They have moved the most power AWAY from Holyrood and to the Councils than any other Executive or Government we’ve ever had. Councils now have budgets to spend how they like, ringfencing is almost entirely gone.

That doesn’t fit in with your hypothesis.

That’s only logical.

You and I agree about the pitfalls of looking solely at FPTP to assess a party’s strength. The thing is, though, that the claims about the Conservatives’ supposed deep unpopularity in Scotland is largely based on FPTP data. The 1997 General Election result is probably the most-cited example.

But as I explained in this post, FPTP severely under-represents the Conservatives and if you look at the proportion of the votes they are more often than not the third most popular party. Maybe not as popular as the SNP, but Scotland is not exactly barren territory for the Tories. They usually get more votes than the Lib Dems, and I seldom hear people complaining about the Lib Dems’ lack of legitimacy in Scotland (although I’m sure you wouldn’t like to see them in power either!).

Given that the SNP wants independence, it should hardly be earth-shattering to learn that it also believes that Scotland should be governed based on the plurality of votes which are cast within Scotland, regardless as to what the Scotland Act says. The Conservatives, if they gain a UK-wide majority, will certainly be entitled to govern all of the UK, every bit as much as the SNP will be entitled to put the argument to try and persuade people that they lack a specific mandate in Scotland to do so.

Pretty as the maps are, FPTP is still a pretty misleading way of showing a party’s strength. You’re broadly right in your generalisations about where the SNP tends to do better, but anyone drawing solely on these maps for guidance would miss the fact that the SNP outpolled all other parties in the Lothians; were just 8% behind Labour in Central Scotland; 11% in Glasgow; 6% in the West, and only 1% behind in South of Scotland.

As for being a centralising force, my concordat with local government and the ending of ringfencing trumps your national rate of local income tax… if indeed that’s the form it eventually takes.

Regards,

Richard

I’m not the one saying any party is foisting unwanted policies on anyone, as you will know having read my post.

But if the Conservatives form a minority administration in a UK General election, will the nationalists stop complaining about them? I doubt that very much.