In recent weeks there has been derision directed at Alex Salmond's aim of winning twenty MPs at the next election, derision which is far too early to be valid and I suspect borne out of a fear that the ambitious haul is perfectly achievable. I certainly wouldn't struggle to name at least 20 constituencies of the 59 in Scotland that the SNP has a realistic chance of winning.But in order to maximise the chances of winning as many representatives at Westminster as possible perhaps the SNP should stand in more constituencies?
With the 59 constituencies in Scotland all filled up with SNP PPCs, what on earth could I be talking about?
Well, Robert Burns once wrote a song called 'I look to the North' and Edward Longshanks reiterated the call in the docu-drama 'Braveheart' but perhaps to the South is where the SNP should wryly look to cast its net wider still.
I believe I'm correct in saying that the London branch of the SNP is one of the largest, well-funded and the most passionate. Is it so far-fetched to suggest that the group could pick a constituency in England's capital and field a candidate?
William Wallace only made it as far as York, perhaps Salmond could go all the way to Covent Garden.
I for one would relish the idea of offering policies that are not currently available to all Londoners, the scrapping of Trident, saying No to nuclear power, a vigorous opposition to the illegal Iraq War and fiscal autonomy for Scotland.
Needless to say, some will think that raising this prospect is a whimsical indulgence and it's almost ridiculous to have to assert that SNP resources are best concentrated in Scotland during a UK election, but with English resentment against the supposedly generous Scottish settlement of the Barnett formula, the idea of a supposed 'Scottish Raj' not being terribly popular in some quarters and MPs expenses driving down popularity of the mainstream parties, is it really so crazy? Let's be honest, the media would lap it up.
An SNP MP representing London? The Scottish Nationalists taking the fight to England's Capital? Paving the streets of London yellow?
Why not, there was an SNP Councillor in Brighton for a few months in 1999...
28 comments:
It'd mean syphoning off resources right enough, but the proportionate upsurge in publicity would prove worth it I think.
Sadly I doubt we'd win; whilst there are a lot of scots in London, and many who would like our policies, alas they're too well spread.
Now, if London elected a few MP's via PR, we'd be "in like Flynn" to quote the saying…
Now stop writing stuff to make me comment, I've got work to do here!
Jeff,
I admire you chutzpah!
Perhaps a more realistic option might be Berwick on Tweed?
Berwick on Tweed should certainly be included but London is actually a very good call, if somewhat tongue in cheek and if only to highlight certain inequities.
I was wondering how the offer of Devolution Max might play in the far northern isles, are we about to see the Liberal hegemony broken and Tavish Scott deposed?
"Beware the wrath of the northmen!" ;-)
The reality of a hung parliament will certainly shake things up at Westminister, might be exactly what it needs to breathe some democracy into the old girl.
Anonymous,
Yes, there are two other points about this.
Firstly the constituency to pick in Mark Fields, which includes the House of Commons, apparently. The rather magnificently named Cities of London and Westminster. There would be good propoganda about taking the SNP's message to the heart of the Westminster village or somesuch...
Secondly, given the kick back that there appears to be amongst some English folk, to the effect of 'lets get shot of them, anyway' the actual vote might not be a total embarrassment.
Err... Are we sure we've thought through all the ramifications of this?
"Are we sure we've thought through all the ramifications of this?"
An SNP London mayoral candidate?
LOL
ComRes/The Independent -> Scottish sub-sample (95 respondents):
(+/- change from UK GE 2005)
SNP 30% (+12)
Lab 28% (-11)
Con 17% (+1)
LD 17% (-6)
UKIP 5% (+5)
Grn 1% (n/c)
BNP 0
oth 2%
http://www.comres.co.uk/systems/file_download.aspx?pg=528&ver=2
If the SNP start putting up candidates in England it would suggest it supports the British union. Not exactly a great idea...
London SNP isnt necessarily for people in london, im pretty sure its an umbrella group for (mainly english based) exiled scottish nationalists
A nice idea - if you are so inclined - but it could throw a rather large spanner in the works if it went ahead. If the SNP were to field even a single candidate in any other part of the UK it would be extremely difficult to subsequently justify restricting any referendum on Scottish independence to just Scotland.
I doubt many in the SNP would relish such a prospect.
"If the SNP start putting up candidates in England it would suggest it supports the British union. Not exactly a great idea..."
A better approach might be to have independents run who are aligned with SNP policy.
why stop at 60? Fight them on the beaches!
Why not a joint SNP/Plaid Cymru candidate to increase the vote.
I am sure the candidate could also let it be known that they favoured Irish independence while they were at it :-)
Seriously though, while it sounds like a lot of fun, I can see/hear the can of worms it would open up.
This was discussed in the 60s/70s except the seat considered was Corby. It got KB'ed as it would have reduced the number of Party Political Broadcasts - going from a Scotland-only party to a UK-wide party. Dunno if the rules have changed since, but there you go.
Plus it'll result in a lost deposit, and I wouldn't want to have to explain to a PPC who'd just lost by 82 votes why we spent 2 grand on a futile PR exercise.
Liverpool Scotland constituency had an Irish Nationlist MP from 1885 to 1929 after all - so why not!
Was my comment deleted?
Stuart Dickson,
How meaningful is a sub-poll with 95 correspondents? The MoE must be huge.
bundy is right. the broadcast issue is the main one that would be of concern. i think a joint plaid/snp candidate standing as an independent saying no trident and no wars might pick up collateral support. lots of scots in london, and irish and welsh who would vote for them to send a message for sure.
i think if the snp stood in berwick there could not be the same argument as the area was historically scottish and people there in a free vote may choose to live in scotland for the benefits not available in northumberland.
redcliffe62,
You have a vaild point. If it is just a publicity stunt, then a Central London joint candidacy might be the more worthwhile.
On the other hand, the people of Berwick upon Tweed have actually hinted that they might want to be part of an independent Scotland. (This was a while ago and was tied to free hospital accomodation for OAPs or the like.) It seems a tad unfair to stop them getting the chance, don't you think? As you say, they have been passed back and forth quite a bit!
The arguements for the two incursions are completely different, I'd have thought.
Jeff
The idea is great in theory but would not work in practice.
My understanding is that the TV time that you are allowed is governed by your % share of the vote. The SNP % share is calculated on their share of Scotlands population, so if their vote share was calculated on Englands population as well it vastly reduce the SNP % share of the vote.
I believe this formula also works with the government funding political parties receive.
Nothing to stop a Scottish independent standing though.
well Fianna Fail (the Republican Party, as they trail themselves), now have an MLA in Norn Iron's Stormont Parliament
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8387810.stm
Interesting parallel. Perhaps a more realistic route would be to get a disgruntled English Labour MP (oh come on, there must be one :) ) to jump ship to the SNP.
This post is worse than anything Wardog or Universality of Cheese ever did!
Looks like the Sunday Times only wants to publish results when the SNP are behind.
http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx?oItemId=2523
http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/2364
Westminster
SNP 34%(+1)
LAB 32%(+5)
CON 15%(-3)
LDEM 12%(-2)
Holyrood Constituency
SNP 36%(-2)
LAB 32%(+7)
CON 12%(-3)
LDEM 12%(-3)
here is the link to the ICM poll
http://tinyurl.com/yz7pk2j
oops - Sorry it is a MORI poll and not ICM
Were Berwick (north of the Tweed anyway) to rejoin Scotland, the line of the north sea boundary would swing to the south...
An amusing (and slightly rubbish idea) which we can move swiftly on from. In fact Wallace did make it all the way to London where he was resoundingly executed somewhere near St Barts Hospital. (I've stood near the plaque.)
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