Salmond and Sturgeon Want the English Fish for More Fat Subsidies

Shakethedisease

skintmacflint wrote: »

Yes he's in a double bind with this. It's ironic after years of Labour anti Tory sound bites , that the for the first time he might be depending on Scottish seats , the voters don't appear to be listening.

Well he didn't rule anything out. Neither did Jim Murphy when explicitly asked by Brian Taylor about any deals or pacts. Still time yet though.

But as it only took 2 years of SNP anti Tory, anti Labour anti anything but SNP sound bites to persuade huge numbers of them, it should be just as easy to turn people round.

A little on the optimistic side there I feel. The SNP has been slowly but surely playing a the long game for years. In fact there was a tweet a few days back urging that the SNP don't get complacent over the recent polls. And a reply back from someone saying 'No chance, we've lost too many elections before even when it looks good'. Very true.

For Labour to 'win' voters back, they will have to change through actions not words that are immediately forgotten about after an election or referendum is won. A point in case is the NHS, where they spent the last few months of the referendum endlessly pointing out that the Scottish NHS was safe with a No vote, and that funding would always be there. The Scottish NHS doesn't depend on funding from Westminster ! The SNP were lying to us all !

Yesterday in a radio interview Jim Murphy stated that a billion could be wiped from the Scottish NHS if the Tories get back in and cut funding. As did Ed Milliband.

Miliband warns Tory decade could rip £1bn from Scotland's NHS...
Pointing to an overall reduction in public spending in Scotland of £2.7bn should the Conservatives win power - £500 for every man, woman and child - the Labour leader will say: "If the cuts are spread evenly, it would mean over £1bn of cuts to the NHS. This is the equivalent of 15,500 nurses and 3,500 GPs."

http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/scottish-politics/miliband-warns-tory-decade-could-rip-1bn-from-scotlands-nhs.120123651

Now this is exactly why so many people no longer trust Labour to do the best for Scotland. Because they were saying one thing in September last year, and the complete opposite of it a few months later. It does not instill confidence in anything they say. We haven't all had miraculous memory wipes.

A lot will depend on whether SNP can continue to keep the many different camps of their new voters happy, particularly with freebies. And thousands of them now have very high expectations . Even with the extra funds allocated to Scotland , SNP aren't managing to balance the books and if Nanny doesn't get her extra anti austerity funding she's going to struggle to keep them happy.

Labour, Lib Dems and Tories would sell their grannies for these sort of 'problems' at the moment. Especially 9 weeks out from a general election. All those new members and voters to keep happy.. Gosh, what bad news for the party !
How about you turn it on it's head and realise that all those new members and voters, have turned to the SNP because what they do makes them happy to vote for them ?

Then of course there's the new tax rates and replacement council tax policy to come, not to mention their big brother approach with child guardians etc. Not all of their new polices are, or will go down so well. The price of having more responsibility.

One can only vote for the party that best reflects one's own views. That doesn't mean agreeing 100% with what any party stands for, and each and every policy.

What goes around comes around, seen it all before. It's just going to be a question of time, and whether there is enough of it left.

T'was always thus. You aren't telling us anything profound we didn't know before. Politics is ever changing. However, 9 weeks before a General Election is pushing things a bit far in terms of a complete turnaround in probable voter behaviour for this one. 1 or even 5 years out, who knows.

Shakethedisease

CLAPTON wrote: »

It's more likely that the unionist parties have been surprised that the voters of Scotland rejected the back up of the union when given a clear referendum but seem to be intent on voting overwelmingly for a separatist party at the general election.

Indeed an interesting and somewhat puzzling situation.

Not really. Take the independence thing away from the SNP.. and just take the rest of their policies. Then it becomes more a right/left state of play. Labour has moved too far to the right for Scotland's tastes, and the SNP on general policies have gradually moved to fill the gap. The independence referendum was lost after all. So no longer such a large factor, and certainly not in a general election to Westminster.

There's no Yes or No on the ballot paper this time round. SNP policies v's Labour ones. I guess the Scots just like SNP policies (at the moment) better ?

zagubov

CLAPTON wrote: »

It's more likely that the unionist parties have been surprised that the voters of Scotland rejected the back up of the union when given a clear referendum but seem to be intent on voting overwelmingly for a separatist party at the general election.

Indeed an interesting and somewhat puzzling situation.

I think the problem is that the unionist parties started to believe their own spin on the SNPs performance.

To the voters, the SNP seem to be a more competent team and with indy now on the back burner, what's to be lost by voting for the most social democratic party?

Leanne1812

Whether people like it or not the message the SNP are sending out appears to be going down very well with the scottish electorate. The other parties must be scratching their heads and wondering how on earth did this happen.....

As Humza Yousaf said on QT the other night "it's not a case of the people abandoning Labour it's Labour abandoning the people" That's exactly what has happened and I don't believe it's going to change anytime soon especially with the latest gaffes by both Milliband & Murphy regarding their complete turnaround on what will happen to the NHS. People can plainly see that what the SNP said pre referendum is what labour are saying today. This only reinforces belief that the SNP are more trustworthy than labour.

CLAPTON

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Not really. Take the independence thing away from the SNP.. and just take the rest of their policies. Then it becomes more a right/left state of play. Labour has moved too far to the right for Scotland's tastes, and the SNP on general policies have gradually moved to fill the gap. The independence referendum was lost after all. So no longer such a large factor, and certainly not in a general election to Westminster.

There's no Yes or No on the ballot paper this time round. SNP policies v's Labour ones. I guess the Scots just like SNP policies (at the moment) better ?

what are the SNP policies for Scotland?

chewmylegoff

zagubov wrote: »

I think the problem is that the unionist parties started to believe their own spin on the SNPs performance.

To the voters, the SNP seem to be a more competent team and with indy now on the back burner, what's to be lost by voting for the most social democratic party?

Aren't the SNP just continuing to poll about 45% as they did in the referendum (where voting yes was really just a proxy vote for the SNP). Perhaps the referendum has served to polarise public support into essentially for/against SNP - and we're not seeing another surge in support for the SNP it's just that 45% is a losing vote % in a straight yes/no referendum but a winning vote % in a first past the post system where the "anyone but SNP" vote is fragmented across a number of parties.

Probably a load of drivel.

chewmylegoff

CLAPTON wrote: »

what are the SNP policies for Scotland?

Jam today funded by a pillaging raid on York fronted up by Mel Gibson.

Shakethedisease

CLAPTON wrote: »

what are the SNP policies for Scotland?

Devolved issues usually. Why not Google the last 7 years of Scottish government.. that should give you a few pointers. ( where's that roll eyes smiley ? )..

CLAPTON

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Devolved issues usually. Why not Google the last 7 years of Scottish government.. that should give you a few pointers. ( where's that roll eyes smiley ? )..

I was just asking what the current SNP policies are that are attractive to Scottish voters.

Seemed a reasonable question.

Shakethedisease

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Aren't the SNP just continuing to poll about 45% as they did in the referendum (where voting yes was really just a proxy vote for the SNP). Perhaps the referendum has served to polarise public support into essentially for/against SNP - and we're not seeing another surge in support for the SNP it's just that 45% is a losing vote % in a straight yes/no referendum but a winning vote % in a first past the post system where the "anyone but SNP" vote is fragmented across a number of parties.

Probably a load of drivel.

That would be a good theory. But it doesn't explain the landslide win in 2011 in the Scottish elections ? Nor the rise in support that enabled them to win the 2007 and run a minority administration for 4 years there either.

I think the referendum has accelerated support a fair bit. But SNP support has been on the rise for several years. And most pollsters are of the opinion that people are simply now treating voting for Westminster, the same way they do in voting for Holyrood ie the same.

FPTP is an added bonus, as it provides a tipping point. Ex-Labour voters are showing little sign of returning, and it's split 3 ways as you say. Labour however, can still retain a fair proportion of seats if they claw back a bit of support. No-one knows from where yet..