2011 Election Results - Labour losses to SNP who jump up & down at news

As votes are being counted on May 5th-6th 2011 and results start coming in, the amusing sight of SNP campaigners dancing about, jumping up and down and cheering as they win seats from Labour starts to become more frequent. New Labour can no longer count on votes being handed to them on a plate in Scotland as Scots who traditionally have given Labour a big vote in the elections switched to SNP at the 2011 elections. The LibDems also suffered humiliating defeats, not only in Scotland but down south in the English council elections. People are sick of the cuts in services and the lies told by the big parties between whom there is very little difference. The Tories under Thatcher were the first to really attack jobs and services in a big way and after too long with a conservative government people switched to Labour at the 1997 general election which under Tony Blair reformed beyond recognition and was renamed New Labour. Prime Minister Blair and Chancellor Brown, later to be prime minister, instead of reversing the Tory cuts just continued more savagely than the Tory government before them until it got to a point where many thought the government couldn't get more right-wing and some voters changed their vote to Conservative. The Liberal Democrats who have tended to be regarded as weak fence-sitters pulled out all the stops in a massive advetising campaign until people got sick of their leaflets. Due to the unpopularity of New Labour and the Thatcherite policies of the Tories the LibDems probably reckoned they had the best chance they were ever going to get to win a general election but they failed despite their campaigning and when the country got a hung parliament they resorted to an unholy alliance with the Tories which involved breaking their election promises regarding student tuition fees. Nicknamed the ConDem coalition, the Westminster coalition government has faced demonstrations and riots from anti-cuts protestors. Now the population is sick of Labour, Liberal and Conservative and in Scotland the Scottish National Party did well out of this sentiment. On average the Scots voters are a bit more to the left than the rest of Britain and people are realising that New Labour is no longer the left-wing party they thought it was. Some voted SNP as a protest vote against both Labour and LibDem. (The Tories have never been popular in Scotland anyway, so not much change there.) Some voted SNP because they are currently to the left of Labour and have made a few positive changes in the Holyrood government in the form of policies borrowed from the SSP like free prescriptions, and some voted for SNP in order to genuinely get independence, as even those who were previously not all that interested in independence have come to realise that with independence and a proportional representation voting system it will be possible to get more MSPs elected who will actually serve the people instead of their own interests. Alex Salmond has promised a referendum on independence towards the end of their term in office but he should note that if the SNP capitulate to Westminster and join in the cuts-fest started by the other big parties and already begun to a lesser degree by themselves, they may very well get a resounding "No!" vote in the referendum. My advice is: Defy Westminster! No cuts! Save Our Services! And we will hopefully be an independent free Scotland in 4 years!

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[HarryHayfield]

Could I ask why the Independent candidate only stayed to hear his result and then left the stage (something I consider very rude to all the cadidates)

[plawson119]

well said trish....