Popular Post GordonS Posted July 5 Popular Post Share Posted July 5 (edited) Sorry if I'm repeating what has already been said, but... 33.8% of the vote is the lowest of any incoming administration ever, yet they've got the second-highest majority of any incoming administration (excluding national unity coalitions) since 1924. Labour got 600,000 fewer votes than last time - when they got hammered - and 3.2 million fewer than in 2017. The Lib Dems are about 200,000 votes down on last time but have gone from 11 to over 70 seats. They got half a million votes fewer than Reform, who got 4 seats. The SNP got 30.1% in Scotland and they are "left shocked by the Labour surge", while Labour got 33.8% across the UK and it's "a spectacular night for Labour" (both BBC headlines). The only thing that happened yesterday was the Tory vote collapsed, mostly to Reform, and our bizarre electoral system handed seat after seat to the largest minority. Our electoral system is an utter farce, it's barely a democracy at all, and focussing on the outcome it produced instead of the way people actually voted completely misses the point. Edited July 5 by GordonS 27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oceanlineayr Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 I always regarded it as a poor strategy by the SNP to send their higher calibre members (Flynn, Black etc) to Westminster instead of Holyrood. Holding Westminster to account on committees and other issues (or trying to unlike Labour for a long period of time) gets so little media attention it's not worth the effort. Especially when the alternative was letting Peter Murrell fail/Baldkrieg his way along, contributing to many of the issues crippling the SNP. To add, looking at the BBC voting numbers for Scotland, there's less than 200k votes between Labour and the SNP. FPTP is an utterly f*cked voting system. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyrshireTon Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 The middle borders one is a Tory hold. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Connolly Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 Looking forward to Ed Davey continuing his slapstick approach in the House of Commons. That's why you were elected 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Double Jack D Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 2 minutes ago, mrpaddyx said: Another crumb of comfort was Kirkcaldy's incumbent MP, Neale Hanvey of Alba, coming 7th. I think the pro independence parties need to get some plan together for 2026 and how to gain some momentum for that argument again. The difficulty now faced is that Labour can gain significant plaudits if the devolved government improves in performance between now and then. However if it continues to be an absolute bombscare then SNP will be hammered again in 2026. In all honesty, I think independence is now off the table until well into the 2030's at least. That is what the SNP deserve punishment for. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Tennis Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 4 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said: Christ, can we not even count properly down here? Wish they'd get a move on. I want to go to bed seething. I went to bed at 6 and have just got up again. Seriously, still no result in Dumfries and Galloway? What is wrong with people? Our counting is almost as humiliating as our voting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 Whilst most papers show a grinning Kier Starmer on their front pages with headlines like Kier We Go, or Labour Landslide, spare a thought for readers and workers at the Daily Express. Brings a tear to the eye, that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alert Mongoose Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 2 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said: Seriously, still no result in Dumfries and Galloway? What is wrong with people? The counting staff on overtime clock imo 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 1 minute ago, Double Jack D said: I think the pro independence parties need to get some plan together for 2026 I think if the SNP form any sort of plan with Alba and their 0.5% of the vote, they'll lose another huge chunk of voters and independence will be much further away. Most Scots really hate Alex Salmond and he's a barrier to independence, not a help. The minute Nicola Sturgeon took over from him the SNP's opinion polling jumped 5 points - mostly due to women. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyrExile Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 1 hour ago, renton said: "Other side of the party" - you realise who is DFM and Economics Secretary? Swinney has attempted to unite the party and has the standard bearer for the "other side" as his deputy. As bad a night as it was, it's hard to pin it on Swinney who's had the job for 2 months out of 15 really awful ones for the SNP. There are several factions in the party who have been tolerant but not united after Swinney took over. Unless there is a completely new broom then more of the same coming at Holyrood election. Swinney has been part of the problem for the last however many years and still associated with the previous problems. Many people will be out of work should last nights result be repeated and i don't expect them to hang around waiting for it to happen. Humza/Swinney have all about keeping the Murrells in power/out of trouble rather than fresh ideas and leadership. I would expect others in the party to take a stand and challenge this again now 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyrshireTon Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 4 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said: I went to bed at 6 and have just got up again. Seriously, still no result in Dumfries and Galloway? What is wrong with people? Our counting is almost as humiliating as our voting. D&G couldn't run a menage. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted July 5 Author Share Posted July 5 I’m old enough to remember when SNP supporters would react to defeats by calling the voters “90 minute patriots” and likening Scottish people to “battered wives”. Haven’t heard any of that from candidates or other elected members, plenty from social media though. I think Mairi Black said that the SNP shouldn’t blame the voters for their defeat, which is always good advice. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Double Jack D Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 2 minutes ago, GordonS said: I think if the SNP form any sort of plan with Alba and their 0.5% of the vote, they'll lose another huge chunk of voters and independence will be much further away. Most Scots really hate Alex Salmond and he's a barrier to independence, not a help. The minute Nicola Sturgeon took over from him the SNP's opinion polling jumped 5 points - mostly due to women. Yeah, I wasn't advocating that plan : 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scary Bear Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 (edited) 36 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said: Like it or not, this opinion is currently the opinion of the minority of voters in Scotland. Additionally, voters clearly have lost faith in the SNP's ability to deliver it and have instead turned to addressing the very real issues they currently face. How the SNP react to this will determine how they fare in 2026 - either they can dismiss it as people simply voting to get the Tories out and continue their path of nannying, higher taxes for anyone earning over £28,000, empty promises delivered on the never never, and "free" stuff, in which case they will get trounced again, or they can reflect on their own policies and give people a reason to believe in them in 2026. ‘We’ being me, the person I was responding to, and the majority of active posters on this website (as shown by how they voted). I appreciate that in Scotland we are currently the minority. People were voting to get the Tories out, but they aren’t keen on the SNP either. They’ve both been in power too long. Edited July 5 by Scary Bear 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pozbaird Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 Went to bed at 1am and just catching up. On reflection, yesterday was a very sad day for Scotland, but on the upside, he’s still got the mixed doubles with Raducanu. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrpaddyx Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 1 minute ago, ICTChris said: I’m old enough to remember when SNP supporters would react to defeats by calling the voters “90 minute patriots” and likening Scottish people to “battered wives”. Haven’t heard any of that from candidates or other elected members, plenty from social media though. I think Mairi Black said that the SNP shouldn’t blame the voters for their defeat, which is always good advice. Yeah, it's never a good idea to blame the people that you want to vote for you that it's their fault they didn't vote for you. Mhairi Black apparently wants out of politics but perhaps a 2 year break will do her good and we can get her to run in 2 years time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Jean King Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 38 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said: Like it or not, this opinion is currently the opinion of the minority of voters in Scotland. Additionally, voters clearly have lost faith in the SNP's ability to deliver it and have instead turned to addressing the very real issues they currently face. How the SNP react to this will determine how they fare in 2026 - either they can dismiss it as people simply voting to get the Tories out and continue their path of nannying, higher taxes for anyone earning over £28,000, empty promises delivered on the never never, and "free" stuff, in which case they will get trounced again, or they can reflect on their own policies and give people a reason to believe in them in 2026. Chuckling away to myself at the mere thought of Labour pledging to scrap free tuition fees, prescriptions etc at the next Holyrood election never mind winning it on those policies. That simply isn't going to happen, whether it's for the good of the country in some eyes or not. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 36 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said: Like it or not, this opinion is currently the opinion of the minority of voters in Scotland. Additionally, voters clearly have lost faith in the SNP's ability to deliver it and have instead turned to addressing the very real issues they currently face. How the SNP react to this will determine how they fare in 2026 - either they can dismiss it as people simply voting to get the Tories out and continue their path of nannying, higher taxes for anyone earning over £28,000, empty promises delivered on the never never, and "free" stuff, in which case they will get trounced again, or they can reflect on their own policies and give people a reason to believe in them in 2026. That's false. This is one of the features of election post-mortems; everyone thinks the things they care about are why a party did well or badly. I think the SNP's tax policies are one of their most popular aspects and the reason they fell to 30% yesterday has absolutely nothing to do with that. I think "free" stuff like tuition fees, prescriptions, baby boxes and the child poverty and disability payments are very popular, except among people who already hate them. I think their poorer result is to do with perceptions of their delivery and the air of incompetence around them. Neither of us can know though. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudia Gentile Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 1 hour ago, Scary Bear said: Big story of the night is Reform. They got over 3000 votes in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath seat! More than Lib Dems, Greens and Alba. That’s mental. Apart from the word Reform, like Labour’s ‘change’, what are they offering that 3000 people want? It’s not like Fife has been crazily affected by immigration, unless the Poles are a problem for folk. A good question. They have the Brexit Party behind them (they are the same account on Companies house) and thus have had massive media attention compared to their similar sized rivals. Employed their buzzwords and these will ring true with some disaffected parts of society. Forage appeals to some too because he smokes a fag (or used to) and drinks pints. Then there is the elephant in the room that some Tories would never vote for someone of Indian descent and their focus on immigration would appeal to racists. Not all Reform voters may be racists but a lot of racists would have voted Reform. People are/ can be stupid too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 Just now, Claudia Gentile said: A good question. They have the Brexit Party behind them (they are the same account on Companies house) Reform don't have the Brexit Party behind them, they are the Brexit Party. They officially renamed with the Electoral Commission in 2020. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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