Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Monday, July 20, 2015

Beginnings of a party realignment?

The success of the LibDems in 2010 and the SNP in 2015 are signs of political disenchantment. Are they signs of realignment?

BTW, the LibDems' success in 2010 was built on an extraordinary performance by Nick Clegg in the first televised debates in the UK. Much of the SNP success these days is based on early performance of Nicola Sturgeon. Clegg was unable to build on his debating performance. Will Sturgeon be able to become more than the leader of an independence movement? Does she want more than that?

Surge in English SNP members: 'the core message is very attractive'

A London resident since he was a year old, Andrew Chevis might seem an unlikely recruit to the Scottish National party. Yet at a time when the SNP is planning to spread its message beyond Scotland, the former Labour party activist is one of an increasing trickle of English people who have gone a step further and signed up as members.

“There are thousands of us in England for whom the SNP’s core message on the economy is a very attractive one,” says Chevis…

Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon’s strong performances in election debates broadcast across the UK was regarded as a factor in raising the party’s profile outside of Scotland. Polls indicated that she was Britain’s most popular leader and that the SNP would get more votes than the Liberal Democrats if it fielded candidates across Britain…

Another new English recruit, who preferred to remain anonymous, said he had joined the SNP because the Labour party was not brave enough to argue for a real political alternative. “I am aiming to move to Scotland next year and they’re the only ones advocating a social democratic alternative to the strands of neoliberalism advocated by LibLabCon,” said the young man, a former Green party member living in Leeds who is from a Tory-supporting family.

“Part of the reason I am moving to Scotland is because I want independence. I’m now firmly of the belief that long-term the only way to get the social democratic policies I want is for Scotland to be independent, as England to me seems too firmly wedded to neoliberalism, especially with Labour not being brave enough to argue for a proper alternative, and with the rise of Ukip.”…

Photo: Crown copyright, released by the Controller of HMSO.

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