Scottish Parliamentary Elections (May 5, 2011)

[minionofmidas]

I fully expect Labour to gain seats.
But I wouldn't be so sure on the SNP losing many.

[minionofmidas]

Most of the Tory seats are list seats.
Oh, and an LD seat where the SNP are the main challengers is an at-risk seat.

(Most of the rest is quite accurate, of course. And I wasn't thinking along the lines of *massive* Labour gains and a majority.)

One more thing to ponder though... why did the SNP do badly in Westminster? Perceived friendlyness with the London Tories anything to do with that? You figure?
Well, I do. I certainly do. (Worth noting they still gained votes pretty much wherever there wasn't a new tactical reason to vote for somebody else, btw. Just not very much.)

[minionofmidas]

Most of the Tory seats are list seats.
Oh, and an LD seat where the SNP are the main challengers is an at-risk seat.

(Most of the rest is quite accurate, of course. And I wasn't thinking along the lines of *massive* Labour gains and a majority.)

One more thing to ponder though... why did the SNP do badly in Westminster? Perceived friendlyness with the London Tories anything to do with that? You figure?
Well, I do. I certainly do. (Worth noting they still gained votes pretty much wherever there wasn't a new tactical reason to vote for somebody else, btw. Just not very much.)

The public generally don't know about their relationship with the Tories at Holyrood;

Yeah, I said "the London Tories". Of course it's all interconnected, but I was thinking more of the SNP giving off the vibe of not minding a Tory government at Westminster.

[minionofmidas]

Oh, and obviously other reasons why Labour underperform at Holyrood are turnout, turnout, turnout; and the sorry and westminsterdependent state of Scottish Labour leadership since the death of Donald Dewar. Whether that latter factor can be turned around will probably be decisive in the next Scottish elections.

[minionofmidas]

Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson has resigned because of the snow.

Wut?

[minionofmidas]

Wait - you mean that's not actually an area where prostitutes take their clients?

[minionofmidas]

Meh. People's grasp of distances tends to be utterly hilarious.

Though recently I spent a few hours working side by side with some old guy, and his command of distances was downright spooky. Could tell you off the top of his head whether the next available parking was closer 250m or 300m away, and looked at a two-by-four lying a little away and told me it was 2.3m long.

[minionofmidas]

They're thinking of relocating again. Oswestry is too close for comfort to Llansantffraid.

(And I didn't have to look up what you're talking about. That's pretty sad, I think.)

[minionofmidas]

Extension of the term? Is that dried & dusted?

[minionofmidas]

Wth is meant by "ringfence the number of police". It sort of sounds like "ensure the bastards don't multiply further", which I'd sign off on of course, but somehow I doubt that's what they meant.

[minionofmidas]

Answering no opinion to that yin, I got

Greens 48
SNP 28
LD 13
Labour -16
Afleitch & his ilk -55

[minionofmidas]

Onto, not off, surely?

[minionofmidas]

60%.

[minionofmidas]

That's in terms of list vote. Constituency vote, no chance. Number of seats, no chance.