Election Night

[sparky88]

Tell me what "reason" anyone other than the SNP and Tories exist?

liberalism- liberal democrats.

Recycling - greens.

[mjw]

An inevitable outcome of the Ref, the division is irreversible now.

As long as no one is getting their throat cut for wearing the wrong colour of rosette then a bit of political division won't be as big a problem as the religious division we already have.

[Granny Danger]

liberalism- liberal democrats.

Recycling - greens.

Left of centre Unionism - Labour

[sparky88]

I think we can all agree that Coburn (and the rest of his party) getting telt is a good thing for everyone.

who got more votes- rise or UKIP?

[San Starko Rover]

liberalism- liberal democrats.

Recycling - greens.

Missed out Racists - UKIP 

[Mark Connolly]

Carlaw comparing the Tories going from minority to majority in FPTP to tonight's result. Who said spin is dead?

[BerwickMad]

Long term having the Tories as the opposition suits the SNP just fine. Let the main cheerleaders for Unionism be couched in Tory values, that'll hasten the end of the union....

Really? The SNP go backwards and the Tories make huge gains. Surely it's harder to make the argument that the Tories are an English party inflicting things on Scotland when Tory support is rocketing. The U.K. Tory Party are hardly going to be in any way in the mood to agree to another independence referendum when they're on the rise.

[renton]

Do the current results show a mandate? 47.1% of the constituency vote went for pro-Indy parties. Based on nothing more than anecdotal evidence, I would wager those in favour of Indy would be more likely to vote in these elections as well. Really I don't think there's been much, if any, movement from the 55-45.

Going purely off these results I don't see a referendum on this parliament - unless Brexit happens, of course.

I'm not sure you can say that those in favour were more likely to vote. All the previous commentary on the election pointed to an SNP majority by some way. When expectation is that high, it's hard to get the vote out if everyone thinks it's a done deal. On the other hand there was a clear swing from Labour to the Tories based on their Unionism first approach which at least points to a degreen of enthusiasm at this election for those who put that constitutional option first and foremost.

[sparky88]

Left of centre Unionism - Labour

first part is debatable, second part kez has backtracked on.

[fan of the juniors]

Labour are by here now. Sad to see but only themselves to blame . That shambolic that they've let the Tories back into our country. Shame on you Labour Party

[Mark Connolly]

who got more votes- rise or UKIP?

 

From what I've seen, UKIP by a fair bit, but nowhere near enough to affect anything.

[Antlion]

From what I've seen, UKIP by a fair bit, but nowhere near enough to affect anything.

That won't stop the BBC, who seemed to think that UKIP only getting one MP in the 2015 GE but gaining votes spread across the UK makes them one of the most important parties.

[San Starko Rover]

Really? The SNP go backwards and the Tories make huge gains. Surely it's harder to make the argument that the Tories are an English party inflicting things on Scotland when Tory support is rocketing. The U.K. Tory Party are hardly going to be in any way in the mood to agree to another independence referendum when they're on the rise.

How have the SNP gone backwards? Did they get less votes, did they win less Constituency's? the answer is of course no.  The SNP haven't gone backwards the Tories have gained from Labours demise.   

[jagfox]

Really? The SNP go backwards and the Tories make huge gains. Surely it's harder to make the argument that the Tories are an English party inflicting things on Scotland when Tory support is rocketing. The U.K. Tory Party are hardly going to be in any way in the mood to agree to another independence referendum when they're on the rise.

They've hardly gone backwards. The Conservatives have made most of their gross voting gains from the labour support. Most of their constituency gains were from staunch no voting areas and we're targeted accordingly.

Did they get a shot of the 'Battle bus'?

[Alert Mongoose]

I take it with four or five semi viable parties there comes a point where after you win a certain number of constituencies winning a majority is virtually impossible?

[FlyerTon]

According to the link, the big daddy Tory government could be making £1.5 billion in cuts, year on year to 2019/20, to the Scottish block grant:

 

http://www.ippr.org/news-and-media/press-releases/scottish-public-services-could-face-billions-of-pounds-of-cuts-following-uk-spending-review-ippr-scotland

 

 "Reversing these cuts entirely through an income tax rise would add around 3p to every income tax rate in Scotland"

[ayrmad]

Carlaw comparing the Tories going from minority to majority in FPTP to tonight's result. Who said spin is dead?

I've been listening to that sort of shite for hours now, the unionists appear to aim their talk to the numpties at this side of the telly.

[jagfox]

I fucking hate the Tories

[ayrmad]

From what I've seen, UKIP by a fair bit, but nowhere near enough to affect anything.

UKIP roughly 3 times the votes when I've listened to the returns.

[renton]

Really? The SNP go backwards and the Tories make huge gains. Surely it's harder to make the argument that the Tories are an English party inflicting things on Scotland when Tory support is rocketing. The U.K. Tory Party are hardly going to be in any way in the mood to agree to another independence referendum when they're on the rise.

Yeah, really. An inevitable outcome of the referendum was going to be the polarisation of Scottish politics down constitutional lines. The rationalisation of the Yes vote around the SNP was a given, but it was inevitable that the Unionist vote would have to start to coalesce around one of the other parties in order to compete. I'm glad they chose the reactionary backwards w****r party. Let the defence of the union come from the middling right. The SNP have the centre and left. Shorn of any coherent constitutional position Labour support will continue to drift and if it's a centre left independent Scotland or a Tory Unionist Scotland then you will start to make inroads to Yes.

Another referendum in this term was always unlikely in any event. And the Tories actually aquiescing to one is remote anyway. I think they've learned that referendums are not the easy punctuation to arguments Cameron hoped they'd be. Even if the next one is consultative rather than legislative, the UK government would struggle to ignore a Yes mandate.

As for the SNP going backwards? It's a couple of seats either way and they'll still have twice as many seats as the next guy. They still have thumping mandate and will get support from the Greens on several issues. If either Labour or the Lib Dems abstain then they'll steam roller their programme through regardless. And can Labour really afford to be seen as supporting the tories again?