SCOTLAND NOW HAS A UKIP MEMBER TO NOT BOTHER REPRESENTING US

There's something you never thought you'd see:
Nigel without a fag and a pint!

I imagine that the majority of Scots will be disappointed that there is now a Ukip member (not) representing them in the European parliament.

Some people are delighted, of course. Possibly some of the people who voted for them, but even a proportion of them must be aware that their protest vote has actually produced a representative from a party which doesn't actually believe in anything about Scotland and has no policies for the country. Indeed until recently it was their policy to scrap Holyrood until someone pointed out that Scots law was different from English law and there really was a need to a parliament in Edinburgh (otherwise a lot of important parliamentary time would be wasted discussing law in jockland).

Is the result surprising? Not really. 

The BBC seems to have been having a love affair with Farage over the last few years. For a man leading a party with no MPs, he seemed to spend a disproportionate amount of time on Dumblebum’s Question Time. 

Of course he’s good telly. A bit like Nick Griffin (ha ha ha ha*), he pulls the audience in. And the BBC seems uninterested in providing a balanced coverage of anything these days, commercially based as is it. So wall to wall Farage stories gave the party prominence it didn't really deserve. 

I wonder what Nick will do after next May?
House of Lords? International banking?
Write a book "How I wrecked the Libdems"?

The fact that the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK appeared in two television debates with the man will have raised his profile too. Not surprisingly for a man with apparently no political principles, Clegg lost badly against Farage who has very firmly fixed ideas. Now we await the UK Prime Minister's debate with Farage. Cameron will also almost undoubtedly lose to Farage. 

Is it a blow to Alex Salmond and the SNP? Well, although the Tories Murdo Fraser thinks so, I doubt it. It's certainly a disappointment that they didn't win the third seat, although they came close.

I’d say to murdo that it was a blow to us all, but probably mostly to the Liberals, who have been wiped out in Scotland (and only have one seat in the UK). 

It’s a blow to Scotland in that Ukip MEPs have a reputation for not turning up for work, so instead of its derisory 6 MEPs, Scotland will effectively now have only 5 representatives in Brussels. 

And across the UK it is a blow to every party because Ukip came first, pushing them all back a place (or, in the case of the Liberals, several).

Fraser, whom you would have thought should have known better, tweeted to the effect that the result disproved the theory that Scotland had a different political culture from the UK. 

Politicians should probably avoid tweeting late at night

I’m not sure how he arrived at this conclusion based on the result of the Euro election (on a small turnout), where UKIP won 10% of the vote in Scotland and 30% in the UK, and came in in 1^st place in the UK, but 4th in Scotland. Maybe maths isn't a Tory strong point.

Fraser must also be aware that while the UK elected his party to government (albeit in coalition) and polls indicate that it will do so again, albeit with a different partner) Scotland elected them (even with the benefit of PR) to be the 3^rd party in Holyrood far behind the opposition Labour party in numbers. There is, so fa,r no indication that that situation will change, solid as it has been since the first days of the parliament.

And while both governing parties in the UK had disappointing results after 4 years of government, the governing party in Scotland, after 7 years of incumbency, saw their vote hold up and indeed, came in first.

No. I don't see one political culture across the UK there Murdo. What is it you’re on?

There is a really amusing piece on the Euro results by Wee Ginger Dug which had me rolling about laughing at the ungodly hour of 6 this morning.

I wonder if there is anyone, except Griffin himself,
who feels sorry for him.

* Nick Griffin lost his seat, as did the other BNP member. Still, when Mr Griffin goes to the Job Centre on Tuesday he will doubtless be able to avail himself of some unpaid work stacking shelves at Poundland thanks to another right wing freak, Iain Duncan Smurf.