This is an update on a Tora thread from a few weeks ago about Nigel Farage's reception in Edinburgh. He was there at the time to promote the UKIP's candidate, Otto Inglis, in the upcoming by-election for the Scottish parliament in the Aberdeen Donside seat. I said at the time that I'd check on the result on June 21st, so here it is:
SNP 9,814
Lab 7,789
LibDem 1,940
Con 1,791
UKIP 1,128
Others 916
It certainly looks as if UKIP has a more substantial hill to climb in Scotland than they found recently in England. Also good to see the Tories are still pretty-much an endangered species north of the border. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-22986202
// It certainly looks as if UKIP has a more substantial hill to climb in Scotland than they found recently in England //
You can't really compare these results to England because the Scots have the SNP to vote for as a realistic alternative to the historical Lib/Lab/Con choice.
The only alternative the English have is UKIP, which is why they did better here.
If SNP hadn't been on the Donside ballot paper, their 9,814 votes would have had to go elsewhere. Labour would obviously still have won, but UKIPs share of the vote would increase. They may well have come second.
The fact remians that UKIP will not win a single seat in the general election in either Scotland or England. Their only relevance is how many votes they'll take from the other parties.
ludwig you're suggesting that if people hadn't voted for the SNP they'd have voted UKIP? Apart from anything else, the SNP is a mainstream political party in Scotland. Speculating about what would happen were they not there is probably pointless.
Anyway I look forward to Mr Farrago bringing his UKIP bandwagon to West Belfast, West Tyrpne and Newry and Armagh :-)
This has little or nothing to do with UKIP. In Scotland the SNP vote is an anti authority vote against the English in Westminster, whilst in England the UKIP vote is a vote against the EU in Brussels.
"The SNP vote is an anti authority vote." In Scottish politics, the SNP is the authority! Does anyone else seriously imagine Scots vote only against things?
Farage's party is generally pronounced yookip but it is, of course, an acronym the first two letters of which stand for 'United Kingdom'. For better or worse, when I last looked, Scotland was part of that, so Scots have as much right to an opinion on membership of the EU as the English do.
As England has Tory and Labour so Scotland has SNP and Labour. As such therefore the SNP is one of the two main parties of government in that country and not a party of "protest" unless of course against Labour as a possible governing party.
It seems funny how some will support a Scottish Nationalist party, but are terrified at the thought of an English Nationalist Party, or any party even slightly right-wing.
I am fearful of a country where a legitimate politician is forced to seek refuge in a pub away from the baying hounds of the opposition, this is no better than can be expected in a fascist state.
// ludwig you're suggesting that if people hadn't voted for the SNP they'd have voted UKIP? //
No. I'm suggesting that if the SNP candidate wasn't available (as in England) they'd have had to vote for one of the other candidates. That being the case, UKIP would probably have picked up more of these votes than either the Tories or Libdems.
// Apart from anything else, the SNP is a mainstream political party in Scotland. Speculating about what would happen were they not there is probably pointless. //
Which is kind of what I'm saying. Comparing the relative performance of UKIP in England and Scotland (as the OP does) is comparing apples and oranges. The political situations and available choice of parties is completely different.
// It seems funny how some will support a Scottish Nationalist party, but are terrified at the thought of an English Nationalist Party, or any party even slightly right-wing. //
I thought the SNP are a left of Centre nationalist party?
I too find it very strange that large numbers of Scots oppose a party whose main aim is to secure the UK‘s independence from the EU, but who want Scotland to be granted autonomy from the UK.
This all demonstrates another very good reason for Scotland to be granted its independence.
The three minor constituent parts of the UK all have their respective “nationalist” parties for whom to vote - parties which have legitimacy, which represent the interests of the people of that part of the UK only, who field candidates in that part of the UK only and who are not vilified as fascists..
There is no such option for the English (leaving aside the preposterous English National Party). They - by far and away the largest constituent part of the nation - have no parliament or assembly of their own, have to put up with having matters that effect them alone influenced by MPs from the other regions whose constituents are not effected and have no say in whether those areas remain part of the UK or not.
Mr Farage is well out of it by declining to visit Scotland again. As suggested by AOG, any part of the country where a politician has to seek refuge from a baying mob in a pub is not worthy of any attention by any politician. I only hope that Mr Salmond’s dream of an independent Scotland bears fruit. But I very much fear that it will not.
// I too find it very strange that large numbers of Scots oppose a party whose main aim is to secure the UK‘s independence from the EU, but who want Scotland to be granted autonomy from the UK. //
Almost as strange as people arguing that the UK countries are stronger in a Union, but not stronger in a union of 27 countries.
Just to put some numbers on New Judge's assertions. In descending order of population:
Population of England: 53.01 million
Population of South East England (excluding Greater London): 8.635 million
Population of Greater London: 8.174 million
Population of Scotland: 5.295 million
Population of Wales: 3.064 million
Population of Northern Ireland: 1.811 million
So ...
* The population of England is five times the size of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined
* The population of the South East of England (including London) is about a third of the whole of England