Would a SNP/Labour coalition be such a bad thing in May?

This is actually a very good article on the establishment reaction to a possible Labour / SNP coalition.

Relevant for the voting reform thread, too:

The British Establishment Is Losing Its Shit at the Thought of a Labour-SNP Government

The British establishment is in a state of panic. Each passing day, each new opinion poll and each unsuccessful policy briefing has brought the unthinkable closer: a government of the unelectable propped up by the unspeakable. Short of some major shifts between now and the 7th of May, Miliband will be Prime Minister with the support of the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon. What's shaping up is not just a Tory defeat, but something much bigger: the end of the Tories as the dominant party of government, an unprecedented phase of constitutional crises in the UK. Things are about to get very messy.

Assuming the outcome described above, it will be 23 years since the Conservatives last won a majority in a general election. A majority in the 2020 election would be the first for 28 years. I'll go out on a limb and say a 2020 victory is not going to happen – the fragmenting of the vote, the loosening grip of the three big parties is a long term and growing trend. It's unlikely to reverse. We may not see another Conservative majority ever.

www.vice.com/en_uk/read/queen-palace-coup-miliband-snp-cameron-huitson-345

I find it a bit strange that SNP are so left wing nowadays. Historically speaking somebody told me they were a very right wing party.

Most people in Scotland voted Labour last time but 35% voted for either Lib or Con so we aren't all Socialists we just never get Tory MPs

LAB 42.0%
SNP 19.9%
LD 18.9%
CON 16.7%

The SNP while nominally socialist are a mix of various middle to left who were they to ever win independence would tear themselves apart in weeks.

They are full of contradictions, independence (but only from England not the EU); named person or each child up to 18 (but plan to allow them to vote at 16); no nuclear weapons (but in NATO so would have to allow nuclear weapon carrying vessels to dock); a green agenda (but with an oil based economy).

The truth is that Scotland has been ruled by Westminster for a very long time.

Yeah - since 1707 I believe. That's when the Scottish parliament and crown decided to dissolve itself and unite into a bigger state with its capital at Westminster.

I wonder how Westminster will like being ruled by Scotland [sic]. Not much I expect.

If all the SNP do is support and encourage Labour to take a more tax and spend approach to things, they will have a lot of support across the UK as they do now. The common belief that Scots are more left-wing than the English is untrue, as various surveys have found. While the English might collectively identify as further to the right, their attitudes to specific things like tax, benefits, social housing, Europe and so on, is the same. The only real exception is immigration. That is hardly surprising as southern England has had so much more of it than Scotland.

On the other hand, if the SNP attempt Alex Salmond-style mayhem, then they will not, and rightly so: they would be impeding responsible government of the UK.

Come to think of it, I remember a government in recent memory that contained so many Scots that it was nicknamed the "Scottish Raj". It won 3 3 elections on the trot, including majorities in England in the first two.

I wonder if there will be the SNP landslide predicted in the polls. If so I expect there will be a coalition with Labour except it will probably be called an agreement.

If the SNP stick to their current position of supporting Labour on a vote-by-vote basis, there is no need for an agreement. Labour already know that the SNP are pretty much obliged to back them. The SNP's only alternative is supporting the Tories, which would be electoral suicide.

The truth is that Scotland has been ruled by Westminster for a very long time. I wonder how Westminster will like being ruled by Scotland. Not much I expect. I wonder if there will be the SNP landslide predicted in the polls. If so I expect there will be a coalition with Labour except it will probably be called an agreement.

I have always voted labour since 1979 but will be thinking twice this time.l I do not want to be governed by a party that does not want to be part of the UK and ultimately only has Scottish Interests at heart.

the problem is that there is no indication there will be a coalition.

Milliband says he won't do a deal. Fair enough, opinions can change.

However, the SNP, who say they will, have only ever said that they will keep the Tories out and support Labour on a vote-by-vote basis. All that really amounts to is a promise to exercise their votes at Westminster in the way they see fit.

That's not a deal. They aren't actually offering Labour anything that they wouldn't do anyway.

By refusing a deal, and by saying that Labour will do what it thinks best, Miliband is doing exactly the same as Sturgeon except he's not pretending that he's offering a genuine deal.

Politics needs to be shaken up big time in Westminster and the SNP are the perfect party to try form a coalition with. Big changes need to be made, because the current system isn't working for the majority of people.

I think it would be very good for Scotland but a recipe for disaster for a great part of the UK. Still it would be an interesting excerisce to make parties show their true colours.

On reflection, think Doris Day......"whatever will be, will be."

If SNP had clout after the election, it would be similar to the LibDem clout under Cameron.

Did the Lib Dems change much? They talk of getting poorly paid people out of income tax. But they also supported the bedroom tax. (which seems anything but Liberal to me)

I'm not sure if the SNP are really all that left wing. However, a bloc of 50+ SNP MPs would be a great new broom sweeping away the cobwebs at Westminster.

However, there are risks. As the outgoing PM, Cameron has first dibs on forming a new government. A Labour majority would immediately mean a change of government, and Labour would get this if they kept all their Scottish seats.

Anything short of this, and Cameron gets to put together a fresh government unless / until Labour and the SNP force a vote of no confidence. Could be months down the track.

I'd be a lot happier with a large cohort of SNP MPs shoving Labour to the left than a majority Labour Government. I can't abide the Tories or UKIP, and haven't ever voted for the SNP until now.

I'm not sure that a Lab/SNP coalition would be a bad thing but personally I think a minority government would be better. That way all the parties would have to work together like they do in many other countries.

A viper in our midst springs to mind.

I know most people in Scotland are socialist, but how they can put up with poiicies like that is beyond me. That is why I believe that one day UKIP will do well in Scotland too, because they are the only real opposition to policies like that left in te whole of the UK because Tory modernisers are a waste of time and just roll over and lap that type of stuff up.

claig do you think people in Scotland are getting the choice of voting for these policies? of course not because we don't know right from wrong...

I could see Labour and some Tory modernisers trying it on in England, but then UKIP support would go through the roof.

'I wonder if SNP would push for rules like legal guardians for all children in the UK and identity cards in the same way they are making these changes in Scotland?'

There would be no chance of getting those type of socialist policies through in England. For a start, the people of Essex and Kent, prime UKIP territory, would never vote for that type of thing.

niceguy im in Scotland and wouldn't vote for SNP if it was the last party standing. I think they are a vile party - they are small minded, divisive and have racist undertones - they are very territorial. people here do think westminster is a code word for England/English - people tell you your not really Scottish because you wont vote SNP or because you voted NO in the referendum.

I wonder if SNP would push for rules like legal guardians for all children in the UK and identity cards in the same way they are making these changes in Scotland?

My fear is that the SNP rule only in the favour of Scotland. I guess some will argue that the same is true for the other parties but I'm not sure in reality that is the truth. However the SNP are unashamedly putting Scotland first which is fair enough....but is that who we want to hold the balance of power? I guess if you are part of Scotland then it will sound like a perfectly good idea. For the rest of the UK....not so much.

As for Conservative/Labour coalition, I guess if that's the way voters have voted then in theory they have a duty to at least see if they could make it work. Whilst in reality on the major topics they are on the same page, I doubt it will realistically ever happen

It's true I think that it is misguided to see Westminster as looking out for the geographical area of the South East, but that is the way it plays out in Scotland.

John Reid accused the SNP of using Westminster as code for the English.

In a coalition SNP would naturally push for Scotland, Labour - well I don't know who they represent anymore tbh, so I think it might end up leaving English WC voters even more adrift. I definitely think it would threaten the English populations support for the Union.

'Polls have shown that 70something (I think) % of Scots want home rule, ie everything except defence/foreign policy, and more than that want further devolution.'

Yes, this is happening everywhere but to a lesser extent than in Scotland.

People have given up hope with how we are ruled and we all want a greater say and want power to be devolved to us in a more democratic way. The battle will now be how to achieve this. The progressives and luvvies will argue for greater tiers of bureaucrats who are controlled by them and who claim expenses from the people and the people's insurgency will argue for less government and more power for the people in local referenda and via direct democratic voting and recall. The big government luvvies, modernisers and liberals will lose that fight too and their grip on power will be diminished as the people claim back the right to have a greater voice in how they are governed. Far fewer of the people's representatives will come from Oxbridge and far more will come from ordinary backgrounds. there will be fewer barristers and more bar staff, fewer management consultants and more workers. The people will be represented by themselves and the greedy guzzlers who feel they are worth more than an MP's pay can leave the house and find work elsewhere to make room for people who believe in public service above higher perks and pay from the public purse.

The battle will be big government vs small government, luvvies versus liberty and I think the progressives will lose.

'and that WM looks after the SE of England first'

But if that was so, then why is the biggest success of the UKIP people's insurgency in Essex and Kent in the South East of England just miles from London itself. Westminster does not look after the South East of England and its people, it looks after the Establishment class.