Independence and Alex Salmond - dead ducks or deflated bubble?

If proof were needed that Independence is not wanted by the majority of the Scots and that a referendum now would be nothing more than a sheer waster of £9 - £12million then here it is in yesterdays Daily Telegraph.

With a big hat tip to The Grumpy Spindoctor for spotting this one yesterday in the Daily Telegraph.

I appreciate that we will see a few YouGov and other surveys having results produced within this next week as Alex Salmond prepares to produce his break up the UK bill to our MSPs in Holyrood on St. Andrew's day.

Well these figures won't make great reading for Alex Salmond and the SNP.

Asked to rate a referendum on independence in a list of national priorities, only one voter in eight said it was the most important of seven options – well behind the 63 per cent who saw "reducing unemployment" as the top priority.

Only 29 per cent of voters back independence now, compared with 31 per cent last year, while 57 per cent are opposed – an increase of four per cent on 2008.

The Daily Telegraph went on to say "In the aftermath of his bad defeat by Labour in the Glasgow North East by-election, the survey shows that Alex Salmond's bubble, if not burst, is seriously deflated."

The SNP bubble is slowly, very slowly deflating now, since the Glenrothes by-election this has been happening. The Glasgow North East by-election result in my opinion was a much worse result than Glenrothes.

Glenrothes was in Gordon Brown's backyard so was always a harder fight there for the SNP. However Glasgow North East was a year alter, when Gordon Brown's government was more unpopular than ever before and yet the SNP couldn't eat into that and defeat them in Glasgow.

It shows that Scottish elections are very different to English elections, it also shows that Labour's unpopularity south of the border doesn't resonate up here in the same way.

Scottish Lib Dem Conference aftermath

Well, there were shocks and strange decisions yesterday at the Scottish Liberal Democrats conference in Dunfermline.

According to the media, we were holding it behind closed doors to keep the splits private, erm wrong, it was behind closed doors because only Party Members can vote on amending our Constitution, why would we let anyone else in on that?

The decision for this conference to be a Members only event was taken around 6 or 7 months ago, long before the decision to discuss Independence was taken. The SNP are obviously unhappy today as they assumed we would split, splinter and crumble.

Sorry to disappoint Alex Salmond but we are stronger than that, some may say it's because we are made and Bru'd in Scotland from girders, to pinch a slogan from a well know drink.

There were shock decisions as I said before, don't get me wrong, not many expected cream cheese in their ham & cheese rolls or food left over from the lunchtime fringe events!

I jest, as Caron muses, with 60 pages of constitution to go through and therefore 441 potential votes, oh yes, and there is the Party's AGM to start the morning off there was plenty for the Party Members to get their teeth into.

My view on the day, a good day, with some great speeches and debates and the aftermath?

A strong Party, a strong Leader, Tavish Scott who is leading us into the General Election campaign positive, strong and determined to win more votes and win more seats and replace the Labour Party.

Don't forget, the SNP may have the minority government in Scotland, but for Westminster, where the SNP are irrelevant and the Tories one MP even more so, it is only the Scottish Liberal Democrats who can replace Labour in Scotland - it is we who are second with the number of MPs going into this election and with the polls only putting us 4% apart it is the Scottish Liberal Democrats who are marching forward, upwards and onwards.