Honeymoon is over for SNP after Glenrothes defeat, say opponents
no ‘political earthquake’ but leader vows to come back stronger
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In the run-up to the election Alex Salmond predicted a “political earthquake” similar to the SNP’s success in the Glasgow East by-election.
But last night, as the Glenrothes result sank in, it became clear the earthquake had turned out to be nothing more than a minor tremor.
The Nationalists did enjoy a 5% swing from Labour, but it was not enough – Labour picked up an extra 3% of the vote to hang on to the seat.
It was the first time that Labour has managed to increase its share and total in a by-election in a seat it held since George Robertson took Hamilton in 1978.
SNP leaders and activists thought the party was on a roll and were confident of success. And that confidence seemed to be well founded.
Political commentators also predicted a Nationalist win. It was reported that Labour activists were pessimistic and right until the very last moments before the declaration thought they had lost by a whisker.
But in the end the voters in the staunch Labour seat decided against a change and backed Lindsay Roy with a smaller, but still healthy majority of 6,737.
The result heralds the end of Labour’s downward spiral even if it remains questionable that it will be replicated nationally in a general election.
More importantly, it spells the end of the honeymoon period the SNP have enjoyed since taking power with a minority government at Holyrood in May 2007. The opposition claims “the bubble has burst” as the electorate begins to see through the SNP’s “failed promises”.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott said: “The first minister made a great virtue of visiting Glenrothes regularly.
“Perhaps if he spent more time being first minister rather than leader of the SNP, there would have been a different result.
“Alex Salmond predicted the SNP would win – he got it spectacularly wrong. Scottish politics has changed – the honeymoon is over.”
Scottish Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker said people were sick of the type of cuts being carried out by councils such as Aberdeen, Fife and Edinburgh as a result of the “inadequate” local government settlement.
Referring to Labour’s two council by-election wins in Edinburgh and Glasgow the same night as the Glenrothes vote, he said: “There is something happening nationally here.
“People see that the SNP at Holyrood are letting down the vulnerable in our communities and they have sent a clear message to the Scottish Government.
“The bubble has burst, the honeymoon is over and the SNP are under real pressure now.”
Tory transport, infrastructure and climate change spokesman Alex Johnstone said Mr Salmond and the SNP had been very lucky with things going their way for some time but the economic crisis had changed the political climate.
The SNP does not agree. The first minister also played down claims the SNP’s honeymoon period was over.
“I hope to extend the honeymoon a bit yet,” Mr Salmond said.
“We had a setback and while it’s certainly true that we had virtually untrammelled political success for 18 months, nothing in politics or life continues in that vein forever. The job of confronting a setback is to learn lessons, to overcome it and come back stronger. That’s what we intend to do.”
