Lib Dems claim Salmond planning budget ‘blame game’

lex Salmond will not make a real attempt to get his budget passed this year, preferring instead to indulge in a “blame game” ahead of next year’s Holyrood elections, Tavish Scott, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader warned today.
Mr Scott launched his attack on the First Minister ahead of key cross-party budget talks at Holyrood.
John Swinney, [...]

Are election primaries coming to Scotland?

��Primaries’ used to only pop into our consciousness every four years when the Americans voted for a President.
Now, though, that could be about to change.
Sheila Gilmore, the Labour MP in Edinburgh East, instituted a “primary” election to decide who she should vote for in the Labour leadership contest.
It was a modest success in terms of [...]

Poll suggests Holyrood win for Labour in 2011 election

Labour is on course to win the 2011 Holyrood election, according to a new poll published today.
The TNS-BMRB poll for the Herald showed both Labour and the SNP increasing their share of support in Scotland at the expense of the Conservatives.
But, with both main parties gaining, the gap between the two has remained wide enough [...]

A Mhandy, nach cuala sinn seo mìle turas

Feumas gun robh ‘inntinn air mòran eile seach math na rìoghachd no fiùs math a’ phàrtaidh aige fhèin. Tha leabhair mòr le a dhreach fhèin air eachdraidh nan Làbarach air tighinn a-mach dìreach seachdainean as dèidh dhan riaghaltas aige an taghadh a chall.
‘S e a tha smaoineachail mu dheidhinn nan nithean a tha a’ nochdadh [...]

Clegg’s referendum plan undermines ‘respect’ agenda

T takes a particularly inept form of political manoeuvring to unite the sworn enemies of the SNP and Scottish Labour but that is exactly what the coalition government at Westminster has managed to achieve.
It is very rare indeed for the Nationalists and Scottish Labour Party to share the same view on anything, let alone anything [...]

Fury over PR referendum clash with Scottish election

Scottish ministers reacted with fury this morning after it emerged that the UK Government intends to hold a referendum on proportional representation on 5 May next year – the same day as the Scottish Parliament elections.
Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, is expected to announce in the next few days that the referendum on the [...]

Has Alex Salmond lost his edge?

lex Salmond is still the biggest beast in the Scottish political jungle. He is a politician of rare skill, a quick and occasionally devastating debater and a strong leader.
All those traits remain but a convergence of other factors have prompted murmurings to grow louder in the background, from inside and outside the SNP. In short, [...]

Profile: Family firm that breaks the ‘three generation’ rule

amily-owned firms dominate Scotland’s economy. They range from very small businesses to others that are household names. But the consensus view is that most family firms last for three generations. After that, they’re either sold or die as family members lose interest in the project or want to cash in their inheritance.
So what makes [...]

Tories ponder ‘tartan tax cuts’ in policy review

The Scottish Tories will start a major policy review this weekend which could see them go into next year’s election promising to make Scotland the lowest taxed part of the UK.
Conservative MSP Derek Brownlee will head the policy review and, although he wouldn’t be drawn on tax policy ahead of the review, he stressed that [...]

Iomairt Làbarach gun teachdaireachd soilleir

Bu chòir dhaibh a bhith taingeil gun do rinn iad cho math anns an t-suidheachadh a bh’ ann. Ged a bha buil bhòt nas miosa na iomairt Làbarach sam bith bho 1931, chùm iad tòrr de na sgìrean-pàrlamaid aca. Gu dearbh, chùm iad tòrr mòr a bharrachd na choisinn an iomairt aca.
Chan eil dà dhòigh [...]

New Scottish constituency maps

The Boundary Commission has published the new maps of Scottish constituencies and regions for the Holyrood elections.  (Click on link for large version.)
- Mainland Scotland constituencies. Large version here.

- Central belt and island constituencies. Large version here.

- Regions. Large version here.

Con-Dem coalition may scuttle Holyrood deals

The Cameron-Clegg deal is being cheered by many Liberal Democrats north of the border but it may have an unintended consequence which not only keeps them out of power in Scotland but would also have far-reaching implications for Holyrood.
Indeed, the Con-Dem deal may prevent the establishment of a stable, majority government in Scotland for the [...]

Scots Tories told to pack their bags

The Scottish Conservatives have been hit with a double blow – a party grandee calling for them to be scrapped, and a spokesman confirming that they will soon have to move into smaller, less luxurious premises.
The Scottish Conservatives endured a dismal general election last week when they won only seat. But there was worse to [...]

Salmond’s £715m plan shows change of mind on deals

Alex Salmond was adamant before the election: the SNP would not get into any formal deals with either of the main parties in the event of a hung parliament.
There would be no coalition and no ‘confidence and supply’ agreement involving the SNP either. Instead, the SNP would approach the situation on an ‘issue by issue’ [...]

Comment: Spare a thought for those consigned to the backwoods

By John Knox
Spare a thought for the losers, cast out into the wilderness of political oblivion by our cruel mistress Democracy. I came home from two constituency counts on Friday morning with the fallen faces of the losers burnt into my memory like masks in a Greek tragedy. And in the afternoon I went off [...]

Comment: Cameron, Clegg and the mating habits of baboons

By James Browne
After a hard night on the boot polish trying to make sense of the general election, I settled down to watch a nature documentary yesterday.
It was about the mating habits of baboons. One dominant type had just won a vicious fight against a clapped-out old-timer and was presenting its winning rump to a [...]

‘Changes needed’ as Scot Tories plan poll inquest

Senior Scottish Tories admitted today there would have to be an inquest into the party’s disastrous performance in the general election. “There will have to be changes,” one senior figure said.
The Scottish Tories targeted 11 seats in Scotland and spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in their best-managed and most detailed election campaign in decades. [...]

How others see us: Election reaction from overseas

The world’s media showed little interest in the run-up to the British election, but it is certainly doing so now. Reactions range from an American perception that the “special relationship” is over, to a Canadian call for proportional representation, to a Spanish interpretation of David Cameron’s “we’re all in this together” slogan: “We are all”, [...]

Labour eyes 2011 win after Scottish election triumphs

Scottish Labour leaders were today plotting a return to power in the Scottish Parliament after an extraordinary General Election saw the party crush all its rivals in an unexpected and almost unprecedented show of strength.
Labour candidates who expected to be defeated were elected to the Commons, others who thought they might scrape home found they [...]

Election sketch: Out of the frying pan and into the lavvy

Hello, and welcome to the post-election world. Actually, would you excuse me a wee second? Thanks. Whap! Sorry, just had to hit masel on the heid with a frying pan there. Whap! And again. Whap! And again. Whap! And again. That’s better. No, it isn’t. Nothing’s making sense.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is nuts. First, how [...]

Watching the watchers: making it through election night

What’s the optimum time to go to bed on Election night/morning? Do you stay up all night? Go out to the pub and sleep through the whole thing? Or try the endurance test of watching the television coverage? Every man has his limit. The exit strategy was formulated at the following times:-
8.59pm When C4 runs [...]

Nick Clegg: Tories have a choice to make

By Allan Laing
Admitting that the overnight results were “a disappointment” to his party, Mr Clegg said that, during the election campaign, “Many, many people were excited about the prospect of doing something different. It seems that, when they came to vote, many of them decided to stick with what they knew best.”
Now, with no party [...]

Prospect of hung parliament makes disappointed Clegg kingmaker

By Allan Laing
ith a hung parliament certain, David Cameron and Gordon Brown returned to London this morning, each preparing to woo Nick Clegg for his support in forming a government.
By 6am the exact outcome of the 2010 General Election still remained unclear. With 268 seats, the Conservatives were well on target for being the largest [...]

Election update: a tale of two countries

4am
On a night when little is clear, it is stark how very different Scotland is politically from our southern neighbour.
We seem to be heading for a hung parliament. Despite a 6.5% swing from Labour to the Tories in England, David Cameron does not appear to be winning the target seats he needs.
In Scotland, no seats [...]

Diary: Latest betting suggests collapse in support for Labour

Odds on the Conservatives being the biggest party once the votes are counted have been slashed to 1/33.
Ladbrokes this afternoon have also pushed Labour out to 10/1 as betting support seems to have dried up for Gordon Brown’s party.
And on a day when turnover on all markets has continued to gather pace, Ladbrokes report [...]

Comment: Enjoy the peace – it won’t last long

It’s always an odd day, this. There’s a phoney war feel to things – or, rather, it’s like the period of go-slow downtime between Christmas and New Year, when no-one knows quite what to do, and there’s a sense of waiting for the clock to move on and the next instalment of excitement to arrive.
A [...]

And now a new dawn, loosely based on the old dawns…

o here we stand at the brink. Yada, as it were, yada. A new dawn, loosely based on the old dawns. If you’ve an abyss about your person, you can start staring into it now. Failing that, a pint glass will do. For we are going where no man has gone before: to Friday, 7 [...]

Bookies bank on bumper election day, with hung parliament the favourite

The polls have opened and the leaders have at last gone to bed, but speculation about the final result of today’s General Election is gathering pace.
Those who believe the bookies usually get it right should study the latest odds for an indication of how the House of Commons will look by tomorrow morning.
Ladbrokes is now [...]

Bloggers panel: verdict on the campaign

We asked our panel of political bloggers to give their verdict on the election campaign. Here’s what they had to say.
Yapping Yousuf
Every campaign is run on two levels. On the one hand there is the battle of the airwaves that we all know about and see on television and in newspapers and truth be told [...]

Newspapers line up behind their chosen parties – or not

cotland’s two establishment papers, the Scotsman and the Herald, have made their views clear on the election today. These two papers have spoken through their editorials – and decided to back no-one.
The Scotsman editorial today concludes: “The Scotsman regrettably finds itself in the unusual position of not being able to endorse any of the big [...]

Why Westminster election will hit Scottish health

n the doorstep, candidates and campaigners have been reporting that health, and health services, have been one of the issues most often raised by voters.
But given that it’s a subject area almost entirely devolved to Holyrood, should health in Scotland be a big issue in the Westminster elections?
Yes it should, and it would be naive [...]

Labour candidate says Brown is worst PM ever

Please take part in our pre-election online focus group
Just when Gordon Brown had rallied his party after last week’s dreadful “bigoted woman” gaffe, he suffered another extraordinary setback when one of his own candidates described him as “the worst Prime Minister the country has ever had”.
Manish Sood, the Labour candidate for Norfolk North West, labelled [...]

Siostam nan ceann-suidhe: nach robh e a-riamh mar seo?

ach robh còir aig a h-uile càil a bhi cho eadar-dhealaichte? ‘S e a bha seo taghadh an eadar-lìon, far nach biodh guth tuilleadh air na seann mheadhanan. Cha bhiodh pàipearan-naidheachd a’ cunntadh seo càil tuilleadh agus coma leibh rud cho seann fhasanta ris an telebhisean. Cha bhiodh sinn tuilleadh ach a’ faighinn a-mach [...]

The social media election that wasn’t

Whatever happened to the Facebook/Twitter election?
This was supposed to be the election decided by social media. So what went wrong?
The answer is: Nothing. The concept of a social media election campaign was pretty ludicrous from the start.
Did anybody seriously believe that a largely disillusioned electorate was somehow going to be galvanised into mass political [...]

Diary: Bring forth the not-at-all-desperate celebrity endorsements

ow important is a celebrity endorsement? It probably matters quite a lot when it’s Sir Sean Connery. But when you haven’t got James Bond, what do you do?
If you are the Scottish Conservatives, you turn to former Celtic and Scotland footballer Murdo MacLeod. He is, indeed, a very rare breed, a Scottish footballer who [...]

Who’s who in the cast of Election 2010: The Movie

The election campaign has lacked a palpable sense of drama. The leadership debates were a personality contest in which each contestant stuck  to script.  The Gillian Duffy incident merely served to highlight the absence of excitement.

This country will always prefer observing the flip-flopping, chaotic policy-on-the-hoof depicted in The Thick of It to the considered, idealistic [...]

Take part in our pre-election focus group

Following on from our last online focus group, which showed a shift from Labour to the SNP among some voters, we are carrying out a second survey in advance of the election. We want to see how attitudes have changed over the course of the campaign. (Click here to take the survey).
This is not an [...]

Who won the real TV debates contest: Sky, ITV or the Beeb?

By Dave Hewitt
o, three Thursdays, three leaders debates. Who won? Did slick presentation hold sway over clunky awkwardness? Did the heavyweight approach see off self-assurance? Was it a victory for hype over content, spin over substance?
It’s your call. You, the people, decide.
No, I don’t mean the party leaders. The Brown vs Cameron vs Clegg [...]

Election briefing: Spiralling into the unknown

By John Knox
If you are flying into a Black Hole, the least you can do is check out the pilots. There is not a lot else you can do. There are no star charts, no-one has been there before, no-one quite knows what forces will be at work.
Our Black Hole is turning out to be [...]

TV debate sketch: Game of three halves ends with a draw

Welcome to the third volume of proceedings from the Unionist Debating Society. I have to say I wasn’t much up for this last “leaders’ debate” or “prime ministerial debate”, depending on who you’re trying to fool.
I didn’t want to give them the oxygen of publicity. Watching two Englishmen and one wannabe Englishman discussing immigration held [...]

Under Canvass: Election candidates who enjoy the fresh air

Our interviews with election candidates who have an interest in the outdoors continue with Michael Moore, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk and a keen hillwalker.
Is most of your hillwalking done in the Borders, or do you get up to the Highlands and down to the Lakes as well?
Mostly in the [...]

Cameron finds feet in closely-fought debate

David Cameron gave his most assured and competent performance to date in tonight’s leaders’ debate, edging him ahead of his rivals in the battle for Number Ten.
The Conservative leader appeared more confident and comfortable on the key issue of the economy – the theme of tonight’s debate – than either Gordon Brown or Nick Clegg.
It [...]

Companies see election as battle between Tories and Lib Dems

With a week to go to the election, a survey of British business confidence in the three main political parties has been published by the analysts, Lindsell Marketing. It contacted more than 1,000 companies around the UK because few recent opinion polls had canvassed their opinion, despite the fact that, it says, “business people [...]

SNP loses leaders debate case

The SNP today failed in its attempt to get the BBC to include the Nationalists in this week’s leaders’ debates.
Lady Smith dismissed the SNP’s attempt to halt the debate at the end of a two-day hearing in the Court of Session.
The SNP had argued for an interim interdict which would have stopped the BBC broadcasting [...]

‘Bigoted woman’: the moment Brown lost the election?

Labour’s campaign was dealt a potentially devastating blow today when Gordon Brown was forced to apologise personally to a pensioner after being caught on tape dismissing her as a “bigoted woman”.
The Prime Minister was caught out by a live microphone which was left on as he got into a car and drove away from a [...]

Scots Tories disown candidate over remarks about gays

Scottish Conservative candidate has become the latest casualty of the internet during this campaign after he was suspended today for describing gays as “not normal” on his website.
Philip Lardner, the Tory candidate for Ayrshire North and Arran, was suspended from the party and is not getting any more support from the Conservatives although his [...]

Under Canvass: Election candidates lured by the great outdoors

David Bushby is the UK Independence Party candidate for Ochil and South Perthshire and has an interest in blue water sailing.
Does your interest in sailing come from a childhood spent messing around in boats?
Not from childhood, but from the time I was in the army in Singapore. There I started sailing in a GP14 [...]

Ten things Holyrood can teach Westminster about hung parliaments

Nick Clegg came to Scotland yesterday and was assailed by questions over his party’s approach to a hung parliament: but those questions all came from the London-based journalists travelling with the Lib Dem leader, not from the Scottish press.
The Scottish media wanted to know answers to more practical and relevant questions. They were not as [...]

Nicola Sturgeon on the SNP’s TV debates fight

Nicola Sturgeon
Depute Leader of the SNP
The Court of Session in Edinburgh has witnessed many important legal contests over the decades – but when it comes to questions of basic fairness and democracy then few are as simple as the case I plan to lodge there this morning.
I will be presenting the formal legal papers outlining [...]

SNP raises £50k in 48 hours for leaders’ debate court case

NP leaders will start their court action against the BBC tomorrow morning after receiving the £50,000 they needed from party supporters to cover the costs of the legal case.
The Nationalists are protesting at the BBC’s decision to bar them from any part of the leaders’ debate on Thursday night.
They appealed to SNP members on Saturday [...]

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