Sources state that the Scottish National Party (SNP) could change the outcome of the election in the U.K., depending on whether a coalition is formed between the SNP and one of the larger parties, like The Labour Party or The Conservative Party.
Piers Morgan, writing for The Daily Mail:
“…(N)either of the two main parties has a hope in hell of winning an overall majority at the general election.”
So one of the bigger parties will need to form a “coalition” with a smaller party to form a working majority to rule the country. The SNP is supposedly the most powerful small party.
The problem is that the SNP wants independence for Scotland. So a party that forms a coalition with the SNP will be working with a party that wants to break away from the U.K.
“So they will have to take a begging bowl to one of the smaller parties to do a deal that allows them to form a ‘coalition’ government. The biggest ‘smaller’ party will almost certainly be the SNP, who should end up with 40-50 seats in Parliament, having pretty much wiped out the socialist Labour party in that country, which used to be considered its heartland,” writes Piers Morgan.
The Labour Party’s leader, Ed Miliband, has accused David Cameron (Conservative) of “demeaning his office” and putting the UK’s future at risk as a fight over the SNP’s future role intensifies, according to the BBC.
Miliband said Mr. Cameron, who has warned of the dangers of a Labour-SNP coalition, should be “taking on the nationalists” not “talking them up,” states the BBC. He suggested other Conservatives were “ashamed” of their election strategy.
However, Labour has said the Conservatives were “talking up” the threat of the SNP for their own political interests.
But former Prime Minister Sir John Major said the SNP could “blackmail” a future Labour government.
The Conservatives have continued their warnings about the SNP’s likely influence on a minority Labour government in the event of a hung Parliament, with the former Conservative leader claiming it would be a “recipe for mayhem”.
The SNP has said it does not want to form a coalition with the Conservatives, but is interested in one with Labour.
Conservative David Cameron has stated that a Conservative government would honor Scottish devolution (granting Scotland more autonomy), but he wants to “ensure the rest of the UK will not ‘lose out.'”
Below is a BBC interview with the head of the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon.
BBC News
(Updated post)
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