Why did you decide to vote Tory?

[Pantani]

let them have another referendum - they still wont vote for independence. why should they when the majority of Scots realise we are funding their free higher education and care for the elderly at the expense of our own students and elderly.

I think they will next time. It is clear that the Scottish believe in a more socialist society than the English. People on here are saying Labour were too left wing to win this election*! Well in Scotland they were not left wing enough for the voters.

*Not necessarily a view that I agree with, but I have seen that opinion expressed plenty of times on here today.

 

[Hamilton]

I don't think the Conservatives will have a lot of choice about offering the SNP another referendum. If the SNP get the same percentage of votes at the Scottish elections next year, that they have in the last Scottish election (44%, more than Labour and Conservative combined) and this election (50% nearly 20% more than Labour and Conservative combined) then they have a clear mandate for another referendum. The SNP will undoubtedly run their next campaign on this premise.

Of course the Conservatives can deny them another referendum if they want to. I'm just not sure if it would be morally or ethically right for them to do so.

This is all true.

 

[HantsSeagull]

I think they will next time. It is clear that the Scottish believe in a more socialist society than the English. People on here are saying Labour were too left wing to win this election*! Well in Scotland they were not left wing enough for the voters.

*Not necessarily a view that I agree with, but I have seen that opinion expressed plenty of times on here today.

I don't think we will get the chance to find out - Tories wont let them have another referendum.

 

[Pantani]

I don't think we will get the chance to find out - Tories wont let them have another referendum.

I refer you to my previous reply to Hamilton. It would be political suicide on the part of the Conservatives to deny them if the Scottish elections follow the trend of the last two elections. A no vote in the EU referendum will also be a huge spanner in the works for that view point.

 

[HantsSeagull]

not sure how it would be political suicide for the Tories? Tories are quite happy having no labour MPs in Scotland - keeps them in power.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

I have always voted Conservative but oddly enough, I'm not that surprised. I've been telling anyone that cared to listen for last few weeks that I thought we would end up with a small Conservative majority. It has been obvious for ages that the SNP would completely ruin Labour, which nicely left the way clear for the Conservatives to clean up the LibDem vote and get the required majority.

I love the fact that the massive SNP success has helped achieve precisely what they didn't want - a Conservative majority government. Cheers Nicola

Except that Cameron now has 54 baying SNP Westminster MP's demanding a second independance referendum, when the Conservative Party is Unionist in every sense. I think Cameron will find the SNP a much more potent opposition than Labour have been, as they (the SNP) are much further to the left than even Ed Millibands brand of 'New Labour'.

As well as an in/out EU referendum, I expect to see another Scottish Independance referendum announced within the next 12 months. That's the last thing Cameron wants. If it goes to independance then he is faced with a whole raft of constitutional changes, and 'English Votes for English Laws'.

Suppose the Conservatives refuse to hold a further Scottish referendum, the SNP will be taking every opportunity in every Westminster debate to obstruct the Parliamentary process. It's not like it's Sinn Fein refusing to take up their seats, these nationalists now have influence and intend to use it.

At the extreme, we may well be on the cusp of witnessing the UK breaking up, in exactly the same way the old Soviet Union did, back into it's constituent parts. Cameron has no mandate to govern Scotland right now, and political leaders who have had that position in the past ( like in Northern Ireland ) have generally come unstuck. Perhaps the Scots will rise up and rebel, just as they did under the Jacobite rebellion?