General Election 2010: Nationalists chide 'chippy, nippy' strategy

Published on Friday 7 May 2010 23:14

ALEX Salmond may have spent yesterday talking up the role the SNP could play in a hung parliament – but his bullish assertion that "fate" had dealt the SNP "a mighty hand" could not disguise his party's dismal performance at the polls.

While he ruled out Westminster deals with the Tories with a grandiose wave of his hand, some of his foot soldiers reflected in private on an unimpressive campaign.

Before the starting pistol was fired, the SNP had seven MPs. Yesterday, they had just six – a result that made a nonsense of Mr Salmond's ambition of winning 20 constituencies.

"What was that 20-seats stuff all about?" asked one SNP activist. "What a hostage to fortune. Was there ever anything on the ground to indicate that there was ever any chance of winning 20 seats?"

But Mr Salmond's hopelessly optimistic forecast was just one of a number of misjudgments that hampered a campaign that was always going to be difficult for a party that could never emerge as an overall winner in a UK election.

The broadcasters' decision to exclude Mr Salmond from the televised leaders' debates undoubtedly harmed the SNP's cause.

But some people believe that disadvantage was compounded by the SNP's insistence on making their exclusion the key issue of their campaign.

One leading figure in the SNP said: "There is a real danger that we are just lapsing back into chippy, nippy Nats. Our campaign was a complaint about not being involved in the leaders' debate and then a claim that we can be taken out of the cuts."

The idea that Scotland should somehow be spared the wrath of the axeman opened the SNP up to attacks from their rivals, who dismissed that approach as completely unrealistic.

It was a view shared by some within the SNP.

"It was just delusional," the leading SNP source said. "There is a mindset in the SNP that says they out there are all against us. We could lapse into thinking that's the reason why we did so badly. But this should be a reality check for the party. One of the reasons that we weren't in the campaign was because there was absolutely nothing in our manifesto."

He added: "If there isn't anything there in policy terms, then people will go with the status quo, as they did. The whole 'no cuts please, we're Scottish' thing; nobody believed it."

Mr Salmond may now think that he is in a position to influence events at Westminster. Such is his belief that he made much of the fact that the SNP has been offered civil service clerical assistance to help the party look at its options in the new Westminster landscape.

But basing much of his campaign on the likelihood of a hung parliament may not have been the best tactic.

Successive polls showed that "More Nats Less Cuts" failed to resonate with the public. Many Nationalists also objected to the use of the "Nat" word which, until that slogan, had always been regarded as a disparaging term for the SNP.

In the end, the SNP ended up with fewer Nats at Westminster and cuts are still very much on the agenda.

Salmond tries to spin himself a win

ANALYSIS: David Torrance

ALEX Salmond is a past master at spinning triumph out of poor, or at best disappointing, general election results. The SNP's "strong" showing on Thursday night was, he said, the party's "best result since the 1970s in a Westminster election". With just six MPs, Salmond's own 20-seat target was erased from political memory.

So where did it all go wrong? Before the campaign was over Salmond attempted to pin the blame on his party's exclusion from the three televised leaders' debates, but that tells only part of the story. True, such a platform would probably have boosted the SNP's profile, but it does not explain a lacklustre campaign and an untypically poor performance from Mr Salmond himself.

Not only was the "local and national champions" theme parochial and unimaginative, but the central SNP message – "More Nats Less Cuts" – simply did not wash with the Scottish electorate. Salmond's claim that only he was being honest in identifying what ought to be cut in order to tackle the deficit – Trident, the House of Lords, et al – was repeated ad nauseam but also failed to resonate.

The independence message, which many Nats believe should have been boosted, was conspicuous by its absence.

Although the return of Glasgow East, gained by the SNP at a by-election, to the Labour fold was widely anticipated, it hints at a wider problem for the SNP. Salmond's longstanding aim has been to break Labour dominance in west and central Scotland, yet the SNP's showing across those two regions shows little hope of achieving that.

What, then, of the Nationalists' future? Speaking on Wednesday, Salmond warned of a return to the dark days of the 1980s. That, in one important respect, has come to pass. In Scotland, as in the 1980s, the SNP's main opponent is Labour, while at a UK level it is the Conservatives with an almost non-existent Scottish presence.

The expectation that the SNP will receive a boost from an unpopular Tory government is complacent, while with Labour seemingly on the rise in Scotland, unless Salmond regains his political mojo, and regains it fast, he could find himself having to spin himself out of another poor, nay disastrous, result when Scotland goes to the polls this time next year.

• David Torrance is writing a biography of Alex Salmond.

• Scottish results by constituency

General Election 2010: More news and analysis

• Tories offer a deal to Lib Dems

• If you are selling your soul, do it properly

• Scottish Labour hails divided Britain

• Conservatives blame Labour scare tactics – and Annabel Goldie

• Why did they rain on our parade, Lib Dems ask

• 'Victorian' voting system to be overhauled

• No Portillo Moment but big names ditched

• Legal challenges predicted amid reports of polling station chaos

• Axe could fall first on Osborne with Clarke tipped as Chancellor

• Nail-biting victory in capital typifies Labour's hold over Scotland

Analysis

• John McTernan: A race for power that left every runner gasping

• Eddie Barnes: Chances of victory thrown away

• Bill Jamieson: Scots No 1 conservatives (small c) in Britain

• John Curtice: Mould of the two-party system isn't broken yet, but a very large crack has appeared

• Gerry Hassan: Scotland is a different political beast with the Holyrood elections looming

• Brian Monteith: Tories must 'die' to rebuild

• Joyce McMillan: Forget the Doomsday scenario, here's the Caledonian Paradox

Economy

• Call for swift action on debt mountain as pound suffers

• Bank chief Stephen Hester seeks 'strong stewardship' of economy after election

• Borrowers and investors will pay for further unsettling delay

• Result no shock for mortgage lenders

In brief

• Pamela Nash, 25, becomes the Baby of the House

• BBC's election triumph as 17m viewers tune in

• Green makes history as party's first MP

• Blur drummer fails to be elected - again

• Tory Speaker's wife fails in bid to win seat for Labour

• Bitten but not bitter MP celebrates

• Cameron odds-on to be PM by June

• 14-year-old voter prompts inquiry

• Man arrested over ballot paper protest