SCOTTISH FIRST minister Alex Salmond has said that Scotland’s “eyes are on the future” following a historic victory by the Scottish National Party (SNP) which guarantees that an independence referendum will be held before 2015.
Despite a belief that complicated election rules meant that no party in Scotland could ever win a majority in the 129-strong parliament, the pro-independence SNP won 69 seats, while Labour lost nine and the Liberal Democrats suffered heavily.
Promising to “govern wisely”, Mr Salmond, who led a minority administration since 2007, said Scotland’s “eyes are on the future and the dreams that can be realised”.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats’ defeat in Scotland was matched by a resounding defeat of the Alternative Vote referendum to change voting rules for Westminster MPs, along with catastrophic losses in English council elections and a retreat in the Welsh Assembly.
Mr Salmond had promised to hold an independence referendum late in the life of the coming four-year parliament, if elected, although he gave no signal last night that the scale of his victory will encourage him to move faster.
The result has raised serious questions about the future of the Conservative/Liberal Democrats Westminster coalition, particularly since the Conservatives managed to increase their number of councillors.
Despite facing pressure to take a harder line with Conservative prime minister David Cameron, Liberal Democrats’ leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg does not face the danger of a leadership challenge.But the party’s ability to protect its Westminster representation has been badly hurt by the defeat of hundreds of its councillors.
Labour benefited from the Liberal Democrat collapse, gaining over 700 councillors, but party leader Ed Miliband will be concerned by the party’s losses in Scotland, along with the failure to make sufficient gains on south of England councils.
The Tory success has raised the danger of coalition conflict because Conservative MPs are in no mood to make concessions, particularly on controversial reforms of the National Health Service in England.
