of Change
parliament. There would be, as former Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised, “a big change within the British constitution”…”like home rule within the United Kingdom”.
“When the result came in it was devastating,” said Susanne McLaughlin, owner of the Yes Bar in Glasgow’s Drury Street.
“Like a lot of people I was disappointed and upset but I was also angry. I felt we had been cheated. A lot of false statements and promises were made at the last minute to defeat the independence movement.
“People were hugging one another and crying, but even that night there were signs they were not going to just walk away. Too many people had put too much effort into the campaign. There was no way they were just going to give up and forget everything that had happened.”
Any thoughts that a decisive defeat would cause the independence movement to implode and for SNP support to melt like snow off a dyke was quickly dispelled. Instead membership of the pro-independence parties increased. The SNP more than quadrupled its numbers to over 120,000 in a mater of weeks.
When he announced his intention to stand down as First Minister and leader of the SNP Alex Salmond said: ”We lost the referendum vote, but can still carry the political initiative…More importantly Scotland can still
In the UK general election in May the SNP took 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the House of Commons.
by Paul Kelbie
emerge as the real winner.”
During his farewell speech at conference in Perth weeks later, he set the party a challenge of winning the Westminster elections in Scotland by geting more seats than Labour. A target it achieved beyond all expectations.
In the UK general election in May the SNP took 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the House of Commons.
Gordon Brown’s old seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath was captured by the SNP with an astonishing 35 per cent swing. Labour also lost their safe Glasgow North East seat with a swing of 39.3 per cent. In previous elections a 10 per cent swing of any kind was considered monumental.
In an address to the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club during her recent visit to China, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described events in the wake of the referendum as a “sea change in Scotish politics”.
September 2015 5
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