A turn of the wheel in Scotland

[Menydh]

Momentum builds for SNP as poll puts party 5% up on Labour

The Scotsman
November 27, 2006

ALEX Salmond is on course to become First Minister next May, according to a new opinion poll today for The Scotsman.

The ICM survey shows that the SNP is continuing to take voters from Labour and could emerge as the biggest party at Holyrood next year.

The nationalists have managed to overtake Labour in both the constituency and regional list votes for the Holyrood election, improving on the already strong position the party registered in last month's Scotsman ICM poll.

If the results were carried through to next May, Mr Salmond would be able to form an SNP-Liberal Democrat administration at Holyrood without needing any help from the Greens.

And with Labour and the Liberal Democrats failing to get enough seats between them to form a third Lab-Lib Dem government, Mr Salmond would be the favourite to become First Minister.

The poll gives the SNP 34 per cent of the vote in the first, constituency ballot - up from 32 per cent last month and five points ahead of Labour on 29 per cent: they are down from 30 per cent last month.

In the second, regional list vote, the SNP and Labour were tied on 28 per cent last month, but this has been transformed into a five-point SNP lead, with the nationalists up three to 31 per cent, and Labour down two to 26 per cent.

The Liberal Democrats are also making progress according to the poll, gaining two points on each vote, with 17 per cent of the constituency vote and 19 per cent of the list vote.

The news is not so good for the Conservatives, however, as the Tories slip one point to 13 per cent on the constituency vote and are down two to 12 per cent on the list vote.

Translated into seats, the poll would give the SNP 43 MSPs, up 16, making it the largest party at Holyrood and giving Mr Salmond the election victory he craves.

Labour would have 38 seats, down 12, the Liberal Democrats would have 25, up eight. The Conservatives would have 14, down four, with the Greens on five, down two, and the others on four, down six.

Mr Salmond has always insisted his party could emerge victorious from next year's elections, a possibility treated with scepticism by most commentators. But today's poll suggests, if current trends continue, that the SNP could take enough seats from Labour to win the election.

The Liberal Democrats have a policy of talking to the biggest party first and, with potentially enough seats between them to form an administration, Scotland's first SNP-Lib Dem coalition seems a realistic possibility.

Mr Salmond said: "The poll indicates the steady progress made by the SNP as we move past the Labour Party in Scotland.

"Labour's policy of sending up the heavies from London has not only undermined Jack McConnell, but it has shown them to be as worried and concerned about his ability to lead as he is himself."

[...]

The one possible outcome that could involve the Tories would be if they, Labour and the Liberal Democrats agreed a unionist pact to keep out the SNP. The Tories could agree to sustain a minority Lab-Lib Dem government but without joining a formal coalition.

[...]

Cross-border support for independence

LABOUR suffered another blow yesterday with a poll showing majorities in both Scotland and England for independence.

An ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph found support for Scottish independence at 52 per cent among Scots and 59 per cent south of the Border.

It also found that 68 per cent of English people wanted their own parliament, an idea supported by 58 per cent of Scots. A move to complete English independence was backed by 48 per cent of voters in England and 45 per cent in Scotland.

[...]

[source]

[Menydh]

The Unionists (Labour here) have reacted with statements like:

"Separation would mean hundreds of thousands of children and grandchildren, parents and grandparents, overnight becoming 'English' or 'Scottish', but not British, being forced to choose which passports to hold."

Good one. They should start by granting the independence to Northern Ireland so that Irish families north and south of the border can reunite and they are not forced to choose a foreign passport. How can they be such hypocrites?

British Home Minister John Reid has also accused the SNP of being unable to face "the challenges of the coming decade" such as the environment, organised crime, international terrorism and mass migration.

"These are the great new issues of our age in front of which narrow nationalism stands helpless [...]"

Amazing that a Labour would speak of the challenges of mass migration which they have promoted for decades. Not to speak of what the messed they've done in Iraq, helping an increase in Islamic terrorist support.

Read more here.

[svin]

Interesting, English are even more independantist than Scots, according to the first article.

[Menydh]

I don't think that they are more or less independentist. Most likely they are lost and don't know in which direction to move. Also, think that there are many English immigrants in Scotland.

The English will have a hard time to rebuild their identity. They lost it to Britain. Welsh and Scots have preserved theirs to much an extent in spite of the British union. Not to mention the Irish. But in the attempt to suffocate the other identities, the English put all of their emphasis in being British and it is them who lost their identity in the process.

Notice that this is not the only drawback of the British identity construct. They also promoted the identification of the subjects of their former empire with being British. You may think of British as an early multicultural term.

Isn't it a cruel irony that a party which vows to maintain their identity is called British National? I would say that it is retarded but if it is their wish I am willing to lend them more rope, providing that they don't drag others with them.