Salmond elected as first minister

[Darat]

Salmond elected as first minister - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6659531.stm

This should be very interesting - he has no overall majority and Labour has just one less MSP so he really will have to do everything "policy by policy" and realistically going to have to put forward policies Labour will largely agree with or offer deals and concessions to all the smaller parties. Good time to be a minority party in Scotland!

[Rolfe]

Last night on Newsnight one of the Welsh correspondents said that Rhodri Morgan is flatly refusing to go into a minority administration again as he had enough of it last time. It's OK for the first year, she said, but after that you start running out of things that are relatively uncontentious.

However, Rhodri Morgan headed a Labour administration, and they are rather used to having things their own way. The SNP aren't used to having things any way at all, yet, so may find a fresh approach. From the point of view of Scotland, it will be refreshing to have a First Minister who doesn't have to check back with the Mother Ship before he so much as coughs.

Rolfe.

[richardm]

It's a big step forward for the SNP; quite an achievement. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Edited to add after reading Rolfe's comments above: There will be things that the SNP want to do that others will support them on, and there will be things that they want to do that they will not find support for. They may not have had the chance to get used to getting their own way but they may still find it a frustrating experience, depending on which list is longer.

[Architect]

No! No! An SNP administration! Run for the hills! Border Checkpoints! £5k a year worse off! Thown out the EU!


Wait, just a moment............nothing yet.................

[look out window]

....doesn't look like the end of the world.


Hmmm. How peculiar. Why the press and the UK parties wouldn't have been scaremongering, would they?

[Darat]

Please - give the man time, it's probably all rather frightening and new to him - you know actually having some real responsibility for once.... :duck:

I'm hoping it actually works out OK because like the Welsh Assembly it can show that a change in the voting system in a General Election can still lead to good governance.

[Jaggy Bunnet]

[look out window]


Yesterday under a Labour first minister, bright sunshine. Today. now that the SNP are in charge, rain in the home city of the Parliament.

Coincidence, or the beginning of the end?

[Cleon]

Salmond as First Minister?

Sounds fishy.




(I'm so, so sorry.)

[Darat]

By the way isn't Salmond an MP still - does he intend to resign that? (If not does that mean he gets four salaries? First Minister, MSP, MP & SNP leader?)

[Jaggy Bunnet]

By the way isn't Salmond an MP still - does he intend to resign that? (If not does that mean he gets four salaries? First Minister, MSP, MP & SNP leader?)

He will not stand for re-election to the Westminster parliament, meaning he will stand down in 2009.

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=346612007

Also not sure if SNP leader is a salaried position or not.

[Big Les]

Salmond as First Minister?

Sounds fishy.




(I'm so, so sorry.)

I'm not having that. He does look somewhat amphibian, but not piscine.

[Rolfe]

By the way isn't Salmond an MP still - does he intend to resign that? (If not does that mean he gets four salaries? First Minister, MSP, MP & SNP leader?)
My own view is that he ought to resign his Westminster seat now. Saying that he'd stay on till 2009 was OK for an election statement, but now that he's actually First Minister, it needs a rethink.

Besides, Banff and Buchan is a shoo-in for the SNP, especially right now, so why not give some other worthy a job.






Assuming they can find someone else willing to move down to the Big Smoke and spend half their lives on a plane and the other half in a slanging match....

Rolfe.

[Rolfe]

Talking of slanging matches, I just thought I'd mention that, invoking Godwin's Law, the Labour Party has now officially lost (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6685279.stm).

Rolfe.

[Darat]

As long as it was in the manifesto that he would be seizing power and annexing the Faroe Islands I can't see that there is anything wrong.

[geni]

My own view is that he ought to resign his Westminster seat now. Saying that he'd stay on till 2009 was OK for an election statement, but now that he's actually First Minister, it needs a rethink.

Besides, Banff and Buchan is a shoo-in for the SNP, especially right now, so why not give some other worthy a job.


It gives him a fall back option, a better position to attack labour from and a better position to control the other SNP MPs from.



Assuming they can find someone else willing to move down to the Big Smoke and spend half their lives on a plane and the other half in a slanging match....


MPs are not legaly required to attend.

[Rolfe]

It gives him a fall back option, a better position to attack labour from and a better position to control the other SNP MPs from.
I think it leaves him open to the accusation that he can't fulfil all his commitments.
MPs are not legaly required to attend.
I know that. But the SNP does not have a policy of non-attendance, it has a policy of representing its constituents interests.

Rolfe.

[Rolfe]

Just a quick bump to ask, has either Brown or Blair yet made the slightest acknowledgement that Alex Salmond is someone they will have to talk to at some point?

Or are they too busy shaking hands with Colonel Gadaffi?

Rolfe.