David Cameron's attack on the Alex Salmond for First Minister campaign has thown Labour off kilter (if that is possible, given their tendency towards self-destruction)
Quoted on PA today Labour MP Tom Greatrex said:
"If David Cameron thinks the SNP are that bad, why have his Tories have been propping them up for four years?"
However the analysis of the Scottish Parliament's voting record tells a completely different story with Labour voting with the Tories far more than the SNP. This has not gone unnoticed. When I was at the STUC in Ayr last week one dismayed trade union official told me Labour's decision to vote with the Tories against John Swinney's proposed supermarket levy had destroyed the party's credibility in terms of social justice. Ditto the Labour decision to support the drinks industry's campaign against the minimum pricing of alcohol - again a position they share with the Tories.
Since the 2007 election there has been 507 motions come before the Scottish Parliament, of which 186 were contested either by one of the opposition parties or the Government.
In those contested votes the Labour party voted in agreement with the Conservatives 55% of the time. Only being eclipsed by the Tories coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats by 1% (56%).
In contrast, the SNP only voted with Conservatives 45% of the time.
In addition an analysis by a blogger of Scottish Vote Compass - which matches the party's current policies with what voters believe - shows that "for all the party's anti-Tory rhetoric, they're the only party in Scotland who score a net positive match with the Conservatives, at a sizeable 15%. Labour's ideological nemesis is not David Cameron, but the Greens. In line with the SNP result, Labour's policies show just 1% alignment with the Nationalists."
More details of that Scottish Vote Compass analysis here:
http://wosblog.podgamer.com/2011/04/18/who-are-the-tartan-tories/
It looks like they're standing in the halls of the Deathstar!
Posted by: Grant | April 25, 2011 at 01:13 PM