Last week, Scotland went to the polls, resulting in the Scottish Nationalist Party emerging as the largest party by a knife-edge. However, while they are the largest party, they do not have a majority, meaning that the support of the Scottish Liberal Democrats would be necessary to form a majority government.
The Lib Dems have just dashed that hope. However, they won't support Labour either; instead they will remain on the cross-benches and negotiate support for legislation issue by issue.
What this means is that the SNP will likely form a minority government. They will be able to elect a First Minister by exhaustive ballot (and if they don't put one up, Labour certainly will), and probably appoint Ministers. But they will then have to negotiate for every policy, just as we do in New Zealand. They will likely be able to find a fair amount of common ground with the Lib Dems, but not on their plan for a referendum on independence (they may however be able to push for greater devolution).
I guess its just shite being Scottish...
I think Scotland is in for a bizarre time politically. The SNP are going to be largeley neutered in terms of delivering anything near to what their supporters are demanding on independence. Their economic policy is a bizarre mix of becoming a chilly oil emirate and significant liberalisation, and as you point out, simply governing will present massive challenges in a fractured parliament.
ReplyDeleteThe Lib Dems are smart to keep their distance.
Heh, I flew out of there two days before the vote. The problem for the Scots was they really didn't like any of the choices that much. Salmond is considered a bit of a dick, independence (as opposed to devolution) is unpopular, but equally Labour's Scottish leadership is considered weak and ineffective. The vote was as much a commentary on that as an anti-Blair thing.
ReplyDeleteAlex Ferguson was the only Scot I heard come out strongly for Labour and he wasn't even able to vote (being too busy winning the league for Man U).