Thanks Again Nick Clegg

One day before the Scottish election it is already clear that the SNP will remain the largest party in Holyrood. Some opinion polls put the Nationalists almost 10 points ahead of Labour in the race for the Scottish Parliament. This, considering how far ahead Labour where in polls just a few months ago, seems surprising.

The frustrating thing is, it all seems to have happened because of the coalition government in Westminster. By that I do not mean voters decided that the best way to deal with a Tory-led government is by having a spew of nationalism, but due to the complete capitulation of the Liberal Democrats. Liberal Democrat supporters down south may be satisfied with the government, and may not mind that they are cosying up to the political equivalent of Lex Luthar, but up here they do. The same polls which suggest the SNP are so far ahead are showing the Liberal Democrats in fourth, and sometimes fifth place. Liberal democrat voters, it seems, are jumping ship, and where are they going? The Nationalists.

Don't get me wrong, if Labour had campaigned properly then perhaps the fall-out of Lib Dem voters would be swallowed up by Labour instead of the SNP, but had the Liberal Democrats not gone into power with the Tories down south then Labour would probably still be ahead in the polls.

It is frustrating to see a country which does not want independence from England (Poll results show less than a third of voters do) is going to be led by a government who want nothing but independence.

Unfortunately for Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats the best politicians our country produces decide to go to Westminster. Instead of going to our mickey mouse parliament which is full of sound-bites and the constant use of the word 'Scottish' to describe anything they are trying to get done, they have gone to the real parliament.

I would do the same. If I where planning on becoming a politician (don't worry, I'm not), I would be Labour in Westminster.

The same cannot be said for the Nats, because they actually care about the Scottish parliament more than the real parliament. To the extent that it is not longer the Scottish Executive that leads the country, but now it is the Scottish 'Government'. All the best Nationalists, the most charismatic, clever and vote-winning, remain up here in our parliament.

All in all Labour's campaign was doomed, and had we better Labour politicians remain in Holyrood maybe we could have picked up the Liberal Democrat disillusioned voters.

Although part of me would love to see the Lib Dems decimated, I hope they have a resurgence and take back some of these votes which have strayed to the Nationalists. The last thing this country needs is a government who spend half the time pursuing separatism.