Why NO gained 25% more votes and why Salmond had to resign. Im hearing and seeing a lot of nonsense over the vote. If you say it quick 45% quick it sounds almost like 50 % and almost like Yes won. The truth is very different. . The finally tally was 1.6 millions YES votes to 2 million NO votes and that is a massive difference, It is a fact that No gained 25% more votes than YES ....But its not just the numbers which are damning its the way in which Salmond lost that meant Salmond had to go. Since he became leader in 1990 he has moved the SNP from being a centre right party to a centre left party to in the last weeks of the campaign a radical left party. A strategy designed to break Labours stranglehold over the central belt and breakout from their heartlands in Dundee to be a nationwide party. Targeting disaffected Labour voters he has transformed the partys fortunes, winning the Scottish Parliament by a landslide while maintaining his heartland. However - ultimately it was a flawed and failed strategy. While he invigorated and excited the disaffected and disillusioned on the left, the vote showed he also marginalised and alienated himself from the centre and the elderly.. The rallies , the flags , the conspiracies felt good to the base but were switching off the undecided. The serious concerns over the pound , the euro , pensions ,bank and uncertainty over how it would all work were just not answered. The centre needed comfort, belts and braces answers over these and what they got were their concerns dismissed as scaremongering and empty slogans of believing in hope not fear.. Ultimately that was just not good enough. This is the real reason why Salmond lost in his own backyard and why from Orkney to Dumries the No was nationwide and decisive. His party has some real soul searching to do if it is every gain the independence it seeks. It can see Glasgow as the beacon and maintain the strategy of appealing to the disaffected left or it .can shore up the economics and appeal to the middle ground in order make Independence sound like a rational and sensible choice for Scotland but it cant do both The former will feel good but wont deliver the numbers of middle scotland votes they need and the second will mean alienating the very people who have just swung to him. Its a Hobsons Choice Salmonds feels unwilling to take. And so he had to go. Ultimately the choice the party has to make is the one the Labour Party made in the 1980s Does it want to achieve power and do some of the things it wants or does it want to be a protest party........ Just now Yes voters are somewhat perversely clinging to the hope that Westminster will fail to deliver on its promise for more powers for Scotland.. It wont Everything will be delivered as promised. And with Gordon Brown I suspect returning as the Labour leader in Scotland Independence will be long time coming, For me Scotland would do well now to bring itself together after so many arguments and so much division. It was right to do but if we are ever to live in a genuinely progressive society we need to work practically and on a day to day people with people and not against them . I cannot recommend highly enough Barack Obamas Book - Dreams of my Father . Not only is it very well written and beautifully emotional and touching it also lays out his vision of how progressives can go beyond ideology and division and come together to create a better world. amazon.co.uk/dp/1847670946/ref=dra_a_cs_lr_hn_it_P1400_1000?tag=dradisplay0bb-21&ascsubtag=4a251a2ef9bbf4ccc35f97aba2c9cbda
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 16:49:30 +0000
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