The Day After

So, a momentous night in UK, and in particular, Scottish politics. The Scottish political map is redrawn as the SNP tide sweeps almost all before them. Just one each from the main UK parties and 56 SNP MPs. How they will do in the face of a majority Tory government, and not the minority Labour one they hoped to support. Did Labour's desperate attempt to hold onto its Scottish seats play into the Tories hands in England? Joining in the monstering of the SNP that helped to scare wavering voters into sticking with the Conservatives in the key English Con-Lab marginals? But that was just the latest example of the Labour Party across the UK fighting political battles on the terrain chosen by their opponents. As any general would say, if you do that you are already more than halfway to losing the battle.
The SNP supporters will enjoy their success today - reminding me of another sunny post-election morning in 1997 when Labour had swept to power and helped to wipe out the Tories in Scotland. But then the difficult tests will start. How will the political novices fare? Surely there will have to be choices made, even if it is just which lobby to pass through, that will threaten the SNP's current status as 'all things to all people'. (Obviously not 'all' as their massive landslide is in part a product of the distortions of FPTP - almost exactly 50% of the vote delivering 95% of the seats.) Anyway, I would guess that Nicola's SNP is more likely to bear left than right at any forks in the road and thereby start to lose some of their more right-wing, often rural support. Which might well help the Tories in Scotland but will only make it more important than ever that the Scottish Labour Party fights the SNP on the left. A little surprised that Jim Murphy hasn't resigned. For me, he is part of the problem and I wonder how long before some of the leading MSPs break ranks, at the very least calling for him to go, if not demanding the party in Scotland becomes completely autonomous. Or will the MSPs sit on their hands as they are driven to another disaster at next year's Holyrood elections?