Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, London Mayoral, Local Government and PCC elections

[Denzil_DC]

55. Can't say I agree with any of that.

When and how has the SNP refused to acknowledge there is a working class south of the border?

And what's a "bothy party"?! Or do you mean "both"? What do you imagine is going on behind the scenes?

I can't speak for the SNP, but I can't see why a Labour victory south of the border would present it any problems. If it's a Corbynite Labour victory, well, Corbyn's shown little interest or understanding of Scottish politics and the rump of Scottish Labour is generally more right-wing than he is, so I doubt it would change much now in terms of party support. Maybe five or ten years ago, yes, it might have made some difference. If it's a post-Blairite Labour victory, that's the sort of politics that's driven the growth of the SNP anyhow.

The Tories would be OK with a Labour victory in Scotland. Labour dominated Scottish politics for half a century or so and didn't trouble the Tories in the rest of the UK much. Labour's ambitions for Holyrood were very modest, and that applied up until the Smith negotiations after the referendum and beyond. Labour would be more controllable than the current complexion of Scottish politics. Scotland's vote has very, very rarely been decisive at Westminster.

Divide and rule is not the way the Scottish Parliament is intended to work - that's why the Tories' talk of being "the opposition" is wrong-headed. We precisely don't have a constitutional opposition in Scotland because it's intended to be a more concensus-driven assembly, hence the D'Hondt system of voting. The SNP's actually made that sort of accommodation work in the past. Labour's dogged kneejerk visceral oppositionism in the last Holyrood parliament was one of the things that drove its decline. The assembly was crying out for a more constructive approach. Importing Westminster-style politics into our parliament is not a good fit. That's taken a long while to sink in, and it's something that still eludes many.