Seismic
I think that's possibly the best word to describe the events of last night and today.
The collapse of the LibDems was to be expected, but not to the extent that we have seen today, which effectively wipes them out as a political force in Scotland.
The electoral system for once, also worked in the SNP's favour.
The self-destruction of the Labour Party continues apace, and I am not sure if they are going to have the parliamentary numbers to be able to manage a real change and bring forward new ideas.
A quick look at some of the results seems to suggest that Labour voters stayed at home in droves, whilst the LibDems and many Labour swapped to SNP. This will warrant much further analysis by the Labour Party over the coming months, when they finish navel gazing.
The next 4 years are going to be a long period of reflection for the opposition, whilst the SNP are going to have to manage down the expectations of their supporters to fit the money available.
The big question is just how and why the Labour Party imploded. I would suggest that poor or non-existent leadership allied to a serious absence of organisational skills met an ill-focused campaign in a head-on crash. The positive publicity and the message disappeared with the momentum, and it was all a death-spiral from there.
Iain Gray will be gone by Monday. But just who will be there to replace him? Unless there is a new face and an entirely new approach to reality, then they might as well plan for the next loss and the next leadership contest.
The collapse of the LibDems was to be expected, but not to the extent that we have seen today, which effectively wipes them out as a political force in Scotland.
The electoral system for once, also worked in the SNP's favour.
The self-destruction of the Labour Party continues apace, and I am not sure if they are going to have the parliamentary numbers to be able to manage a real change and bring forward new ideas.
A quick look at some of the results seems to suggest that Labour voters stayed at home in droves, whilst the LibDems and many Labour swapped to SNP. This will warrant much further analysis by the Labour Party over the coming months, when they finish navel gazing.
The next 4 years are going to be a long period of reflection for the opposition, whilst the SNP are going to have to manage down the expectations of their supporters to fit the money available.
The big question is just how and why the Labour Party imploded. I would suggest that poor or non-existent leadership allied to a serious absence of organisational skills met an ill-focused campaign in a head-on crash. The positive publicity and the message disappeared with the momentum, and it was all a death-spiral from there.
Iain Gray will be gone by Monday. But just who will be there to replace him? Unless there is a new face and an entirely new approach to reality, then they might as well plan for the next loss and the next leadership contest.
38 comments:
Looking forward to the SNP fulfilling the promise to sort out the broadband issue
And all the other promises. There are no excuses now, they have a majority.
Iain Gray has resigned. Not sure there is anyone left to replace him.
4 long years of an incredible amount of rubbish and fairytale policies. Hope those that voted SNP are aware that they have now condoned Gay marriage amongst other things. I say we have a referendum on independance asap, win OR lose the SNP have no purpose.
Looking at it nationally, the clearest parallel is between Labour and the SNP in the last 30 years or so. No one believed through the years that Labour was dominant that bringing the means of production into public ownership was the driving force for public support: eventually they ditched Clause 4 explicitly; neither now does anyone believe that getting full independence was the driving force for today's SNP success; what will happen to the independence issue in the longer term?
What happened was that the people selected the most competemt administration for the day; not voted for revolution.
Working for you will now have to mean exactly that - the whole of the Western Isles not just fence sitting and hand picking the ones that fit policy in little community pockets.
Start first with providing £1m to education budget to payback those in the 4 communities you promised to save their schools.
Well done SNP, get into gear AA.
Thought it was 5 years
The Scottish peolple have spoken with a very loud voice and the biggest word choice is TRUST.
Libdem: After what you have done in coalition: WE DON'T TRUST YOU.
SNP: After 4 years in Government: WE DO TRUST YOU TO RUN THE COUNTRY.
Lab: With nothing to offer: WE DON'T TRUST YOU TO RUN THE COUNTRY.
Con: You lost our TRUST years ago and will never get it back.
The SNP have been elected in such a dramatic way because they are the only party with out political masters at Westminster. They have a vision which the other parties don't, and have Scotland at the forefront of their minds. The electorate are not stupid, they know they have not voted for Independence but they also don't like being denied the opportunity to vote on such an issue.
The best way to convince the poeple of Scotland to vote, when the time comes, for independence is for Westminster politicians, and David Cameron in particular to publicly state the will fight against it tooth and nail.
The SNP have been given a mandate and entrusted with governing Scotland for the next 5 years. I certainly expect that they will do so with the fairness they have strived to achive over the past 5 years.
Personally I hope they introduce the minimum pricing for alcohol as a priority, to reverse the disgraceful outcome from the last parliament where the other parties went against ALL independent advice and voted it out.
Excellent comment, 7:58.
And 6:07, please go and lie down quietly in a darkened room for a while...a long while.
That £1 million stuff for the 4 schools is just Comhairle propaganda. The Comhairle gets paid by the Scottish Government to keep rural schools open- not close them. And - will the SNP be in for 5 years and not the 4 you quoted?
6.07pm - as a couple of others have pointed out, this term is for 5 years and not 4.
Gosh, a party with no purpose wins with a landslide - jings the Scottish electorate are a gullible lot, eh?
Interesting times ahead for all....
Looks like many of those posting are still in denial about Labour's defeat - as they have been since 2007 at Holyrood and since 2010 at Westminster. Labour will get nowhere until they accept they are out of sync with the new politics and do something about it. Labour in Wales did something about it but why not Scottish Labour? As for putting Iraqi blood red ribbons on Stornoway lamposts - what was all that about?
"sort out the broadband issue"
Hahahahaha.
Yes, get the bloody broadband fixed. It's 2011, ffs!! A man can tweet while standing on top of Mount Everest but a resident of the Outer Hebrides can't often receive a PDF, or download a program on the BBC iPlayer. Pathetic.
Well, here we go: an independence referendum. That's about all the SNP stands for, at the end of the day.
Labour focused on the wrong issue, not realising that the SNP was their main adversary, rather than the Con Dem coalition. Unbelievable incompetence, which also applied to their W Isles candidate.
Labour locally need to look at their bigotted links to the church. That is what lost it for them. See Iain MacIvers blog. He is bob-on.
I find all this rather entertaining. There is no denying that there are interesting and dificult times ahead, what we need to do is work together as the people of the western isles instead of bitching and bickering about this that and the next thing.
We all seem to be proud of where we come from (and if your not then shut up and sit down, or just hop on the ferry ;) ) so let's show the people of the world how resilient we are!
12:49 agree, iain X is on the ball
Time now for some of the disillusioned (SICK) Labour and LibDem voters to join the SNP. The late and respected Jimmy Reid, of Clydeside fame, reminded us in a famous quote that he didn't leave the Labour Party - they left him! New Labour/Old Labour ... shilly shally, can't make up our minds, middle of the road Labour.
Wendy Alexander and Cathy Jamieson (ex MSP, now MP) saw the writing on the wall, and left the sinking ship some time ago.
Wee Eck has rescued Scotland from the abyss ... we all need to nurture and support him, and give him all the respect he has worked so hard to achieve and which he now deserves. Leadership requires followership.
Let's not forget what happened to some other famous and legendary Scottish politicians - John Smith, Donald Dewar, Robin Cook - all sadly no longer with us, taken in their prime. Men of principle and decent values. It's tough at the top. Stop carping and feel proud and privileged to be Scottish with a bold and brave national party to support, with a positive outlook, and visionary leadership.
The Referendum will come in time - no need to "bring this on" as many now insist, immediately. Within a few years the SNP's continuing record in office will have convinced the majority of the electorate of the benefits of independence, in control of our own destiny, at last. Much can be achieved by means of amendments to the Scotland Bill, presently winding its way through Werstminster and Holyrood. Strategy is important - The SNP Scottish Govt are now in the driving seat. Expect some surprises!
12.49PM
Blimey, the Church must be strong if this is the reason why Labour lost so many seats in Scotland.
Labour didn't really have much to go on in the way of policies, locally or nationally, and the Scottish leader Iain Graaaaaaaaay...sorry, nodded off there, had about as much charisma as a used teabag and inspired no confidence whatsoever.
Ed Miliband looks and sounds as if he's only just out of short trousers. "Where's my satchel?" And his eyes are too close together. Very shifty looking. I would suggest that when he goes in soon for his adenoid operation to make him sound like Charlton Heston, the surgeons also relocate his eyes about an inch further apart.
And of course the horrific Labour legacy of the illegal war in Iraq, the supreme arrogance of Blair, the general incompetence of Broon, not to mention the expenses scandal in which Labour were involved as much as any of the other main parties, and you have just some of the reasons the canny Scottish electorate told this shower of crooks and chancers in no uncertain terms where to go. It was time to get some integrity back into politics, and the SNP have made a good start on that in the last few years, with the electorate giving them the stamp of approval for their efforts last Thursday. You don't get massive swings, landslide wins and a map turned almost completely yellow overnight by accident.
Local Labour's choice of D. Crichton as their candidate shows just how clueless they are: no doubt, with D.J. Macsween growing horns because of his support for Sunday ferries, they were relying on the 'curam vote' to bring home the bacon for them, hoping that no-one would notice that their main policy thrust was bitching like schoolkids about RET: indeed, Labour may well have implemented this in the Isles had not both their MP and MSP been unceremoniously ejected from office partly because of their "we're going to do it anyway and we don't give a crap what you think" attitude during the AMEC wind factory fiasco, and partly due to the increasingly obvious general arrogance that rubbed off on them (on Almo much more than CM) during their contact with their masters in London. Goodbye to all that.
4.28 Why should the only people allowed to speak or indeed live here be those who are 'proud'?
Good to see that Mr Allan continues to 'respect' the community, by working for us on the first Sunday after election in the MacDonald House Hotel, Holyrood.
"Only obeying orders".....
It's a great result: hopefully the SNP can build on what they've done so far. Minimum alcohol pricing and coming down hard on the sectarian football 'fans' should be top priorities.
Much has been said about Labour relying on the church vote. Perhaps, but there is far more evidence to suggest that the SNP courted the church vote with even greater enthusiasm and with more obvious success. Alasdair Allan, after all, came to us from a Church of Scotland background and is now a loyal, supportive and well respected adherent in BACK FREE CHURCH! For these reasons alone, I doubt if he would acquiesce in all the personalised church bashing going on here, and, more preposterously, elsewhere. Whatever our political or ecclesiastical affiliations, we now owe him our support and our prayers as he finds himself with a far more arduos task and with less excuses than he had in the past. For all his skills, he does represent a worrying ideology which I hope the good people of the Western Isles will convincingly reject when the time comes. What really happened to the Labour vote? Iain Gray certainly didn't help; not supporting the recent SNP bill on the minimum pricing of achohol against all medical and police advice simply defied belief; and the appointment of David Milliband as party leader robbed the WICLP of any chance it had.
@11.25
Give it a rest. He has (plenty) work to do so let him get on with it. Are you suggesting he should refuse to work on Sundays?
Anyway it's just exactly the way here, to be sabbatarian at home and not bother when away.
@12:19 So you are happy to elect a hypocrite?
Personally, I prefer politicans who tell you the truth.
Perhaps it's a Back Free Church thing, as Maroot got into a spot of bother about using a Sunday plane in the US and had to leave that Church.
Would you like to enlighten us as to which other promises you'd be happy to see Mr Allan break?
Or perhaps it's just ok to break promises when told to do so by the SNP? To meet the renewables targets it will have to be wind farms everywhere next.
"Allan: Working for Alex not us"
(and no, I don't vote Labour)
I have voted SNP in every election since I was eligible to vote, and did so again in this election. I think it's a good result for Scotland, however I would suggest that AA and ABM should be careful not to rely on maintaining their majority without hard work and some more obvious effort on their part. Had there been any viable independant candidate in this election my vote would have gone to them instead, and I suspect I am not alone in this.
"Landslide victory" or "Elected by default" ?
11:53 You said:
"For all his skills, he does represent a worrying ideology which I hope the good people of the Western Isles will convincingly reject when the time comes."
And when, exactly, is this time going to come? The SNP have won every election since 2005 here. And their vote share is increasing, while the Labour vote is decreasing.
Face it. The Western Isles are now solid SNP territory. That's as much the fault of Labour as of the SNP being better organised at the local and national level.
Or, like the Labour apologists after every election, you can say "Oh, it's a blip, we'll win it back next time."
Never do, though, do you?
@11.25/1.59
12.49 here. Actually yes, if that shillyshallying qualifies as hypocrisy, it's just a wee bit of dissemblance in an industry awash with dishonesty, and that's fine with me.
Anyway did he specifically promise not to work in Edinburgh on a Sunday? If he did, more fool him and I expect my MSP to be there whenever required.
what are doing anyway, following him around on Sundays?
Just to clarify for 4.11. The worrying ideology referred to is the claim that Scotland will be better served independently. The 'time' referred to is the still to be announced date of the independence referendum. Clearly, the Western Isles is 'now solid SNP territory'as suggested and only a fool would suggest that Labour 'will win it back next time'.
So exactly why is Alasdair Allan a hypocrite? Has he been condemning other people for working on a Sunday while doing so himself? Of course not! I know him well, having worked hard for his re-election, yet I didn't even know he was a member of Back Free Church, if indeed that is true. Because he has not tried to stuff religion down my throat or that of anybody else. And I'm glad that he is working on a Sunday if he thinks it is for the benefit of these islands because that is what we are paying him for. I suspect that he has been working 365 days a year for these islands since he was first elected.And just who is this sneaky little stalker who has been following him around to check whether he has been working on a Sunday? Are we going to have to put up with five years of this rubbish from Labour Party losers who have just been massacred by the Western isles electorate and don't even begin to understand why it happened.
@Malkie
You must be one of the few males where AA hasn't tried to stuff something down their throat.
@Malkie
Is that you Bunter?
Malkie: I got my advice about Mr Allan working on Sunday from an SNP press statement.
Are you saying they are lying too??
No, 9.31, I'm not saying anyone is lying. I'm saying that I'm glad he is working on a Sunday. Just what don't you understand about that?
Goodbye NuLabour!
See you again (briefly) in what, 2016? :-))
It's true that AA attends Back Free Church, but he is maybe a little more progressive and realistic about the modern world than D. Crichton, and maybe more progressive than his church (I sure hope so anyway).
Labour would have us all live amidst a sea of wind turbines and drink cheap bulk supermarket plonk till we drop from cirrhosis or heart disease. Latterly, and very unlike the old Labour party, NuLabour tried their best to keep the ordinary people down: the SNP is helping them get back up again.
Lewis has changed a lot over the last decade and will carry on changing. I personally think the SNP's policies will help it to change in the way the people living here want it to change, not the way it used to be, with power-hungry national and local politicians and councillors arrogantly telling us how it's going to be. But some of those councillors are still there.
Look at the amazing result last Thursday - why can't we do the same at the next council elections, or are we going to vote in the same old dinosaurs everyone loves to hate? It's time for radical change at all levels of government.
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