The something and nothing election
We’ll start with the “something”.
And that really is quite something.
We’re not going to pretend we honestly saw the size of the SNP’s victory yesterday coming. When the polls closed, anywhere from low 30s to low 50s still seemed possible. It wasn’t until the exit poll arrived that it suddenly looked real.
Furious Labour and Lib Dem pundits poured scorn on the predictions, promising to eat all manner of items of clothing, but we pointed out that the 2010 one had met with a similar reaction – disbelief and derision at the preposterous notion that the Lib Dems were going to LOSE seats – and turned out to be highly accurate.
And so it proved in 2015. In Scotland, it wasn’t even close. Astonishing swings to the SNP – 34%, 35%, even 39% – saw them take most seats with whopping five-figure majorities. Even seats that had appeared to be on a knife-edge, like Jim Murphy’s and Douglas Alexander’s, were in fact lost by four and five thousand votes respectively. Margaret Curran and Ian Davidson were trounced by over 10,000.
But despite the jaw-dropping SNP landslide, Scotland wasn’t the story of the night – Labour were so far behind that even if every single voter in Scotland had voted Labour the party would still have been miles adrift. Scotland dealt a thumping 20-seat blow to the Con-Dem coalition, but it was nullified by the utter failure of Labour in England.
We use “failure” rather than “collapse” because Labour’s 2010 vote barely moved (at 29%), and nor – outside of Scotland – did its seats. Just 19 constituencies out of 631 that had been declared at the time of the fascinating Financial Times graphic below actually changed hands between the two parties, and their net effect was a loss of one seat for the Tories, who took nine seats from Labour but lost 10 the other way.
[EDIT 10 May: the final map was scarcely any less striking, showing almost the same number of seats changing hands in Scotland alone (50) as in the entire rest of the country, with 22 Labour gains and 35 Tory ones – most of them from the Lib Dems, who lost 39 in England and Wales as well as 10 in Scotland.]
Almost a year ago we told you that “unless something dramatic and unexpected happens, the Conservatives are going to win the 2015 election”, and last night has indeed been portrayed as a stunning victory for the Tories. But in reality it’s a slashing of their majority, leaving them in a worse situation than before.
The outgoing government had 363 seats, a comfortable buffer of 40. Cameron’s new all-Tory administration will have just a dozen or so votes of leeway. Most of the Tory gains came from cannibalising their Lib Dem partners, which – like Labour losing seats to the SNP – actually changed nothing on the Tory/anti-Tory sides of the divide.
In theory the majority will enable the Tories to enshrine their advantage with boundary reforms, but the margin for error is miniscule. Just a couple of conscience rebels, or defections or by-elections, could leave them struggling. Even with UKIP cut off at the knees by the departure of Nigel Farage, the chances of losing Eurosceptic MPs to the party in the event of Cameron trying to fudge the EU referendum seem significant.
The left is pretty despondent this morning, in shell-shock despite everyone having known for years that the UK public was deeply, deeply unconvinced by the idea of Prime Minister Miliband. But despair is an irrational over-reaction.
Yesterday was at best a double-edged sword for David Cameron. He knows that anything that smacks too blatantly of skullduggery will hammer a further wedge between Scotland and the rest of the UK, amplifying the chasm of bitterness that the Tories’ campaign created for short-term advantage.
And driving Scotland out of the UK, despite the obvious arithmetical boon it would bring, would be a disaster for the Conservatives, both politically and strategically.
We live in interesting times, readers. They’re not about to get dull any time soon.
I would call upon pro-independence parties to start selecting their council candidates for 2017 now and not wait until after the 2016 elections.
I suggest parties base the campaign for the Scottish Government elections next year on groupings of teams based on local government electoral areas to enable practice for 2017.
This will be particularly important for the SNP, who need to practice running more than one candidate in many electoral areas – and they clearly don’t yet have the vote division skills they need yet at local level – remember the embarrassing errors the last time.
For instance, each prospective councillor can be required to do the canvass with the ‘cards’ for catagory 1’s from about 4 weeks before the MSP elections. Each in ‘their part’of their local government electoral area. They will be seeking votes for the MSP’s – BUT they will be recognised what they arrive n 2017 for the locals looking for catagory 1/2’s again.
If a massive cohort of local politicians to sweep the board in 2017 Scottish politics could be irrevocably altered for 20 years to come.
When does the public garment consumption begin.
The LibDems did worse in the election than the exit polls predicted.
Ashdown needs to eat his tie as well as his hat.
Excellent analysis after the most exciting day for a long,long time. With regard to leaders, Miliband, Clegg and Farage have all resigned, but yer man Murphy will try and brassneck it and remain in post. He will again be backed by the MSM and the dinosaurs as the best man for the job.They just don’t get it. Roll on Holyrood 2016!
You did get it right. And one thing is certain…
The best is yet to come!
And you call the British system democracy?
The future’s bright,
the future’s YELLOW
The Lib/Dems got eaten by the other Parties, the Tories and Labour exchanged a few seats in England… so Cameron returns but with a thinner safety margin. Good summary Rev.
Farage gone, Clegg gone, Milliband gone but not our Jim.
Cherry on the cake.
It looks like the Tories played Labour all down the track. They were five steps ahead of Miliband and I actually heard people comment that Miliband came across as more of a Tory than Cameron. I must admit I am surprised by the SNP success, I thought 30 would be huge but 56 is amazing but not surprised the Tories. Between the jock bashing and the inept Labour it was hard for them to lose. Interesting and very painful times ahead for many of us and in particular the poor.
UDI anyone?
I think I’m going to need more than one yellow pen to fill in my map from The National. I still can’t quite believe how much the SNP kicked butt. Amazing.
I just wish we had also got rid of that smug fat oaf Alistair Carmichael. He has been quite quiet ever since that business with the leaked memo. I’m not going to rush to judgement but I’m convinced he played some part in that and if so he should be out of a job at the very least.
This is just the start….Lots more “Interesting Scenarios” to come..:)
Can SNP put forward a Westminster agenda to become the shadow opposition or an I just wishful thinking here
We need to sort out this Tory mess now
Get the books open and stress the SNP policy on the economy before David[Dick Dastardly ]Cameron and Muttly Osborne change the boundary constituency Gerrymandering lines.
The Slag Brothers on their bouldermobile{Berckly BROS] did it again, conning the southerners.
Heh, interesting right enough. 🙂
What are they going to do about all those legislative committees? 😉
To be fair the Tories held their seat in Scotland and almost gained Berwickshire, they had a far better night than Scottish Labour and the Scottish LDs and had they gained Berwickshire would have been second behind the SNP in Scotland. A deal on devomax and EVEL between Cameron and Sturgeon is not now impossible
I don’t like your implication that party politics constitutes what makes a time interesting.
Thank you Rev.
Thank you,to Wings over Scotland,my faith in humanity has been restored by Stuart and the wingers,you know who you are ;-).
Hope actually does triumph over fear,Scotland has regained it’s pride and we can face the world again,head held high.
Onwards and Upwards,there is someone out there who needs a hand,we need to find them,we need to help them,that is the collective we,all of us.
Remember it’s a jungle out there,be safe.
P.S.
Job well done,totally stunning result 🙂 🙂 🙂
Surely some other ambitious muppet in the Labour Party Scottish Branch working in the Scottish Parliament will stand against Murphy or at the very least agitate to replace him. Surely someone who failed quite spectacularly doesn’t deserve to lead a Party specially when he no longer holds any position in said Party.
I really Hope BBC Labour keep on their branch manager Murphy, he’s doing a grand job
An accurate summing up, interesting times indeed.
Far right Tory boys Daily Heil style will be even more delighted today. BBC spin is now one nation under the brilliant and nice tories, but John Major was same as Cameron and he had his own cabinet of hard line right wing bastards. UKOK far right Euro-sceptics, your day has come.
Cameron also promises to implement further devolution to Scotland, Wales and NI with tax powers
Perhaps n the cold light of day, there could have been no better outcome for Scotland.
Phase Three begins. In some ways it’s now out of Scottish hands, and over to Cameron.
Here’s what you need to do next, Davy Boy …
– take little notice of Scotland’s views and aspirations
– embark on more low growth austerity
– DevoFA for Scotland
– EVEL
– proceed with Trident renewal
– EU referendum
Post 2016 Holyrood elections, plus a year or so, Scotland will then move to the end game, Phase Four 😉
Can I suggest there are 2 serious issues that need to be addressed now in the context of this victory;
1. The role of the media in Scotland – this is now so bad that any unionist lie will be run without checking – even on the public service broadcaster. Scotland needs its own media code of conduct – even if it is only voluntary – but there is no reason why the Scottish Government cannot set up an independent monitor on media conduct to report annually.
Can Nicola ask the media to re-examine its conduct – especially the BBC in the light of the latest academic study of its election coverage v’s STV – at the very least SNP bosses need to meet the BBC’s management and/or call for an independent enquiry given that the BBC is not answerable to OFCOM like other broadcasters and cannot be brought to task like RT.
2. The acceptability of ‘monstering’ or ‘demonising’ of civic nationalism by senior Torys, Labour and ConDems. Is it possible that Nicola can call on the main parties to sign up to a new code of conduct for politics to apply to members, spokespersons and elected officials in Parliaments, on-line or the characterisation of their opponents?
These 2 problems combine to create growing divisions in Scottish politics – how many times were you told at the doorstep by some MSM-reading innocent that your form of politics was abhorrent/ fascist or used violence during this election? – we need to stop MSM and unionist politicians racheting up bad feelings and divisions in the Scottish body politic to ensure that they do not build to a crescendo of fear and loathing that could cause issues down the line.
Clearly these are only side issues compared to securing Devo-Max and broadening the base of public support for Independence – but they would hugely improve the body politic all round.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS??? … IT MEANS THAT THE REV IS STICKING AROUND!!!
YES!
Absolutely brilliant!
There’s going to be some very interesting maiden speeches in the next parliament.
Let’s hope they mention the bbc, they’re still at it.
Caveat (four seats still to declare)
In 2010,
the Conservative Party won 306 seats & today won 327(+21).
the Labour party won 258 seats & today won 232(-26).
the Lib/Dems party won 57 seats & today won 8(-49).
Collectively, Labour & the Lib/Dems suffered colossal losses across the UK. In England & Wales, the beneficiary was mostly the Conservatives while in Scotland, it is the SNP (+50).
It is a good job that Labour was committed to Trident replacement. Had that not been the case, it might have lost the election!
Jim Murphy – A clingon on the arse of humanity
Good summing up. And this site has played a huge part. Thanks so much?
An interesting point just made:
As third largest party, The SNP have two questions each week at Question Time.
We are so thrilled and excited that 56 SNP MP’s are coming down to Westminster but really sad for all our English friends down here who are utterly devastated by the prospect of another 5 years of these ghastly Tories.
Please consider “Wings over England” to give them comfort and hope in the same way Wings over Scotland has given us so much comfort and enormous hope that change was coming.
I see the Labour activists are trying to develop a new myth to justify their losses. It was a secret Tory SNP strategy to scare English voters to get a Tory government.
I suppose if you are in a desperate place desperate ideas might seem reasonable. Until they can take responsibility for their own failings then they will still in the wilderness. I thought Ian Davidson spoke more sense and with more insight than most of the other Labour MPs last night. Not words I thought I would type.
Ian Murray won but was clearly furious. I wonder how much his pretty good efforts in saving Hearts helped him?
galamcennalath says:
8 May, 2015 at 1:18 pm
Perhaps n the cold light of day, there could have been no better outcome for Scotland.
Phase Three begins. In some ways it’s now out of Scottish hands, and over to Cameron.
Here’s what you need to do next, Davy Boy …
– take little notice of Scotland’s views and aspirations
– embark on more low growth austerity
– DevoFA for Scotland
– EVEL
– proceed with Trident renewal
– EU referendum
Post 2016 Holyrood elections, plus a year or so, Scotland will then move to the end game, Phase Four
Couldn’t agree more! I think the EU Ref and pushing ahead with Trident might be the ones which starts phase 4 to be fair. The others are like dancing on eggshells for Davy boy!
Robert Hazel, respectful, straight forward, pragmatic. Refreshing.
@MrObycyek
Aye it would have been tricky yellowing in the Orkney & Shetlands
PS:
There is a lot to unfold regarding the ways that SNP influence Macart is correct.
Not a branch of the labour party for a start + High profile + 2 X Q’s at PMQ’s and representation on WM committees and ‘short money’ too!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Money
galemcanneleth Yougov last week had No ahead 53-47 on a rerun referendum. This was a vote for more powers, not necessarily independence. In Canada in 1993 the Quebec nationalists won over 50 seats
we did the best possible thing for ourselves and covered all the options, even if some options would’ve been better than others ie to give a majority to labour @ WM.
the unique thing was, for me, this felt like a very sensible and humbling personal vote, non-tribal.
had we voted labour look where we’d be now, don’t even bear thinking about!
in that sense we’ve been let down by r.uk voters, but this is of no matter, coz of where we are now.
we’ve given ourselves options, we’re not backed against the wall.
imv, it’s now all down to wisdom, guile, energy and tenacity the snp and the scottish people, to drive the agenda and we have this in buckets.
🙂
I have just listened to the bile being spewed by Murphy about the SNP / English Nationalism versus Scottish Nationalism / etc etc.
If Labour in Scotland think that this “New Labour” reject is the answer to winning back support then they really, really don’t get it!
We are only hours post the result and Cameron and Co are talking about delivering the powers. Several others such as Boris Johnstone, Ming Campbell and John Reid are already suggesting that it needs to go much further.
The Tories may have won the GE but they know a strong SNP support is very different from the usual compliant feeble career labourites.
As I said on my Facebook page last night to my constituents at home in N.I.
“The importance of this level of political change has not been seen since the Irish Parliamentary Party won 80-odd seats in 1885.
It is to be hoped that the Westminster elite learned something from their 40 year campaign to stop the IIP bring in Home Rule in Ireland under the Crown. In the modern world they cannot lock the SNP leaders up as they did with IIP leaders or Daniel O’Connell. They are going to have to offer Devo-Max or Home Rule if they want to keep Scotland in the Union – but am not hopeful.”
With Miliband stumbling leadership an Clegg’s craven support it was always going to be Tory, an easy prediction. What few predicted was Tories returning with an unstable majority.
Scotland has everything still to win.
http://wp.me/p4fd9j-1eK
BBC seem to be having a lot of picture & sound problems when interviewing John Swinney / Nicola Sturgeon etc….some things don’t change.
Where is Wee Willie LibDem leader? I need to hear is summary of events.
Feel a wee bit of an anti-climax with the dreaded Tories back in. Och well it just goes to show how different in outlook England and Scotland really are. Another huge step to independence.
Cameron off to a good start, lying his head off anout Scotland having the most powerful devolved government in the world.At the same time he repeats his fairness for England pish.
For the last time the English majority at Westminster is unassailable.
Do you think we are stupid you illegitimate Bullingdon tosser.
Not accepting Tory rule in Scotland.
Here in England, not one SNP MP has been interviewed on any tv channel. Or another day for Scotland in teamGB. BBC just had Andy Marr waffle away at far right Malcolm Rifkind who blames Cameron glory on SNP in Scotland. Its like a £4bn BBC clown show really.
Its not so much that its another day in BBC land of tory lies and fraud, its that they think anyone takes what they say seriously, in Scotland at least.
I mean you’d think even the grotesque bias of the BBC would want to talk to the youngest ever Westminster MP that defeated Doug Alexander so profoundly last night, but absolutely nothing. So jealous of Mhairi Black though:D
Also also, in Aberdeen Mhairi is pronounced Vary not Mary!
It’s not Davy that decides, it’s the parliamentary protocols that now kick in. As Mr Hazel just outlined the smith commission will come under scrutiny, we…via the SNP are now at the big table inputing into the settlement that we are about to negotiate for.
Simply by sending 56 MP’s into the heart of the UK parliament has opened the door. They can’t play games with this anymore, we have entered the citadel. And that is why the constitutional expert, Mr Hazel started of by saying what he did.
It’s (branch) Labour as the ‘middel man’ that’s been removed, that’s what we did yesterday. That’s what we needed to realise: that we are actually the sovereign people and we can send whoever we like to Westminster, we just didn’t realise we could get shot of Labour and that they were actually standing in our way.
Make no mistake about this, we have real power now.
And they ‘the establishment’ have just acknowledged this.
Rhetoric is one thing, during a campagin, but when a polity has done what we have, as Mr Hazel just answered: “The Union is in the balance”. They will, if they wish this to work out on these Islands , have to come to the table with total respect for what our electorate just ‘roared’: Enough!
The resignation speech by Nick Clegg was a masterclass in self-delusion. Particularly absurd was his portrayal of the landslide of the progressive force that is the SNP as a victory for fear and grievance – this from a figure who played a key role in the ceaseless onslaught of negativity and scaremongering that was Project Fear. The laughably named Liberal Democrats are knocking on the door of political oblivion – all set to become the 21st century’s equivalent of the Whigs – and as Clegg’s speech eloquently illustrates it is oblivion that is richly deserved.
As Cadogan Enright above suggests, the modus operandi of the British state will now be to portray, even more perversely than before, the positive, inclusive, unwaveringly peaceful pro-independence movement as a dark, sinister, hate-driven force. As a tactic this may bring short-term advantage. In the long run it will simply highlight to the Scottish people how other the UK state now is from Scotland.
Last night’s results in Scotland were not essentially underpinned by nationalism – and the British establishment in general understand that very well, even if their pronouncements and their loathsome media give the opposite impression. Last night’s results were really underpinned by the simple wish of hundreds of thousands of people in Scotland to live in a normal grown-up country that has a healthy relationship with its neighbours, based on equality.
I’d like to add my personal vote of thanks to Stu for his WoS coverage leading up to this GE2015.
I’d especially like to thank him for the most entertaining Twitter feed all through the night as the results came in.
On reflection you cannot deny the SNP results are great, fabulous and if honest, completely unexpected in their scale. We have arrived big time on the political map and here’s hoping for 5 years of achievement towards our long term goals as a nation.
But for all the elation, I am feeling more than a little cheated at one particular result, namely the one for Mundell.
What on earth were the Green Party doing running a candidate against the SNP?
All that was needed to rout Mundell was 800 votes, yet the Greens took 839 in a seat they knew they never had a chance of winning.
I guess the sword of tactical voting can swing both ways, and can be particularly painful if not used with care, or used at all.
Still, Scottish Unionist opposition in single figures for each party; what’s not to like?
macca73 @1;19
Thanks for that heads up!
Rev and Wings are such a part of our daily lives now that I hadn’t even thought of him stopping!
Just watching Cameron and his wife entering No.10 but Mrs Cameron is wearing an SNP bib. Spooky.
The sad thing is that Murphy, Curran, Alexander etc can get into Holyrood through the back door via the list
It will be interesting to see if Labour try to shoe horn former Scottish labour MPs into “safe” English seats if any bye elections occur.
Jim Murphy will stay till its only his mother voting for him
EGO +
An excellent result North of the border. I wonder what is being spouted South of the border in the msm however. Had my sis, texting for hours, from Newcastle, seems suddenly all full of disdain for SNP even coming out saying they let the tories in back ’79, A Salmond met that newspaper guy in 2012 or whenever.
Now this from someone who has never before, taken an interest in anything political aside voting labour all her life, when she could be bothered.
Also seeing what is akin to anti Scottish stuff on fb 38degrees posts about changing the voting system! So just wary of what could be a continuation of the anti Scottish anti SNP stuff going on, to those that know very little about it, stoking up trouble.
Thank you for cheering me up on what was otherwise a very depressing night for Wales.
Wales has voted for austerity by a margin of 37-3. Amazingly, thanks to the SNP we now have more MPs fighting our corner than we’ve ever had before.
If anyone is interested here’s a look at the Welsh results.
http://www.welshnotbritish.com/2015/05/general-election-2015-results.html
K1: As Mr Hazel just outlined the smith commission will come under scrutiny, we…via the SNP are now at the big table inputing into the settlement that we are about to negotiate
Absolutely. We can toss those sprats back and demand real powers.
Yes, thanks Rev Stu, lots hard work on your part, amazing. Stood out in really freezing winds yesterday in Edinburgh, on polling station duty, worth it though.
Labour actually increase % vote. Tories % decreased. Not much of a majority.
A few by-elections when the cuts start.
@bookie from hell 1.57
Actually it is far simpler than that – Murphy is one of a breed of politicians that came straight of of college (in his case without a qualification) and walked straight into a privileged political position in a large party – he has no marketable skills and is unemployable – he will literally have got his P45 by now and has nowhere else to go except try and hang on as Scottish Labour leader.
Even if this was a paid position – where now will they get the money to pay him?
(Only 1 seats still to declare)
In 2010,
the Conservative Party won 306 seats & today won 330(+24).
the Labour party won 258 seats & today won 232(-26).
the Lib/Dems party won 57 seats & today won 8(-49).
Collectively, Labour & the Lib/Dems suffered colossal losses across the UK. In England & Wales, the beneficiary was mostly the Conservatives while in Scotland, it is the SNP (+50).
Thus, England & Wales has shifted politically even further to the RIGHT.
Meanwhile, Scotland has most definitely shifted significantly to the LEFT.
And the punters on the telly continue to claim that there’s no difference in attitudes between Scotland & the rUK.
Now we start!
It’s all up to Cameron now to make the mess of this he undoubtedly will
Once again in the words of the great Forest Gump
He’s not a smart man
This election showed that the MSM no longer wield the power they once excercised This time the media failed and sites like Wings , facebook and Twitter carried the day. More power to their elbow in future.
Eddie Izzard can donate his make-up pack to pal Murphy. He will need to hide the bags under his eyes and his chalk pallor.
I am still stunned by the most historic results. It’s a stunning vindication of the cries for change.
Farage and BBC punting the line that it’s unfair that that SNP got 56 seats with only 5% of UK vote while UKIP only got one seat with 15% of UK vote.
What Farage and BBC willfully ignore is that SNP only stood in 59 Scottish constituencies and got 50% of the Scottish vote while UKIP’s 15% came from 650 constituencies across UK. Had SNP stood in all 650 UK constituencies their vote count would most likely have been way above UKIP’s or, had UKIP only stood in 59 constituencies, their vote count would have been way, way lower than SNP’s.
Nicola Sturgeon fell for the polls as well. She thought she would be there, propping up a weak Labour government.
Five years is an extremely long time in politics. Nicola Sturgeon is not going to get another referendum and, in reality, I don’t think she really does.
She has to decide whether to move away from banging the independence drum or moves to being a proper, left of centre party. She can also decide whether to disown the fringe members who seem to think that independence is all that matters.
Has Jim Murphy told his constituents yet if he intends to stand for Westminster?
Oh wait….
The political wedge between Scotland and England can only be driven further into the rotting “united” kingdom. Cameron has to give England EVEL. SNP MPs will still have every right to argue against any new English law if it has damaging economic consequences for Scotland. The English press will continue its anti-Scottish rhetoric. BBC Scotland will continue to insult the intelligence of the Scottish public. The Smith Commission will come nowhere near the desires of the people of Scotland. The house of lords, filled to the rafters with greetin-faced unionists, will do their utmost to wreck it anyway.
There is only one way this is all going: the ending of this putrid union between Scotland and England.
Will there be another attempt by the dark right to remove Cameron and ensconce May before the Eref?
The result in DCT constituency makes me question the motivations and timing behind Ruth Davidson’s tweet – was that a deliberate smear to support the conservative get the vote out? If it was, has there been any breach of protocol? The speed with which that non story was all over the media was notable
How long will UK membership of the ECHR last?
Read your blog Grouse Beater. I hope you are right, but I honestly think you are overoptimistic.
How on earth do you think we can “demand” (not a word I have ever liked) anything within this union, now?
Cameron, as you say, is in a similar position to Major, in some ways. Major’s problem was the right wing of his party, the ones he famously called “bastards”. He tried to resist them, and suffered for it. Cameron knows that. And he is not stupid.
It may be they are so obsessed with coming out of the EU that they are genuinely irreconcilable, since his business pals don’t seem to want that. But Cameron has no objection to the rest of their agenda, and it is clear that any meaningful devolution is not on the table at all. They will offer little but pretend it is lots: then paint the Scots as unreasonable lunatics when we are not satisfied. What they might offer is the same as they offer to large cities like Birmingham and Manchester: for they can easily pretend that Scotland is just like that and that it is plenty.
And just what can we do about it? The only answer is independence, but that too has been spun with the “once in a generation” mantra: very hard to show that the situation has changed, without a mechanism to demonstrate the it is what the people want. And we don’t really have one of those.
UK depends on Scottish resource, so they do want us in the union for that reason. But they don’t need to make any concessions to keep us there in the short term. And in that short term they will inflict horror on the people, and blame the Scottish government. That might work, though I hope not. I think they will take the chance, though.
The BBC knows which side its bread is buttered while it remains in public hands. The may privatise it, as Mr Murdoch has long wanted; but I suspect not for it is handy to have propaganda arm. But it is already dancing to the paymaster’s tune in rUK: and so will the Scottish branch now labour are not the name of the game here.
I am still gutted today. I see only horror in front of us. I am sorry to be so down, in what ought to be a very happy day indeed. But I need practical reasons for hope. What you got?
Not only is it clear that BBC Scotland’s influence is on the wane but also maybe it also spells the end of McTernan’s poisonous meddling in the politics of UK.
That last alone is a significant gain.
Labour did well in London, taking from Libdem’s. Its interesting because how come voters in London did NOT vote to stop SNP propping up Milliband.gov, like tory world BBC says everywhere else in England did.
London Mayor Izzard too?
Tory majority
Snp and everyone else ignored. Normal service resumed
We just cut the unionists off at the feet, going forward, we need to organize for holyrood, the council elections and an eu referendum, if that happens.
We need to continue to cut off the air supply to the unionist media, we do that by removing their representatives. No hung parliament, no further powers, we did brilliantly but how the votes in England fell was not in our power. Had the snp and labour come together and formed some kind of majority, the chances of the snp being damaged were very high. We didn’t win the FFA we desired, but the Indy movement momentum has not decreased, if anything it has increased. I look forward to the next opinion poll on Indy in Scotland, the opposition to Indy was culled last night, who now do the bbc ask to comment.?
Cadogen is correct, we need to get the candidates for holyrood and the council elections in place now
@Indigo 2.14
Totally agree – I want to write formal complaints on Ruth’s disgraceful allegation and how the media picked it up on election day.
If it is not an breach of electoral commission protocol – it is definitely a breach of protocol at the BBC on an election day.
I was chapping up when it happened – can any Winger post here a record of what the BBC or other media said that we can use to pursue this issue?
This is definitely worth pursuing
Now switching over to BBC Auntie tv on my computer as I wave Sally Mag goodbye…from BBC Scotland PQ …’sob’ hankie off set Sally.
What a sour puss she has been today having to repeat ‘SNP 56’.
PS:
“Have you assassinated Ed” asks a dumb reporter at the airport.
Was there a flash of exasperation in her eyes before calmly telling him how to count the numbers? Aye right. 🙂
Fiona, the practical implications of the SNP’s position now means massively increased financial resources and therefore a raft of new researchers, new access to information and significant influence on committees
I think they’ll now create merry hell, probably much if it behind the scenes. Because they have majority support of the Scottish electorate they can probably tie Westminster up by its own rules and agitate to a significant degree. Salmond has form on this and probably no other party has studied legislative procedures and policies like the SNP leadership.
Welsh not British,
Thanks for that, very disappointing for PC,
Hopefully, the SNPs wins in this GE will help you convince your voters that it is possible and that they do not need to vote for/against tory/labour in future elections.
GH Graham Labour won most seats in Scotland in 2010, the SNP have simply replaced them as the leftwing party, in 2010 the Tories got 37% in 2015 they got 37%
‘Demand’ just put another Referendum in the Manifesto. See ’em dance. Another nail in the coffin.
Goodness the Tory lowlife Dan Snow.
Employing the same unionist ‘logic’ which tells us that oil is bad for Scotland, so too we now hear that a ‘landslide’ is bad for the SNP.
The half empty glass of unionists. They should be pitied.
Of course in 1951 the Tories won a higher percentage of the vote in Scotland than in England. Devomax and EVEL looks a possible deal. Quebec nationalists won over 50 seats in the 1993 Canadian general election Quebec is still in Canada
If SNP stood in UK (proportionately), they would have won.
@Fiona
Well firstly we must not feel guilty about voting for the SNP and it’s only day one developments in the next few days may offer up opportunities we have not yet thought about.
The ‘Tories are coming’ they were always coming anyway from the red and the blue and orangey variety so nothing new.
Take heart Fiona we are not helpless or hapless the ‘fish pair’ will prevail with their representatives who we voted for.
We can do no more than that.
@ Fiona
SCOTLAND
@Cadogan Enright,
I disagree with you about 2017. Scotland has the most unwieldy and ‘un-local’ system of local government in Europe. The system needs radical reform, and I don’t honestly trust even the SNP to grasp that nettle. A whole raft of new, embedded SNP councillors in 2017 is merely going to hold up progress towards pushing more power downwards from councils to communities…
Don’t forget that one of Labour’s ideas to save their skin was to give local councils more power. I really don’t want to see the SNP going down that route. The thing that we must, at all costs, avoid is to become like the Labour party, with cosy local networks and jobs-for-life councillors.
It’s a real danger and we need to bring some radical thinking to bear to avoid it, starting in 2016.
The English public are clearly worked up about the SNP .Cameron now has a dilemma. He either has to kick the expectation of EVEL into the long grass,which I think may be very difficult due to increasing English Nationalistic sentiment.If he pushes ahead he may require co operation from the SNP IN TERMS OF ACCEPTANCE,and guarantees not to rock the boat with regard to what constitutes EVEL.
I feel he is backing himself into a corner for purely party political interest,but it is a move which does give Nicola some leverage and room for manouvre
Another Scottish seat announced – SNP win the Dunfermline South council by-election for the Fife Council seat.
What has not been generally registered yet is the massive financial boost the SNP will be in receipt of through its massively increased “Short Money” (which is entirely different from the MPs substantial allowances) . This central government funding delivered to opposition parties to help fund their activities among their constituents will increase in the SNP’s case from around £150,000 per annum to something not far short of £2 million.
As another consequence the Labour Party in Scotland will loose this money. Yippee
I would seriously hope this bonus will be used to support accessible well manned MP’s offices (and, in the case of large rural constituencies like A&B, services across the area).
We also need to tie in our young vote.
I am very proud of Argyll and Bute this morning. We got some (not a lot)of “Irish catholic b” about out terrific candidate Brendan O’Hara and a suggestion that we were now the “Scottish Not Protestant” party at one polling station but Brendan’s huge majority (in a seat that includes the Trident base) brought the sun up early (though there was snow on the hills again as I walked home from the all nighter at our Forward shop).
Scottish National party leaders expect the party to wield far greater power at Westminster after the general election by winning seats on key committees and earning substantial Commons speaking rights.
The SNP is the third largest party at Westminster. That would entitle the party to sit or win chairmanships on many of the most influential select committees, including the Treasury, defence and foreign affairs committees.
It would also entitle Nicola Sturgeon’s party to have automatic speaking and tabling rights during Commons debates and at prime minister’s questions – putting it ahead of the Liberal Democrats for the first time in the party’s history.
There is plenty of scope for SNP MPs to influence Westminster for the betterment of Scotland.
I agree that the SNP will have significant influence, Indigo.
My problem is that I honestly believed that there was a progressive constituency in England who would be open to hearing the case against neoliberalism, and responding positively to it.
Now I think that is not the case. The people in rUK have voted once again to hurt their fellows, and to hurt themselves. As ever they seek to blame anyone else they can for the consequencs. But I am tired of making excuses for them. For a long time I have thought that this is truly what a majority (at least as our system is constituted) actually want in England. It is standard practice never to blame the voters, and you can see why politicians adopt that practice. But I don’t need to.
For the first time, and with full recognition of the very many in England who are social democrats, I am inclined to “blame the english” for this country’s woes. They are who vote for this and it could not happen without them. They have the same information as I have. They do know what they do. And they are doing it to the poorest and the most vulnerable and they do not care
I am full of bitterness today. Our trolls can come along and say “see, you do hate the english: we were right all along”. Well I don’t, but I am no longer happy to accept this is binary. I don’t hate them because they are english: I hate them because they are wicked. I make no apology for that.
They can continue to pretend that it matters only at the margins who you vote for, because we all want the same things and only differ about means. I have long believed that died with the post war consensus and it only continues because the narrative is a necessary mask so they can look themselves in the face of a morning. It is not true. It does matter at the most visceral level. And if that make me anti english in their minds they can have that story. I don’t care
O/T
Blue wristbands ” Independence The Future is Ours” now available from the Forward Shop, 186 Argyll Street Dunoon PA23 7HA at £30 per hundred. (01369 703228)
Fiona: How on earth do you think we can “demand” (not a word I have ever liked) anything within this union, now?
You are assuming every Tory will back their party every Bill, and will always be on duty to do so. That’s not how the House of Commons works – did you see the photographs of the chamber empty of Labour MPs for the Bedroom Tax debate, or at Scottish Question time?
It will take some autocratic nerve to face up to a Scotland that did not vote for you, almost unanimously.
In addition, SNP is union friendly, Tories union antagonistic. The people are not behind the Tories, though a good many are on the proposition of spending.
Finally, you also reckoning without the English public’s resistance to extreme Tory policies. Which nation rioted in the streets? Not Edinburgh, or Glasgow, or Oban, (I jest) but London, Liverpool, Birmingham….
And I haven’t even touched upon world events that shape destinies.
Great article and you were up all night!
Prophetic oh bearded one
My first thought is how can we escape?….
Fiona
On BBC issue – never been a matter of privatising to suit Murdoch, that’s the tory line not SNP policy.
But if we can not supplant it with an SBC devoted to Scotland’s achievements and culture, then BBC Scotland has to be given a larger budget by BBC London to serve Scotland properly, plus guaranteed access to all channels, or perhaps two Scottish channels to itself.
Prof Curtis on BBC Auntie UK introduced as ‘The King of polling’
Explaining to us how some polls got it a bit wrong but he got the BBC exit poll right!
Fair enough he did get it right. An enquiry to be set up he says due to the criticism.
BBC Andrew Marr says it distorted the views of the BBC and Ed was given more prominence by the BBC than he deserved…WOW!
Shurley shome mishtake Andrew, have you made a slip?
The clamour for an Independent Scottish Labour Party will gather force and then we’ll see the branch office split into pro indy and pro union factions…
I tried to look at your posts on the previous election on your old blog, but it’s not up any more as far as I can tell.
Could you put it back up?
Anybody know when the new Mad Max is in town? I’m in a right kick ass mood. 😉
Indigo and Fiona
It is called Short money more details here
http://www.parliament.uk/Templates/BriefingPapers/Pages/BPPdfDownload.aspx?bp-id=SN01663
To “Welsh not british”
Your leader may school girl errors
Stating we want what Scotland’s got –
She should have made the point that Wales will only make progress by voting for PC, then Wales might get something.
PCs whole strategy appeared to be based on clinging to SNP coat tails. Wales needs to be bold and proud on its own, the SNP MPs will be comradely towards PC mps, but at end of day we seek independence from the uk, of which Wales is part of. Favours yes, but SNP have two goals, one to further Sotland”s interests and two independence. Wales should not become a distraction from either of those goals.
Scotland has got what it has got by struggle and overcoming duplicitous brits and their state instruments and tools. One of thiose tools is kinnock, another is the Labour Party in Wales.
Sorry to be so blunt and I am sorry your country has nailed its colours to the union, I wish you well in reversing tour plight!
The English working class have always voted Tory. They know their ‘place’.
Anyone see Jack MacConnells interview on Sky News…he didnt miss Murphy, McTernan and McDougall campaign disaster..ends with a call for a future looking leadership
Then Murphy gives a Labour History lesson speech…classic denial.
Most interesting was an English Labour MP saying “Clearly we need to move to the Right..the electorate has shown us that!”
@ those who have responded to me: that you all
Yes,the SNP will have a louder voice and that influence matters. I agree with that. I just no longer believe they are pushing at an open door. Far fewer in rUK are true social democrats than I would have thought possible until last night. That is my conclusion.
I think that voice will persuade many to think again; and give many who already think as I do the confidence to believe that it need not be this way. But it is harder road to travel than I thought. The time it takes will be longer, and the damage to our poor that much the greater.
I could be wholly wrong about that: it may be that after the result we will see a resurgence of the sort the SNP have enjoyed, and that will be good. There are few upcoming events which would demonstrate it though: we were fortunate in the timing of GE2015, and they are not.
I am not overlooking the potential for dissent within tory ranks, Grouse Beater. It is part of the problem, for that dissent will come from the harder right. You know, the people who relish the drowning of refugees pour encourager les autres. And those people will be appeased.
As to the riots on the streets; they were the most depressing thing ever. In Spain and elsewhere the indignados explicity opposed extreme neoliberal policy, as does the occupy movement in this country. But here, in the UK, they were just angry and they had no overt political analysis at all. They are easy to turn on each other, and that is of no use at all. It merely reinforces the law and order hawks to the detriment of us all.
I want out of this union more than I ever have before. I am a foreigner in the UK, utterly alienated. I have not felt that way to this extent ever before.
Paula Rose, unlike many here I am not a patriot and the cry of “scotland” does not resonate with me as I know it does for others. My stance founds on other values, and self determination is the means: it is not, for me, and end. I realise I differ from many on that, but it is the expression of a long standing internationalism which I do not wish to ditch. Unlike our friend will Podmore, that internationalism demands independence for Scotland since we cannot stand in support of others if we have no autonomy of action.
I feel a little as I did last night: I am harming the positivity of this day and this outcome. Again I am sorry. I can’t help the way I feel and I can find no joy in the wonderful achievement of the electoral result.
I will shut up again, you lucky people 🙂
Fiona,
Scotlands biggest hurdle was to get enough SNP seats in a GE. The norm for the past decade was SNP at SE Lab at GE. Last night was a record breaking event here.
The biggest single obsticle to Scotland advancing was LABOUR. We have wiped them out worse than we done to the tory’s.
That is a victory in battle . One we have to continue and we will. There are many battles to come and we are ready and prepared better than ever.
I understand why you feel down. I cannot believe the English would continue with the tory’s austerity but they did. There is a real divide now. And so many are going to suffer terribly .
But this is a long game. 56 Seats. 56 ?? we won 6 last time. This is a win and we can take some comfort from that.
And we’re not finished yet by a long way. keep the spirits Up Fiona. We will eventually get there. 🙂
I see spite and shite is still order of the day from Mrs Cochrane and no doubt Mr Cochrane will follow suit.
Andrew Marr is a pillock describing Ms Sturgeon as an insurgent leader and that awful woman who does politics show with Andrew Neil wittering on.
Third largest party.
I am looking forward to an interview with the First Minister of the 3rd largest party.
Oh just one last thing: @ Grouse Beater.
I have not been clear. I did not suggest it was an SNP policy to privatise the BBC – nothing was further from my mind. The issue is not devolved so all my remarks referred to the tory government’s options
Good point Dave. The extra funding money will make a big difference.
One things for sure, Nicola needs to get all the new MPs together, and make sure there are no expenses scandals in the future. They need to seen as a step above the last lot.
Where is our MORAG ?
Haven’t seen her comment (sorry if I have missed it)
Because I so wanted to thank her,and tell her how proud I am of her efforts.
But I am not going to ask her not to give up cause she’s not made that way,and we all know it.X
Just over a week ago, Murphy was bragging about how he was going to hold down two jobs.
Yesterday, he was fired from one by the Scottish electorate.
Today, he looks likely to lose his job as manager of Labour’s northern branch office.
Tonight, he’ll be scouring the small ads in the Evening Times for a zero-hours contract.
And if that doesn’t work, he may well be auditioning for Britain’s got talent or the X-Factor as part of an Abba tribute band.
Fiona – thank you for your take on the accusations of being “anti English”. People had a choice and they chose – details aside it was their decision.The consequences will not be “theirs” only but their consciences will be.
Never has “Scotland is not England” ever been so graphically illustrated for all to see.
Still can’t get my head round thinking of Morningside in Edinburgh South as the Labour heartland. Maybe that is where they went wrong.
@Fiona,
Well, For a start I wonder what the Daily Record will do since they were supposed to be the voice of Scotland…hmmm…
@kininvie 2.37
The SNP/Greens/SSP cannot wait until after the reform of local government before stating to win seats – that makes no sense.
You misunderstood my point.
I was talking about the logistical benefits of winning large numbers of councillors closely connected with their communities and removing large numbers of unionist councillors. This can
1. Shift the debate on independence at local level
2. Bring entire Councils over to our side – I recall how obstructive some Lab/Con councils were during the referendum
3. Change the numbers of politically active people on the ground in our favour
4. Making the YES Alliance more powerful for the next time
If this is combined with the SNP hopefully realizing that they can use the list system to replace the likes of Kezia and Murphy with Patrick Harvie and Colin Fox we would have an on the ground campaign the next time that all the MSM in the world would be unable to stop.
@Jimbo 2:10 pm
UKIP share of the vote across the 59 Scottish seats was 1.6% an absolutely abysmal showing in comparison to England and Wales where respectively it was 14.1% and 13.6% not a great deal of difference. If he is writing Scotland off completely ( I fully expect he is) then, loathingly, he does have a point in respect where the probable EVEL is concerned.
Other than that all I can think of to say would be the words of Windsor Davis. ‘Oh dear how sad never mind’.
Scotland:
SNP 56 – Better Together 3
UK:
SNP 56 – Better Together 330+232+8 = 570
This poltical union is creaking at the seams. Scotland’s and rUK’s politics are now diverging so markedly that it’s hard to see a mutually agreeable way forward.
There are of course disagreeable ways that can be imposed on the junior partner and be given a coating of “legitimacy”.
And let me say this loud and clear: it is not the Scots’ fault if the English don’t elect Labour. The blame for the next Tory government lays firmy at the door of English voters. Scottish voters couldn’t have changed the outcome. The English voters chose Tory so now all in the greatest political union of all time must suffer.
Perhaps Fiona, when in the UK parliament, the english (electorate) see the example that our MP’s set, this will hasten that process in england before it’s too late for them. Maybe that is the real gift that we are bringing to our ‘cousins’.
They will have to learn to ‘tune’ out of the main stream media’s ‘terms’ setting agenda, and think for themselves as we have done; only then will they enable themselves to awaken from the hypnosis of their own self created ‘bad dream’. Take heart.
Oh, and about the map: I don’t mind the little pip of red or the orange “insert islands” but that big blue canker really looks ugly.
Trust the tories to win a geographically big seat so Scotland looks a lot more blue than it is. Hrrmmph.
I share Fiona’s gloom about the popularity of the Tories in England. They ensure that a small sector of London and Home Counties society prospers to the detriment of all else.
England lacks a social democratic party. Maybe they could develop one from the ashes of the Labour party after this defeat. The initial signs aren’t encouraging though. Not only are Labour saying they need to move further to the right but Ed Miliband repeated his commitment to the Union in his resignation speech. I think he really does prefer to lose the election than work with the SNP or PC.
The world really must look like a scary foreign country down in the SE of England. But the transformation in Scotland will carry on. Next year Holyrood and the year after, the Local Authorities. Local government is a devolved issue so there is no reason why the SG shouldn’t proceed to improve the democratic representation locally.
There is plenty to do and a mandate to do it.
Reasons to be cheerful…
My point about Scotland (back up the thread a bit in reply to Fiona) is not to do with nationalistic flag waving, but more to do with the fact that this union of two countries will now be better recognised as such and will hopefully lead to a wider political debate.
We have become informed and interested in how politics affects our lives – I can see that awakening spreading south, obviously though it is dependent upon our Scottish elected MPs doing their job properly.
Within this parliament I suggest the SNP could be the least of the Tory government’s problems with further implementing their policies.
Watch the English masses rise. It will take time for a re-allining and to organise itself but the Labour void leaves no where for those oppressed with austerity to go. It could manifest its self with venom and civil unrest.
Left Wing, Right Wing, Flappy Wings it’s just all old politics to me
I didn’t vote for that, I voted for competence, efficiency
bringing in infrastructure projects on time boosting our prospects and selling Scotland in the world , and doing the right thing for Scotland in terms of education and help for the needy in our country
Labour have never ever done that in Westminster or Holyrood
Given the constraints in place by Westminster
The SNP are the only party shown to have done it and done it well if we keep standing with them they will deliver,
Of that I have no doubt
Somebody mentioned Colleges to me the other day so I answered it with “We must have a hell of an ugly Nation that Colleges tell us we needed all those beauticians”
It was a con by Colleges to get themselves extra cash for non courses
There I’ve said it, and now I expect the speech police to chastise me
I’m gaunny duck noo tae avoid the flyin keyboards
I think the English are just too far behind us in terms of political maturity. They are like the Scots 5 years ago, so a third does my vote. Also, they are genuinely suffering. Just as RIC worked hard to get a lot of unregistered, disenfranchised voters, onto the register last year, so is the case in England. It’s h a rd to think about fighting Tories if you are on your knees.
England has to start motivating through anger. As has been said, the govt has a slim majority, won’t take much to frustrate it. That’s where Salmond comes in, and why Cameron and Boris have softened their language. They will want to broker a deal to get rid of sweaties, not have them rallying MPs.
Can anyone forget Alex’s resignation speech, and the phrase ‘redolent with opportunity’ The man is a goddamn genius. Yes, Nicola is brilliant, but this man does his best work quietly.
Look at how organised the SNP are today, a well oiled machine. They will have rehearsed all the scenarios, even losing etc. and that is their secret, unlike Miliband and Murphy who either succumb to bullying, like Ed, or hop around like a headless chicken, like Murphy.
@Marcia
Any figures for Dunfermline by-election result?
My googling skills have failed to find any data. 🙂
PS:
Sturgeons wardrobe includes smart black dress with a nice ‘fascinator’ hat thingy… cool! We have a well dressed FM indeed we do.
TV journalist outside the Houses of Parliament desperately seeking a Scottish angle on the landslide so they wheel out the baron Cardowan from the world’s biggest Eventide Home & reeking of pish & stale cabbage, to tell us how Slab went wrong and what of the future for Labour.
See irony? they just don’t dae it!
Fiona
I arrived at the door of independence by three signposts:
Labour never seemed to deliver what they promised, and invariably put Westminster policies before Scotland’s. Then I realised that is where lay salary and elevation.
Secondly, I discovered Scotland does not keep what it earns. It is given an allowance.
And last, even in this modern age kith and kin are still forced out of Scotland if they are to develop their work or find work. If you modified your ambitions and ability you could just about sustain a good career in Scotland. Getting you contribution or talent noticed or voice heard is quite another matter.
It was time for a new Treaty.
The rest I acquired as I looked more intensely into how Scotland is ruled.
In 1992 Major won 336 seats and was out of a majority by the last couple of years and had to rely on the UUP. Cameron has 331 seats, a majority of 10 rather than the 20 that Major started with. The Liberals and DUP might not be amenable to getting into bed with him in a couple of years. We could be in for an interesting 5 year term.
Nicola needs to continue to think long term strategy and play a careful hand. Good things come to those that are patient.
BBC are really pushing UKIP as the 3rd party in UK politics. Once again the establishment trying to ignore Scotland,
Um, I can see a new map being printed to hang behind Nicola in bute house next to Alex’s 🙂 enjoy the moment folks
Unfinished business still remains, but we are in a far stronger position today than we were yesterday. We won a battle, but the war isn’t over. Keep the faith folks
I know this goes against everything wee Nicola said pre election, but I really think referendum 2 is now on the cards. Labour in England kowtowing to the Tory ‘Miliband in Sturgeons pocket’ rhetoric, and therefore allowing a massive failure to beat the Tories means that our strong cohort of SNP MP’s are virtually powerless to deal for a stronger Scotland. Cameron’s EVEL will only worsen that.
Next step is Referendum on the 2016 manifesto, and the reasoning will be failure to deliver devo max and EVEL. (There is a lot of chatter about Cameron offering federalism but imho it won’t happen.) If as I suspect Cameron doesn’t sanction a referendum Holyrood will have to act unilaterally.
Scotland will not make the same mistake second time around.
If we’ve had fundily mundily does that make today fundily fridily
feels like fun to me .
Labour made Murphy branch manager that helped SNP , everytime he said something membership grew, could Cameron make BoJo Scottish secretary and really send membership through the roof.
Labour WON … the two party battle Con-> Lab 10 Lab->Con 9.
Where Labour failed was in the dismemberment of the LibDems.
Jim Murphy must STAY … he promised he wouldn’t lose a single seat in Scotland. It just turned out to be Edinburgh South.
And on a more serious note, the SNP’s red line issue has to be control over the media. It was the baleful influence of the London controlled press and the BBC’s control of this newfangled radio that led to the setting up of the SNP. 80 years and its time they did something about it
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-scotland-32587631
Is it coincidence that two of the fine, upstanding unionist survivors are up to their necks in smear, viz. Carmichael (Frenchgate) and Murray (OAPgate), aided and abetted by their msm shills?
So far all Murray has done in victory is give the impression of a bitter, spiteful individual. I’m sure his constituents will be delighted.
O/T By the way, anyone heading into Glasgow tomorrow for a wee flahmob celebration in Indy Sq. or the Concert Hall steps?
Here’s my take on the future.
Tories will offer Scotland a few bits and bobs of window dressing on top of Smith. It will be insubstantial and weak powers. SNP will demand more. This argument will carry through to Holyrood 2016.
Tories will plan a 2017 Euro in out ref.
SNP will increase their vote in Holyrood. Manifesto will include independence referendum. Referendum will be called within 6 months of May election.
Without Labour the Tories will have to fight the referendum half heartedly themselves. On top of this more austerity will bring worse poverty to many leading to an increased yes vote.
Yes will win the referendum 60/40. Scotland will be independent by 2018. RUK will have already left the EU while Scotland remains.
RUK will be isolated and Scotland welcomed, especially by France.
https://archive.is/e4dhg The Graun still bashing on that it was nationalism and The SUN what wot won it. Fair enough these are very angry britnat unionistas but even so.
As long as these phoney leftie britnats keep ducking away from the fact that the majority of Scottish voters want devo-max and the dev-max we were promised by all UKOK parties, especially Crash Gordon, they’ll never stop whining until I am holding my shiny new Scottish passport:D
Can we still call them red tories? Red is the angry colour.
Will the real ‘daan South’ labour party be too busy to reform in England to keep a rein on the Scottish branch, which will struggle on with a small gene pool?
Or will they turf the Murph and knock heads together in an attempt to gee up the residual new faces and rebuild from there?
Or will they just wither and allow new folk start up a proper ‘Scotish independent’ labour to spring up?
Answers on a postcard please…Ed..Ed err!…Jim..???
Wow-just wow!
What does this election mean and where do we go from here?
The scale of the SNP victory is incredible and even more so when it’s not obviously a mandate for independence. Perhaps it is just a case of the SNP successfully leveraging the 45% but it feels as if something else is going on.
I think it is a statement that Scotland wont be taken for granted. Despite their protestations there was always a feeling that Labour’s enthusiasm for the union was driven by a large part by self interest. This election result seems to be a message: We’ll stay in the union-for now- but on our terms.
So to paraphrase an old Spark’s song: now that the SNP have got this thing, what are they going to do with it? This is the key question. On the face of it there’s not that much they can do. They are a tiny minority and there’s no coalition for them to be able to deal with.
This is my idea: They can make themselves heard. They might not be able to win many concessions but they can speak out for Scotland at every point. Imagine the Tories trying to get a poll tax or a bedroom tax through now? I’m sure they’ll try something and whilst they have the numbers to push it though the large SNP group can make it as difficult and painful for them as possible.
They can also gain experience. Many of them are relatively raw and this will be an opportunity to learn and develop themselves personally so that they will be even more effective in the future.
I still think that Holyrood is the main place where the SNP should focus on. This is after all where they’re able to influence things directly. Much as we desire independence we should not forget why we want it and that’s to make Scotland a better place for people to live and work in. The SNP have some of the tools at their disposal already to achieve this goal and so should use them. It is only by demonstrating competence and vision within the devolution set up that they will prove to people that it’s a good idea to take the next step towards full independence.
Today I feel almost physically sick with dread about the prospects for millions of people. I knew on some level yesterday that was going to happen; I felt on the end of my nerves the whole day.
Today is just awful, but there’s also an immense sense of pride in what we accomplished last night.
Here’s todays article. Can those who read it share it? Much appreciated friends.
http://www.commentisntfree.com/a-country-on-our-own/
For folk who are getting exasperated with the English, i felt the same this morning. However thinking more about it, I think the London based media did a sterling job on the populace. If we weren’t in the fortunate position of having such a progressive online media we might be in a similar position to that of 2010.
Tough times are ahead,however I belive before the end of this decade things will com
e to a head. Whether the bond markets, another private debt bubble etc it will come on Cameron’s watch. It may be a poisoned chalice.
What we need to do now is innovate, create a more resilient economy so that when everything goes tits up, we are a more confident nation.
Lots of ideas floating around about how to go about this, such as mutual credit clearing, parallel debt free currency issues etc. (These can be done without independence ). We need to listen to all these ideas..
Heh, they’re still banging on about votes in the commons and consider that a difficult battleground for the SNP.
That’s not where the SNP will make a difference and IMO it never was. The real fun, the real negotiating will happen in the legislative committees.
eh i wonder who the daily record will back now any thoughts ?
Feel real pride in Mhairi Black becoming an MP for us. Just an ordinary lassie of 20, beating Vacuous Douglas Alexander.
After all his snide remarks, she still treated him with dignity.
Now then as I understand it the SNP, being the third largest party at Westminster will be (invited ?) onto various committees
Which ones do YOU think they should be on?
My suggestions are :
Defence (get rid of Trident)
Treasury (look at the books)
Culture (Get BBC broken up)
Find them all here : http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/
😀
Robert says:”eh i wonder who the daily record will back now any thoughts ?”
Murphy!
This isn’t fucking rocket science. We’ll need to protect scotland and the scottish public from the worst the corrupt tory nasty party has to throw at us.
We’ll have to do it in Holyrood and we’ll do it in westminster when we can.
When we can’t we’ll point out precisely WHY we can’t.
The tories aren’t about to get any less out of touch or repulsive just because Cameron and Clegg pulled a fast one on the lib dems and destroyed them utterly. Nor will Labour be of any use whatsoever as they lurch further and further to the right with yet more unprincipled dishonest Blairism and untrustworthy leaders.
Brian Taylor on Radio Scotland right now. His voice is cracking. He sounds as if he’s been greeting. He said that the SNP pinched the election.
Murphy on form saying LABOUR party is a better LABOUR party than the SNP. WTF?
Stephen.
So 331 seats for the Tories.
Bye bye Union.
In a previous post I said Jim Murfanny was politically a ‘Dead Man Walking’. Incredibly this morning I read that he intended staying on as leader of Scottish Labore party obviously to take on his new role as one of the ‘Living Dead’.
Ian Davidson’s anger last night was so evident and boy did he let loose his feelings and he was under no illusion that the blame for Labour’s losses lay firmly at the feet of Murfanny and his uninspiring piss pot of a campaign ( or words to that effect LOL) .
Murfanny thought he had his finger on the political pulse but the heart of the Labore party’s argument was dead before it started and nothing could resuscitate it, not even an English cross dressing comedian , surprisingly.
To those first time voters for SNP who were wishing the dream team in Westminster would be Labore/SNP and are now disappointed. Realise this, is the argument now not made that it is ‘England’ who decides the government of this United Kingdom and always has been and always will be until we all find the courage to end this injustice.
And Labour please note that if you practise ‘clutch at straws ‘ politics then you have to suffer the consequences i.e. DEFEAT. And they can now, post election, reflect until the cows come home because as long as they are a Unionist party their arguments will always be lost.
Love this website and all those who contribute.
Who needs sleep when we have the 56 ! Happy dreams tonight me thinks.
ps. The National are publishing Saturday election special tomorrow, Hubba Hubba.
What an amazing win for the SNP. Thanks to the Rev and all you positive wingers. Well done!
It is interesting that some posters on site today are having a grief reaction rather than joy and unbridled euphoria. You are mourning the passing or should I say murder of Social Conscience. We know what is coming and who it will affect,and the difficult thing is to realise your apparent helplessness to prevent it.It is a difficult thing to realise that fellow members of Society could vote so callously to inflict such damage on others.
Therein lies your salvation.The answer is to hold the line and prevent it happening again by any means you can. Only by saving ourselves at the moment can we show others what is possible. It is like teaching my children to swim,and standing in the pool.encouraging them to jump in with faith in me their only aid.
We must show the way and hope,for that is all we can do ,that others follow.
Very amusing to see HYUFD bleating away desperately and convincing nobody. Btw, I was part of history last night; I was a counting agent in Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk and I watched all our hard work over the past few months paying off through the ballot papers. Our share of the vote last time was 9%. Think on that, HYFUD.
Culture, Media and Sport Committee has a couple of vacancies
Scottish Affairs Committee has even more vacancies
as they seem to have lost a few (former chair was a certain Ian Davidson) Maybe you can recommend new chair and members?
Anyone happen to have a link to footage of Danny A being hoofed? I lasted until 4.45-ish, when the victorious Fozzy appeared. That finished me off, so I assume Danny faced the music at some point after that.
Would be ever so grateful.
Something else to remember is that all those media stooges (in the papers and TV) who Labour have put in place over decades are now staring into the abyss as well.
Their ‘pals in the party’ have gone and won’t be taking their calls any more. 😀
They will have nobody to protect them from their own incompetence, greed and stupidity so will be looking over their shoulder from now on as all those ‘favours’ owed to them by Labour’s scottish mafia are now utterly worthless.
No wonder so many of them on the BBC and elsewhere sound close to tears today. 😉
I can’t keep up with all the developments as they come in!
All I’m getting out of this marathon is sore fingertips.
I’m signing off on today’s blog essay and going for a poke of chips from my local five times Chippy of the Year fish ‘n chip shop. Italian, what else?
Ciao.
http://wp.me/p4fd9j-1eK
The SNP won 50% of the votes of those who voted. Turnout in Scotland was 71.1 per cent. So 35.5 per cent of the Scottish electorate voted for the SNP. Nicola Sturgeon is right: that is not a mandate for secession.
David Cameron’s disgraceful anti-Scottish campaign, aided by the media barons, has damaged us all.
Bob Mack says:
8 May, 2015 at 4:17 pm
Wise words
Well, things have changed. And I agree with a number of people that the new SNP MPs will be well-placed to look after our interests.
Meantime, let’s take this to another level adn push for a second referendum in 2018;
https://www.change.org/p/scottish-parliament-affirm-scotland-s-right-of-self-determination?recruiter=11686206&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_responsive&utm_term=des-lg-no_src-no_msg
No point in resting on our laurels, eh?
Bob Mack, totally agree, because it follows that if us lefties want SNP, then our values make us feel empathy for our neighbours down south. I have a lot of English friends on Facebook, so have been careful to say very little.
I have however scotched any nonsense of blaming Scots for a Tory govt.but gently, saying I’m sorry but Miliband lost it.
I do genuinely feel for them, and hope there is some kind of movement to change direction
One word for the victory today.
Joy!
Scotland is on the road to independence today!
So the conservatives now have a majority, what did the anti conservative no voters think would happen last sep when they voted no.
Sorry Scotland you blew it last sep all seats but no power, with a majority & the Scottish referendum over Cameron can safely disregard the SNP like the lab / con used to disregard the lib dems in the decades before 2010.
Edward says:
8 May, 2015 at 4:15 pm
I think Dr E. Whiteford (Banff & Buchan) should get Ian Davidsons old chair job – that would be so fitting.
If you missed it that was the committee he warned of a “doing”
You wait for something the whole of your life, then one morning you wake up and there it is.
My Union publishes a magazine for members, and after the 2011 elections to the Scottish Parliament, it had this headline:-
‘Scotland is reeling.’
This morning I read that a certain defeated labour MP had said that ‘Scotland’ had been ‘duped’ by the SNP.
At lunch time I heard another defeated Labour MP say that the people ‘just didn’t listen to us.’
It’s perfectly clear that they just don’t get it.
In the first quote, Scotland should read ‘Labour.’
In the second, it should read that Labour had duped the Scots for a long time, by pretending that they cared about us.
The third quote is the most telling. You should all have listened to Labour, shouldn’t you? They do care about you, don’t they? It’s just that you no longer understand what their ’cause’ is.
Can someone make a chocolate or marzipan hat for Ashdown? It might help the medicine go down.
Bob Mack you are very wise. I have never felt so despondent. Scotland has a parliament to protect her. And two of the most gifted politicians of this generation. They won’t stand idly by and let them sell our country to the money men. But I despair for people elsewhere in the UK (where I happen to live).
Don’t know what you were all worried about – An IPSOS/MORI poll at the end of October predicted this result (nearly). 🙂
bellacaledonia.org.uk/2014/11/16/the-undertaker-and-the-midwife/
I often wondered what it was like for the 6 SNP MP’s sitting surrounded by the braying Labour mob shouting them down (especially at Scottish questions). Payback time!
Thinking about Scottish question time. If Labour are considered the official opposition then their ONE MP would be putting the questions to the ONE Scottish Tory MP while 56 SNP + ONE LibDem sit behind the ONE Labour MP at the lectern – that cannot be right!!!!!
@Will Podmore 4.30pm
Dear, dear, Will – we are a bit bitter, aren’t we? Oh but of course – you were Bitter Together.
Bob Mack – agree completely
My English friends, including many in the south east, are on the whole devastated and completely taken aback by the result. They are horrified that their country voted as it did. The social democratic leanings of the Celtic fringe has perhaps given a section of the English electorate an unrealistic view of the reality of English politics, these are the same friends who were horrified at the thought of Scotland ‘abandoning’ them last year.
Many of my friends in England seem to have suddenly realised that Scotland can’t cushion them from a right wing leaning English electorate. We never could, but they’ve only just realised it.
Now that Slabour are deid!
When do we get our broadcasting back from Ken McQuarrie and his ilk. Surely we can’t allow them to control our media now they are gone!
Clootie @ 4.36pm
Yes having Dr E. Whiteford (Banff & Buchan) as the new chair, would be…what do you call that?…Karma or kismet?
Look on our works ye mighty, and despair!
As for the FibDems they got squeezed. From the Right voters opted for Tory organ grinders rather than monkeys and from the Left their voters fled. Strangely in many constituencies in the top half of England the reduction in LibDem votes almost mirrored the rise in UKIP. Did their voters switch? I doubt it, instead some sat on their hands, some voted Labour and of course a chunk of Labour voters voted UKIP as a protest. Is Labour listening I wonder? and will they draw the right conclusions? I’m not hopeful.
BTW shall we start a book on whether Murphy will be defenestrated or taken away by the men with white coats first? The denial is strong with this one.
Two pittted legs of mud stand forlorn,
The bright and yellow flowers lie all around.
So Billy Peapod, going from that statement, what percentage did Cameron or Milliband get?
Fucking twat. Piss off you cunt. Don’t you fucking dare come on here and piss on our parade today you cocksucker.
Fuck right off.
Stephen.
http://infernalmachine.co.uk/election-the-horror/
this blog sums up a great deal for me, though less optimistic. It is well expressed
@James Forrest: you really helped me today
Someone earlier made a good point although a Tory govt is disastrous any deal with Labour would have been damaging for the SNP as some policy or backstage shenanigans could have holed the party and set the cause back years if not decades. Short term pain for a long term goal methinks. Maybe the perfect outcome.
Fantastic night for us. Don’t get down about the Tories getting in. Cameron screwed labour, but now he has a bigger problem.
His continuation of austerity will start to rip England apart, EU referendum or blocking of the same will divide his own party. Rise in oil prices above post crash levels will give those still swithering about Indy a bit more confidence. Rise in interest rates will crash the Tories recovery plans (possibly as early as September).
Vote of no confidence. Perhaps wishful thinking, but a possibility nevertheless.
OT Don’t you all think that that we have gloated too much over Labour’s demise?
Naw. Me neither. I’ve no sympathy for the self important, money grabbing, under-educated, deceitful, lying, low life bastards. They deserve everything they are getting.
As for the prospect of their recovery, if the blame game on BBC this morning is anything to go by, there’s not a chance in hell. We’ve done them a favour by getting rid of forty of them. They need to clear out the rest (Dugdale, Baillie et al)
Finally on a lighter note, my favourite newspaper headline of the campaign by a whisker, was the Scottish Sun’s “See you, Jimmy” in reference to Murphy’s departure.
Podmore-oh god not the unionists favourite “of those who voted” line yet a fucking gain. Only 46% “of those who voted” wanted to stay in your precious union so that’s fuck all mandate for a no vote then. Fuck off back to the zoomer sites.
We will at last have some wit and intelligence in WM.Cameron and Gideon will have to duck and dive to escape Alex’s grasp of economics,facts, figures and his ability to unearth the skeletons in the cupboard.There is going to be a whole lot less hiding places for our unionist “friends”.
I agree with some of the other posts re the voters south of the border we cannot help them and why should we.As a recent poll indicated 75% of those south of the border would’nt pay a pound a year to keep us,that suits me just fine.It does show us exactly where we stand in this sham of a union.
Miliband, Balls, Clegg, Curran, Davidson, Alexander Bros, Kennedy, Cable… The list of victims is a joy. Not just ejected but dumped in no uncertain terms. A generational shift. Evidence in black and white that in Scotland, the old politics is dead.
I leave Murphy off that list for the time being. Someone close to him must have a word for his own good asap. He cannot continue although SLABs inability to stop the deluded lying is quite astonishing. His self serving motives have been apparent for some time. Today takes his warped crassness to another level again.
On the other hand Salmond is back at WM with 55 more MP’s to stick up for the electorate in Scotland. Within the discredited system, its as good as it gets. Salmond at WM. Sturgeon at Holyrood. A golden moment for those who want greater democracy in Scotland.
Well done Glasgow, clean sweep. Well done Dundee again too. Well done in all the rotting old Labour heartlands. And well done in all the No places too. Rejecting the Austerity parties up here is something for us all to be proud of. Well done us for (almost) completely rejecting the lies, smears and politics of fear espoused by the likes of Murphy. What clearer condemnation of yesterdays politics can we give? 56-1-1-1 might not be as snappy as ‘the 45’, but surely the biggest WM voteshift any of us will ever see.
Miliband spent the last fortnight showing anyone who’d listen, he was in no way shape or form PM material. This alone will have swung it in middle England I suspect. Balls going a blessing for Lab going forward. They need to get as far away from the Blair/Brown hangovers as possible. Cooper or Umunna surely better bets than Ed, Ed or Burnham. Interesting times although I doubt they’ll wise up if they haven’t already. The LibDems demise has been inevitable since 2010. Was it worth it Nick? Thought not. You’ve killed your party. Greedy dumb fool.
Now we can watch as the tories continue to destroy the fabric of Brittin. Knowing we did all we could to stop them, while Labour and middle England did all they could to allow 5 more years of the rich gettiing richer at the expense of everyone else is no comfort.
The UK government will inevitably give Nicola her game changer allowing another Indyref in an SNP manifesto. No voters now have the choice. Tory WM or centrist/leftist Holyrood. How can 55% of us vote for tory WM ever again.
Some short term tory pain before the inevitability of Independence
Its probably a good idea to consider another referendum before the end of this parliament while the unionist parties are very weak in Scotland.
O/T Laugh….. from North America
Had an email from a friend in Inverness this morning, said she went out for a few minutes this morning and when she got back the SNP had taken her seat! lol
YES !!!
@Indigo
That is a facet of the election that I had never considered.
I am still alarmed at the Ukip vote in terms of their share of the vote 13% – 14% ish in Wales and England and the number of 2nd places they achieved 120 +1 seat. 🙂
My Sheffield cousins will be devastated as they thought Clegg was the bee’s knees!
Tory shuffle on at No10 who will be the Sec State for Scotland.
Tough shit Mr Murray!
Where is Keiza cereal brek gone? I haven’t seen STV today.
So the question of Secretary of State for Scotland………………………….Who will it be 😀
Of course can only be Fluffy Mundell
Fluffy versus 56 SNP MP’s (not sure if Carmichael or Murray will bother turning up for Scottish Questions)
Again it will be karma and payback time for having ignored, heckled and barracked the 6 SNP MP’s for the last 5 years
Are you all waking up to the new reality my fellow wingers 🙂
Looking at the demographics it looks like the Uk has split into 3. Scotland S.N.P. Northern England Labour Southern England Tory. With Wales split as was London.If Labour lurch further ro the right I feel it will continue to haemorrhage seats in their core area. I feel labour was duped by the tories as when they move right labour moves the same way to fill the vacuum. The S.N.P. have remained left and as such have taken the disenfranchised labour voters. Take the positive from this election. The tories have a slim majority and knowing the 1922 committee they will exact more influence from Cameron. We can use this division to exert our bloc to gain more for Scotland. It is not just voting in W.M. but the power in the commities where we can use our voice for good.
Grouse Beater,
That wouldn’t be the Lucky Star Chippie in Ayr by any chance?
Stephen.
Vanity, thy name is misuse of statistics.
Podmore, UKIP and the BBBC can spout all the guff they want about how they can boil down the inequalities of FPtP but they were happy when it meant the SNP had nothing more than a bunch of second places.
I don’t believe percentages give an accurate reflection on the mind of people, it merely dumbs down their opinions to statistical anomalies so here’s a real number for you all out there:
4,252.
That’s the combined majorities of the unionists in Scotland. That’s the difference between a phenomenal night, a landslide and a whitewash, an annihilation, an extinction level event.
The Scottish people have given us a fantastic mandate to represent them and build a better foundation for Scotland.
And I bet we could pick up some cheap masonry from the collective amount of bricks that were shat out last night by the Labour party (northern branch).
Sky news saying that David Cameron said he will rule one nation and fix Britain, or words to that effect.
You can almost picture him sitting bashing a round peg in a square hole, saying it wont fit, I don’t understand why it won’t fit.
The result in Scotland yesterday was fantastic and yet the Tories will be in Govt. for the next 5 years.
Rather like getting a new coat, boots, gloves, hat and scarf, only to discover that the next 5 winters are going to be long and harsh.
A huge loch Scottish border
Mundell as sec of state? just sneaked in and he is going to be our feudal overlord like some medieval throwback.Great democracy Britain eh?
Given that there are two of them, does this mean that the pandas are now the official opposition in Scotland?
Memo to Podmore
Edinburgh Calling at the top of the dial.
GIRFUY!
Suspect they might appoint a scottish secretary from the House of Lords, fluffy couldn’t handle it, he actually admitted as much last night when he said it was well above his pay grade
Still haven’t taken it all in. There was a moment when it was like fifty christmases all happening at once. Every second a report was coming in of SNP gain or SNP hold with simply thousands of votes and swings in the thirties.
For some reason, the win I enjoyed most was Mhairi Black, as I have been following her since before indyref. She is wise beyond her years. And there is an iconic photo of her on some website in black and white and there is just something about her that shouts “Winnie Ewing” and “Margo MacDonald”. Whit an amazing lass!
Have already sent my email to my former member, Murphy, asking him not to resign as head of SLAB. The letter was to his old parliament address and has not bounced back, so hope it is still active…
McTernan’s stock must be at an all-time low. The man is more toxic than a nuclear war!
But sick with fear at England’s voting — racist parties and a party in power which proposes more asuterity and debt! We desperately need out of this union even more now. As Michelle Thomson said, the UK economy is a drowning elephant.
Cameron may have won a working majority but, only barely so.
He is in a much worse place than he was before the end of the parliamentary period finished.
He has, within his party, an awkward squad who want to drag the Tories further to the fruit loop right.
Cameron had the comfort cushion of the LibDems against a rebellion of this group.
I believe that the fruitloops now are over 60 in number and Cameron does not have that LibDem padding any more because the LibDems are gone.
Just maybe the best tactic for the SNP to play is the honest democrat and quietly stir the fruitloops into deposing Cameron and enthroning Boris.
Game over for the Union.
@Proud Cybernat
If they’re not they ought to be.
The tiresome three however are all also representatives of a foreign power
Congratulations Scotland, many happy returns 🙂
Bugsbunny: Wouldn’t be the Lucky Star Chippie in Ayr?
No. 🙂 Three guesses. Clue: Am in Embra.
@ muscleguy
Jim Murphy is proving to be an absolute virtuoso on the one string fiddle and should be encouraged to keep playing until the RMS Slab of Hoyrood sinks under his feet Titanic style. Deputy Dug can forget anything she heard of “Women and Children First” as she will be considered collateral damage and as Jim or Seaman Stains Takes Ermine.
Balaaargh,
Actually it was just over 1500 for all the other parties over the SNP, but if Greens added to SNP in an Independence Alliance over Unionist then over 32 000 more people backed pro independence parties than pro union parties.
Stephen.
The BBC in their biased coverage last night and this morning never mentioned Plaid Cymru once.
Plaid, standing in Wales only, got 3 times the number of seats as UKIP standing all over the UK and the same number of seats as all the unionist parties in Scotland put together. So why no mention?
The Greens also got the same number as UKIP
All the NI parties got better results than UKIP, but just DUP get mentioned, albeit casually as possible allies for the Tories.
After all his snide remarks, she still treated him with dignity.
20 year old Right Honourable Mhairi Black MP, got her shots in though:D
Milliband, Clegg, even Farage did the decent thing and resigned.
Murphy???????
Botherstall seems to have gone to ground too.
Murphy says he still believes he can be First Minister next year. So when does over-arching self belief shade into total delusion?
Amazing day and extraordinary results on both sides of the border. Scotland turning yellow is extremely welcome and clearly demonstrates the widening political gulf between the social democratic population up north and, incredibly sadly, the equally clearly shift to the right of the people in the south.
I can’t help but wonder how different this could have been for Labour if they had just got behind Scottish Independence. Yes, they would still have been annihalated in England but they could so easily have been running an incredibly hopeful new country up here. How they must be kicking themselves now.
I firmly believe that the new SNP MPs will serve their constituents better than any of the previous incumbents ever did under a London whip. What we may lack in experience, we will make up for in passion, enthusiasm and – most importantly – personal integrity.
I would urge every SNP member – and I am one myself obviously – to remember that we must maintain the trust of the people and by far the best way to do that is to continue to deliver on our promises to the people of Scotland – and to resist the temptations on offer in Westminster.
We, the people of Scotland, have placed unprecedented levels of trust into the SNP. Don’t let us down.
My take on all this is England voted Tory not because they like Cameron and there upfront and admitted 30 billion pound cuts but England voted against Scotland having a voice in government.
The Tories didn’t win the hearts of England with a great victory. Give it a year as the Tories are killing the north to favour there London and South East base and England will realise what’s happened.
The boarder is now fully drawn and set out. England voted against Scotland. Time to leave.
Lord Steele and Annabelle + McLeish + G. Wilson on Radio Scotland
This will be good. Constitutional convention, Grand committees, Federalism and other things in a cornucopia of temptingly delicious hors d’oeuvres to ward off the main course of independence becoming a reality.
Henry is asked “is Jim the man?” He replies “Jim has steadied the ship”
It’s becalmed and there are SNP submarines I think, but Henry has great experience of these matters.
Wonderful night and day.
After staying up all night, the six beers I have just had have joined the Tramadol in ensuring an early night!
Ouch. British neo fascism had a hideous 2015 GE campaign and are even worse in defeat, shock. Presumably its usual far right sneering malice, mocking etc but what a Bitter Together bunch of nutters at the Heil.
https://archive.is/NEFcy
I rarely post but would just like to say,
Thank’s Stu and your team for this web site brilliant contribution to Scotland and its people keep up the good work and the truth coming! Also thank you to all the people who post on here really enjoy reading the comments gets you through the day.
To be fair to Jim Murphy for hanging on to the leadership, it’s a win win for him, he lost 40 seats last night, he can only lose 38 in the Scottish election.
“The something and nothing election”
It feels good to be lost in the right direction.
London doesn’t vote majority Tory.
bugsbunny,
Sorry, maybe I should have been clearer (it’s been a long night so forgive me :-)).
I don’t mean the difference in total votes cast across the nation but the total majority of the three seats held by the unionists – approx 800 each for Mundell and the former secretary of state for Portsmouth plus the two and a half thousand that Murray saved his own neck by.
@Will Podmore says:
“8 May, 2015 at 4:30 pm
The SNP won 50% of the votes of those who voted. Turnout in Scotland was 71.1 per cent. So 35.5 per cent of the Scottish electorate voted for the SNP. Nicola Sturgeon is right: that is not a mandate for secession.”
I think she is referring to the process not the percentage. But on your own terms your argument is a busted flush – 46% of the Scottish electorate voted No and this was treated as a mandate to stay in the Union. You can’t have it both ways – the Union set a precedent in Sept so if next indyref is 50% plus one vote on turnout then tough – a free Scotland it is. And that’s why the Unionists froth at the mouth – they didn’t win well enough in September even with chucking lies, threats and manipulation at us. And they knnow it.
Stupid question but how did the SNP deal a 20 seat blow to the coalition?
I thought they only had about 12 seats before.
Does it include seats that labour were likely to lose to the lib dems and conservatives?
” Cactus says:
Congratulations Scotland, many happy returns :)”
@Cactus – You’ve beaten me to it!
That’s all I can articulate right now. How this result can be a vehicle for change in Scotland can be left until after the celebrations 😉
Im so happy. What a day yesterday, was on polling station duty for about 8 hours in total and the support and craic from the voters was fantastic. Its like a dream come true apart from what has happened down south – but at least this time we have 56 MPs who are on our side. Watching the guff on the tv just now, I dont think they have a clue down there in Englandshire – every day it looks increasingly remote and disconnected from our reality up here.
The detail looks complicated but it looks like Tory gains are partly due to the LibDem vote imploding and dissipating round other parties, sometimes letting the Tories in by default, rather than an actual big swing from Labour?
@heedtracker
Oooooft! as Macart would say. They don’t like it do they…but I loved reading it just the same. Thanks for the link. 🙂
Noticed that the highest % swing was in Glenrothes at +34.7% so well done to Peter Grant.
It is now clear that in England the Daily Mail didn’t does not influence opinion but instead follows it.
I remember just before the referendum talking to my English partners mum and dad about it. They were borderline racist and at one point I had to point out ‘Scotsman in the room’.
Referendum number 2 is the only way now. Cameron will concede the absolute minimum he thinks he can get away with. Get it in the 2016 manifesto and hold it asap straight after if SNP can secure another Holyrood majority.
They (the establishment) hit us with shitty smith proposals and we hit them with 56 SNP MPs poetic justice lol GIRUYU
OOOOOOOOFFFFFTT! Off the scale SNP:)Fuck the tory loving fiendishly,fiendish,fiends. Ed was the gift, who actualy thought him a leader?
Historic night and a clear move of a people who are awake or awaking. As always, onwards dear people there is finer aspirations ahead, not far to go now.
Rev Stu says… 8th July 2013…
http://wingsoverscotland.com/dead-duck-walking/comment-page-1/#comment-442750
Great comments by Sir Tom Devine on a Radio Scotland interview a few minutes ago.
Tore Scottish labour and the UK tories a new one. Reckons indie2 is nigh and will not be surprised to see it included in next manifesto.
Must get the link up when available.
Think Murphy will now announce a Scottish Lab party and he will be leader hoping to attract back folk who left Lab.
The media will still be 99% anti-SNP and will blame them for everything the Con gov does.
Lab will hope to benefit from that.
We need control over BBC as some one said earlier they kept ‘losing’ the sound when Nicola & John Swinney were speaking so we had more Murphy again
What no one seems to have grasped is that every single vote and voter in Scotland is now politically redundant
for a minimum of 5 years.
probably 10…. scream all you like and you can’t change a thing
Ian Brotherhood,
Livestream were at Paisley last night (didn’t watch it just kept buffering) so it might be on their recording,
In all fairness, Dougie was very decent about it. Said something along the lines of being sad that they had chosen the SNP to fight the tories instead of labour etc. and seemed quite sincere with his well wishes to Mhairi.
In a still that I saw of it he is looking at her as if he can see what he should have been (maybe was once).
By far the most dignified and reasonable exit. Never thought I would be praising him!
Found a new hilarious site. It’s looks like a viz version of the Daily Mail comments page, a total piss take, except these are not made up. These are genuine Daily Mail readers writing in.
Bloody hell.
thedailyheil.tumblr.com
Stephen.
Jackie Bird examining why “the electorate abandoned Labour”
They really don’t get it do they?
LABOUR ABANDONED THEM YOU IDIOT!
Nine long years, nine long years, nine long years and he didn’t mangage to graduate, well he has plenty time on his hands now, sadly he does not posses the intellect.
murphy”s in denial, or is he just lying? A bit of both! He is still repeating the mantra vote SNP, let the tories in, no labour cuts and labour is a progressive left of centre party.
This uncovers why murphy never graduated.
If labour won every Scottish seat, they”d still be in opposition.
labour voted voted for £30 000 000 000 tory cuts on most vulnerable
labour support renewal of weapons of mass destruction over money on schools / NHS, not progressive.
These three times lead me back to the unanswered referendum question for labour, would you prefer to live in a labour run Scotland or tory run uk – chickens have certainly come home to roost!
We need to start a movement RIGHT NOW to stop Mundell being SoS
No mandate in this country, cumon Alex lead the ROAR!
Well, new to all this stuff( chatting), what a RESULT eh, as a Scot I believe in my country, today I feel so proud I can put away the old Scottish flag I saluted since September you guys know, the white only Saltire,(surrender), today I took it down ran up the BLUE and WHITE SALTIRE of SCOTLAND. This was of course my everyday ritual since that horrible morning in September. Now my emotions are running riot, where do I start, hell my fav moment of the day, Dug Alexander the smarmy Get, good to see what you sow what you reap and you get it back 10 times. To the English press watch what you say, we may just act like that and say let us go then. To Ed Balls glad you are gone your an idiot. To the Labour party I voted for as a kid fuck off you Westminster lovers. Oh SNP MP’s heading South remember us…. not the cheap booze and renting out your flats down south, I will happily vote you out if I see shit happening. Sorry guys/galls thinking as a write I know its all over the place, but doesn’t it keep you here?. To the labour Party in England drink some Irn Bru for fuck sake get wee the program oops sorry canna govern wee the jockabites, hell mend ye. To Glasgow welcome to the Party I knew you could do it all 7 seats wow. To all on this site what a day I trually wish the best to you all for the future I’m sure the tories will try to trip us up be strong WE ARE THE PEEOPLE as they say in the west. Christ my eyes are leaking fluid its time for another Scottish Lager along with the song, I’m walking on sunshine yeaaahhh I’m walking on sunshine yeeaahh (SING). bye for now, a contented Scot.
P.S for you NO voters Halloween Part 1.
To the real Scots thanks so much,
including no voters that have come into the light.
Finally feel sorry for Nigel Farage he had a lot to say mostly pishh but some good stuff. The Greens your time will come look for second votes next year(Scots Election) you’ve got my vote.
Is there Life after Death for SLabour
A crack team of specialists have been summoned to SLab Spiritual HQ at Pacific Quay.
Strategy guru,Eddie Izzard will lead a team of experts consultants who include,Derek Acorah,Yvette Fielding,Uri Geller,Carol Thatcher and David Icke,we not just here to paint over the cracks said Eddie.
Gender balance in this team (we’re listening) was our number one priority,I think we have achieved that said Smurph.
Now we must leave the team to pour over the coals and conduct the post mortem,we will learn lessons from this very public annilhilation.
Each team member will be shadowed by SLab team member,to allow them to better understand the process going forward.
With the Holyrood elections next year,we need to learn quickly,that is why as well as myself I am including Kez,Magrit,Dan & Jackie in the team,we are going to get our faces dirty here,we’re committed.
This is not a case of rattling some skeletons in a few cupboards,or a shaggy dug story,this is the return of the Living Dead.
“What no one seems to have grasped is that every single vote and voter in Scotland is now politically redundant
for a minimum of 5 years.
probably 10…. scream all you like and you can’t change a thing”
Um, next year’s Holyrood vote might be quite significant, love.
@callmedave
“Henry is asked “is Jim the man?” He replies “Jim has steadied the ship””
FFS the ship steadied itself when it grounded on the ocean floor.
This morning on Radio 4, gus o’donnell was linking the need for electoral reform and saving the union.
WGD putting out one of his best ever blogs even coining a new word for last nights events “Fukushima’d” , brilliant.
https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/oh-what-a-night/
Luke
” … 20 seat blow …”
I think that the arithmetic goes like this: they – the Coalition – had 12 seats in Scotland, of which they lost 10. That means that once they had those 10 votes, now they are against. Hence a 20 vote swing.
@callmedave 5.46
“Jim has steadied the ship”
Aye. At the bottom of the fucking ocean
@cearc –
🙂
Yeah, I did see Dougie A minding his Ps and Qs as his collar was finally felt. It’s the Danny-boy I’m after. I can’t be the only one who’s been nursing a very specific grievance against that balloon ever since he opened the foodbank in Inverness, grinning like he’d just won a fiver on a scratchcard. That’s what finished him, just as it was the Better Together involvement which did for each and every Labour scalp last night.
Good riddance to the lot of them.
(And I still haven’t seen Donohoe’s send-off – long awaited and richly deserved. He’ll be missed about as much as a dose of crabs.)
Kenlike says:
8 May, 2015 at 6:59 pm
@callmedave 5.46
“Jim has steadied the ship”
Aye. At the bottom of the fucking ocean
LOL Excellent!
@JimMcIntosh 6.46
Ach, you’ve gazumped me.
Does branch manager with no mp or msp role a paid job or unpaid ? if JM stays on unpaid as branch manager how will that effect him signing on ? hahahahaha
Agree wee Dougie was at least civil, unlike Ian Davidson, who was hysterical and emotional, and winner Ian Murray, who was angry and vitriolic.
How come we seem to have Murphyvision today? Will this zombie not lie down??? Wee Dug beside him in her studious specs, looking suitably serious.
BTW, think Business for Scotland calling for indyref2
PLEASE DONATE… http://tvl.ink/crowdfunder
DON’T HATE THE MEDIA, BECOME THE MEDIA
We are citizen livestream journalists, people like you are us.
@call me dave
I know that Fiona (our girl) took over 5,000 votes, more than 50% of total votes.
john king @ 6.44 pm
Nah, keep Fluffy Mundell
Think on this, he will not have his Libdem or Red Tory chums to back him
It will be just him versus 56 SNP MP’s
It will be karma for all the crap he gave for the last five years hiding behind Mikey Moore
Will give him about a month tops before he throws in the towel
Think of the SNP MPS as 56 Rottweilers surrounding a fluffy wee kitten….yahh! ha! ha! ha! ha! (mad laughter ) 😉
Really should get some sleep
@call me dave
Ooft on steroids and wi’ a double fried egg on top. 😀
I think Mr Cameron knows exactly how much bother Scotland’s representation can cause if they have a mind to. Let’s see whether he plays nice (cough), or acts in the time tested tradition of his predecessors. 😉
I seem to have taken Dr Who’s tardis and gone back in time and posted this in 2013 sheesh 🙁
I met my mum, she was younger than me, ok that’s a lie, so coming right up to date. 🙂
“I wonder how much murphy’s getting paid to neck a can of Irn Bru on camera, mind you it’ll be his only source of income now. “
“Cameron can safely disregard the SNP like the lab / con used to disregard the lib dems in the decades before 2010.”
Let’s see.
Enough patting ourselves on the back people.
Holyrood 2016 is the key. No majority = no options.
It’ll be a lot harder than booting SLAB out on FPTP.
Time to start the preparation now, while the rest are in shock/celebrating/whatever.
Croomp, thought we may as well have that comment from the Rev, from 2013 on this thread. Prescient:
Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
On 8th July 2013 at 7:50 pm
“Nope, we’ll get the other Tory Party, I’m certain of it.”
I’d happily – if that’s the right word for betting on the election of a Tory government – wager you pretty much anything you like that we won’t. I’ve rarely, if ever, been so certain about an election result so far out. History simply points SO strongly against Labour on just about every measure. No opposition leader with ratings this bad has become Prime Minister. No opposition with such a slender lead in mid-term wins next time round. First-time governments rarely get kicked out after a single term. Etc etc.
Only UKIP present any sort of hope for Labour, and my feeling is that by 2015 they’ll either be so strong they’ll win enough seats to make an alliance with the Tories, or their surge will have subsided and their voters – seeing that they’re not going to succeed – will reluctantly return to the Tories to stop Labour getting in. The European elections in May 2014 will probably answer that question, and by the autumn we’ll know which way the wind is blowing.
@Gary45% says: 8 May, 2015 at 12:54 pm:
“The future’s bright,
the future’s YELLOW.”</I?
You mean like this, Garry?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrbni0tVBZ8
We’re another step on the road at least. Pity we couldn’t have seen a similar result 8 months ago though..
Valerie says@7.12pm
“Wee Dug beside him in her studious specs, looking suitably serious.”
Eh?
I thought she just had a really bad disguise.
@Kevin Evans says: 8 May, 2015 at 1:06 pm:
“We need to sort out this Tory mess now”
Nah! Keven, You actually said a mouthful there but got the wrong conclusion.
You identify correctly the main point as a, “Tory Mess”.
But the conclusion we should sort it out is the wrong conclusion.
The correct conclusion is exactly what a great tactician, (Napoleon), explained as, “”We must never interrupt our opponents when the are making a mistake.”
Cameron is already making a mistake – he said, (I paraphrase), “I will give Scotland the most devolved powers”, but then added he, “would have to be fair to England”.
However the biggest problem the United Kingdom has is it ceased to be a United Kingdom when the Establishment threw out the Treaty of Union and brought in the most stupid form of devolution that it would be hard to think up a worse one for.
They ignored that the UK is a bipartite union and devolved United Kingdom powers, from United Kingdom Ministries, to only three of the four United Kingdom’s four countries.
So the real set-up now is that the Westminster Ministries that had devolved powers taken away are effectively Ministries for only England as the devolved countries now have their devolved functions – except in England.
That makes these ministries, still called UK Ministries, effectively English Only Ministries and, by Barnett Consequentials, they regulate Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish funding for the devolved functions given to them.
So the reality is that Westminster has become the Parliament of England but is still officially called the United Kingdom Parliament. However, now England has no one elected as a member of the Parliament of England and the elected members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom include the Scots, Welsh and N. Irish.
So we now have the Scots, Welsh & N. Irish feeling it unfair they don’t get to raise tax and run their own economies to best suit their countries and the English feeling it unfair they do not have their own parliament.
So let Cameron get on with it and drive the four countries further apart.
Notice, just recently, that the Plaid Cymru leader is claiming Wales should get the same per capita funding as Scotland but she doesn’t realise N.I actually gets higher per capita funding than Scotland as N.I. has most devolved functions, Scotland next most and Wales least most devolved functions and it is the Barnett Formulas job to work that funding share out properly.
So the English scream that they are subsidising everyone and want to have the UK parliament stop others interfering in English Matters in the UK parliament. The Scots are fed up being told they are subsidy junkies and N.I keeps quiet as they get most and don’t want everyone to notice. While Wales is disgruntled thinking they are being cheated.
David Cameron says, “We will Govern the UK as one Nation”, while screwing things up even further. Best of luck with that One, Dave., (Let’s not interrupt him while he’s making mistakes)
Stunning result!Nicola “lead the line brilliantly” .She did a fantastic job from campaign
Start to finish! I bet that the London Labour Party sorely wish that Nicola was their “leader” ,as
If so David Cameron would not be in no.10 tonight with a majority government.
@Ian B-
It’s the Danny-boy I’m after
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V37mDBue3mU
Cannae find Donohoe yet but this will keep you going till we do..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtiR38d5TTg
@Roy Bohan says: 8 May, 2015 at 2:12 pm:
“Nicola Sturgeon fell for the polls as well. She thought she would be there, propping up a weak Labour government.
So, Roy, like most of England, you still don’t get it?
Please continue with that mind-set, Roy. It will be of great assistance to us all over this dis-United Kingdom.
Quite obviously you are not capable of seeing the flaws in the so called United Kingdom flawed set-up since the Westminster Establishment made such a pig’s ear of devolved powers.
I may indeed be wrong, but it very much looks to this bodach, that a certain Unionist party are about to make an even bigger soo’s lug than has existed to date.
So, Stu, how long does your crystal ball say the minority Con govt will last?
@Indigo says: 8 May, 2015 at 2:26 pm:
” … the practical implications of the SNP’s position now means massively increased financial resources and therefore a raft of new researchers, new access to information and significant influence on committees.”
It also means something else, Indigo. Oor Eck has a wonderful grasp of Westminster protocol and how the system is set up. He it was who first caught out the then Tory Minister Williaom Waldegrave on the Scotland being subsidised myth.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/scot.politics/XytDzNlFlV4
galamcennalath says:
8 May, 2015 at 1:18 pm
It’s a longer game than that.
Phase 1, found the SNP and work to a position where the party is able to send a few MPs to Westminster.
Phase 2, Pressurise the Labour party to set up a Scottish parliament.
Phase 3, Win a controlling majority in that parliament.
Phase 4, Hold an independence referendum.
Phase 5, Win a controlling majority of Scottish seats at Westminster.
Phase 6, end game.
The referendum seems out of place there, but it seems that had to happen with a respectably-sized and frustrated Yes contingent, before the Westminster tide would turn. Who knew?
I think this is a three-stage process in the development of public perception. Stage 1 is the major turn to the SNP at Holyrood, and it happened in 2011. Stage 2 is the major turn to the SNP at Westminster that just happened. Look how sudden both of these were. The first happened almost overnight in mid-April 2011. The second happened equally swiftly in late September 2014. 45% went with the programme the first time. 50% the second time.
The third stage that has to happen before we can have another referendum is for a similar shift in public opinion behind independence. It doesn’t have to be a slow growth over years, that can be susceptible to backsliding. I think now it’s more likely to be a sudden flipping over, like the previous two events.
Difficult to know what’s going to flip it, but I don’t think we’ll be short of possibilities over the next few years.
The “National” deserves a big Scottish thank you for believing in us.
@Croompenstein (10.09) –
🙂
Ye’re a star. Cheers aplenty.
I know, I know, it’s wrong to enjoy the suffering of others, but this is more of a kismet-type deal so far as the bold Danny A. goes. He deserved that big-time.
And thanks also for the wee sustainer featuring Donohoe – ‘A Crazy Notion’!! It seems that he was very ‘tired’, and ’emotional’, and ‘pished’ that day…happens tae us aw, eh?
No doubt he’ll surface again, and expect us all to hang on his every word, in which case, he’s in for a major dissy.
Hoots again man. 🙂
There is still the rat’s nest that is Slab to be fumigated.
Then the next campaign begins, the final campaign, a Sovereign Scotland.
The Tories paradoxically have a very good incentive to work with the SNP and grant them concessions: If they are seen to treat Scotland badly they will hasten independence. However the SNP are an impediment to a Labour revival so they wish them to remain there. This means granting concessions. The SNP is fine with this because whilst they want independence they are fine simply with progress towards this. Likewise the Tories have no great difficulty with a scenario where Scotland becomes more and more detached from the UK until it eventually breaks off naturally. That in any case would be several years in the future.
EVEL may well come about but I think it will be in line with more devolved powers for the Scottish Parliament. This will allow both sides to claim success. The SNP generally does not vote in Westminster on matters devolved to Holyrood anyway.
As for austerity. It’s been overlooked that the SNP is against austerity not just because it is being populist; There is a strong case against austerity in order to raise demand in the economy so as to hasten the recovery. The Tories did indeed perform something of a con trick in the election by persuading people that they were making a good job of stewarding the economy. Growth has been poor over the last five years and if it doesn’t pick up shortly people will correctly start asking questions of the government.
It’s highly likely that the government will be forced to end austerity simply for economic reasons and with the SNP cajoling them in this direction it will again look like a victory for the Nationalists.
In short, I see a mutually beneficial relationship between the Tories and the SNP over the next five years. The SNP extracting concessions which solidify it’s place in Scotland and so locking Labour out of Westminster for the next generation at least.
Unlike ourselves English voters have of course not learned the bitter lessons from a referendum and are still reliant on the sheer guff that spews from the English based media. It is a tribute to WOS and others that we are now more politically savvy than those in the South. As has been said before we need fairness and an independent monitor for all the press/media if we are to achieve real change for the better. We need to reach out to more voters to combat political bias before the coming Holyrood election and EU referendum.
We now have more Pandas than Tory, Liberal and even Labour M.P.’s!!! Who saw that coming?