Could UKIP take votes from the SNP at the forthcoming Aberdeen Donside by election? Tom Gallagher thinks Salmond is rattled and he tells us why.........(RB) "Salmond knows that the views of this so-called extremist on Europe, unrestricted immigration, and an overbearing state actually resonate well with core SNP voters. Despite his bluster, he knows that the world view of small town and rural folk in Scotland’s North-East, the place where the SNP took off thirty years ago, is not fundamentally different from similar folk in Derbyshire or Suffolk. "With the Liberal Democrats almost certain to be wiped out in what used to be one of their British strongholds, Salmond is playing hardball to prevent UKIP muscling in. He wants to keep a closed shop in areas he believes ought to be permanent SNP fiefdoms. He knows how great the discontent in fishing and farming communities is with an EU that has long threatened to wreck local livelihoods. He is also aware of the simmering rage in many other places over wind turbines despoiling landscapes and damaging property prices. (He is also aware that support for the union is strong in the Highlands and the Scottish North-East where often people vote SNP on tactical grounds.) "In ‘single ideology’ Scotland, neither Labour nor the Lib Dems are ready to take the SNP on over the above issues. The Tories are a busted flush. But UKIP is new and ready to promote grassroots nationalism rather than the form, dreamt up in a spin doctor’s laboratory, the SNP noisily proclaims. thecommentator/article/3725/ukip_and_the_phony_scottish_referendum
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 00:51:29 +0000
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