Scottish politics could be a binfire floating down an overflowing sewer, nevertheless it’s good to know there are not less than just a few issues which might be dependable constants, and one in all them is that George Foulkes is an fool.
However whereas his tweet is flawed, it’s not VERY flawed.
Foulkes refers to a brand new Savanta ballot for the Scotsman, additionally reported within the Categorical, which suggests an enormous drop in SNP seats on the subsequent Holyrood election, from 64 to 46 – fewer than they gained in 2007 once they beat Labour by only one and managed to kind a authorities thanks largely to Alex Salmond’s carpe diem bravado.
16 years in the past Labour and the Lib Dems, who’d shaped a coalition for the primary two phrases of the Scottish Parliament, secured 62 seats between them – three wanting a majority. However Salmond shaped a minority authorities with simply 47 seats (plus an essentially-symbolic further two because of a free settlement with the Greens beneath Robin Harper) when the Tories, and extra crucially the Liberal Democrats, abstained on a vote for First Minister and Salmond beat Jack McConnell of Labour by three votes.
As Labour’s coalition companions it appeared irrational for the Lib Dems to successfully vote themselves out of workplace, however within the run-up to the election then-leader Nicol Stephen had resolved to finish the deal, as a result of he feared it was damaging his social gathering.
Remarkably, simply seven weeks earlier than the election the Guardian was speaking about Stephen himself shifting into Bute Home. (As troublesome as it could be to recollect, his social gathering was nonetheless very a lot on the rise previous to its disastrous 2010 Westminster coalition with the Tories.) However Stephen’s choice to abstain on the vote proved momentous.
4 years later, after daring and competent authorities from Salmond’s minority administration, the Lib Dems – now led by Tavish Scott, who had additionally been adamant in opposition to a coalition with the SNP – misplaced virtually three-quarters of their seats and have become utterly irrelevant because the SNP swept to Holyrood’s solely absolute majority.
That irrelevance may in principle be ended if the Savanta ballot had been to develop into a actuality, giving a Labour-Lib Dem alliance 51 seats to the SNP’s 46. However it could require the Greens to drop their assist for Humza Yousaf’s social gathering, and the SNP management election made it plain that Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater have develop into far too accustomed to the style of gravy to permit that to occur. The Lib Dems themselves are the warning from historical past about what occurs if a junior social gathering willingly lets energy slip out of its fingers and condemns itself to the sidelines.
(The Savanta ballot shouldn’t be an outlier. One other one out tonight, from Panelbase, presents a happier image for the SNP however solely marginally, giving them 47 seats fairly than 46. Not like the Savanta one it prompted for Alba and urged they’d decide up 4 seats, mainly on the expense of the Lib Dems, who’d now not have the option outnumber the SNP by becoming a member of with Labour. However even within the comically unlikely occasion of an SNP-Greens-Alba alliance, a pro-indy majority could be out of attain.)
In order issues stand, Foulkes is speaking his conventional nonsense. However the subsequent Holyrood election continues to be three lengthy years away, and if Yousaf has dropped 18 seats in his first week, with a really rocky highway forward of him, it might not be lengthy earlier than a type of events when even a stopped clock will get the time proper comes alongside.
