Why do people vote for the SNP?
The last few decades have seen an unprecedented boom in the Scottish National Party (SNP), originally a relatively unimportant minor party pursuing the dream of independence for Scotland, which has changed Scottish and British politics forever. This has been a prominent issue challenging journalists, researchers, political commentators and certainly other major parties for the last decade or so, provoking a seemingly simple though entirely complex and certainly disputed question – why is it that people vote for the SNP?
Forming in 1934 and seeing very little success in the following years: the SNP first started to make an impact in 1967 in taking its first by-election, then in 1974 with its election of 11 MPs to the UK parliament - which saw the SNPs first successes in having the prospect of devolution and even independence pushed into the …show more content…
Firstly, it was assumed that the SNP would follow convention and negotiate a coalition with the Liberal Democrats to form a government, when in they took their legitimate majority as a mandate to rule as a minority government – a feat which has never been too successful in the history of British politics. Another point is that Scotland had always overwhelmingly and consistently voted for the Labour Party, and this shift could be crucial in explaining how the SNP won the election. Under the leadership of Tony Blair and the introduction of ‘New Labour’ (with its more right leaning policies), in addition to the highly unpopular (and illegal) bombing of Iraq, Scottish opinion of the Labour party started to dwindle – Labour losing 6 seats themselves. This defection of electorate from the Labour Party to the SNP starts to become a trend in Scottish election patterns all the way up until even the recent General Election in
The last few decades have seen an unprecedented boom in the Scottish National Party (SNP), originally a relatively unimportant minor party pursuing the dream of independence for Scotland, which has changed Scottish and British politics forever. This has been a prominent issue challenging journalists, researchers, political commentators and certainly other major parties for the last decade or so, provoking a seemingly simple though entirely complex and certainly disputed question – why is it that people vote for the SNP?
Forming in 1934 and seeing very little success in the following years: the SNP first started to make an impact in 1967 in taking its first by-election, then in 1974 with its election of 11 MPs to the UK parliament - which saw the SNPs first successes in having the prospect of devolution and even independence pushed into the …show more content…
Firstly, it was assumed that the SNP would follow convention and negotiate a coalition with the Liberal Democrats to form a government, when in they took their legitimate majority as a mandate to rule as a minority government – a feat which has never been too successful in the history of British politics. Another point is that Scotland had always overwhelmingly and consistently voted for the Labour Party, and this shift could be crucial in explaining how the SNP won the election. Under the leadership of Tony Blair and the introduction of ‘New Labour’ (with its more right leaning policies), in addition to the highly unpopular (and illegal) bombing of Iraq, Scottish opinion of the Labour party started to dwindle – Labour losing 6 seats themselves. This defection of electorate from the Labour Party to the SNP starts to become a trend in Scottish election patterns all the way up until even the recent General Election in