Thread by @StephenGethins

I don’t have any special insights about what is going to happen in #SP21 results but just some observations by those who think @theSNP need 65 seats ‘to win’

Like it or not we live in a multi-party democracy. That means Governments can take far reaching decisions on a minority of seats & votes especially at Westminster

In 2015 David Cameron delivered an EU Referendum after winning less than 37% of the vote

Theresa May set a course for where we are now on just 42% of the vote. Securing a minority she did a deal with the DUP (who gained a 0.9% share of the vote) to get legislation passed

In 2019 Boris Johnson secured an 80 seat majority on just 43.6% of the vote. That result is having far reaching consequences for us all in the UK altering the Union & relations with our neighbours radically

Scotland has a proportional system which is far superior to the Westminster winner takes all First Past the Post in my opinion. It makes winning a majority fiendishly difficult. That was the point

It means that you have to take other parties views into greater account than at Westminster. This makes being in Government harder but governance better

It also means that if you have a majority of parties in favour of an Independence Referendum then that is a legitimate expression of the will of the people. You cannot treat Green votes as pro-Union when they stood on an explicitly pro-independence platform

If you don’t think that & prefer the Westminster system then bear this in mind. If the SNP get 63 out of 73 constituency seats that would translate as 86% of those constituency seats the equivalent to winning 559 seats out of 650 at Westminster.

I get that this is not something you can compare. Just a bit of perspective when we hear of what counts as a ‘winning’ margin.

Finally this. The SNP & Greens stood on a platform of holding a Referendum. It looks like they won. Labour, the Lib Dems & Conservatives stood on a platform of blocking one. It looks like they lost.