David Cameron and the Tories continue to “bang on” about the Scottish National Party. Just this past week alone, we’ve had an England only manifesto, in which English Votes for English Laws, or the humorously acronymed EVEL, featured prominently. We had more from Dave and Boris about a “looming constitutional crisis” should the SNP be involved in the next government, with much hay attempted to be made around the whole “I’m writing the Labour Party budget” routine of Salmond’s.
I can understand Cameron’s concerns in many respects. I too would prefer our next government to be free of nationalists, be they SNP or UKIP or whomever runs under a banner of parochial division. So here’s what I propose the Tories do, should Labour end up the largest party in the House of Commons come May 8th, and the only way forward for the Reds appears to be in quasi-cooperation with the Nats: offer Miliband a sort of inverse of the “big, open offer” you put forward to Nick Clegg five years ago. An offer to selflessly save the country, indeed literally so in this case, by asking Labour to consider the Conservative Party as their junior coalition partner.
It would, you have to admit, whatever else it might do, save the country from the SNP. However, it would probably bring down the whole two-party system with immediate effect. Can I just say I’m cool with that personally? It seems like a double win, in fact: political realignment gets a jumpstart, and the Nats buffoonery in the Commons is greatly diminished. And the United Kingdom isn’t extirpated, that’s another plus.
Of course, all of the above is said on the assumption that the Tories’ wafting on and on and on and on and on about the SNP instead of talking about why people should vote for the Conservative Party is not being done out of concern for the Union but actually as a ploy to get UKIP switchers to “switch back”. But I wouldn’t stoop to being that cynical.
Go on, Cameron, you know it’s the solution to this great conundrum that’s clearly keeping you and all your Tory frontbenchers up at night. If you ask nicely now, Miliband might even chuck you the MoD.
The way the Lab & Con leaders are painting themselves into their respective corners this could become a distinct possibility. That is why the SNP are running a win/win strategy: they either get themselves into a position of major influence or are frozen out completely. The former moves them towards greater devolution the latter would be the ‘significant change’ to call for a second referendum where they could demonstrate that the Union cannot work for Scotland. Even a Tory victory with a working majority benefits them as a EU referendum vote might also be interpreted as a ‘significant change’ . The SNP really do have the Westminster establishment between a rock and a hard place.
I can’t see why people keep raising this possibility, besides a tactical attempt to reduce votes for those two parties. At most 5% of the Tories and Labour party would support this. A second election is vastly more likely. It’s just not going to happen.
As Martin says above, such a stitch up, would end the union as we know it. It’s already questionable how either of the main parties can engage with Scotland after this election, such has been the bile and hatred hurled at her by the main stream media generally, but egged on by the Tories in particular. It’s certainly going to be interesting
If both major Parties would collapse by a coalition with each other rather than with a combination of popular local parties, such as the SNP, or single-issue campaigns, such as UKIP and the Greens, or utterly rootless unpopular centrists such as the LibDems, then we are in a hole. ,
With only 33% support neither major party has a mandate to rule on its own. Bluntly Scots who cannot stomach a Government with the most successful English party of the last century, should have voted for independence as they do not want a Union other than on their own terms. Much as Nick Clegg relies on the stupidity of both Miliband and Cameron to keep the LibDems in permanent office on less than 10% of the vote, grand coalitions often work better than letting discredited centrists clinging to office with no support in a parody of Andreotti’s Italy.
Did you read Pete Hitchens in the Hate on Sunday?
http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2015/04/when-tebbit-says-vote-labour-you-know-somethings-gone-very-wrong.html