Election result - what does it mean for Scotland?

[robin]

I suspect the actual outcome is not very good for Scotland despite the tremendous result for the SNP!

Neither Labour nor the Conservatives have anything to lose in Scotland, the SNP don't hold the balance of power and are unlikely to be able to achieve anything - I doubt Mr Cameron cares what the make up of the opposition bench is - in fact a divided opposition bench is a good thing if Milliband and Salmond are arguing with each other, they're less effective.

So what now?

I would think a funding change for Scotland (read reduction) is inevitable; despite returning (nearly) a single party for the entire country our anti-austerity voice will be ignored; referendum II, son of referendum, will eventually follow and more people will vote Yes than last time because they will feel more disenfranchised than ever.


Perhaps the SNP should morph into a "devolved power and anti-austerity" party and field candidates south of the border ....

Cheers,
Robin

[Scottish Scrutineer]

Robin, I think you are spots with your observations. It could turn out to be a real test of the Conservatives support for The Union. If they don't support Scotland then I can sees real swell of support for a further independence referendum


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[robin]

To put it more succinctly the feeling will be "we've shouted as loud as we can and still we're ignored" ... that's assuming we are ignored! (P.S. I am a No voter, voted labour at both the scottish and general elections).

It could be an interesting few years with big changes -
* Britain leaves the EU - an EU referendum looks almost inevitable and UKIP's 10+% of the national vote combined with the Conservatives and general public natural EU-sceptic stance means it might well result in an exit.
* Scotland leaves the Union and tries to rejoin the EU

Time to think about where you would like to live (Scotland, Europe, England, ...). I know I am!

Cheers,
Robin

[graeme]

Spot on. SNP voters bought the "we'll be in the next coalition government" talk, and instead they've got no voice and a majority Tory government.

I think it's an OK result. I had to throw my vote away thanks to Salmond being my MP and the only possible other option being Lib Dem up here, but knew it wouldn't do much good. He won anyway. Ah well...

Still, Scotland has got a single cohesive party with a voice in Westminster now, and one with enough seats that we can be heard speaking, instead of the usual Scottish seat fragmentation and all Scottish MP's subjected to the national party whips until the messages from north of the border are lost. But better than that, we've got a Conservative majority nationally who doesn't actually need to listen. Which is the best possible result because what the SNP will be saying is poisonous.

Austerity continues, we get a few more years of grace before another party starts overspending again, and the SNP get to play at being a political party, without actually having any power. Suits me, for now at least.

[woody]

Agree with what you say Robin and believe the result will fuel the SNP further. In the days leading up to this election Sturgeon declared a UK government with no Scots in the cabinet cannot represent Scotland. This is the start of the leverage to fuel further disenfranchisement with Westminster. Of course, the Tories could stick their sole Scot in the cabinet somewhere.

[Rosssco]

Welcome to our new one-party state..

Its actually the ideal scenario for the SNP - they now have a political hemogeny across Scotland, and have got their desired Tory government in Westminster which will play exactly into their political 'them and us' narrative as predicted..

As mentioned on the one of the election programmes, Cameron should offer full fiscal autonomy and more devolution within this parliament, which the SNP (despite not really wanting it) will have to accept, even though it will shaft us fiscally in the short term..

[Corranga]

As mentioned on the one of the election programmes, Cameron should offer full fiscal autonomy and more devolution within this parliament, which the SNP (despite not really wanting it) will have to accept, even though it will shaft us fiscally in the short term..

That will possibly be the saving grace for the union though as the Scottish people realise it's all a mistake and vote No again, though I suspect the SNP will managed to scaremonger us all in to believing that full fiscal autonomy is failing Scotland because of Tories.

[graeme]

political hemogeny.

Good typo... part homogeny, part hegemony.

[BigD]

Agree with the above in that it is probably Ideal for SNP, a perfect storm.

It's interesting when you look at the voting numbers too in a proportional representation type way. I can understand why the rest of the UK will be annoyed/frustrated at the number of SNP MP's as they only received 4.9% of the total UK Vote which is less than Lib Dems (7.7%) and UKIP(12.6%) received in actual votes. And yet they have many many more seats in parliament.

I quite liked a coalition government as it meant no one party had it all their own way. SNP have effectively helped the Conservatives into power.

[robin]

SNP have effectively helped the Conservatives into power.

Except they haven't - they took 40 seats from labour but would have entered into some sort of deal with labour, effectively giving them back. Labour failed to win seats from the Conservatives in England. Of course you could argue that this was in part because of the Conservatives "scaremongering" about a Labour+SNP deal being bad and thus people should vote Tory not Labour and no doubt that had an impact.

For me, though, the real issue is Milliband - I've always said he's unelectable and these results back that up.

The question is, who will resign first - Milliband or Clegg ... the race is on ...

[robin]

In fact I suspect that Farage will beat them all to it ... he just lost ... I would like to say he will be missed.

[BigD]

The question is, who will resign first - Milliband or Clegg ... the race is on ...

[thinfourth]

90% sure scotland will be independent within a decade

And broke 3 years later and it will all be the fault of thatcher

[Corranga]

It's interesting when you look at the voting numbers too in a proportional representation type way. I can understand why the rest of the UK will be annoyed/frustrated at the number of SNP MP's as they only received 4.9% of the total UK Vote which is less than Lib Dems (7.7%) and UKIP(12.6%) received in actual votes. And yet they have many many more seats in parliament.

They are just using the geography as an excuse though. Ok, so the SNP get 56 seats with 4.9% of the vote and UKIP get 1 with 12.6% but last time out it was MUCH clearer that electoral reform was needed.
In 2010, 29% was good enough to get Labour 258 seats.
Only 6% less votes only managed 57 seats for Lib Dem.

And broke 3 years later and it will all be the fault of thatcher

[robin]

The question is, who will resign first - Miliband or Clegg ... the race is on ...

He cannot even win that race :-

1st Place, Farage, Nigel
2nd Place, Clegg, Nicholas
3rd Place, Bean, Mr.