Monday, April 20, 2015
Don't call it a comeback: The SNP surges
The Scottish National Party (SNP) seems to making a comeback after their failed attempt to pass a referendum for Scottish independence form the United Kingdom. Read this article and answer the following questions. Why might the SNP be possible "Kingmakers" in the upcoming election? Why do you think there was a massive upsurge in popularity after the vote for independence failed? Often, as a party, if you fail to pass a referendum that forms the basis of your party ideology you have to his the "reset button" so to speak. For SNP this didn't happen, why not? Identify two ways in which this article/topic illustrates devolution. Cite the article in youtr reasoning as often as possible.
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The SNP might be possible kingmakers in the recent election because of the rising number of supporters for the party. Although they do not have enough support to win a majority, they have been outperforming the smaller parties. Since it will be hard for the labor or the conservativr party to win alone, it will "leave an opening for a small party to be kingmaker." I think there was an upsurge in popularity because the supporters of Scottish independence still wanted to push for the same ideas and decided to support the SNP which "was founded on a belief that Scotland should be an independent country." The SNP did not have to hit the reset button because new supporters support the original basis the party was founded from. This article demonstrates devolution in that it could create more autonomy for Scotland. Scotland could also have more regional power because this is "a vote to make Scotland's voice heard much, much more loudly"
ReplyDeleteThe SNP might be a possible kingmaker in the upcoming election because neither the Labour or Conservative parties can “break 50 percent” (http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/04/18/400361633/from-losers-to-possible-kingmakers-a-scottish-party-come-back-strong) as said in the article, so that leaves room for another smaller party to win, and with the growing number of members the SNP has, it increases their chances. There was a massive upsurge in popularity even after the vote for independence failed because even though the SNP knew they could not gain independence from the UK they still wanted “freedom and autonomy” (http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/04/18/400361633/from-losers-to-possible-kingmakers-a-scottish-party-come-back-strong) so they decided to fight for that instead which lured many to become SNP members. Also, I think an increase in popularity indirectly shows the unity and strength of the SNP, so that could be a reason too. The SNP did not have to reset any of their basis for the party’s ideology because the vast amount of new members joining the SNP did not expect nor want new ideologies, they were accepting and supporting of the set base that the SNP already had. If the new members did not agree with the original basis of the party then the SNP would have had to reset their ideologies but that is not the case.
ReplyDelete“’I think the reason it happened is that, clearly having voted to stay in the United Kingdom, the people of Scotland could signal that they were still very interested in degrees of freedom and autonomy, if not quite independence,’ he says.” This part of the article demonstrates devolution because it shows the bigger country, the UK, giving power (autonomy and freedom) to the sub country, Scotland. Another sign of devolution is earlier in the article where the writer says that the SNP has a chance of being a kingmaker over the Labour and Conservative party, this is showing how the sub country could end up with just as much or more power given to them by the UK.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) is a possible kingmaker due to that fact that "membership in the SNP has quadrupled", which means that the SNP has the chance to produce the next British Prime Minister, which could turn things into the favor of the Scottish people. The Party wants to have a better chance of having devolved power to the Scottish government, so by multiplying their numbers by 4 instiantally gave the party a bigger chance for independence from Great Britain. The SNP did not need to reset because they knew with increasing numbers that the "another vote could come much sooner". The article shows devolution through the fact that the Scottish National Party was allowed to participate in the British Prime Minister Elections. It also shows devolution through the fact that the Scottish National Party might be the "kingmaker" over the "existing Labour and Conservative parties."
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