‘Putting the SNP’s latest landslide victory into historical perspective’ by Scot goes Pop

johnrobertson834
From the highly esteemed Scot goes Pop!
I don’t know about anyone else, but I punched the air when Stephen Gethins won the final Scottish seat by just two votes.  In spite of the recounts and the relentless optimism of SNP supporters on social media, I had almost given up on that one, because the Liberal Democrats were reported to be anything between one and three votes ahead, and recounts so rarely reverse the original result even when it’s that tight.  Psychologically it was an important win – it meant the SNP outperformed the original exit poll prediction (albeit only just), and probably outperformed Nicola Sturgeon’s own expectations even at quite an advanced stage of the night, when she told David Dimbleby she expected to finish with “a little over 30” seats.

It also means the SNP have taken roughly 60% of the seats in Scotland.  For the avoidance of doubt, a result like that can quite properly be called a landslide victory.  Here’s how it compares with various historical landslides at UK-wide level…

 2017 (SNP landslide, Scotland only) :

 SNP 59.3%
All other parties 40.7%

 1945 (Attlee landslide) :

 Labour 61.4%
All other parties 38.6%

 1959 (Macmillan landslide) :

 Conservatives 57.9%
All other parties 42.1%

 1966 (Wilson landslide) :

 Labour 57.8%
All other parties 42.2%

 1983 (Thatcher landslide) :

 Conservatives 61.1%
All other parties 38.9%

 1987 (Thatcher landslide) :

 Conservatives 57.8%
All other parties 42.2%

 1997 (Blair landslide) :

 Labour 63.4%
All other parties 36.6%

 2001 (Blair landslide) :

 Labour 62.5%
All other parties 37.5%

Even the SNP’s popular vote share of 37% compares favourably with some previous UK majority governments – it’s identical to the mandate received by the Tories in 2015, and on which they’ve been governing us over the last two years.  It’s also better than the 35% mandate on which Labour governed for a full five-year term between 2005 and 2010.

3 thoughts on “‘Putting the SNP’s latest landslide victory into historical perspective’ by Scot goes Pop”

  1. Pingback: ‘Putting the SNP’s latest landslide victory into historical perspective’ by Scot goes Pop | speymouth
  2. John's avatar John June 9, 2017 / 6:24 pm

    Thanks for that John , it has cheered me up a bit , I think !

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  3. Geejay's avatar broadbield June 9, 2017 / 7:45 pm

    Yes, let’s get things in perspective. In 2010 we had 6 MP’s – just 7 years ago. Then came the tsunami of 2015, which was never going to be replicated, and was really a poisoned chalice.

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