The SNP: a lacklustre manifesto?

The Tories aren't the only ones facing the prospect of "electoral Armageddon" next week, said John Crace in The Guardian. Things are also looking bleak for the SNP. 

The latest polls suggest that, in the face of a Labour resurgence, the scandal-racked party could win just 15 of the 57 Scottish seats in Westminster, down from their current 43. 

Voters 'weary'

The SNP's election manifesto, unveiled last week by the party's new leader, John Swinney, is unlikely to transform the situation. It sounds just like the last one, and the one before that.

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There is the usual demand for Scottish independence. The same talk of joining the EU. Predictably, it calls for an end to austerity, including a £10bn increase in health funding in England – which would generate an extra £1bn for Scotland through the Barnett formula. It's hard to be inspired by such familiar fare from the party that has been governing Scotland for 17 years.

Voters are "getting weary of this kind of politics", said The Scotsman. They want their elected leaders to improve Scotland's substandard public services, not spend more time and energy – and taxpayers' money – on fighting Westminster. The SNP missed a good opportunity to set a new course, agreed The Times. "A government that cannot build ferries for its far-flung islands, introduce legislation that will stand up in the courts, bring down waiting lists or improve the performance of its schools should surely explain how it intends to reverse those failures."

'Separatist mindset'

The margin in many Scottish seats is very narrow, said Andrew Grice in The Independent, so the SNP may yet do better than expected. And even if Scottish voters do swing behind Labour next week to "get the Tories out", there's no guarantee they'll help it regain power from the SNP at the 2026 Holyrood elections. "Scots are not yet emotionally invested in Labour", and remain split down the middle on the question of independence.

What's really noticeable about the political mood north of the border today, said Gerald Warner on Reaction, is just how little interest there is in the Westminster election. It is viewed with the same indifference as elections to the EU parliament. "Scots have come to regard Holyrood elections as the ones that matter."

This is an alarming development for those who believe in preserving the United Kingdom. For it suggests that the "separatist mindset" is now embedded among Scotland's voters, and that if the SNP are "ever able to cobble together a plausible fiscal scenario for independence, the Union will be in serious danger".