Bloody Nose v Bloodbath
I said on the blog site before the Christmas break that the Labour Party was heading for a well deserved 'bloody nose' in Scotland when voters go to the polls in the May 2015 general election.
But according to this article in The Guardian and a recent ICM survey, the political outlook seems even more bleak which I found highly encouraging because the lesson of history is that the political establishment at Westminster, whether Conservative or Labour, are much more likely to shift their position and give ground when their feet are being 'held to the fire'.
Just as they were during the Scottish independence referendum when the very real prospect of a 'Yes' vote on September 18 2014 forced the issue of more powers for the Scottish Parliament right to the top of the political agenda - yet without that very real political pressure on Westminster nothing would have changed.
So I've no doubt that more SNP MPs at Westminster, the expense of a whole bunch of deadwood Labour MPs, will improve Scotland's bargaining position after next May's general election.
Labour set for a bloodbath in Scotland in general election, poll says
Traditional Labour heartlands turning to SNP, which could win 45 of 59 Scottish Westminster seats, Guardian/ICM survey finds
By Tom Clark - The Guardian
Ed Miliband’s Labour party is in for a bruising at the general election in 2015, a survey suggests. Photograph: Lynne Cameron/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Labour is on course for a bloodbath in Scotland in 2015, according to a special Guardian/ICM online poll.
The Scottish National party, which took only 20% of the vote in the 2010 general election, has subsequently more than doubled its vote to reach a commanding 43% of the prospective poll next May. Scottish Labour, which secured a very strong 42% in Gordon Brown’s homeland last time around, has since tumbled by 16 points to just 26%.
The Conservatives sink from 2010’s 17% to 13%, while the great bulk of the 19% share that the Liberal Democrats scored last time around is wiped out as they fall by 13 points to 6%.
On a uniform swing, these results – which are reinforced by a recent Survation poll for the Daily Record – would entirely redraw the political map. Labour’s band of 41 Scottish MPs would be reduced to a parliamentary rump of just 10 members, underlining that the Scottish party’s newly elected leader, Jim Murphy, has a mountain to climb.
The SNP, meanwhile, would storm ahead from the mere six MPs it returned in 2010 to take a crushing majority of 45 of Scotland’s 59 constituencies. The Lib Dems, who currently hold 11 seats, would lose all but three, and the Tories would continue to languish with the single seat they currently hold.
Such dramatic Labour losses north of the border could easily offset the gains Ed Miliband hopes to make in England and Wales and potentially put Downing Street beyond his reach next year. But a unique analysis, conducted for the Guardian by Prof John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, suggests that the crude assumption of a uniform swing could actually be understating the catastrophe facing the party.
By breaking ICM’s data into four different categories of seat, Curtice reveals Labour’s decline is sharpest in those supposedly heartland seats where it previously trounced the SNP by more than 25 points.
Whereas Labour’s Scotland-wide vote drops by 16 points, it falls by 22 points in these constituencies while the SNP surges by 26. That combination is sufficient to wipe out majorities that were always assumed to be impregnable, and Scottish Labour’s Westminster caucus is left shrivelling to just three MPs.
“We are prospectively looking at the collapse of citadels that have always been Labour since the 1920s,” said Curtice. “That will seem incredible to some in England, but to those of us who paid close attention to Alex Salmond’s 2011 landslide at Holyrood, it would merely be the next chapter in the political transformation of a nation.”
He added: “It is becoming clear that the independence referendum has reset all the dials. Previously rock-solid Labour seats in Glasgow voted yes in the referendum, and this now appears to be giving rise to a particular surge of nationalist sentiment in those parts of Scotland where it was once assumed that the SNP couldn’t reach.”
With the nationalists also advancing by 20-plus points in the more competitive Liberal Democrat and Labour-held seats, they are on course to capture all the more obvious targets, securing a total of 53 seats under this more refined projection. The Lib Dems are again reduced to three and the Conservatives are wiped out entirely.
Curtice cautions that the polling samples are small for some categories of seat, but nonetheless believes there is enough evidence to conclude that the SNP is “on the march in heartland Labour seats, and – if anything – to a greater extent than elsewhere”.
ICM tested Scottish voters’ attitudes on a range of specific policy questions, which only confirmed the propitious mood for the new SNP leader and first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, as well as for her predecessor, Salmond, who is seeking to make a high profile return from Holyrood to Westminster in May.
Only 13% of voters worry that the proposals of the all-party Smith commission on devolution, which include full Scottish control of income tax rates and bands, go too far. Twenty-six per cent believe that Smith got the balance “about right”, whereas 30% believe the plans do not devolve enough.
One specific complaint of the nationalists about the plans is that London would retain control of corporation tax, something which Labour believes is necessary to avoid a cross-border race to the bottom in the rates paid by companies. But, by 53% to 23%, the voters are on the SNP’s side, saying that Scotland should be free to set its own corporation taxes.
Sturgeon stresses her opposition to Trident, the UK nuclear deterrent based at Faslane near Glasgow, and on balance Scotland’s voters are with her on this. Forty-three per cent want Trident scrapped and 37% want it retained.
ICM Unlimited interviewed an online sample of 1,004 Scottish adults aged 18 and over. Interviews were conducted across Scotland and the results have been weighted to all Scottish adults. They have also been weighted to respondents’ recall of the 2011 Holyrood election and to the independence referendum results. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
Labour is on course for a bloodbath in Scotland in 2015, according to a special Guardian/ICM online poll.
The Scottish National party, which took only 20% of the vote in the 2010 general election, has subsequently more than doubled its vote to reach a commanding 43% of the prospective poll next May. Scottish Labour, which secured a very strong 42% in Gordon Brown’s homeland last time around, has since tumbled by 16 points to just 26%.
The Conservatives sink from 2010’s 17% to 13%, while the great bulk of the 19% share that the Liberal Democrats scored last time around is wiped out as they fall by 13 points to 6%.
On a uniform swing, these results – which are reinforced by a recent Survation poll for the Daily Record – would entirely redraw the political map. Labour’s band of 41 Scottish MPs would be reduced to a parliamentary rump of just 10 members, underlining that the Scottish party’s newly elected leader, Jim Murphy, has a mountain to climb.
The SNP, meanwhile, would storm ahead from the mere six MPs it returned in 2010 to take a crushing majority of 45 of Scotland’s 59 constituencies. The Lib Dems, who currently hold 11 seats, would lose all but three, and the Tories would continue to languish with the single seat they currently hold.
Such dramatic Labour losses north of the border could easily offset the gains Ed Miliband hopes to make in England and Wales and potentially put Downing Street beyond his reach next year. But a unique analysis, conducted for the Guardian by Prof John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, suggests that the crude assumption of a uniform swing could actually be understating the catastrophe facing the party.
By breaking ICM’s data into four different categories of seat, Curtice reveals Labour’s decline is sharpest in those supposedly heartland seats where it previously trounced the SNP by more than 25 points.
Whereas Labour’s Scotland-wide vote drops by 16 points, it falls by 22 points in these constituencies while the SNP surges by 26. That combination is sufficient to wipe out majorities that were always assumed to be impregnable, and Scottish Labour’s Westminster caucus is left shrivelling to just three MPs.
“We are prospectively looking at the collapse of citadels that have always been Labour since the 1920s,” said Curtice. “That will seem incredible to some in England, but to those of us who paid close attention to Alex Salmond’s 2011 landslide at Holyrood, it would merely be the next chapter in the political transformation of a nation.”
He added: “It is becoming clear that the independence referendum has reset all the dials. Previously rock-solid Labour seats in Glasgow voted yes in the referendum, and this now appears to be giving rise to a particular surge of nationalist sentiment in those parts of Scotland where it was once assumed that the SNP couldn’t reach.”
With the nationalists also advancing by 20-plus points in the more competitive Liberal Democrat and Labour-held seats, they are on course to capture all the more obvious targets, securing a total of 53 seats under this more refined projection. The Lib Dems are again reduced to three and the Conservatives are wiped out entirely.
Curtice cautions that the polling samples are small for some categories of seat, but nonetheless believes there is enough evidence to conclude that the SNP is “on the march in heartland Labour seats, and – if anything – to a greater extent than elsewhere”.
ICM tested Scottish voters’ attitudes on a range of specific policy questions, which only confirmed the propitious mood for the new SNP leader and first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, as well as for her predecessor, Salmond, who is seeking to make a high profile return from Holyrood to Westminster in May.
Only 13% of voters worry that the proposals of the all-party Smith commission on devolution, which include full Scottish control of income tax rates and bands, go too far. Twenty-six per cent believe that Smith got the balance “about right”, whereas 30% believe the plans do not devolve enough.
One specific complaint of the nationalists about the plans is that London would retain control of corporation tax, something which Labour believes is necessary to avoid a cross-border race to the bottom in the rates paid by companies. But, by 53% to 23%, the voters are on the SNP’s side, saying that Scotland should be free to set its own corporation taxes.
Sturgeon stresses her opposition to Trident, the UK nuclear deterrent based at Faslane near Glasgow, and on balance Scotland’s voters are with her on this. Forty-three per cent want Trident scrapped and 37% want it retained.
ICM Unlimited interviewed an online sample of 1,004 Scottish adults aged 18 and over. Interviews were conducted across Scotland and the results have been weighted to all Scottish adults. They have also been weighted to respondents’ recall of the 2011 Holyrood election and to the independence referendum results. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
Scottish Labour (21 December 2014)
Support for the SNP has surged to record levels according to a new YouGov poll.
Apparently some 47% of voters in Scotland now back the SNP, against 27% who support Labour, 16% who back the Conservatives and only 3% sticking with the Lib Dems.
So the SNP’s support is up 27% on its 2010 figure and if the mood of Scottish voters holds time until May 2015, there will be fewer Labour MPs heading back down to Westminster which would be a good thing if you ask me.
Because no single party is going to win a majority of MPs at the 2015 election - the largest party will either be the Conservatives or Labour who will have to form a minority government or, more likely, enter into some kind of Coalition Government similar to the Conservative/Lib Dem alliance that has been running the country since 2010.
Now I'm not an SNP member and don't even class myself as an SNP supporter, but in the messy negotiations that will follow another 'hung' Westminster Parliament I suspect that the SNP will be much better at standing up for Scotland's interests than Labour whose Scottish contingent of MPs are a pretty dire bunch who have been largely invisible over issues like equal pay.
Take North and South Lanarkshire, for example, where the fight for equal pay has raged fiercely during the lifetime of the present Westminster Parliament - what have the local MPs or the Scottish Labour leadership had to say about equal pay?
Not a 'cheep', as they say and if you ask me that's why Scottish Labour deserves a bloody nose from the voters because the party in Scotland has lost the ability to stand up and be counted and its MPs at Westminster are really just cannon fodder who have little, if anything, to show for their collective efforts.
I was pleased to read this report from the BBC that the SNP are prepared to changed the party's rules to allow non-members to stand in the May 2015 general election.
Because if you ask me, the best way to secure lasting political change in Scotland is a 'Popular Front' committed to cutting the Westminster Parliament down to size.
In turn that means taking the Labour Party down a peg or two, something that has already happened in the Scottish Parliament and in Scottish council elections where Labour is no longer the largest party.
So Westminster remains the last redoubt where the old Conservative v Labour politics holds sway and I think that Scotland's interests after the next general election would be better served by a Popular Front of 'independent minded' MPs.
As opposed to the present Labour contingent who have shown over equal pay, for example, to have all the backbone of a jellyfish when it comes to standing up for the interests of their local constituents.
Consider for a moment the behaviour of Labour MPs in North Lanarkshire where a fierce fight over equal pay has been raging for the past 10 years. What have any of them had to say to support the position of low paid workers such as Home Carers?
In neighbouring South Lanarkshire Council the same thing happened even while the Labour-run Council was dragged all the way to the UK Supreme Court before being forced to publish details of the huge pay gap between traditional male and female jobs.
And what did all the Labour MPs in South Lanarkshire Council have to say about the scandal?
Nothing.
One of their number, Michael McCann MP, happens to be the former deputy leader of South Lanarkshire Council and he must have known what was going on, yet decided not to stand up and be counted.
So I think it would be great if these Labour MPs were driven out of Westminster and replaced by people who are committed to doing the right thing without fear or favour - and without pulling their punches.
SNP to allow non-members to stand
A regular reader from North Lanarkshire has been in touch with an 'off the wall' suggestion - why doesn't an Equal Pay candidate stand against one of the sitting North Lanarkshire Labour MPs in the May 2015 general election?
Now this might not be as crazy as you first think because, as I wrote on the blog site recently, the SNP have agreed to support 'independent minded' candidates (who are not SNP members) in an effort to cut the Labour Party at Westminster down to size.
Which sounds a great idea because Labour has an awful lot to answer for over equal pay and the best way to get the Party to take a long hard look at itself if you ask me, would be to sweep away all the political deadwood at Westminster.
And a good place to start would be with the four North Lanarkshire Labour MPs who have stood on the sidelines while the fight for equal pay with Labour-run North Lanarkshire Council has been raging for the past 10 years.
Now my contacts with the SNP are not great, but I imagine there must be readers in North Lanarkshire who are able to speak to their local SNP councillor or MSP and discuss the idea in more detail.
Because wouldn't it be just great of one of the Equal Pay claimants, a Home Carer perhaps, were to stand in the forthcoming election and give the Labour MPs a real showing up for their cowardly political behaviour?
Apparently some 47% of voters in Scotland now back the SNP, against 27% who support Labour, 16% who back the Conservatives and only 3% sticking with the Lib Dems.
So the SNP’s support is up 27% on its 2010 figure and if the mood of Scottish voters holds time until May 2015, there will be fewer Labour MPs heading back down to Westminster which would be a good thing if you ask me.
Because no single party is going to win a majority of MPs at the 2015 election - the largest party will either be the Conservatives or Labour who will have to form a minority government or, more likely, enter into some kind of Coalition Government similar to the Conservative/Lib Dem alliance that has been running the country since 2010.
Now I'm not an SNP member and don't even class myself as an SNP supporter, but in the messy negotiations that will follow another 'hung' Westminster Parliament I suspect that the SNP will be much better at standing up for Scotland's interests than Labour whose Scottish contingent of MPs are a pretty dire bunch who have been largely invisible over issues like equal pay.
Take North and South Lanarkshire, for example, where the fight for equal pay has raged fiercely during the lifetime of the present Westminster Parliament - what have the local MPs or the Scottish Labour leadership had to say about equal pay?
Not a 'cheep', as they say and if you ask me that's why Scottish Labour deserves a bloody nose from the voters because the party in Scotland has lost the ability to stand up and be counted and its MPs at Westminster are really just cannon fodder who have little, if anything, to show for their collective efforts.
Clear the Deadwood (19 November 2014)
I was pleased to read this report from the BBC that the SNP are prepared to changed the party's rules to allow non-members to stand in the May 2015 general election.
Because if you ask me, the best way to secure lasting political change in Scotland is a 'Popular Front' committed to cutting the Westminster Parliament down to size.
In turn that means taking the Labour Party down a peg or two, something that has already happened in the Scottish Parliament and in Scottish council elections where Labour is no longer the largest party.
So Westminster remains the last redoubt where the old Conservative v Labour politics holds sway and I think that Scotland's interests after the next general election would be better served by a Popular Front of 'independent minded' MPs.
As opposed to the present Labour contingent who have shown over equal pay, for example, to have all the backbone of a jellyfish when it comes to standing up for the interests of their local constituents.
Consider for a moment the behaviour of Labour MPs in North Lanarkshire where a fierce fight over equal pay has been raging for the past 10 years. What have any of them had to say to support the position of low paid workers such as Home Carers?
In neighbouring South Lanarkshire Council the same thing happened even while the Labour-run Council was dragged all the way to the UK Supreme Court before being forced to publish details of the huge pay gap between traditional male and female jobs.
And what did all the Labour MPs in South Lanarkshire Council have to say about the scandal?
Nothing.
One of their number, Michael McCann MP, happens to be the former deputy leader of South Lanarkshire Council and he must have known what was going on, yet decided not to stand up and be counted.
So I think it would be great if these Labour MPs were driven out of Westminster and replaced by people who are committed to doing the right thing without fear or favour - and without pulling their punches.
SNP to allow non-members to stand
The "Yes" campaign attracted activists from a wide range of organisations
SNP leaders plan to change party rules to allow non-members to stand as candidates in the general election.
The move is designed to appeal to activists who campaigned for a "Yes" vote in the independence referendum.
The plan will be unveiled at the party's conference, which will open in Perth later.
Under the plan, prominent "Yes" campaigners who are not in the SNP would be able to stand for election under the party's overall banner.
In order to do so, they would need to be on an approved list and be adopted by a local constituency.
Party sources have told BBC Scotland that this would harness "the strength and diversity" of the wider "Yes" campaign.
The plan is expected to be adopted by delegates in Perth as Alex Salmond hands over the leadership of the party to his deputy Nicola Sturgeon.
In his keynote speech, Mr Salmond will forecast that Scotland remains on course for independence, despite defeat in the referendum on 18 September,
And he will say of his opponents: "They thought it was all over... well, it isn't now".
SNP leaders plan to change party rules to allow non-members to stand as candidates in the general election.
The move is designed to appeal to activists who campaigned for a "Yes" vote in the independence referendum.
The plan will be unveiled at the party's conference, which will open in Perth later.
Under the plan, prominent "Yes" campaigners who are not in the SNP would be able to stand for election under the party's overall banner.
In order to do so, they would need to be on an approved list and be adopted by a local constituency.
Party sources have told BBC Scotland that this would harness "the strength and diversity" of the wider "Yes" campaign.
The plan is expected to be adopted by delegates in Perth as Alex Salmond hands over the leadership of the party to his deputy Nicola Sturgeon.
In his keynote speech, Mr Salmond will forecast that Scotland remains on course for independence, despite defeat in the referendum on 18 September,
And he will say of his opponents: "They thought it was all over... well, it isn't now".
Equal Pay Candidate (25 November 2014)
A regular reader from North Lanarkshire has been in touch with an 'off the wall' suggestion - why doesn't an Equal Pay candidate stand against one of the sitting North Lanarkshire Labour MPs in the May 2015 general election?
Now this might not be as crazy as you first think because, as I wrote on the blog site recently, the SNP have agreed to support 'independent minded' candidates (who are not SNP members) in an effort to cut the Labour Party at Westminster down to size.
Which sounds a great idea because Labour has an awful lot to answer for over equal pay and the best way to get the Party to take a long hard look at itself if you ask me, would be to sweep away all the political deadwood at Westminster.
And a good place to start would be with the four North Lanarkshire Labour MPs who have stood on the sidelines while the fight for equal pay with Labour-run North Lanarkshire Council has been raging for the past 10 years.
Now my contacts with the SNP are not great, but I imagine there must be readers in North Lanarkshire who are able to speak to their local SNP councillor or MSP and discuss the idea in more detail.
Because wouldn't it be just great of one of the Equal Pay claimants, a Home Carer perhaps, were to stand in the forthcoming election and give the Labour MPs a real showing up for their cowardly political behaviour?
