How Scottish Labour's Kezia Dugdale may have handed the election to the Tories

[Denzil_DC]

8. The problem's been growing in Scotland for some time, and Scottish Labour's not immune.

Orange Order elected to councils as Labour and Tory members

MEMBERS of the Orange Order have won council seats in the local elections by standing for the Labour and Tory parties, the Sunday Herald can reveal. The Orange Order has boasted that its elected councillors will work to derail a second independence referendum, the organisation’s Scottish leader said.

Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland Grand Master Jim McHarg said the organisation now wanted to stir the Unionist population against independence.

A “huge number” of Lodge supporters are Tories, McHarg said, as he praised Ruth Davidson for basing her council election campaign on opposition to a second referendum.

However, McHarg said most of the Protestant Order’s members are Labour supporters as he revealed the organisation’s attempt to extend its political influence. He said the majority of Orange Lodge members who had successfully been elected as councillors were Labour, but added that at least one Tory had also been voted in.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15270068.Orange_Order_elected_to_councils_as_Labour_and_Tory_members/

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I evidently lack the writing chops to be able to express just how cynical and useless Davidson and Dugdale are.

Davidson's approval ratings started to slide towards the end of the GE campaign despite the ridiculously easy ride the media give her, but the damage had been done by then. I haven't seen a recent poll, but not that long ago, for Dugdale it was more a case of "Kezia who ...?"

Labour and the Tories have also formed coalitions to lock the SNP out of council administrations in a few cases.