Party numbers

The 2015 Westminster election is getting more interesting by the day for voters in Scotland. The current majority party, with 41 MPs in Scotland, is Labour, but they are in meltdown and have scored a massive own-goal through Gordon Brown and his promises of more powers.

Next in the pecking order is the Lib Dems with 11 MPs – no need to stress their current position of oblivion. Those parties were campaigning under the banner of Better Together and, interestingly, we have not heard of massive increases in their party membership since the referendum. The same can be said for the Conservatives, with 1 MP in Scotland, despite David Cameron’s claim that a star was born in Ruth Davidson.

That leaves the SNP as the only other party in Scotland who currently have elected MPs – six in number. So what next for the SNP and parties like the Greens, who have tripled their membership? Could Labour be in danger of losing many of their MPs to pro-independence parties? I would suggest this is a real possibility.

Scotland predominantly votes for left-of-centre parties and it is the SNP who have filled this space in recent years as Labour increasingly move to the right, again demonstrated at their recent party conference when they missed the opportunity to woo back their Scottish voters.

Catriona C Clark

Hawthorn Drive

Falkirk