Fergus came away with 51.5% of the vote in the constituency. The Gurn fun poll was just that and not scientific in anyway but we accurately predicted this result. Some of the other figures now, Gurn poll result in brackets.
Labour 21.8% (17%) Maybe a few more Labour voters in Inverness than there are in Gurnshire?
Conservate 11.6% (11%)
LibDem 11.5% (7%) Perhaps there are some folk that are more forgiving but did the Lib Dem involvement in sacking Liz as Provost give a boost to the anti LibDem feeling in Gurnshire? This observer suspects it did.
UKIP 1.6% (4%) Maybe folk leaning this way just decided that a UKIP vote would be a bit bizarre for a Holyrood election.
The Greens don't stand in the first past the post but in the second vote ballot they got 5.1% (6%)
That's it all done and dusted then. The next big elections here will be for Nairn's three community councils in November and then there's the Highland Council elections in May of next year. Will the LibDem clear-out continue there? Could there be a Westminster election this year too? If the Tories go ahead in the polls for any length of time it might be tempting for them.
A night and a day of long faces for most parties, whilst the SNP must have enjoyed wide ear to ear grins
ReplyDeleteThe Gurn poll has been proven pretty accurate, shows that readers are fairly evenly spread across the political spectrum, although as you have said typically Nairn rather than Inverness views
I suspect the Lib Dems have an awful lot of work to do before they are a viable political force again, perhaps made worse for them in that they have to continue (for now) in coalition government in Westminster
You might be interested in reading the stoty as reported in today's Figaro, as well as the comments which followed from readers. Interested non French readers can get a good idea of the story by using Google translate.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2011/05/06/01003-20110506ARTFIG00635-victoire-historique-pour-les-nationalistes-ecossais.php
Merci anonyme 12.24, C'était très intéressant.
ReplyDeleteSome interesting views in the comments. Good to see a European perspective on the events of the last 48 hours.
LibDems work to do? Tavish has just jacked as well. Can they ever win back the old Highland Liberal tradition with its roots further back to the Land League Party and the crofting struggles? Not easily, at the moment it seems Danny parcelled it up and passed it on to the SNP free of charge.
ReplyDeleteWas John Farquhar Munro the last real Highland Liberal in the LibDems?
A lot of people must be wondering why they ever voted for Mr Alexander but I am disappointed to hear that Tavish Scott seems to have given up. Whatever your views on the Independent and Green MSPs they are still fighting their corners even though there are only 3 of them in total.
ReplyDeleteBBC web site news pages doing a bit on UK not blocking Scottish Independence referendum and quotes Ed Milliband as saying
"I don't think the majority of people in Scotland want independence or separatism,"
Well I heard it said that Labour refused to believe the polls that the SNP would do well.
SNP have 5 years in office to convince business interests and sceptics of the merits of any case that they choose to present in terms of increasing autonomy for Scotland.
Long faces at Labour HQ indeed after stunning performance from the SNP but Labour vote went up as well to come second. So could be there are more Labour voters in Nairn than the Gurn poll predicted. Maybe Nairn should have its own Labour Party branch again to run a local campaign for next year's council elections?
ReplyDeleteNobody else to blame for not delivering now Alec!!
ReplyDeleteThere may have been a few voters who moved their vote to other parties from the Lib Dems, but make no mistake Westminster parties are pretty much history here in Scotland.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that those people who did and have supported other parties will see the opportunity that the SNP will now bring to Scotland
Scotland had a new political dawn on May 5th, and needs new political parties, not the tired haggard ones that have previously been rolled out of London
Tapadh leibh Alba
ReplyDeleteI would tend to agree with that although not everybody might (yet). On Saturday I had a chance to watch some of the Sky tv analysis of the elections north and south of the border. Most commentators simply wanted to talk about the significance of the events in Scotland.
A Labour guy appeared, he was on the Green at Westminster, a young black guy - one of last year's crop of MP's I think. Perhaps someone might know his name.
What struck me was how he was talking in cliches about winning back the people of Scotland.He's no idea that the paradigm has shifted. Scottish Voters are no longer there simply to be "won over" as some add-on to Westminster parties.
The Scottish Greens were one party that were way ahead of the rest when the separated from London control about 15-20 years ago. Labour and LibDems and the Tories should do the same and become totally independent of London control.
Something I think people overlook about the recent elections is that they were specifically elections for Holyrood, for administering Scotland.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very different kettle of fish I think than for elections for Westminister, for administrating all of the UK.
This could well be the end of the road for both Labour and the Lib Dems in Highland.
ReplyDeleteMr Robb, just what will you campaign about in Nairn? What makes Labour so different from all the other parties these days?
Give us some specific examples of just what the people of Nairn will get from Labour councillors as opposed to councillors of any other colour?
Thanks to the Gurnite regular reader who informs me that the guy I was referring to in a previous comment was, Chuka Umunna, Member of Parliament for Streatham, Milliband's PPS.
ReplyDeleteMr Umunna and Mr Millibrand might be just 600 or so miles away but they seem to be in a different universe as far as the new Scottish politics are concerned. Maybe Westminster has always been an alternative reality compared to the real lives of people (and not just the citizens of Scotland).
No matter how unpalatable it may be, I think you will find Brian@MyNairn.com that voters in Scotland knew exactly who they were voting for on May 5th, and what the election was for.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore I suspect that when the next Westminster election is announced there will be a great number of SNP candidates standing
Independence is a waste of time while we are still being told what to do by Europe. Thirty years ago was the time for independence, not in Europe, oil revenue that we still had a chance to access. Those days are gone now and in the past they must remain...
ReplyDelete