You have to admire the gall of Alec Salmond, leader of the SNP. Last night he called a gain of 143 votes on a turn out of 30% in the Milton council by-election in Glasgow on a par with 4000+ extra votes across a whole constituency in Dunfermline and West Fife. It was similar to the SNP use of a ward result in Dunfermline and West Fife as evidence that there was a massive swing in their direction and as sure-fire evidence that Douglas Chapman and not Willie Rennie was heading to Westminster.
Then The Herald runs an article that Labour MPs are calling for a rethink in strategy and forming links with smaller groups in return for not contesting the list seats themselves. Surely that is showing up the absolute travesty of the top up list system. If Labour are attempting to escape proportionality the whole system needs redressing to a fairer PR system.
The Times Scottish Edition only run a story about how Labour now should be targeting the Liberal Democrats as the main opposition next May and not the SNP. It quotes one Labour MSP as saying:
"The Nationalists will always be an irritant but the dynamics of Scottish politics are changing. Look at what happened in the general election last year. Not only are the Lib Dems now the second biggest party in share of the vote across Scotland but they’re now the second party in Glasgow."
Another MSP said:
"We have to accept that in many parts of Scotland the SNP is no longer the target for us."
Well the race appears to be on and we have the momentum, this is going to be one long race. With the death of Jackie Pallo this week I think its a case of "Greetings, grapple fans. Welcome to the Holyrood Bowl, Scotland"
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