Helping the SNP
So Alex's deputy is elected as well... Nicola Sturgeon was a very prominent face in the SNP's campaign - Alex Salmond didn't want to present himself alone. They appeared together at the manifesto launches, etc etc. She was a member of the Scottish Parliament before, but only via the proportional representation side of things - the list, as we call it - not directly elected.
What's helping the SNP achieve such success is the absence of the Scottish Socialists. They used to stand in both the constituency section and the list section. They took a decision to stand only on the latter this time. Many of the SSP's supporters are to the left of the Labour party, disaffected with them for one reason or another. And a very high proportion of those people are obviously giving their votes to the SNP.
If the SNP can carry on winning constituency seats, AND do well on the list, then this will get very interesting...
It's patchy though. is matched by a disappointing one in .
I'm 
Comments
No offence Nick, but why are all your posts focused on Scotland? - I want to hear some of your views on Wales please!
But wasn't the SNP's majority twice as small as the number of votes discounted - I seem to remember from watching the result that was over 2000?
It'd be very interesting to see if alongside the majorities the ´óÏó´«Ã½ published the spoilt votes results, where they are available, and how that would shape public opinion when the rest of the country wakes up tomorrow!
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Scotland was always going to be the big story of the night and is very very close.
In addition even Rhodri Morgan has just said he doesn't really know what's happening in Wales! I'll focus more on it now.
The story in Wales is about the success of the independents [1]
As predicted [2]
vikingar
SOURCES:
[1]
[2]
The so-called swing to the SNP is somewhat illusory.
Labour's vote has held up fairly well across Scotland - in some cases losing Labour candidates have increased their votes but not by as much as the winning candidate.
As you say - the trotskyite Scottish Socialist Party did not field candidates. It is not surprising that the malcontents and the "something for nothing" brigade have gone to the SNP.
All they have done is switched from one wish list party to another.
That's a bit harsh to suggest that the list MSPs are "not directly elected" - surely they are directly elected but in a different way to constituency MSPs?
To me, 'not directly elected' would be if we only voted for parties without knowing who was on the list, i.e. if the parties didn't decide who would get their list seats until after they knew how many list seats they were getting!