How are you guys doing after last night? 56 out of 59 - exactly what you were worried about, and a Tory majority to boot.
Yeah :\ I am fairly disappointed, especially at how badly the Lib Dems have done. I feel they have been punished unfairly for joining the coalition, and as others have said I don’t actually think a lot of people understand the concept of a coalition.
As for the SNP - their victory in Scotland is undeniable. They took 50% of the vote across Scotland. Of course this goes to prove that our electoral system is flawed - they took 50% of the vote but 95% of the seats because of the first past the post system. But of course other parties have benefited in this way in the past so I shouldn’t be too bitter :P But it’s definitely needing reformed - however the Alternative Vote system was rejected so who knows what will happen, if anything. But to be fair, the SNP supported that so it’s not like they’re against electoral reform.
The other interesting thing (to me anyway) is that in this election the SNP got 50% of the vote with a 71.1% turnout. So that’s 35.5% of those registered to vote who actually voted for them. In the independence referendum YES got 44.7% of the vote with a 84.59% turnout, so that’s 37.8% of those registered to vote who actually voted for independence. Yes I know voting for the SNP and voting for independence are two different things - but they are closely linked. And look how similar those numbers are! It seems to me that it’s the pro independence voters who have been out in force, while the no voters have lost interest a bit - possibly because we got what we wanted?
Obviously there’s been a massive swing to SNP. Their membership has surged since the referendum, and I have to commend them for engaging so many people in politics I really do. They have certainly persuaded a lot of people to their cause through the referendum, and I kind of feel like a lot of people were voting on that issue rather than on the actual monetary and social policies that the SNP put forwards. However I may be wildly wrong on that given that I am not a mind reader. I also have to wonder how different this result might have been had there been a longer gap between the referendum and the general election. I think it may have been quite different. But that’s just pointless speculation. We will see how they perform. We will see if they stick to their word and focusing on improving the country for everyone rather than using this as an excuse to push for independence again so soon. We shall see.
