LD Gain Caithness Surherland and Ross
No chance for SNP majority now
Swinney out?
Discussion
Replies:
9
Boosts:
1
@Geri
Nah, he won the election. A 5th consecutive term for the SNP, which isn't easy to do.
@petealexharris but is that enough?
@Geri
For what? They won more than 3 times as many seats as the second-place party. With help from the greens, they can pass any legislation they want.
John Swinney said IF they get a majority, he'd push for another referendum. He never staked anything else on the result. A win's a win. He'll get on with the job literally nobody else was given anything like a mandate to do.
@petealexharris @Geri I would expect Swinney to be looking to prepare and test his successor at this stage. He is a careful man and will want a managed transition. I doubt that he intends to lead the party into the next Holyrood election. I suspect he and the party will want to have someone more inspiring in place for the next UK general election, when the number of pro-indy MPs elected could prove to be very significant, but am less certain of that.
@drgeraint @petealexharris @Geri a number of SNP MPs ran and won as MSPs, so I figure it will be one of them
@otfrom @petealexharris @Geri Pre-election I would have put Stephen Flynn as firm favourite, but his post-win comment seeking putting oil and gas first could prove a major impediment, unless he is going to become a champion of a just transition and major re-training of the workforce to support offshore wind and other clean energy work.
@drgeraint I'd be interested in the link to that comment. I don't know enough about Flynn. Stephen Gethins won in Dundee East and will leave Westminster now too, but he's not as senior as Flynn. Lloyd Melville has come up from Angus Council too, but he's quite young.
I'm hoping the Greens will be able to push us away from volatile fossil fuels (via a just transition) but we really need to change how electricity pricing works
@Geri Who on earth would you replace him with? The problem the SNP have is that their machine politicians -- mainly while guided by Peter Murrell -- have driven all the real people out.
Tommy Sheppard is too old, and no longer has a seat. Alison Thewliss also no longer has a seat. Same with Philippa Whitford. Mhairi Black, Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf have all found the party to toxic and left. I can't think of anyone in the SNP now I would vote for as First Minister.
@simon_brooke @Geri Swinney has won the best he has had, I suspect the SNPs fall is as much the Scottish Greens rise. People want change, but they also want independence, especially given the rise of Reform elsewhere in UK. Given how badly the SNP did in the last GE, I think it’s a good performance. The Scottish parliament was specifically designed to prevent a majority, hence why SNP will get none or virtually no list seats.
