Tag: Alba Party

Routes to Independence. Scottish Independence Podcasts.

Routes to Independence

GlasgowP4Indy

This year will be a General Election year. There’s been a lot of discussion about how independence supporting parties in Scotland might best approach their campaigns. Of course given that it’s a FPTP voting system for Westminster only the SNP have a realistic chance of gaining seats. Or losing them.

Recently the Scottish Independence Podcast team talked to some member of other parties about how they think the General Election can best be tackled for Scotland’s benefit. Here’s the video:

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If you prefer to listen to audio podcasts, you’ll find all three of the Routes to Independence series in this Indy Strategies Playlist

George Kerevan: Alba Party’s Economic Plans

GlasgowP4Indy

Julia Laurie, co-convenor of Edinburgh and Lothians Pensioners for Indy group writes:

The following podcast took place on Tuesday the 27th April, only 9 days before the Scottish Elections, and I knew this could not be edited and posted before then. I therefore decided to complete it after the election when we knew the results. You will now know that Alba Party did not achieve any MSP seats, but have no intention of disappearing, and are in fact pressing ahead with the party structure and planning their first conference. This podcast may therefore still be of interest to some of our members.

George Kerevan

George Kerevan, an economist and a member of Alba, came to speak to our group on Alba’s economic plans for an Independent Scotland. George has spoken to us on a number of occasions, and has become a friend of our group.

Alba’s Economic Plan

Alec Neil and George wrote Alba’s economic policy. It focuses on building the economy through a massive house building programme. To achieve this a new land tax will be brought in, land will be compulsorily purchased, and crash training courses will be provided to create the labour to build, therefore creating jobs and boosting the economy. The Alba Party plan to build environmentally friendly housing, not in huge estates, but in pockets of houses to help population growth throughout Scotland. Their aim is 30,000 houses per year.

George also spoke about pensions partly funded by a sovereign renewables energy fund. He outlined how a Scottish currency could be run in parallel with the sterling for a few years. Like many, I am extremely interested in the economic policies, so for me, this was a very exciting presentation. We had excellent questions from our members, these are a few examples: 

  • Would private/company pension funds be able to invest in a Scottish currency?
  • How do you see Now Scotland interacting going forward with Alba, SNP & Greens?
  • Do you subscribe to the SNP promise  to increase the state pension to the EU average?

You can listen here:

George Kerevan: The Alba Party’s Economic Plans

I hope you enjoyed listening to George, I found his talk and answers to be clear and interesting. We had loads of good comments so I think our Edinburgh & Lothians members were definitely engaged

Our Next Meeting:

Our next meeting is being held on Tuesday the 18th of May. We are hoping for a good turnout. It will be a chat meeting among our members to take stock of the current political situation and to decide how the group will progress from here. At present, we have no further speakers organised, but all suggestions are gratefully accepted!

Kenny MacAskill: the Alba Party

GlasgowP4Indy

Kenny MacAskill, MP is standing for the Alba Party on the Lothian List, in the Holyrood Election on 6th May.

Julia Laurie, co-convenor of Edinburgh & Lothians Pensioners4Indy group, writes:

With the forthcoming Scottish Elections, and the Alba Party having burst onto the scene at the last moment, I decided to try to engage a representative from the party to help our members make an informed decision on who to vote for on the list.

Our guest speaker

Kenny MacAskill

Kenny MacAskill is well known to most of us having been involved in Scottish politics for many years, but I was not sure how our members would feel as he was voted in as an SNP MP, and is now standing for Alba as an MSP, however, I need not have worried, and we had a good turnout. As an MSP for Lothian Region he was best known for his role as Cabinet Secretary for Justice from 25/5/11 – 25/11/14. Also an author, he has been involved writing seven books from Building a Nation in 2004 to Radical Scotland 2020.

Kenny talked about all aspects of Alba, why he joined, starting a new party so close to an election, their policies, people, ambitions, and plans for the future. And we had many varied questions: 

  • what legal action do you think we can take to gain Independence with reference to Ciaran Martin’s lecture?
  • can we factor food poverty into our arguments in support of independence?
  • what’s Alba Party view on currency?
  • can primacy for constitutional matters be transferred to the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish people in an election?
  • what is Alba’s position on a written Constitution?
  • if he is elected as MSP will he resign as MP?
  • What do you think about the First Minister saying she will not work with Alba?
  • how high on the Alba Party agenda is land tax, & green energy?
  • how can we best deal with the Border after independence?

You can listen to the talk here:

Kenny MacAskill MP talks about the Alba Party and why he left SNP to join it.

Next meetings:

I hope you enjoyed hearing what Kenny MacAskill had to say. The only question he passed on was economics, suggesting we asked Dr Jim Walker, or George Kerevan to speak to us. I am delighted to say that George will be joining us for a second meeting on Alba on the 27th of April, just 7 days hence.

Having two meetings on the Alba Party, will give us a good idea of what their ambitions are. Following the election on the 6th of May, our next meeting will be on Tuesday the 18th May, to discuss the results, and future plans for our group.