Given recent events in Aberdeen, he might be right.
As much as I dislike the SNP and it’s supporters this is fairly petty stuff(if it was indeed a member of the SNP rabble). Im reminded of the “riots” in Glasgow post referendum. “Rioting” Scottish Unionists were portrayed badly throughout the world in some very predictable headlines. If you look at the photos of the “riot” its the same 2 or 3 pics of riot porn - mainly pics of a police horse rearing up as a single smoke bomb is thrown.
FFA is not a priority because it would be completely ruinous to Scotland as the SNP have realised, hence Salmond’s ludicrous intervention last week when he claimed that the rest of the UK should make up any funding shortfall from declining oil revenues in a fiscally autonomous Scotland.
Other than their weird stance on Trident, it seems like a decent manifesto designed to slot in with the Labour manifesto.
Yes, I’ve seen that blog. It’s inarguable.
There’s a definite don’t rock the boat feeling to this manifesto. I think it reflects a) Sturgeon’s genuine politics (nationalism excepted); b) gentle encouragement to old Labour voters that they can trust the SNP and don’t need to have second thoughts and c) a sense that it’s better to work with Labour in Westminster at least at first rather than kicking the chairs over. This in part reflects the fact that, having ruled out supporting the Conservatives, their negotiating position is relatively weak.
Glasgow is a big city with big city problems; Aberdeen isn’t and doesn’t.
What’s the “Q” graffiti mean? “Quisling”?
Correct.
Just from general observation, it seems that the Conservatives (with the help of Sky News) Are spinning a narrative that Labour will team up with the SNP and it will be a disaster for the country, seems to be repeated ad nauseum, hopefully it won’t work.
I hope Labour wins
What I’m hearing up here is “Don’t bother voting for Labour when you can get the same result - but better - with the SNP”. The SNP are really scared of people voting Labour.
The Conservatives are getting a little 911-y with the SNP these days - they seem to bring it up on a regular basis to induce irrational hysteria.
“Yes, it’s true that we’re going to sell off public housing but LOOK OVER THERE LABOUR ARE TALKING TO THE SNP LABOUR WANT TO DESTROY THE UK AND IF YOU DON’T VOTE CONSERVATIVE THAT MEANS YOU HATE BRITAIN AND THE QUEEN AND TEA AND CRICKET!!!111!!”
But what worries me is that people will buy that narrative, fear mongering can work and I just hope it doesn’t, like the attempted bribe of right to buy (Mark 2) Which was announced a few weeks ago.
Then there’s closet Conservatives.
But the SNP DO want to destroy the U.K.
Yes, but talking to them about other common policy issues does not constitute an endorsement of their position on Scottish independence. In fact I believe they’ve sidelined any talk of a new referendum for the time being. And since their manifesto agrees with Labour’s in many respects, it makes sense for the two parties to consider where they can work together for mutual benefit.
Which is why the SNP really terrifies the Conservatives - not because they’ll break up the UK (they almost certainly won’t in the next five years) but because they’ll get Ed into Number 10.
Now people know what Project Fear felt lime up here last year; and it failed here as the polls moved from 35% to 51% as the rhetoric hit its maximum.
There is every chance that the loss of the forty seats in Scotland and the possibility of Labour losing may galvanise the soft Labour vote in England and help Labour gain seats there. How many soft Labour will move back from abstention, Green, LibDem or or even UKIP to Labour where their votes were really protest votes reluctantly cast against Labour should Labour have had a clear lead?
The SNP worked hand in glove with their Tory partners during their incumbency at Holyrood — leading to a sour grapes sense of betrayal amongst Scottish Tories now the SNP has tactically decided to attack them — and various tories, including Lord Ashcroft, are considering the prospect of a Conservative-SNP partnership.
Since the SNP have no principles — being nationalists — other than independence ( under their rule ), it may be better for them to get as much as they want from a weakling like Cameron ( who through his holding of the referendum showed how little he valued the Union ) than from Labour, whose economic policies are broadly similar to their own ( at present — Eastern Europe shows newly independent countries have a marked tendency to swing to the right after a while ). After all Labour in power would have less reliance on people whom it knew were pretty well in harness on economic direction anyway.
Between 2007 and 2011 the SNP was in a minority in Holyrood. They had to work with one party or another. Tribal politics meant that Labour followed the Bain Principle- opposing all SNP legislation, even when it was based on their own amendments to bills.
Holyrood was designed to always be ‘hung’. Only the incredibly popular SNP can or will form a majority government. Any swing to the right would be limited by the nature of Holyrood.
Happy birthday to Her Majesty the Queen, born this day in 1926: http://www.royal.gov.uk/HMTheQueen/TheQueensbirthdays.aspx
The question is whether the “SNP in charge” rhetoric will affect centrist Labour/Conservative swing voters (who are presumably the target of this message) more than it will affect leftist Green/Lib/Labour swing voters (who might be reassured that they can vote Labour and still have a left-wing party steering Labour away from austerity). Anecdotally, I know a few wavering Labour voters who are reassured that a Labour/SNP government would be sufficiently left-wing and that they don’t need to vote Green/Liberal now. How that stacks up against more centrist English voters who a) don’t want the SNP to break up the UK and b) don’t want a left-wing government, I don’t know.
I have seen that Labour are polling 36% in England only, which is a c.5% jump from 2010. But I don’t know how the various underlying factors affect that.
The other matter is the non-Labour Scottish seats at risk. There are ten LibDem seats and one Conservative seat at risk; if most of these fall to SNP as widely predicted, then a continued Tory LibDem arrangement is stymied.
I think is refuting SNP coalition building because I think if it doesn’t Scottish Labour loses alot of its rationale for existing in the first place. One of the reasons for sure, but this is probably up there with the main reasons.