Friday 6 May 2011

First Past The Post

Amazing, astonishing, incredible. All descriptions of the SNP’s stunning Holyrood win, which means that they are the first party to win an outright majority at Holyrood. They are projected to end up with a majority of 6 when the final results have been announced.


The magnitude of this win was just not forecast. The contest was thought to be tight… until the first couple of results came in. When it became clear that there was a large swing in support to the SNP, with the SNP taking East Kilbride, Clydesdale & Hamilton. It was clear that the SNP were going to end up as the largest party, with a swing in the constituency vote of around 6.25% to the SNP. However even I am staggered to see Paisley elect an SNP MSP.

The Inquest has also begun on what happened to the Labour vote. Several Labour figures were saying that their vote held up, and that it had looked like the Lib Dem vote had switched straight to the SNP. The truth is far more complicated. The amount of votes Labour gathered is marginally down on 2007, however 2007 also saw a reduction of Labour votes from 2003. In short, Labour’s poor performance four years ago caught up with them.

That’s all the reaction you are going to get from me just now, I’m off to party.

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