Who are the tartan Tories now?

Since the SNP became the biggest party in the Scottish Parliament at the May 2007 elections, it seems that they have systematically debunked the accusations levelled at them for years by the other political parties. Alex Salmond moved quickly to shake off the "narrow nationalist" tag and has shown himself to be a statesman on the world stage, even with the limited powers of devolution. Far from being narrow and inward looking, every aspect of SNP policy looks outward to the rest of the world.

Another of the favourite terms bandied about was of course "tartan tories". The idea that anyone can take this seriously now is laughable. It is actually Labour themselves who have killed off this particular line of attack by going into a "pan unionist coalition" with the Tories and the Liberal Democrats in an attempt to thwart the SNP. It does beg the question, who are the real tartan Tories now? Labour should choose their bed fellows very carefully indeed . Whilst they got away with a coalition with the Lib Dems, the Tories are still despised in much of Scotland for the dreadful way Scotland was treated under the Tory governments of Thatcher and Major.

It is clear to see that the SNP have been proven correct and that the real fault line in Scottish Politics is not Right Vs Left but Nationalist Vs Unionist. Regardless of their supposed differences, the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour have all conspired to deny the people of Scotland their right to a referendum on the future of their country and indeed there is a suggestion that they will go as far as to attempt to establish a "shadow government" of Scotland, against the will of the Scottish people who ousted Labour from power in May. This will not go unpunished at the ballot box.

It appears to be desperation driving this move by the unionist parties as they clearly believe that they can only defeat the SNP's stated aim of independence by co-operating against them. The Labour Party in Scotland looks like a party which has seen better days and which sees worse ones ahead. The Labour Party can no longer even claim to represent all of Scotland. In many areas, they don't have any constituency MSPs yet the SNP have proven at the last election that they can win all over Scotland, even in former Labour strongholds like Fife and Glasgow.

It seems that Labour are retreating to their West of Scotland heartlands and looking for these to sustain them yet even these bastions are not above the influence of the SNP. The Labour MSPs returned there saw their majorities slashed dramatically and now there are very few seats which could be considered to be "safe". Couple this with the SNP gaining councillors in places they have never had them before and it is possible that support will erode further for Labour in the West, as in the rest of Scotland.