So, conservative support in Scotland..

[Janos]

They came 4th in the polls up here, and Labour's support has actually increased by around 3% (according to the polls). Almost a reverse of the national position.

This is a hugely different situation to England which has the majority of Conservative seats

So, basically they are an English party, aren't they?

Interested in people's opinions on this..could it lead to renewed calls for independence?

dont see how Cons could govern Scotland really, it would be so unfair.

Yup- hopefully Scotland will now realise that independance is a real option, if the alternative is being ruled by a party with 1 seat in the whole of Scotland!

I live in Eastern England where there are 2 Lab seats (11 lost to Tories and 1 Lib Dem) and all the rest are Tory. Lab has no mandate to govern this region. Are these situations cases for supporting a less centralised gov overall?

what conservative support in Scotland?

The Scots keep my faith in the human race alive

If DP gets in that 1 Tory MP is going to be busy!

i am sadly in the only tory seat. i think it might be playing right into the nats hands...which gives me the heebies

sallyjayGorce, I understand what you are saying.

However, England is still part of the UK, and while Labour may not be represented in your area, they do have pockets of support all over England (eg Merseyside, North East).

The Conservatives have actually lost support in Scotland since the last election.. they have only 1 MP, despite the considerable efforts expended by the media to drum up support for the conservatives.

I don't think it's reasonable to say the Scottish votes don't matter and so what!

No idea who DP is. Of course I mean DC!

i don't support the tories but i do find the scottish blind support for labour depressing. a donkey could stand and get in up here.

Janos - definitely not! I am half Scottish and voted SNP when I lived there - I wasn't at all suggesting Scottish votes don't matter while Scotland is involved with Westminster.

I was referring to the division between the different English regions which makes regions like the one I live in un-represented by a Lab gov. Our local MP is Lib Dem and is great on local issues which is why he held his seat in a big Tory area. I think local councils should have much more power to make local decisions and central gov should stand back. I know this sounds v. Tory but party politics aren't where I'm coming from.

I think this all stems back to the days of the Thatcher government when there were no tory MPs in Scotland, and of course no Scottish parliament in those days. The sense of injustice was phenomenal. The tories were not interested in Scotland at all and I don't suppose they will be this time if they come to govern with only 1 Scottish MP. I think it'll be a gneration or more before they ever manage to regain any sort of significant Tory support.

I left Scotland in 1993, when I was 22. This has never really left me and I can't ever, ever envisage voting tory. I always tactical vote to keep the tories out.

Scotland used to be a fairly Tory place up until the seventies and early eighties.

And it's no more unfair Tories governing Scotland than it has been a whole load of SCottish labourites ruling England for more than a decade: Blair/Brown/Darling, etc, etc.

Cameron - there's a good Scottish name. And David. Lovely and Welsh. What's his middle name?

I've wondered if GB's lack of popularity was in some way down to him being Scottish. I seem to hear a real resentment against the Scottish in England these days. Do you think if he had been english, he would have been less of a target? As posted above 'Scotttish labourites' - I get the feeling that the english don't like or feel it's fair to have a Scot in the top position of power where as Scotland was in this position with English leaders for a long, long time. Just seems to point that the gonernment is really the 'english' government. People seem to gorget it's just by an accident of geography that it's based in London. Maybe they should relocate it about the UK every few years.

I do see what you mean Sally.

I'm not coming at this form a 'ner-ner-ner' perspective myself, I think it's something important that the Tories need to address and understand, because otherwise it's likely to cause real resentment and anger.

I wonder if the strong anti-conservative bias is as a result of the 80s?

Good point scanty. I think there is some of that.

Must bow out for bnow as I have to get on with work but very interested everyone's views!

I think that Scotland got it's protest vote already in the Holyrood elections and the SNP benefited. It was a nice, safe way of staying fairly left wing but showing Labour that they weren't happy about things like Iraq. The idea of the tories getting in has sent people back to Labour. It might work out differently if there was PR (as there is in the Scottish elections) but the fear of the tories is the strongest thing I've sensed in Scotland this election.

I think it is down to the 80s, not just voters remembering but potential candidates growing up then: who is going to stand as a tory candidate in Scotland? As a party, they will never send their better/ less bad candidates to a losing seat so you basically get weird, drippy, apathetic people doing next to no promotion. Every tory sign I have seen has been defaced in some way and left. Quite often the defacing is ill informed (e.g. someone has printed wee stickers saying "will cut the NHS" to put under the candidates name on each sign - Health is completely devolved, he wouldn't have the power as a Westminister MP), but even misunderstandings that obvious haven't been addressed in their pamphlets. The pamphlets just list Labours faults, but that is a daft approach for a country where that still leaves two preferable parties before your own.

Lastly, Holyrood usually having a coalition or minority government has taken that fear away from Scottish people but was the final gasp of DCs campaign. Again, it just didn't fit here and the Scottish tories (tory?) didn't do anything to try and adapt it.

i agree scanty.

I don't agree at all, BariatricObama. Look at the make-up of the Scottish parliament, no blind devotion to Labour at all. Labour's successes last night have less to do with any sort of scottish love affair with Labour and more to do with a clear anti-tory agenda here. It seems clear that the desires of the Scottish people are at odds with those of the British electorate in general. I've never really been much of a nat, but perhaps it is time to disentangle their destinies? I'd certainly rather have an independent Scotland than a Conservative led Britain.

It becomes self-fulfilling though. With so many Scots blindly voting Labour every single time, and so anti-Tory, to actually vote Tory is really self defeating. I was torn between Lib Dem and Tory. If I'd voted Tory that would've been one less for the Lib Dems and more risk of Labour getting in.

i think it might have already started the ball rolling for renewed calls for independence. SNP's seats were down but their percentage of votes was definately up, and for a man who was 14 seats short of his target, Salmond was on remarkably good form this morning.

Labour need the support of SNP and Plaid so it'll quash the bad-mouthing of independence at least for now.

Well, if you look at the share of the vote, 16.7% of Scots voted Tory and they got one seat. The LibDems got 18.9% and got 11 seats. The bloody SNP took 19.9% of votes and six seats. People in Scotland do vote Tory. I find it quite ironic that it's the LibDems who are in favour of PR, when it's the Tories that would benefit most up here.

'I think it's something important that the Tories need to address and understand,'

But they won't. Because they don't care.

They don't even care about people in parts of England, why would they care about Scotland?

Hence, why they have so little support in Scotland.

Well the Conservatives had the majority of the vote in ENGLAND the last time but you got a Labour government because of the Scottish Labout vote. So you might find its in Cons/Lib interest to create an English Parliament anyway where they will always be in power. But remember that about the previous election. And finally for once in 20 years of voting I feel I got almost what I wanted so stop all the whingeing all you who didnt for once get who you wanted. But I think we do need some form of PR or minority views like the Greens etc will never be heard.

The SNP make me feel ill.

Who's whining Jenny? I think most people, party politics aside, recognise that it isn't just about what they as an individual want. The Conservatives are actively pro-union (uk) so therefore they should be addressing this rather important political phenomenon, don't you think?