The SNP's rise is not necessarily meteoric. The major parties had not invested
much time and resources in Scotland. It's like a different country "ceded" to the separatists, with the candidates barely stopping by to actively campaign. This allowed the SNP to consolidate and monopolize the local and regional
resources.

That the SNP stands to win all the Westminster seats in Scotland is stunning
and previously inconceivable, only to use its power to prop Labour in
Westminster and work against the Conservative Party is troubling.
A potential Labour-SNP coalition is not that of mutual interests and
partners. Many will view it with suspicion.

The SNP lost the referendum and almost immediately parlayed the fury into
the general election campaign without a break. It's a strange development,
one which should have been foreseen, even though almost unpreventable
and irresistible on the part of the separatists.

There's one Nicola Sturgeon, the mastermind behind these machinations.
She has become a star politician--both in Scotland and south of the border.
Whether SNP becomes a constructive or divisive force is still up in the air.
But, the latter is what many think about. But, this offers the SNP an
opportunity to defy political punditry and surprise critics.
Igonikon Jack, USA

Think the mastermind or minds is more likely to be the likes of her husband Peter Murrell, CEO of SNP) and others tbh - there is a well oiled machine working and using the SNP faithful.

Gosh Jack, "There's one Nicola Sturgeon", well I never.

I could have sworn there must have been lots of them. Thank God you are here to make sure the UK understands what is going on.

Buffoon.

Surley, from a democratic point of view, should not any collation government be made up of the 2 parties that have the most votes

Also, maybe the public are trying to say, we like some of Labour and we like some of Conservatives, in fact, grow up, we no longer buy in to "party" politics, we just want men and women to do a good job of running our country and the whole party ethos stuff is no long a model for modern and advanced countries

A coalition can be made from as many parties as agree to work together.

"However, if the SNP were in a position to push a Labour minority government around at Westminster, this would be a springboard for another attempt to win power at Holyrood next year, something that was supposed to be impossible under the PR system that underpinned devolution."

What on earth is this drivel. The voting system was designed to reflect the views of the public better - not to ensure that a government couldn't get re-elected.

The Telegraph needs to damp down its anti-SNP feeling and give a proper view of the situation. In this case, it would be helped if it realised that no one is forcing anyone to vote for the SNP. It appears to be the will of the people. How odd in a democracy.

A new Tory government is up sh*t creek before it's started.
The EU referendum...
The SNP will walk away from that before it's started. Ditto Cornwall, parts of Wales. The math is going to boggle any Tory leader's grey matter.

So you reckon Cornwall will walk away? How many seats does Mebyon Kernow have in Cornwall, exactly?

I think the people in Cornwall will walk away from a EU out campaign,
Don't sneer at voters.

Do you know any? If so, how many?

Yes I do, fifteen, and they are related to my aunt Dorris(Porthleven) you now of them, of course.

No! Obviously. But having lived for many years in St Austell, and having been born on the Devon/Cornwall border, I know many people in Cornwall, having been to school with them, socialised with them, and worked with them.

... and here was me thinking you were a teuchter and you're nought but a sassenach.

Half and half. Mother from Scotland, Father from Yorkshire (probably more Viking than Saxon) - born in the West Country?!! But the Celt is strong with me. ;)

Then you'd be FULL Sassenach, a Sassenach being a Lowlander ;)

Possibly, although some of my recent ancestors hail from the Highlands. ;)

Anyone voting SNP a week today and kidding themselves that this won't be taken as a green light by Sturge and co for a second referendum really is wasting their vote. As for the collapse of Labour in Scotland well that is straight forward, they are now seen as equally English in outlook as the Tories and rational politics in Scotland has been suspended for now. Reality is the devolved Parliament has had tax raising powers to raise taxes to waste on useless public projects from day one of its existence but Sturge and co have never had the guts to use these powers in advance of a referendum............

Gordon Brown stumped up in Scotland during the referendum and clearly showed how easy Labour are to push around if you can pretend to have some sort of grievance - so naturally they understood that in a SNP/Labour alliance Labour would be the junior partners.
Even the pro-union Scots can see what a great advantage that would be.

Whilst I accept Labour have been at the root of their own
downfall, what the SNP has been able to achieve is nothing short of a political
revolution. But power is given not taken. The people of Scotland are clearly
and with a loud voice rejecting Westminster.
Labour and the Conservatives will be reduced to regional parties.

Economically, socially and culturally the United Kingdom has
grown apart over the last 20 years. The final piece the political piece will be
shattered at the next election, UK politics will be dead, and I expect a period
of “dead parrot denial” from our politicians as they fail to grasp the new
reality.

However given the new regional reality of our politics, and
the existing agreements to transfer powers, the unfair distribution of tax thru
the Barnett formulae, the English will have every right to demand from the new
regional Labour and Conservative parties redress and constitutional reform.

Tell me Mr Editor, when is Sir Jeremy Heywood going to complete his investigation into the leaking of the 'Frenchgate' memo ... the one you published in this paper on 4th April mis-quoting the First Minister of Scotland ?

How long does it take a Cabinet Secretary to find the source of an inaccurate and slanderous internal memo (allegedly from the Scottish Office) and the means by which it found its way to the Daily Telegraph ?

The electorate should be told before they cast their votes.

.

Probably the same source as the letter from the 5000, Tory HQ?

.

If the story was true thy would have rushed out a statement.

The silence and delay speaks volumes.

.

The west is being trounced by massive forces of change that are incompatible with understanding by liberal political minds and hence cannot be coped with.
Stone age politics such as Labour has to offer are worse than useless - unless we can time jump back to 1950. Maybe Labour should fund the NASA warp drive as a means of traveling back in time http://www.cnet.com/news/na....

See http://www.mckinsey.com/ins...
Today our world is undergoing an even more dramatic transition due to the confluence of four fundamental disruptive forces—any of which would rank among the greatest changes the global economy has ever seen. Compared with the Industrial Revolution, we estimate that this change is happening ten times faster and at 300 times the scale, or roughly 3,000 times the impact. Although we all know that these disruptions are happening, most of us fail to comprehend their full magnitude and the second- and third-order effects that will result. Much as waves can amplify one another, these trends are gaining strength, magnitude, and influence as they interact with, coincide with, and feed upon one another. Together, these four fundamental disruptive trends are producing monumental change

Our political elite are clueless and hopeless faced with these changes and so cling to the past looking for answers

There's nothing clever going on here. Between them, the SNP and Labour managed to convince the majority of voters in Scotland that the Tories represent everything anti-Scottish. Now the SNP have come up with a plan to get those who might vote Labour, (in order to remove the Tories from Government), to vote SNP, with a promise to side with the Labour party and thereby achieve the same goal. In effect Nicola Sturgeon is telling the Scottish electorate that they can vote for both SNP and Labour by supporting her party.
I see Jim Sillars ( the other Crankie) has reared his ugly head and suggested that a second independence referendum is in the offing. I think Ms Sturgeon MSP, would be well advised to heed her own recent advice re the meaning of democracy! We already did that one a few months ago Mr Sillars. What part of "55% - NO" did you not understand?

Of course if the SNP win a majority of Scottish Commons seats, this does not mean that independence is inevitable, in the 1993 Canadian general election Quebec nationalists won over 50 seats and still lost the second 1995 independence referendum

Well fancy that, a party that hates all things English gets crushed by a party that hates all things English even more.

I could find no mention in the article of the real reason for the extraordinary rise of the SNP, which is the Scottish Devolution Bill brought in by Blair. Once that slippery slope of giving more, then SNP demanding more and being given more and more powers which once given can never be taken back without a riot, the inevitable conclusion is Scotland governing itself whether it is called Devo-Max or what it would really be, Independence, matters little. Double representation for all nations, including England, since Wales and Northern Ireland already have their own Parliaments just like Holyrood is the only way things can go now and be fair, which means a federal UK or an eventual complete split.

Once Scotland becomes a one party state, it should renamed Mugabeville.

There is a huge difference between one party actually democratically winning every seat and a one party state. There again, you don't have the intelligence to see that.

The success to date of the SNP is due to the Scots' nationalist infection. It has nothing to do with politics as the Scots will realise when finally they wake up to reality and recognise the resemblance borne by their leaders to fascist Hitler.

Labour created the problem by making Scotland a special case.This sets Scotland on a slow steady path towards Independence because it means Scottish politics are more important than national politics,

All MPs are expected to be SNP which means in any coalition or other half hearted arrangement the SNP will control UK politics as the price for their vote.
If anything the tendency in England is to the right (UKIP) rather than to the left (SNP).

There will be less and less in common in future as they continue to move in opposite directions politically. I suspect Scottish Independence is the only practical solution in the long term as the two countries inevitably drift further and further apart politically.

No, devomax plus EVEL is the way ahead

...or maybe only a temporary fix just like devomin? Will Devomax be enough? With Devomax you can still blame UK Parliament for all your problems. Only independence frees Scotland from UK parliament.

You can't travel in opposite directions at the same time except in the quantum world

Devomax allows Scots to control most of their domestic policy without the full responsibility for the economy and foreign policy of independence, ie the best of both worlds, especially with the oil price collapse

The key issue of this election is indeed constitutional. A voting system that gives 60 MP's to 3% of the voters and perhaps 2 to 15% of voters (UKIP) is not sustainable. The SNP phenomenon must drive us to full proportional representation.

Some years ago we were invited to a Burns night dinner in Edinburgh. The, non Scottish, wife of our host shared with me the information that "My husband would be anything in the world except a bloody Englishman". Sad as it is I'm afraid that reflects the way most Scots feel.

It was a great disservice that Con/Lab/LibDem joined together to bribe them to stay in a Union most resent and see, wrongly, as the reason for their failures. It's time to be sensible. The Scots joined the union because, A) they could not make it on their own and B) they wanted a share of the wealth that England, Ireland & Wales were creating. After almost 300 years of receiving, they can only whine about oil; and Thatcher destroying their industry. Industry that disappeared all over the developed world and in places where they had never heard of Thatcher.

It should be fairly simple to work out the benefit that has accrued to Scotland in the centuries of the Union + 20th century Labour bribes and civil service jobs less oil revenues and then, to show good will, give them 300 years to pay us back. On second thoughts, it would be simpler to write it off but pass a law forbidding any future UK government from giving money to Scotland.

So, the SNP, which has no interest in anybody outside Scotland, supports Labour, which failed to win the votes of two-thirds of the UK population, to form a government for the entire population. English, Welsh and Northern Irish citizens are then required to pay for policies to benefit Scotland, despite having had no opportunity ever to vote for it. Sounds like a constitutional crisis to me.

Ed Miliband will be under immense pressure to show that the UK isn't in thrall to the Scots. If he doesn't, the disillusion will be catastrophic for Labour in England and Wales. If he does, what reason has the SNP to be involved with the government of the UK?

I cannot see such a coalition surviving more than a few months.

in normal circumstances a clean sweep for the snp would seem to be evidence of a desire for independence.
and yet only last year the scots voted by a clear majority to remain in the UK. how to explain this apparent contradiction. i think the reason may be that many people who support the snp do not actually want independence. but they are fed up with the other parties so this leaves them with little choice. the snp are calling for another referendum but i suspect it would go the same way.

They are voting SNP so they can stiff England for more money. It is that simple.

I think there is something else you aren't considering, during the referendum campaign lots of people switch to YES as they started seeing through the Media machine, now 7 months on it's there in front of their face once again, with same message, you must do this and you mustn't do that or we are doomed I tell you, doomed, once people start pointing it out to others, it's not before long that other start seeing it also, and then it's just a joke, laughable and no longer can touch the people it trying to reach, play on peoples fears only work if folks as scared, you can't be scared of something you find funny in a haha way :-)

That would depend on the size of the bribe.

on other pages ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...

Conservatives have the temerity to whine about BBC bias when they have used all the media outlets to block out any coverage to UKIP that isn't based on the assumption that we are a racist party.

They really do make me want to throw up.

This is what is really Important! ...

Nigel Farage may, or may not be elected to Westminster on the 7th May, but we already owe him a Great Deal! His, is the only real, strong voice telling the Unvarnished Truth, standing up for the interests of, and trying to SAVE Great Britain from the possible Distruction of the British and European Way Of Life, possibly more Terrorism, Civil Strife, and perhaps worse ... Whatever happens, Farage will be remembered by True Patriotic, British People of all Ethnicities, as the Man who tried his very best to save our great Country!

Watch Farage's Warnings on our behalf, voiced in his superb speech in the EU Parliament, yesterday the 29th April 2015, and remember and think about his words .. before it is too Late! ... Conservatives, please vote UKIP in your area if your own candidate can't win! Please share this Link to Farage's Great Speech!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Bye bye Scotland. How long do we have to wait before we are having to bail them out i wonder? We are still paying for the Irish even though they were SOOOO desperate to be rid of England. Scotland will be the same.

The only way forward for England is for them to leave or for the English to get the same vote. I would vote to leave the UK and return to the Kingdom of England. They can then stay in the EU as the UK and we will be out. Good luck to them.

Hear Hear. They trapped many in welfare dependency without creating new jobs to offer them an alternative, didn't replace the social housing stock and let private landlords run rife with housing benefits instead, didn't control tax evasion and spent Billions on a war we didn't want. New Labour certainly didn't represent the working man and moved to the middle ground as soon as they grabbed power leaving their supporters to flounder in a tough economic climate whilst cosying up to the banks and big business. Now they have the gall to suggest the Conservatives are the bad guys for fixing many of their wrongs. I just hope the electorate have good memories.

Does Cameron secretly drink Irn-Bru?

Many Scots don't give a fig for the Helmet headed termagant (http://www.vocabulary.com/d...

Alex and Nicola have been promising their potential electorate everything but free deep fried mars bars should they become elected. Scotland will become a land of milk and honey.
There are going to be a lot of bitterly disappointed folk north of the border in the next few years.

Similarly Cameron has no one to blame but himself for the extraordinary rise of UKIP.