Suicidal Tendencies-The Scottish Lib Dems And The Curse of Mondeo

It’s not been a bad election for the independence movement in Scotland. The SNP consolidated their position after increasing their share of the vote in spite of a hostile and biased media, and the reality that Scotland had one thing in mind upon entering polling stations last Thursday-stop the Tories. For most, that meant a return to Labour in a futile effort to keep David Cameron out of Downing St. Labour ran an excellent campaign that played on the fears of the Scottish psyche and they should be congratulated if not admired for doing so.

Although the loss of John Mason’s seat in Glasgow East is a disappointment for The SNP, all polling evidence suggests that the results will be very different when voters go to the polls in the Scottish General Election next year. The Scottish electorate is much more sophisticated than they are given credit for, and many Labour voters will return to the SNP when it comes to the Holyrood election.

Football pundit Jim Traynor captured the mood succinctly when he announced on his BBC RadioScotland phone in that he,“ would vote SNP because he believes in independence for Scotland”, but this time he , “voted Labour in order to stop the Tories”

Unfortunately, the electorate have failed and the possible sharp medicine of a Conservative emergency budget lies just around the corner. If as expected, The Liberal Democrats were to form a formal coalition, or a confidence/supply agreement with the Tories, David Cameron could be handed the keys to number 10 as soon as tomorrow.

There is also the intriguing notion that the Lib-Dems in Scotland will have to fight the next election with a serious “guilt by association” handicap. In a few hours time “the party of change” could well become “the party that inflicted Tory rule on Scotland”. As coalition negotiations continue, Liberal Democrat MSPs must be having heart palpitations at the thought of a Con-Lib pact- a policy of community care for paedophiles would be easier to defend than laying with the children of Thatcher.

For The SNP it is a salivating prospect. The Lib-Dems are their natural competitors for the anti-Labour vote, and in some ways they have been more of an impediment to national liberation than any other political grouping in Scotland. Apart from their core vote in the highlands, they have been adept at capturing votes amongst students in particular, and the 18-35 demographic as a whole in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is these voters that the SNP needs in order to achieve a critical mass in support needed in order to drive through both an independence referendum, and ultimately a yes vote.

It is one of the great conundrums of Scottish politics that the SNP, an effectively revolutionary organisation, has failed to inspire people under 35, and women. For the past seven years, polling evidence suggests that it is the over 55’s who are the most likely to vote SNP, and the under 35’s who are most likely to vote for a unionist party. It shouldn’t be so. Monumental social change must include the youth vote. In America it was college kids who took to the streets to stop the Vietnam War, who went south to say no to George Wallace and yes to Martin Luther King. It was les estudiantes who took to the streets during “The Quiet Revolution” in Quebec., and in the Ukraine’s orange uprising.Tiananmen Square, red shirts in Thailand, the list goes on. Despite the seemingly interchangeable nature of a position in the National Union of Students and a career in The Labour Party, it is the Liberal Democrats who have captured the cosmopolitan campuses and cities of The Central Belt.

The heady days of 2005 when The Liberal Democrats peaked in Scotland were due a great turnout from the anti-war movement and amongst students. The rest of their vote? Well, those are the people on which they are about to inflict a surprisingly frank Alistair Darling’s “Cuts worse than Thatcher”. The party has already been in decline in Scotland since their marriage with Labour in the first two parliaments. It’s almost painful to watch them collectively self immolate for the lusts of their southern masters. It’s a tough trade if you belong to a unionist party in Scotland-big brother always comes first.

There is still the slight possibility that they could change their minds and form the “progressive coalition”, but surely any government that involves The Celtic Bloc would raise a fire in the belly of Middle England. Could English independence be far away?It would have made for good television, if in the run up to the Westminster poll,a pundit had asked someone in The SNP what they would prefer?

a) The SNP win 20 seats.

b) A second unionist party will make themselves unelectable in Scotland

c) You hold the balance of power in the London parliament.

What a lovely chalace to drink from.It hasn’t been a bad election for pro-independence people in Scotland at all.