Normally this headline would please me as I would see myself as a Conservative in terms of my views on British politics.However at this time this is actually a major threat to the Union.Labour are the only party in the UK to have success in Scotland,Wales and England. The Conservative party in Scotland for example has only the 1 Westminster seat(Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale.)Contrast this to Labour who have 40 of the 59 Westminster seats in Scotland(including the Speaker.)
The problem comes in that the party in Scotland who are gaining most from Labour's unpopularity is the Scottish Nationalist Party.This was most clearly shown in the election to the Scottish Parliament where the SNP gained 20 seats and became the biggest party at Holyrood.On top of this the SNP led administration in Scotland has been widely regarded as a success with the charismatic 1st Minister Alex Salmond becoming very popular.Further evidence of this was shown in the Telegraph on July 11th where a You Gov poll gave the SNP a 4 point lead in the polls for Westminster Elections for the first time.If these results where repeated across Scotland however Labour would still be the biggest party with 31 seats however the SNP would gain 8 seats to 14 overall.
Of course all this brings me to the Glasgow East by-election which normally would prove an easy Labour victory and with the SNP needing a swing 0f over 20% an SNP gain would seem unlikely.However the truth of the matter is the SNP will never have a better chance of gaining the seat.The Scottish Labour party in recent weeks have lost their leader Wendy Alexander over a debate on her expenses.Labour also made a mess of selecting their candidate when Glasgow councilor George Ryan withdrew from the race and eventually MSP Margaret Curran was selected.Also on top of this Gordon Brown's position as Labour Leader has come under fire due to poor by-election results in Henley where the Green party and BNP beat Labour into 5th place as well as in Crewe and Nantwich where Labour lost its 7,000 majority and saw a 16% swing to the Tories who won with a 7,000 majority.Anyway a party divided is never very popular with voters.Also lets not forget the recent downturn in the economy and the growing price of living.
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