Dear Unionist Press,
None the less, a job well done. Whatever you want to call them, Ruth appears to have, at least to a certain extent, detoxified the Tories.
But now, let's get it in to perspective, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Unionist Press! The Tankers came SECOND, not first. They have 31 seats out of 129. The other parties combined have 98. In short they have fewer than quarter of the seats.
The SNP alone has 63 seats. That's twice the number the Tories have got, so the claim that Ruthie and her crack team are going to drive their tanks over Nicola's lawns or, well anything much, is fantasy. They would require the 24 Labour, 5 Liberal Democrats and 4 of the 6 Greens to vote with them, before they're going to make any difference in terms of votes. (Depending upon which party supplies the presiding officer*)
And with respect, how often is that to happen?
So, we all know that you are incredibly excited about the fact that instead of being the third party, the Tankies are now the "official" opposition, but please, let's get it into perspective, shall we? That means Ruth gets to ask the First Minister a couple more questions a week and Kezia gets to ask a couple less, doesn't it?
Now seriously ... keep calm and do whatever it is you do.
Kind Regards
MUNGUIN
PS: It might be as well to remember that good though it is to have doubled your seats, to triple you seat count is REALLY spectacular...step forward Patrick Harvie.* Craig Dalzell puts forward an interesting idea for presiding officer in this piece. I'd be interested in what other people think of it, either here or on Craig's own excellent blog.
The SNP can mock the Scottish Tory revival as much as they like, but in 2003 they had just 27 MSPs - how many is it that Ruth has now?
ReplyDeleteQuite so, but most SNP supporters back then saw that as a real low. They lost 6 seats to Greens and Scottish Socialists, as did Labour. The Tories neither lost nor gained on 18 and the Liberals on 17. It was a bad time for the party and as a result in conjunction with the poor UK and EU election results John Swinney stood down as leader.
DeleteYou'll note that I am congratulating Ruth. Seriously I believe she has done well. Until Thursday I'd never met a single person in Dundee whom I knew voted Tory. So, she has done well. What has irked me is that the way the BBC and the Tory Press is treating the victory, you'd think that Ruth had 63 seats and the SNP 31, as depicted by the cartoon.
All I was doing was putting this victory into proportion.
"Scottish" Tory vote in 1979 = 31%.
ReplyDelete"Scottish" Tory vote in 2016 = 22%.
Ruthie is less popular than Thatcher, now that takes some doing.
Comparing apples and oranges are we?
DeleteI'd have thought you'd be the first to appreciate Holyrood elections and pre-devolutionary Westminster GEs are hardly the same thing.
13% up to 22.9% in one election is impressive and since we're comparing apples and oranges, with 31 MSPs, she's done a lot better than the pathetic 27 MSPs the SNP trotted up in 2003.
Just pointing out that, there is no Tory revival, they are still a toxic brand in Scotland.
DeleteThe right wing unionist Labour support, has given their vote to the Tories (as that party,is where they belong) in an attempt to defend the union.
Wee Ruthie, will have to defend her party and the cuts THEY are introducing at Westminster. She will indeed be less popular than Thatcher, after five years of exposure of her true blue, look after the wealthy and punish the poor, UK policies and nothing tailored to Scotland on offer, not that she is in a position to deliver.
Though her old chums at the BBC will help her as much as they can, interesting times ahead.
Going from 27 MSPs to winning three elections, with increased vote share, now that's some SNP revival.
Only problem with your analysis is the 12%-12.5% swings we got from the SNP across Tayside and N.E... that resurgence in our vote can't be blamed on 'red tories'.
DeleteDean. If 27 is pathetic, how can 31 be spectacular?
Deletehttp://www.alisonthewliss.scot/davidson-urged-to-be-a-strong-opposition-to-tories-rape-clause-and-two-child-policy/
DeleteAnd success is a double edged sword. When you are that successful, you must have a lot of influence.
Does every site have to have a troll these days?
ReplyDeleteSaor Alba
saor Alba
LOL SA.
DeleteDean and Niko add some variety to our boards, don't they?
I'm happy the britnat press is in denial. Let it disintegrate in its own wee world.
ReplyDeleteYep. The trouble with talking big about what you can do, is that you them have to prove it.
DeleteRevival or not, I'm not sure how much other parties will want to side with Ruth leading the charge.
One of the first things that was reported was that Ruth had said that a second referendum was now off the cards.
But then Patrick Harvie indicated that the Greens would vote with the government in the case of brexit. 69 votes. Collapse of Davidson's argument. And parliament hadn't even sat!
The Tory 'revival' can only be taken seriously when their candidates can earn seats on their own merit rather than to a system devised by unionists for the protection of unionists. Quite ridiculous that individuals rejected by voted in their constituency are deemed to be of equal merit to those who defeated them - Brian Whittle, Lamont, Dugdale, MacIntosh, Fraser being the prime examples...
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteI'm being non partisan about this (as far as I know every party does it).
If you stand for a constituency seat you cannot stand on the list. Surely that makes sense. The system is just being abused... and all parties do it.
It has to stop. It's become a laughing stock.
I think Dean is swimming in a river in Egypt.
ReplyDeleteJust hope he doesn't get eaten by the old crocks!!!
DeleteHa! It took me a second to get that... it's been a long day ...
DeleteOh yes, Tris is well sharp!
DeleteDean, you remind me of Lady Hillingdon (1912)...
DeleteLOL John. Have you had too much sun?
DeleteI think that you were having better weather than Corfu today?
Incidentally, listened to Radio 'Scotland' this morning and a lady who is anti-nuclear was being interviewed and was justifying her opposition when the interviewer said, quite seriously, something along the lines of "Yes, but you do realise that Jackie Baillie was elected on a pro-nuclear basis"
ReplyDeleteNote to self: Do not listen to Radio 'Scotland' whilst driving....
What have we told you?
DeleteDON'T LISTEN TO RADIO SCOTLAND E V E R!
I haven't listening to Radio Scotland for about 3 or 4 years. The world hasn't stopped turning.
DeleteI seriously don;t remember ever listening to it.
DeleteI get news from the internet. It's a bit more balanced that way.
Brilliant graphic, Tris, I spat out my tea. Wait for the attacks as "sexist".
ReplyDeleteI did consider that, Craig, but I thought...nope, it looks more like the Olympic Games, and there's nothing sexist about women's swimming.
DeleteIt is clearly the same skin. Did I mention I play computer games?
DeleteAll three are the same skin.
Ah, Douglas... computer games are a mystery (as is so much else) to me.
DeleteTris,
ReplyDeleteGood cartoon. I am pretty sure that Ruthy Tank Commander is about to suffer a huge prat fall at the first Scottish Prime Ministers Question Time. The industrial growth of our important industries, such as food banks and payday loan companies is the platform on which Conservatism (is it safe to mention that yet Ruth?) will grow. Along with the low hanging fruit of belt and braces flute bands.
We are in for a rocky ride. The last of Labour will now vote Unionist and thus for the Tank Commander. This will split negative Scotland from positive Scotland.
We have to win that battle.
I think we will win. The tone of the opposition has merely notched up a tad. SNPbad is now SCOTSbad. We can handle her ruthless political opinions.
The woman is a political creature, I doubt that this is what she wished for herself when she was young. But, there you go, the acceptable face of the Ruth for Tank Commander party, and ne'er a Tory in sight.
It is nonsense. It will not last very long.
Well, I suspect that if Ruth is clever she will play the same game as Annabel played, and get some concessions from the government. I suspect thought that if she's not as clever as Annabel she'll find that there will be few allies to the Tories.
DeleteI suspect as you say, after all the big stuff she'll take a tumble or two.
Still, that's politics!
Waiting on those who voted for her realizing what the actually voted for. How will they like seeing the return of Tory values to this country. If many of them were not the age to remember the Tories of Hume and MacMillan, it wouldn't be funny but most are from a certain football club stuffed with Orange Order types and a certain so called secret society. Some of the elderly will be horrified with regard to her sexuality, not me got friends who are gay, but the tendency with the Tories is to hide it and persecute those others who do not, hence the length of time before Fluffy came out. Helena
ReplyDeleteWell, however much Ruth might want to hide it, she is a Tory.
DeleteIf I were her I'd try to keep Muddle at arms length, but we need to keep on reminding Ruth what her party are doing in England and Britain.
Is she for Brexit or not? if she's on the losing side where will she be when the next regime comes in? Does she think it's fair to do what they do to the sick? How does she feel about electoral fraud?
To be fair, I don't think her sexuality has done her any harm. Whe she was appointed I was amazed that she was accepted, but as I've never met a real live Tory (to the best of my knowledge), I don't know how narrow minded or otherwise they are about stuff like that.
I reckon in London it was always "everyone does it but no one talks about it".
"Ruth appears to have, at least to a certain extent, detoxified the Tories."
ReplyDeleteAye well, wait till some of her new MSPs get started. Some of them are pretty good but there are at least a couple of absolute zoomers lurking in the wings waiting to remind people how much they dislike Tories.
Well Craig, I don't know what any of them are like. But if, as you say, they're real zoomers, it won't be long before they are saying silly things and killing the pretence that they aren't old fashioned Tories.
DeleteThe whole discussion about it being wrong that the d'Hondt system allows candidates who lost in the Constituency to be elected through the list to my mind completely misses the point. Namely the failed Constituency candidates elected on the list are quite likely the best candidates the Party involved has. To say they should not stand could be increasing likelihood of second rate people being elected.
ReplyDeleteThis in fact happened to Labour in 2011 when they were so sure that their Constituency candidates would win that they did not put them on the list. They lost out with a large number of second rate candidates.
What happens if in a Constituency 2 Parties each have their best Candidate nationwide competing and one loses by a few hundred votes.
I would say it would be ridiculous if that person could not be prominent on the List.
Finally, in the German regional elections they use the d'Hondt system 50/50 constituency/list. When discussing this with a German friend he was quite clear that the List vote is considered the priority as it decides number of members each party obtains and if there is a "second" vote it is quite clearly the Constituency one.
Of course the balance changes slightly with us as there are somewhat more Constituency members vs List
I take your point Clach.
DeleteI can see that what you say is true. by and large they have put their best folk on the constituencies. And the loss of good people, no matter what party, is a loss to the country.
Surely in a country this large certainly the major parties would have enough people to put up in winnable seats and enough good people to put on the list too, coming from the training grounds of local councils.
Certainly someone who has already been a constituency MSP (like Kelly or Lamont) should not be able to back up their position with a list seat. It spits in the face of the public who rejected them.
It reminds me of people like Linda Chalker who were government ministers at Westminster, lost an election and were sent immediately to the Lords and walked, not only back into parliament but also sometimes to their old ministerial role.
Seems to me that they are saying. OK the public has spoken in this democracy of ours, and they outright rejected this person, however we know better so Sod the public.
Difficult one to solve. Might be better to have a transferable vote system?
Tris
ReplyDeleteThey got a partial increase in the unionist vote, possibly from the unionist parties, voters who would normally vote British Labour or the Liberals who saw that for now both of these parties are dead in the water. I would never vote tactically personally, I always vote for what I want to see but everyone to their own, plus you could not pay me enough to vote Tory. I guess some people also have short memories, like 2 months, given the nightmare the current government are, but hey a vote for their union of servitude is worth it at any cost. I would tend to agree with jimnarlene, there is no Tory revival to speak of, it really is a disgruntled bitter unionist vote and if it was not for the list they would be nowhere, so I give Davidson no credit at all and maybe she should be thanking the media for the never ending free party political broadcasts she got every time Scotland2016 and STVTonight was on air.
She will get her arse kicked most weeks, even Willie Rennie has already given her a wee roasting, come on Willie Rennie lol, he is more Tory than she is. She will just remind the non bitter unionists that they are in fact Tories and come 2020 and the next Tory win in England, and therefor Britain we will start to see the tide turning very quickly on the constitutional question. Just my opinion like ken.
Bruce
LOL right Bruce...
DeleteTell me more about Wullie roasting oor Ruth...
I know Ruth called on the unionist parties to join together to oppose the SNP (forgetting that they Greens aren't unionists!), and that Kezia said no.
Now Wullie's roasted her.
It's already falling down.
Firstly, I agree that no party should be putting the same candidates on the list and the constituencies.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, Ruthie's USP of No Referendum has been torpedoed by Patrick Harvie ( I said I would give the Greens a chance).
As I've said before, she will be heading south "in triumph" to fight a safe seat for 2020. But don't be surprised to see her taking Darling's role as Bitter Together mouthpiece in Indyref 2.