Keeping up the good work
The parties of the Union must be pleased with themselves today. Seven months ago the Scottish electorate delivered its verdict on their previous four years in opposition – an opposition marked by an almost uniformly negative and bitter response to the SNP's unexpected minority victory. The two parties who were the least constructive – Labour and the Lib Dems – were severely punished by the voters in 2011, while the relatively co-operative Tories lost the fewest seats.
In the face of this clear message, though, the Unionist parties seem to have learned nothing. The SNP's stunning majority and the prospect of the independence referendum that will come with it appears to have had no chastening effect on the others, and the nationalist government has endured a daily barrage of unrelenting vitriol from the opposition and media, much of it documented here on WingsLand.
In the meantime it's been forced to make some difficult cuts thanks to a decreased budget, and has brought forward some highly controversial legislation – minimum pricing for alcohol, an anti-sectarianism bill loudly decried by Old Firm bigots as well as some high profile pundits and bloggers, and a proposal to legalise gay marriage which has brought down the wrath of some large religious communities on the government's head. Throw in a gruesome consultation document about the nation's railway infrastructure and you've got a recipe for plummetting popularity.
Except, of course, that the SNP's poll ratings have instead just climbed to a record high of 51%, with the First Minister's already-impressive personal approval among the electorate also rising and the opposition stagnant or falling, leaving Labour now backed by just half as many Scottish voters (26%) as the Nats – a staggering, almost mind-boggling turnaround of 40 points from March 2011 when Labour led the SNP by 15 points in the polls just eight weeks before the election and were talking of their own Holyrood majority. And of course, this comes hard on the heels of the Scottish Social Attitudes survey showing record (and growing) levels of support for independence itself.
This blog doesn't often praise the Scottish Government's opponents, but we'd like to take a moment to register our appreciation for their efforts over the 12 months, and to express our sincerest hopes that they continue in the same vein for the next four years. We love you, guys. Don't ever change.
There appear to be two problems for the Unionist parties.
The first is that the Labour party, Conservative party and Lib-dem party are all UK parties and their Scottish regions do not operate as independent parties. This means that decision making, policy and overall control are not driven from within Scotland. It's the, "for want of a nail syndrome". There is no leadership because they have no genuine leaders because they are not Scottish parties because they are regions of UK parties.
The second reason is follows on from the first because they are still playing UK politics. In the UK all politics is played out in the context of a unified Britain. Conservative slags Labour, Labour slags Conservative and the Lib-dems slag whoever is in government. They're still trying to play that out in Scotland except that now Labour slags the SNP, Tory slags the SNP and the Lib-Dems slag the SNP.
The problem of course is that the SNP is not even playing on the same playing field and while the other three are still trying to play the old politics the SNP is playing a game of nations. The SNP simply don't fit into the old politics and since the leadership of all three parties are not focused on Scotland that hasn't worked its way into their parties' strategy.
it would appears that, as long as the city of london is kept sweet, all will be good.
nothing learned from the financial crash,
typical
Having watched 'storyville' the other night ,it explained very clearly how the system failed in the US. Although many of the great and the good refused to participate ,the viewer could draw their own conclusions of the standard,integrity and qualifications of the 'experts' driving monetary policy both in the banks and the Government.
How any Unionist party can go before the public and defend the same broken system here ,is beyond me ?
Perhaps before the 'Scottish ' opposition get too carried away with their success with …..mm….eh…anyway perhaps before they get too carried away, one ,just one of the MSM will ask them ?
Is it alright to reference part of this on my page if I post a backlink to this page?
Sure, no problem.