To wonder what the scots are thinking

[Ruperta]

If the exit polls are to be believed then tge Scots will have massively turned out in favour of SNP. This is less than 12 months after voting no to independence.

Why then vote SNP? Have they shot themselves in the foot or are the Scottish going to be protected from the welfare cuts that are going to be imposed on us? Are there NHS and education budgets more protected? Honest questions as I'm very confused!

Feeling very disappointed

I'm thinking Labour need to stop laying the blame at SNP's door. I voted No last year and Green yesterday. I should have been a natural Labour vote, but totally agree they gives not 2 fucks about Scotland.

Labour have also lost several seats in England, showing they have a support issue across the whole party, not just up here. So they need to take a good hard look at that instead of going on about it being Scotland's fault.

As it stands under a tory government my family is in major trouble.

Since you asked ... I'm wondering 'what the English are doing voting for another five years of the Tories'.

The next referendum will be the Tories when they try to take the UK out of Europe.

The snp would have supported left wing policies if labour had won enough seats in England. The lack of labour and lib dem seats in England let the Tories in not the snp

OP how can you say you feel let down by Scotland when even if all 59 seats were Labour it wouldn't have made the blind bit of difference, as the Tories have done so well in England.

Cheers England.

Right on Bank. If Labour continue to try to lay the blame at the feet of the SNP instead of looking inwardly It will only make any comeback for them even longer

Well I live in Scotland and am torn between thinking "Yeah my constituency did keep Labour" and "Oh shit every other one went yellow".

I confess to not fully understanding all the political doings but am in Scotland and today we have a Tory govmt for the UK and the SNP in charge of Scottish parliament. Erm, has anything changed?

Precisely Crystal. It's England that had let the Tories back in not Scotland. I say this as an Englis Labour voter.

*English

OP your question should be what were the english thinking.

They're the ones who voted in a conservstive government.
Even if every Scottish Labour MP had kept their seat they still wouldn't have enough to form a majority.

I'm thinking "what the fuck are the English playing at, voting in a party that want an EU referendum that is going to cause massive damage and uncertainty to business. And who the hell is giving UKIP that share of the vote?".

I'm also thinking - "see, told you so....this is why I voted Yes. Scotland and England are miles apart when it comes to political opinion. Once again, we are going to be ruled by a party that has only 1 out of 59 MPs here. Legitimacy my arse."

Further thoughts are a vague concern about the inevitable anti-Scottish feeling that the polarisation of politics in Westminster will cause, when the tory lean further to the right without the influence of the lib dems, and the SNP probably lean further to the left in response.

Considering that only something like 5.3% of the UK population voted for the SNP, it doesn't seem an unreasonable question on the part of the OP! There might be a few more people wondering about that than the other way round. The world doesn't revolve around Scotland. I say that as a Scot - I am sick and tired of hearing on and on about bloody Scotland!

Professor Alan Paige, advisor to the Scottish Committee on constitutional affairs, refers to "that familiar Scottish conceit". I think that's quite a good way of putting it.

Waiting to be flamed for daring to speak out against Scotland. Probably face calls for my tongue to be torn out.

I agree with those who say that the question is really 'what were the English thinking?' since that's who has voted for the Tories.

The fact is, there are only 59 Scottish constituencies compared to 533 in England. Scotland can't save England from itself.

Scotland makes up only 8.3% of the UK, so c.5% of the vote is pretty impressive for the SNP.

I didnt vote Tory or snp, therefore I'm thinking that I am totally screwed!

There's a difference between saying the snp vote caused a tory government and that they are too blame for a tory government.

Don't estimate the amount of swing tory voters in England that didn't go across to labour because of the surge in nationalist support in Scotland.

This certainly hampered labours chances in England and the tories campaigned heavily on this.

However the real issue is why the surge in nationalism...and I'm not best placed to answer that.

Labour need to stop blaming everyone but themselves.

It's not the fault of the Scots. It's not the press. It's not the sun , moon or stars.

I even heard Ken Livingston in the radio blaming Blair!

It's not so much nationalism because if that were the case the Inderef result would have been yes. It's a huge protest vote against labour who no longer represent the working person and have totally lost sight of their values. Many SNP voters yesterday would still vote no if there was another referendum tomorrow but this election was safe to vote for SNP as it doesn't directly mean independence.
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In a basic level if Labour had win every seat in Scotland then it still would have not been enough.

However, I think like chandler expresses people think the Scots have no right to have any serious clout in running the country. This led to a lot of tactical voting in England for the party they trust won't work with the SNP.

And the such folk wonder why Scotland votes SNP. Scotland is still part of the UK, just like Wales and N Ireland, North England, Cornwall and each of these areas has every right to be heard along with every other area in the UK.
What shocks me the most is that people are shocked when an area exercises it's democratic right.

OOAOML and TheChandler - could have written your posts (except the husband bit! ) In fact I wonder OOAOML if we're in the same constituency.

They could have put an armadillo up as SNP candidate in some constituencies and they would have got in.

I'm just waiting for some major gaffes, but as The Chandler said upthread, their every move will be very tightly controlled. We hardly heard from most of the SNP candidates during the run up to the election - all the publicity centred on NS who is a practised performer.

Oh, and the SNP actually polled less than 50% of the people who voted. I take strange heart from that! We just need to get our acts together and come up with a viable alternative.

I live in Scotland, the only candidate at my door was SNP. Other parties just stuffed leaflets through my letterbox but it was almost like they were too scared to engage with the electorate. That is what loses you elections. You are supposed to represent the people, if you don't listen to them they won't vote for you.