Friday, May 04, 2007

The decline of small parties

One quick further thought about the elections - small parties have been generally annihilated in both Scotland and Wales. The Scottish Greens have plummeted to two seats, the Scottish Socialists and breakaway rivals Solidarity have been wiped out, so have the Scottish Senior Citizens Party, a single issue "save the local hospital" MSP has lost her seat and another independent MSP retired. This leaves just two Greens and an independent Nationalist in the Scottish Parliament. In Wales John Marek lost his seat and although independents polled well in a number of other constituencies, only in the special case of Blaenau Gwent (facing its third election in two years) where recent wounds are sore did any smaller party candidate win.

So was the brief plethora of small parties just a blip? Are we seeing a return to clear-cut choice in politics?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was expecting a little more from the Greens in North Hertsbut ifnever materialisd. It was interesting because they had strong, popular candidates.

Manfarang said...

Rise of the small party-SNP.
In Wales-Plaid Cymru.
Not so long ago they were both considered minor parties.

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