottish Elections.

Large sections see the SNP as less objectionable than the others and if they win sufficient seats, someone will be tempted to make a deal with them.  Strategies must be adopted to deny the SNP any chance of forming an administration. Keeping Scotland in the UK should override party ambitions.

Our view of the Holyrood 2026 campaign so far

Pro-UK tactical voting is will be difficult in 2026 because of the unwillingness of the pro-UK parties to co-operate and the PR system whereby the electorate have 2 votes in Holyrood elections . The danger is, as a Survation poll this week showed, Labour Reform and Conservatives are all within a few percentage point of each other and could cancel each other out and the SNP emerge as the biggest party with around 54 of the 129 seats.

The SNP could  form a minority government or ally with a pro-UK party to form a government.

It is neither possible or advisable for  a non-party campaign group like Scotland Matters to advocate tactical voting – suggesting which party to vote for in given constituency or region – so our thinking at the moment is to run a campaign that highlights the major failures of the SNP and encourages people to go out and vote, and for the pro-UK party they prefer.

Our objective is to raise enough funds to get our message to as many people in Scotland as possible, especially in the 48 Highland, Northeast and South Scotland regional and list seats where Labour are not strong and the SNP are more vulnerable due to their energy, transport, and agriculture policies, and underfunding. This could at least result in a geographic counter to a potential Central Belt-focused government, if all 48 seats non-Central Belt seats voted for a pro-UK candidate, and the 18 pro-UK Central Belt seats were retained

Suggestions noted

These are the suggestions and opinions we noted for consideration. We are considering all of them in the light of how they can help us meet our objective (get the SNP out of power,  resources and funding available and prioritise accordingly

  • Highlighting SNP failures has been much used with some success, but they still gain power. Can we use this more successfully on less well-known issues. Example – Glasgow is hotspot for people  trafficking – why?
  • Can’t have one campaign across Scotland – different regions different issues.
  • Utilise the two vote Constituency/Regional system to advantage. Example being that parties should not campaign for the constituency vote where there is a competent candidate from another party who is best placed to beat SNP incumbent or where SNP would be close second place. ‘Go for the regional list vote’, This hurts SNP chances and keeps experienced politicians in parliament. Create a genuine Unionist majority. (Country before party).
  • Many of electorate not aware of what is devolved/reserved. Campaign to make clear how many of the problems people face are SNP not Westminster responsibility.
  • SNP have diehard support – other parties need to overcome voter apathy.
  • Highlight with examples, how much time Holyrood spends debating non devolved matters – at the expense of issues for which they are responsible.
  • SNP criticise ‘Populist’ parties. Campaign to make clear to voters that SNP the very epitome of Populism. (Creating division by ‘othering’ ‘establishment elites’ and claiming all problems can be solved by breaking away). All the pro UK parties – should use this theme.
  • We need ideas to ensure that we get more media coverage of the issues to get better public involvement. Extreme examples being Post office scandal and grooming gangs remained low profile issues until TV drama and Musk intervention. How do we do this?
  • One suggestion was that cross party co-operation was effective against SNP where there were vocal groups speaking out and representing significant slices of the electorate. (Example ‘For Women Scotland’ demos and media coverage brought out cross party support on GRR – Sturgeon’s demise!
  • Stress the toxic political environment in Scotland since the SNP separatist movement gained a foothold. – This has resulted in no improvement to people’s lives.
  • Consider campaign material suggesting that the problems and issues facing countries and the world already too complicated for politicians and asking why one would add the complexity of separating from UK (Think of the distraction of Brexit over many years – with argument over harm or benefits continuing).
  • American elections demonstrated the importance of the youth vote. Use TIK Tok, Instagam etc. Example Reform and Farage. Scotland Matters now using both platforms
  • Target SNP ‘big guns and ‘low hanging fruit’.
  • Consider Scotland Matters activists delivering party leaflets along with our own (And vice versa) in key areas where there is an obvious close contender to SNP
  • Scotland Matters general election campaign was also talked about – considered a success despite limited funds and short notice. Royal mail leaflet deliveries particularly appropriate in rural areas with low housing density, concentrating on areas where previous election had a narrow margin between SNP winner and pro- UK party in second place.

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