The SNP Beat a Retreat

Political stocks can go down as well as up. Shares in Alex Salmond are hardly slumping right now but they’re off their peak and flat-lining. The market is becalmed. Perhaps the launch of the independence referendum campaign will reinvigorate the First Minister but it also carries the risk – unavoidable for sure, but still a risk – that concentrating attention on independence will remind voters that the SNP is, at heart, a single-issue party. And single-issue parties tend to run into trouble. 

There is a theory that the SNP have over-extended themselves. Even though they still hold more council seats than Labour (and so could claim their local election “failure” has been exagerrated) they still contrived to lose the “expectations game” earlier this month. Some voters, who had previously cheerfully leant the SNP their votes, are likely, I think, to drift away now that independence is back at the front of the party’s agenda.