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-   -   Scottish National Party wins election (http://forum.tatysite.net/showthread.php?t=11768)

haku 04-05-2007 20:03

Scottish National Party wins election
 
BBC article

The Scottish National Party supports independance for Scotland and wants to organize a referendum on the issue, so we may have an independant Scotland in a few years. Go Scotland. :D

simon 04-05-2007 22:34

Vive l'Ecosse libre! But don't get your hopes up too much, Haku. Maybe there'll be an independent Scotland in a few years, but it's not very likely. First, the SNP need to form a government. Second, they need to get a referendum. Third, they need to win the referendum.

The SNP has won 47 seats in the Scottish Parliament, one ahead of the Labour Party's 46. There are 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), so the SNP or Labour will need support from other parties to form a government. There are 17 Conservatives, 16 Liberal Democrats, 2 Greens and one independent, Margo MacDonald, who was formerly an SNP politician.

The SNP can get to the magic 65 if they can form a coalition with the 16 Liberal Democrats and the 2 Greens. Labour with the Liberal Democrats and the Greens would fall just short, with only 64 seats. But it's conceivable that the Conservatives might tolerate a minority coalition of Labour and the Lib Dems and possibly the Greens as preferable to the alternative, an SNP - Lib Dem - Green coalition.

The big stumbling block to an agreement between the SNP and the Lib Dems is that the SNP wants a referendum on independence in 2010 and the Lib Dems don't. The Lib Dems have said that they would refuse to form a coalition with the SNP unless the referendum was dropped.

Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, suggested a compromise a few days ago. Rather than a yes/no referendum on independence, he proposed a referendum with three options: independence, more powers for the Scottish Parliament or the status quo which people rank in order of preference. The Lib Dems want more powers for the Scottish Parliament themselves.

Opinion polls indicate that maybe 40-45% would vote yes to independence and 55-60% would vote no given the straight choice. But when asked about the three options, independence gets only 20-25%, more powers for the Scottish Parliament gets about 60% and the status quo only 15-20%. It would seem likely to give a result the Lib Dems would like and not lead to independence.

The worries among the Lib Dems, though, are that an SNP-led government will try to get into conflict with London to create a mood for independence and that by 2010 the Conservatives will probably have won the next UK election. Most Scots hate the Conservatives and feelings about remaining in the UK may change when the Conservatives form a government with English votes.

On the other hand, forming a government with Labour, supported unofficially by the Conservatives, would be very dangerous for the Lib Dems because it would look like the only way to get a change from Labour is to vote SNP and that the other parties were ganging up on the SNP.

It's thought that Alex Salmond will agree to anything with the Lib Dems to get a coalition so he can form a government. The Lib Dems can play Labour and the SNP off each other to get what they want. I don't know whether the Lib Dems will accept Salmond's referendum compromise or whether they will insist on no referendum. Even if there is a referendum, it's unlikely to lead to independence unless there's a big shift in opinion.

simon 07-05-2007 00:48

Lib Dems rule out coalition with SNP

The Lib Dems have announced that in talks about forming a government they told the SNP that they won't go into coalition unless the demand for a referendum is dropped. It seems the two sides were deadlocked over that. The Lib Dems earlier in the day ruled out a coalition with Labour. The Lib Dems have suggested there could be a minority SNP government instead, but I'm not sure how that could be sustained without some kind of arrangement with the Lib Dems.

Rachel 03-06-2007 20:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by haku (Post 350287)
The Scottish National Party...

SNP can go kiss my ass.

Have a look into their funding, haku.

Станко394 08-06-2007 15:09

Why do countries want to be independent?! x.X
If you are togheter, you're stronger.

Especially it's so stupid when some county want to separate from one of the strongest countries [kingdom(s)] in the world!

What's the point?! I just hope there aren't going to be wars like it was when Yugoslavia was spliting.

If you ask me, this is not good for EU too...

PowerPuff Grrl 08-06-2007 18:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Станко394 (Post 358576)
Why do countries want to be independent?! x.X
If you are togheter, you're stronger.

More often than not, a merger of two nations leads to the dominance of one nation's culture, history, language, etc. at the expense of the other.

freddie 12-06-2007 14:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by PowerPuff Grrl (Post 358611)
More often than not, a merger of two nations leads to the dominance of one nation's culture, history, language, etc. at the expense of the other.

So true. Examples: former Republics of the Soviet Union (which got engulfed by Russia, former Republics of Yugoslavia which didn't get exactly engulfed by Serbia, but still it was an uneven union)... and lets not even speak about extreme cases like Tibet or Chechnia.


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