Scotland’s lack of political power is a democratic outrage
I TAKE strong exception to Jenny Hjul’s glib claim that “Scotland became a one-party state” in the aftermath of the SNP’s sensational electoral success at the recent General Election (“Pro-Union alliance should join Tories to further cause”, The Herald, July 9).
For a start, the classic definition of a one-party state is not simply one in which at (as yet) only one General Election one particular party triumphs over all others at least partly as a result of the long-discredited “first-past-the post” electoral system – which – as Ms Hjul must be well aware – will not be applicable in next year’s Scottish Parliament elections. The correct definition relates to a state in which no other political party is legally permitted to exist, far less contest elections at local or national level.
I would remind her that at the last purely Scottish Election the Labour Opposition secured the election of 37 MSPs while the Conservatives got 15 MSPs , the Liberal Democrats five MSPs, the Greens two MSPs and there was one Independent MSP, the late Margo MacDonald. The overall majority of the SNP administration was a mere nine.
As a consequence of the last Scottish local elections in 2012 Labour retained or won control of a clutch of councils in West and Central Scotland – including Glasgow, North and South Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and Falkirk, covering approximately half of Scotland’s population.
Moreover, in relation to the recent General Election, the return of a Tory Government with an overall Commons majority for the first time in 23 years – thanks largely to the larger English electorate – ensures that for the next five years the 56 SNP MPs will be largely marginalised, and the lion’s share of power over Scotland’s finances and Scotland’s welfare policies will continue to be located in the south.
This is the real democratic outrage of the General Election result. Ian O Bayne, 8 Clarence Drive, Glasgow. I NOTE with interest Jenny Hjul’s article. I take issue with the fact that my alma mater Strathclyde University has its first Conservative Association. Strathclyde Students Association has had a club in varying degrees of health since the 1950s.
Admittedly it was not a major player in the power broking of student politics in the 1970s and 1980s, however a raft of Conservatives were elected to the student association executive in the 1980s in the context of the miners’ strike. I should know I was one of them, though admittedly the club had chucked me out by then. Paul Spencer, 3 Circus Place, Glasgow.