Taxi Driver Online

A fundamental misunderstanding
Posted on March 25, 2015 by Rev. Stuart Campbell

Because almost nobody in Westminster, whether they’re politicians or the media, ever pays any attention to anything outside SW1A, Alex Salmond’s comment in London yesterday that the SNP would vote against any Tory government in the event of a hung Parliament – which to any Scottish person was news as surprising as a weather forecast for rain – has been greeted with seemingly-genuine shock and horror.

REPORTER after reporter has treated the non-revelations (which have been official SNP policy for as long as we can remember, and were stated explicitly by Nicola Sturgeon in November) as a stunning bolt from the blue, and Tory politicians and the right-wing media alike have burst into frothing, spluttering rage, based on the fact that apparently none of them grasps how either the UK electoral system or basic arithmetic work.

THE vice-chairman of the Conservative Party said the long-standing pledge represented “a deeply sinister threat”, while the Daily Mail columnist Jonathan Brocklebank furiously accused Salmond of trying to “foist his Jocko revolution on the rest of us”, among an outpouring of similar sentiments.

The most interesting, though, was an unnamed spokesTory quoted in several outlets:

“Alex Salmond has confirmed he would sabotage the democratic will of the British people to make Ed Miliband prime minister.”

And that’s a rather odd thing to say, because the tool “Alex Salmond” (the UK press don’t really seem to have registered that the SNP is no longer led by the former First Minister) plans to deploy to this end is, er… the democratic will of British citizens, expressed via the impeccably conventional means of the ballot box.

On all current polling, it seems unlikely that either the Tories or Labour are going to secure much over 33% of the vote. That means that two-thirds of the population DON’T want David Cameron as Prime Minister. The twist, obviously, is that just as many don’t want Ed Miliband as Prime Minister either.

And therefore, neither Cameron nor Miliband getting unchecked power quite clearly IS the “democratic will of the British people”. If the British people democratically willed either man to have a majority, the system is designed to do everything in its power to make that happen. (Tony Blair managed it comfortably with just 35.2% in 2005.)

Scotland is still part of the UK. Both Cameron and Miliband fervently wished it to be so, and fought hard and dirtily to make sure it stayed that way. Neither of them has any place bleating about the impact of Scottish votes on UK democracy, because they’re responsible for the UK still including Scotland. ‪

#‎Wings‬ ‪#‎UKGE15‬

http://wingsoverscotland.com/a-fundamen ... rstanding/

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Interesting that the SNP have already decided to vote against anything that the Tories put forward before they even know it would be something to benfit their supporters.

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Grandad,

They're inbred hence the reason for them not knowing a great deal.

its strange how the snp are regarded in England

every one of you would vote snp if they were a british political party

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I don't think that is what has been said
What has been said is that the SNP would not put the Tories in No 10, nor would they help to keep them there.
Up here, Tories are toxic. They contaminate anyone who gets into bed with them. The Lib-Dems forgot that and so did Scottish Labour. Both are about to discover the price of their stupidity.
Tory governments are never to the benefit of Scotland. A small percentage of Scots maybe but never to Scotland.

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Keep talking to UKIP grandad. They don't despise the Tories like we do. With them, the Lib-dumbs and the loyal orange bigots of Ulster, you may still win.
Wonder what tune that motley bunch will want your party to dance to?

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Farage made another speech?

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I don't think so. They lost the indy vote so not everyone up there supports them.

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Grandad,

Who won the Indy vote has no bearing on CC's claim.
Your problem is England's main sourse of information on the SNP is a biased broadcast media and the frothy mouthed right wing press.
CC is wrong though, Tories are far to greedy and selfish to give a rat's arse about those less fortunate. That will never change.

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Did they lose?

They got 45% of the vote and like it or not they've changed Scotlands political landscape forever.

The 55% that voted no are basically, labour, Tories, lib dems and UKIP - all of whom will revert to voting for their own political parties come May - if they are hammered like is expect they will be - there's a school of thought that says the SNP would have a mandate to call for independence.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Of course they lost. If Carlisle were playing against Blackpool and the scoreline was 55 to Blackpool and 45 to Carlisle that would mean that Carlisle lost.

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Grandad,

What's wrong Grandad? Annoyed that 45% of Scots refuse to get meekly back in their boxes?

BTW, which political party ever achieved that sort of percentage in a GE?

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