I suspect it was the slippery slope argument: that AV would have created pressure to move to "proper" PR of a kind that would ensure more or less permanent coalition forever. Certainly Nick Clegg liked to refer to AV as a "baby step" in the direction of PR.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
Salmond keeps saying he'll write the first budget for Labour. Pretty sure the SNP's plan is:
1) Dominate Scotland but the Conservatives get into No 10.
2) Win the Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2016 with the promise of another referendum.
3) EU Referendum is scheduled by Westminster. Scotland to vote on the same day on the UK union too?
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Something like that. However in that same plan you can see the evidence that Salmond is becoming slightly unhinged. He believes too much of his own legend ... the canny operator, the high-stakes gambler ... he's so enamoured of his own perceived reputation that he seems to have forgotten that he lost the referendum, or else he seems to have convinced himself that the decisive "no" was actually some sort of deferred "yes".
The polls that are giving the SNP a big lead over Labour look fantastic until you view them in the context of the referendum. Last September the SNP successfully crystallised the issue of independence as an actual, concrete thing that could happen, rather than an abstract concept. They also firmly welded themselves to it. We are only just six months on from the referendum and naturally, those who voted Yes are now vowing to transfer their parliamentary vote to the party that stands for Yes.
It's a pity really. We could have done with there being a larger gap between the two. Voters here need to decide the election on the issues it stands for. As it is, Scotland is well on the road to becoming another Northern Ireland, with politicians elected based on their constitutional outlook rather than on a broad manifesto.