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agentmancuso

Liberal Democrat press statement

Here, for your consideration, is the email party members got last night from Nicol Stephen:

Quote:

SCOTTISH LIBERAL DEMOCRAT PARLIAMENTARY PARTY STATEMENT

Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Nicol Stephen said:

“I have had discussions with Alex Salmond, the Leader of the Scottish
National Party. I made it clear to him that unless and until the SNP
removes the fundamental barrier of a referendum on independence during
the next four years, there can be no coalition.

“We consistently stated to people across Scotland at all times during the
campaign that this was our position and it will not change.

“In these circumstances it seems likely there will be a minority SNP
government.

“The Scottish Liberal Democrats will work constructively to promote our
positive policies in the new Parliament.”

SLG

Salmond now needs to get him to talk about what sort of deal could be struck if the SNP were to drop the referendum.
agentmancuso

That would be a good thing, yes.
William_Cleland

Very strong hint in there that the Lib Dems will back the SNP to get in as a minority and that they will do their best to be constructive when there are areas of shared policy overlap. I think people need to look past the constitution a wee bit to the many aspects of Scottish life where 50 years of Labour electoral dominance led to dismal failure:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK2PryGzW5s
Anthropos

Well the Tories have more MSP's than the Liberal Democrats, and would not the SNP's pro business agenda be the kind of thing the Tories approved of?

Why don't the SNP invite Annabel Goldie over for a chat? Wink

Failing that they could just go into coalition with Labour, they would then have a total of 93 seats, more than enough. Razz
SLG

Anthropos wrote:
Well the Tories have more MSP's than the Liberal Democrats, and would not the SNP's pro business agenda be the kind of thing the Tories approved of?

Why don't the SNP invite Annabel Goldie over for a chat? Wink

Failing that they could just go into coalition with Labour, they would then have a total of 93 seats, more than enough. Razz

Well that's the problem with this system after so many years of Westminster. Three of the big four cannot work with each other. That will change in time, but it is a serious problem at the moment. I'd like to see the SNP make a move and drop their opposition to working with the Tories as a point of principle.
Jimbo

SLG wrote:
Anthropos wrote:
Well the Tories have more MSP's than the Liberal Democrats, and would not the SNP's pro business agenda be the kind of thing the Tories approved of?

Why don't the SNP invite Annabel Goldie over for a chat? Wink

Failing that they could just go into coalition with Labour, they would then have a total of 93 seats, more than enough. Razz

Well that's the problem with this system after so many years of Westminster. Three of the big four cannot work with each other. That will change in time, but it is a serious problem at the moment. I'd like to see the SNP make a move and drop their opposition to working with the Tories as a point of principle.


I feel if they were to do that it would be their death knell. They would lose votes faster than Duggie Alexander lost the nation's confidence to run an election.
SLG

It's a nice idea though and hopefully one for the future. All the parties should be looking for that. Labour are in the same position as the SNP, relying on the Lib Dems. The Tories have no one that will work with them. That's not healthy.
Maol.Chaluim

It's been a looong time since Thatcher and was in power...
Jimbo

SLG wrote:
It's a nice idea though and hopefully one for the future. All the parties should be looking for that. Labour are in the same position as the SNP, relying on the Lib Dems. The Tories have no one that will work with them. That's not healthy.


I agree with you. I've said this on another post, wouldn't it be nice if the parties could agree and get into consensus politics instead of one opposing the other purely for the purpose of opposing, if you know what I mean? Unfortunately in Scotland anyone aligning themselves with the Tory Party would be crucified by the Labour supporting gutter press which appeals more to the politically uneducated, who's votes can turn an election.
SLG

I really didn't understand the Tories policy of refusing to even entertain the idea of a coalition. Surely they should be aiming to do everything in their power to enact as much of their manifesto as possible.

I understand that the SNP keep their anti-Tory line mostly to avoid losing votes. I've no doubt that some of the press would have tried to scare-monger along the lines of 'vote SNP get the Tories' during the campaign. That has to come to an end at some point. At the very least they should agree to talk at a local level. This has caused a few problems in forming council administrations.
macnumpty

Well, there are informal agreements springing up. Maybe the agreement with the Greens could provide a template for SNP agreements with the Tories?

Maybe that sort of agreement could be loose enough for the LibDems to engage?
SLG

macnumpty wrote:
Well, there are informal agreements springing up. Maybe the agreement with the Greens could provide a template for SNP agreements with the Tories?

Sure, but it kind of makes a mockery of the policy if the party itself is trying to work around it's own policy.

macnumpty wrote:
Maybe that sort of agreement could be loose enough for the LibDems to engage?

Well the greens made a statement trying to get the Lib Dems to consider an agreement on that sort of basis, but the Lib Dems wouldn't have anything to do with it. That's why it seems to be clear that it is about more than just a referendum for them.

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