The Herald: Donations to Labour Party in Scotland plummet

[Captain Hilts]

http://theherald.co.uk/politics/news/display.var.2523114.0.Donations_to_Scottish_Labour_fell_by_90_in_just_one_year.php

[LeftishBrit]

1. Some of this is doubtless due to the recession - but still worrying, especially as Tories are likely

to be richer.

Though Scotland, there is the added factor of Labour-vs-SNP politics, so not clear that the Tories will make massive inroads there.

Not that I have any time for New Labour (I vote for my very good LibDem MP) but can't stand the Tories!

[oldironside]

2. I have the depressing feeling...

... that those of us who can't stand the Tories (and are particularly uncomfortable about Mr Cameron and his Trustafarian cohorts) are going to be very disappointed at the next election. The best result all round would be a hung parliament which would lead to some real electoral reform and stop another fiasco like last time (i.e. Labour getting an absolute majority on 35% of the vote). What we're more likely to see, however, is a 1997 style wipeout with the smaller parties doomed to irrelevance, whatever their share of the vote.

Remember the atmosphere of '97? How glad the whole country was to see the back of the Tories? I'd like to hang Blair up by his balls.

[non sociopath skin]

3. Unless something radical happens, I see the SNP cleaning up in Scotland.

This opens up the real possibility of a breakup of the UK. There are many in the Tory party who see the break-up of the country as a reasonable price to pay for a country with a permanent centre-right majority, and which might be better placed to withdraw from the EU and become a sort of off-shore Delaware. Scotland - as a small country - would remain and prosper.

The Royals could be placated by a deal through which - at least in the short term - they remained heads of state of both countries.

Remember you heard it first on Radio Skin.:evilgrin:

The Skin

[T_i_B]

4. I suppose the real story here is what's happening to the SNP.

It's no secret that Labour's membership is falling, and therefore money from that source is falling with it. However, what's happening to the SNP in contrast is of interest.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

5. The SNP's plans for an independent state have hit a roadblock however

SNP strategists over the last 10 years had pinned their hopes on an emulation of the Irish economic model to bring stable economic growth to Scotland while making up for any economic loss resulting from the costs of separation and the replication of functions that were once pooled at the UK-level.

The collapse of the Celtic Tiger economic model has brought uncertainity about the costs involved in separation and SNP strategists haven't come up with any plan of how Scotland could maintain/raise its standard of living under independent statehood. It is absurd (disingenious?) for SNPers to talk about financial sovereignty returning to Scotland while speculating about a Scottish state joining the Euro.

SNP nationalism is separation for separation's sake.

[T_i_B]

6. "SNP nationalism is separation for separation's sake."

Oh I'd agree with that 100%, but that's not what I'm thinking of here. Regardless of my low opinion of Scots nationalism (or any other nationalism for that matter) I was thinking of how the SNP are performing at grassroots level, membership numbers and all that.

Not something I have any real knowledge of myself though as I don't live in Scotland.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

7. I'd like to know that too

The SNP have had a bump in opinion polls as a result of anti-New Labour sentiment, but there has been no corresponding bump for supporting the splitting of the Union.

I suspect that vanity nationalism is seen as unnecessary expense in the current economic climate.