Quote:
Originally Posted by frogstamper
Whilst I agree that Labour is nationally unpopular at present, I believe that at the next general election Labour will re-gain its majority in the Scottish parliament due to the fact that however unpoplar they are the Scottish electorate would rather a center left party in power than the Tories.
From a Conservative point of view I'd guess they'd be very happy with a SNP majority so that it reduces the Labour vote nationally, but as I'm sure your aware Chris there is still a very strong anti-Tory feeling north of the border and this in my opinion is precisely what'll get Labour their majority back...better the devil you know I suppose.
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Labour has never had a majority in the Scottish parliament. The proportional voting ensures that, barring miracles, nobody ever will. That's Donald Dewar's bequest to the nationalists: a system that ensures they'll never be able to use the parliament as a platform for breaking up the UK.
It's interesting how people choose to characterise the feeling towards the Tories in Scotland in the way you have. The level of support for the Scottish Conservatives is almost exactly the same as that for the Lib Dems, and yet nobody ever gets fired up and tries to claim there's 'anti-Liberal' feeling in Scotland.
That said, the Tories are never going to form the bulk of an administration in Edinburgh. And to be fair to all concerned, nobody is actually claiming that they ever will. Labour and the SNP are, for the long term, going to be the largest parties at Holyrood. However more than one commentator has suggested there may come a day when a marriage of convenience places an SNP/Tory coalition in power.