When the Central Florida Association of Black Journalists (CFABJ) invited author and journalist Eric Deggans to discuss his new book, Race Baiter: How the News Media Wield Dangerous Power to Divide a Nation, at their monthly meeting, there was little doubt I had to attend. Deggans is a media critic for the Tampa Bay Times newspaper and commenter for NPR and the Huffington Post. He is a frequent critic of Fox News and all things conservative.

In preparation for his visit I read through his book and viewed a seventy-minute presentation of Deggans recorded by CSPAN. The title is a backward handed homage to Fox news commentator Bill O’Reilly that labeled Deggans “one of the biggest race baiters in the country;” hence, the title. The book can be summed up simply: Fox News, talk radio and conservatives generally use racism and racist rhetoric to appeal to racist white males to make money, and it is dividing (read: destroying) America.

A few chapter titles in his book include: “Fox News Channel vs. MSNBC: Downgrading all Journalism in a Race to Win a Political Fight,” “Fox News Focus on Scary Black People” and “Hate Radio Why Talk Radio May Not Be a Haven for Middle Aged White Guy for Much Longer.” Within his presentation Deggans used examples like the story about a White House barbecue posted on the Fox News Nation blog page titled “Obama’s Hip-Hop Barbecue Didn’t Create Jobs.” The story was accompanied with pictures of President Obama, Chris Rock, Charles Barkley and Jay-Z, prompting Deggans to complain there was only one rapper pictured, so it is not a hip-hop barbecue. In Deggans’ mind, this is a clear case of “racial code,” because, you know, only black people go to barbecues.

Other examples Deggans used to illustrate his point were the controversial remarks Rush Limbaugh made about birth control activist Sandra Fluke, Newt Gingrich’s charge of Obama being the food stamp President, and a Brookings Institute study that found Fox viewers believe whites are as discriminated against as blacks.

So his message is clear. Fox news is racist. Conservatives are racist. Fox commentators are mostly racist, and Fox News viewers are racist. Everyone else, however…wait Deggans does not really discuss anyone else. His book is a detailed diatribe against Fox news and Conservatives, but virtually ignores other news organizations, liberals or Democrats. This is quite odd given that the tag line of Deggans book is “How Media Wields Dangerous…” At what point did Fox become the media? It is true, their ratings are higher than CNN and MSNBC combined, but that’s hardly big enough to classify them as “the media.” Where was the discussion about ABC, CBS, or NBC? Deggans thinks Hannity and O’Reilly are dangerous; okay, what about Ed Schultz or Keith Olbermann? It is no stretch to assert that either are choirboys when it comes to divisiveness. If Deggans wants to attack Fox news and conservatives, and it is clear from the content he does, then why not call the book, “How Fox News Wields Dangerous Words…”

I questioned Deggans during his presentation on this and other points. Want to know how he responded? Be sure to read part II.

Image credit: Eric Deggans via Facebook

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Washington, U.S.A. — On July 10, Freedom to Marry, the campaign to win marriage nationwide, launched Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry, a new campaign to highlight and build support for the freedom to marry among young people across America who identify as conservative. The campaign launch will take place at a kickoff event in Washington, D.C.

“Freedom and family are core conservative values,” said conservative commentator, political strategist, and media personality Margaret Hoover, who is a member of the Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry leadership committee. “We have a historic opportunity to reaffirm these important values by supporting the fundamental freedom to marry for all Americans. Now is the time for a rising generation of voters and leaders to embrace these virtues and join Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry.”

Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry is part of Freedom to Marry’s campaign to demonstrate the broad and growing support for marriage across the ideological spectrum. Members of the group will make the case that the freedom to marry should not be a partisan question, and that supporting the freedom to marry fulfills basic conservative values of responsibility and community, as well as limited government and individual freedom.

Members of Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry will work to encourage more conservatives to stand up, speak out and support the freedom to marry by joining and adding new perspectives and experiences to the national conversation about marriage. They will work to end laws in the states that bar same-sex couples from marriage, as well as to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.

“As Republicans we believe in limited government and we believe that the best way for the federal government to spur growth and jobs is to get out of the way and let small and medium businesses thrive,” said Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is speaking at the launch event and is a Republican co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act.

“We also believe in equality of opportunity rather than of outcome. Most importantly, we believe that the individual and the family are the central engines in our society. The right for individuals to lead their lives without government intrusion is a bedrock conservative principle and it is much more than just about sexual orientation. It is about the fundamental rights we all share as Americans, it is about equality for all with no exceptions.”

“The center of political gravity has shifted for good,” said Marc Solomon, National Campaign Director of Freedom to Marry. “The freedom to marry is fast becoming a bipartisan value embraced by all Americans who believe that love and commitment deserve support and protection. Freedom to Marry applauds this group of young conservatives for standing up to make the case.”

Support for the freedom to marry has been accelerating at historically dramatic rates and has grown in every group, including right-of-center voters. A March poll by NBC/Wall Street Journal shows that among Republicans, support for the freedom to marry has grown by 41%, and among moderates, by 40%, since 2009. A May poll by ABC News/Washington Post shows that 46% of self-identified Republicans aged 18-44 are in favor of the freedom to marry.

In March, the overwhelmingly Republican-controlled New Hampshire House voted down repeal of the state’s popular freedom to marry law, with a majority of the GOP voting against repeal. Last year, the GOP-led state Senate in New York advanced a freedom to marry law. A memo by Republican pollster Jan van Lohuizen highlights that “opinion is shifting across the board, including among Republicans.”

The kickoff event will feature members of the Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry leadership committee discussing their support for the freedom to marry.

“As a conservative, I find efforts to exclude same-sex couples from marriage to be both wrong and completely off-task,” says Craig Stowell, an Operation Iraqi Freedom Marine Corps veteran and a member of the Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry leadership committee. “I take freedom seriously and want my best friend and brother, who is gay, to have the same freedom as everyone else to marry the person he loves. I hope Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry will inspire other conservatives to do what is right and support loving and committed same-sex couples’ freedom to marry.”

“The more we think about and talk about this with other conservatives, the more we can understand why the denial of marriage to same-sex couples is wrong,” adds Torrey Shearer, a government relations professional in Washington, D.C. and a member of the Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry leadership committee.

“Marriage strengthens families, encourages shared responsibility, and promotes stability in our communities. There is really significant change taking place among conservatives – especially young conservatives – about the freedom to marry, and I hope my involvement in this campaign will accelerate our progress.”

Members of the Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry Leadership Committee include Hoover, Stowell, and Shearer, as well as:

• Tyler Deaton, a lobbyist, political consultant, and Secretary and Finance Chairman of the New Hampshire Young Republicans and the Executive Director of New Hampshire Republicans for Freedom and Equality;
• Nicole Neily, Vice President of Dezenhall Resources and the former Executive Director of the Independent Women’s Forum;
• Madeline Koch, a Manager of Government Affairs for Comcast in St. Paul, MN, former staffer at the Republican National Convention, and former press intern for former Republican Senator Norm Coleman;
• Jason Kuznicki, a Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and editor of Cato Unbound;
• Sarah Longwell, Vice President at Berman and Company, a communications firm in Washington, D.C. that defends free market principles;
• Will Rinehart, a Research Fellow at TechFreedom and former Koch Summer Fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation.

Freedom to Marry is the campaign to win marriage nationwide. They are pursuing our Roadmap to Victory by working to win the freedom to marry in more states, grow the national majority for marriage, and end federal marriage discrimination. We partner with individuals and organizations across the country to end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage and the protections, responsibilities, and commitment that marriage brings.

Image Courtesy of   Gandolfo Cannatella / Shutterstock.com

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Britain’s Conservative/Liberal Democrat government faced a humiliating setback on July 10 when ministers had to cancel a key vote on their flagship plans to reform the House of Lords.

The government wants to replace the present appointed chamber with a chamber whose members are 80 percent elected/20 percent appointed. The legislation is widely seen as the Liberal Democrats’ baby, and it is bitterly resented by many backbench Conservative MPs. Over the last few weeks, more and more Conservative MPs have announced their intention to vote against the bill, and the number of rebels eventually reached 100.

The Labour opposition has committed itself to voting for the bill’s second reading, which is when the Commons endorses the general principles behind the legislation. Because the government controls the timetable in the Commons, a vote on second reading is usually followed by a ‘program motion’ that sets time limits for the remaining legislative stages. But Labour objected to the amount of time that the government proposed to allocate to the bill, and the party decided to instruct its MPs to vote against the program motion.

Without Labor’s support, it seemed highly unlikely that the program motion would pass. In the absence of a timetable, opponents of the bill would be able to filibuster it. Back in 1968, an earlier attempt at House of Lords reform foundered because of just such a filibuster.

The government whips must have gotten spooked, for when the Commons began the second day of the debate on second reading, the Leader of the House, Sir George Young, announced that the program motion had been withdrawn. “For Lords reform to progress, it needs those who support reform to vote for reform and to vote for that reform to make progress through this House. It is clear that the Opposition are not prepared to do that, so we will not move the program motion tonight.”

“We remain committed to making progress on Lords reform, and with second reading behind us we will then consider how best to take this agenda forward and how best to secure progress through the House for reforms that have the backing of this House,” he continued.

In the absence of a program motion, the bill will be in legislative limbo even if it receives a second reading. The government leadership in the Commons face a dicey situation. Finding a timetable that will please Labour could be difficult, but if they decide to go ahead and commit the bill to a Committee of the Whole House without any sort of time limits, it is almost certain that rebel Conservative MPs will do their best to filibuster it. Newspapers are already reporting that the rebels have drawn up extensive plans to table wrecking amendments and fight any subsequent attempts to curtail debate.

If the House of Lords Reform Bill ultimately fails, the coalition will be placed under incredible strain. Bad blood between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats seems to be growing by the week, and many Liberal Democrats would probably see the bill’s loss as a Conservative betrayal. There are already rumblings that, if there is no Lords reform, the Liberal Democrats will retaliate by blocking forthcoming boundary changes that could help the Conservatives at the next election. If the coalition descended to that level of infighting, it is hard to see how it could continue until the next scheduled election in May 2015.

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Over the past several months President Obama’s overall job ratings have been alternately holding steady and inching upward. His ratings on the economy are following suit. In March, 32% of Americans gave President Obama positive ratings on his handling of the economy while 68% gave him negative ratings. This is the same as in February and an improvement from the 25% and 75% who rated him positively and negatively respectively in December and January.

While there is still a concern about unemployment, more Americans say the job market in their region of the country is good. Over the past three and a half years The Harris Poll has regularly asked Americans about the job market in their region of the country. An average of 11% have called it good between July 2008 and January 2012, however the last few months have seen a steady rise from the 9% who said the job market was good in October 2011, to the 14% who said so in January 2012, now 20% report these feelings in March 2012. Although the numbers are improving, a majority still says that the job market in their region is bad (56%) while 24% say it is neither good nor bad.

The improvements in the job market are encouraging, as is the belief that the job market is growing. Currently one third (33%) of Americans believe the job market in their region is going to be better over the next six months while half (50%) say it will remain the same. Only 17% think it will be worse, which is lower than the 25% who said this in July 2011 and the 21% who said so in January.

Politics and the Economy

In an election year, it’s not surprising that the economy and job market are considered political issues, and it is also not a surprise that opinions differ between Republicans, Democrats and Independents.

Currently over half of Democrats (59%) and Liberals (55%) give President Obama positive ratings on his handling of the economy while only 12% of Conservatives and 6% of Republicans do; Independents (26%) and Moderates (35%) fall somewhere in the middle. Possibly showing more faith in the current administration, almost half of Democrats say that the job market will be better in the next six months (47%) — one third (33%) of Independents agree — yet only 18% of Republicans say the same. A majority of Republicans think the job market will remain the same (55%) and over a quarter say it will get worse (27%).

Despite improvements in how Americans view the job market and expect it to change over the next six months, a majority are still concerned that their family’s income will not be enough to cover all of their costs and expenses this year.

Currently 63% of Americans say they are concerned, with 26% very concerned. This is not very different from the 62%-65% who stated concern over the past two years. Not surprisingly, the higher a person’s household income, the less likely they are to be concerned about covering their costs and expenses.

However, it is somewhat alarming that large numbers of people even in the highest income brackets — 61% of those who earn $75,000 to $99,999 and 41% of those who earn $100,000 or more — say they are concerned about meeting their costs and expenses. And, despite their differing opinions on President Obama’s role in the economy and the outlook for the job market, when Democrats and Republicans were asked about their own financial concerns the story is the same: over six in ten Democrats (61%), Republicans (63%) and Independents (65%) say they are concerned that their family’s income will not be enough to cover all of their costs and expenses this year.

The economy and unemployment have been the focus for political initiatives and public discontent for some time. However, there are some possible green shoots, in that Americans overall are feeling better about the job market and President Obama’s handling of the economy than they have indicated for many months.

However, the large number of Americans communicating concern about covering their family’s expenses is disconcerting and indicates that while we may be moving in the right direction, the country still has a way to go on the road to full economic recovery. It will be interesting to see how these issues and concerns are addressed by President Obama and his Republican opponent in the upcoming presidential election.

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Richard A. Viguerie, the Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, along with conservative activists Bill Wichterman and Rebecca Hagelin, hosted a luncheon and hour-long question and answer period for 90 national conservative leaders at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C.

“Four weeks ago, a large group of national conservative leaders met in Texas and came to the consensus that we should back Rick Santorum’s campaign for President,” noted Viguerie. “With relatively few resources, but lots of grassroots conservative support, Rick went on to win the Republican contests in Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado,” observed Viguerie.

“Today’s meeting will build more grassroots conservative momentum behind Rick’s campaign.” “Rick Santorum is the only reliable conservative left in the race.  Whatever others may say, no other candidate can be counted on to populate his administration with conservatives the way Santorum can be.  No other candidate can be depended upon to govern as a conservative the way Santorum can be,” said Viguerie.

Santorum’s unscripted remarks at the luncheon focused on his commitment to the conservative agenda, the importance of the conservative movement in winning the 2012 election, and the important role conservatives will play in a Santorum administration. “Conservative principles are the things that win elections,” said Santorum, who also noted, “Conservatives aren’t merely a wing of the Republican Party–they are the Republican Party.”

Santorum’s biggest applause came when, in a not-so-subtle reference to Mitt Romney, he promised the conservative leaders that, if elected, he “would not walk away from the conservative message. It is who I am.  I do what I do from the heart, not because some consultant or focus group tells me this is what to do or what to say.”

“Rick Santorum is no stranger to the conservative movement.  We know Rick Santorum.  He walks with us, eats with us, and prays with us. He has celebrated our victories and mourned our losses,” concluded Viguerie.

Image Courtesy of    http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrickgensel/

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ConservativeHQ.com Chairman Richard Viguerie announced the first group of conservative leaders to join him in endorsing former Senator Rick Santorum for President:

“…Some 150 conservative leaders gathered at Nancy and Paul Pressler’s ranch in Texas to discuss the Republican presidential campaign”.  There was an overwhelming 75 percent consensus to support Rick Santorum for President. ”The group of conservative leaders named…includes Dr. James Dobson, Gary Bauer, Joseph Farah,Foster Friess, Elaine Donnelly, and many others representing all four segments of the new conservative coalition who are coalescing behind Rick Santorum’s candidacy.

“I’m pleased that, so quickly after Rick Perry suspended his campaign, I was able to announce the firstbloc of conservative leaders who have come forward to endorse Rick Santorum. ”This list of endorsers demonstrates that Rick Santorum is the best candidate to bring together social conservatives, national defense conservatives, economic conservatives, and the newly energized constitutional conservatives of the Tea Party.

“Rick Santorum is the only reliable conservative left in the race.  He has a long involvement in the conservative movement, and he has demonstrated his commitment to hiring conservatives on his Senate staff and in his campaign.  On the issues of vital importance to conservatives, such as the right to life, the pro-family agenda, national security, and fighting the growth of government, he has walked with us even when the path was hard.

“If conservatives want a conservative, not just another establishment Republican, nominated in Tampa and elected in November, it is time for us to start concentrating on consolidating that winning four-part coalition behind one candidate.  The candidate who best appeals to all four segments of the winning 2010 coalition, with the fewest negatives, is Rick Santorum.

“This is an encouraging sign that movement conservatives are finding their natural home in the Santorum campaign and are in fact coalescing behind Rick’s candidacy.”

The text of the endorsement and the list of endorsers released today follows:

“Conservatives are the largest ideological bloc in the American electorate.  In this election cycle, a number of candidates with legitimate claims to conservative support have considered or sought the Republican nomination for President, but this has left the conservative vote divided, empowering those who do not share our views and values.

To defeat Barack Obama, now is the time for conservatives to rally behind the most electable conservative candidate, and we believe that candidate is former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.

“In recognition of Rick Santorum’s character, judgment, and especially his commitment to institute an administration that will govern according to conservative principles, we the undersigned endorse former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum for President of the United States and pledge to advance his candidacy.”

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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has courted controversy by criticizing the coalition government of David Cameron.

Writing in an issue of the New Statesman that he guest-edited, Williams said that “[w]ith remarkable speed, we are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no one voted.”  Using the Education Bill as an example, he lamented the fact that many of the government’s policies were never discussed in the context of an electoral debate.

He also expressed concern that the government’s rush to transfer more responsibilities to the private sector could result in inequality and called on the government to decide which services were in need of “cast-iron guarantees of nationwide standards, parity and continuity” and then determine how those guarantees could be met even in a difficult financial climate.

Ministers were quick to respond to Williams’ article.  Speaking during a press conference in Northern Ireland, Prime Minister David Cameron said that, although he supported the archbishop’s right to make political interventions, “I profoundly disagree with many of the views that he has expressed, particularly on issues like debt and welfare and education.”

Business Secretary Vince Cable also came to the government’s defense, telling Sky News that “[t]he two parties of the coalition got substantially more than half the total vote at the last election and the public knew that we were going to have to embark on very difficult changes, connected with sorting out the massive budget deficit problem.”

Williams’ comments have received a mixed reception from other religious leaders.  The Bishop of Oxford, John Pritchard, came out in support of him, telling the Oxford Mail that he was right to “put his head on the block.”  Pritchard went on to say that “[t]here are cuts of all kinds of social provision, including social care and youth work. Social care is being pared back for vulnerable, housebound people and that is something I very much regret.”

On the other hand, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, expressed support for Cameron’s government, saying that many Catholics believed that there was “a genuine moral agenda” behind the coalition’s program.

Williams’ intervention is simply the latest in a string of political interventions by Archbishops of Canterbury that stretch all the way back to St. Thomas Becket in the 12th century.  More recently, Robert Runcie famously clashed with Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s over a range of issues, including the Falklands War and urban poverty.

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In another sign of strife at the heart of Britain’s Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has threatened to instruct his MPs and peers to vote against the Health and Social Care Bill unless it is substantially altered.

In its current form, the bill gives local doctors more control over the health budget and introduces greater competition into Britain’s nationalized healthcare system.  Critics, including the opposition Labour Party, argue that the bill could lead to the backdoor privatization of the National Health Service.  Doubts have also been raised regarding the ability of local doctors to make effective budgetary decisions.  Because of a torrent of opposition to the bill, the government is proceeding slowly and a date has yet to be set for the bill’s final consideration by the House of Commons.

Speaking on the BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, Clegg asserted that the government’s decision to slow down the bill’s progress was more than just a political stunt.  “This is not a cosmetic exercise. There will be substantial, significant changes to the legislation.  As far as Government legislation is concerned, no bill is better than a bad one, and I want to get this right. Protecting the NHS, rather than undermining it, is now my number one priority,” he said.

He went on to say that he could not ask Liberal Democrat peers and MPs to vote for the proposals “unless I personally am satisfied that what these changes do is an evolutionary change in the NHS and not a disruptive revolution.”

In the aftermath of last week’s failed Alternative Vote referendum and massive Liberal Democrat losses in the local government elections, Clegg has come under pressure to differentiate himself from his Conservative coalition partners.  By adopting a tough stance on the NHS reforms, he no doubt hopes to mollify the increasingly jittery members of his own party.

Clegg’s intervention puts the Conservatives in an awkward position.  If they cede too much ground to the Liberal Democrats, it will increase dissatisfaction among rank-and-file Tories, many of whom are just as hostile to the coalition as their Liberal Democrat counterparts.  At the same time, if the Liberal Democrats all vote against the bill, it would likely fail to pass and the coalition would be dealt a blow from which it would be difficult to recover.  The coming weeks will likely see a great deal of behind-the-scenes horsetrading as the coalition tries to thrash out a compromise that will satisfy both camps.  David Cameron and Nick Clegg will have their work cut out for them as they try to steer the coalition between Scylla and Charybdis.

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Britain will continue to use the first-past-the-post electoral system to select Members of Parliament after a proposal to switch to the Alternative Vote method was resoundingly defeated in a nationwide referendum.

When the final results were in, 12,570,539 had voted ‘No’ while 5,807,086 had voted ‘Yes.’

Voting reform has long been a priority of the Liberal Democrats and when they entered into a coalition government with the Conservatives last May, they extracted a promise from Tory leader David Cameron to hold a referendum on whether or not to change the method of voting.

Supporters of AV argued that it would reduce the number of ‘safe seats’ and make MPs more accountable to the electorate.  Furthermore, it would help ensure that future governments were actually supported by a majority of citizens.  The AV campaign also attracted the support of a large number of celebrities, including comedians Stephen Fry and Eddie Izzard.

Opponents of AV claimed that it would be expensive to implement and would give more power to politicians.  They also raised the specter of an endless series of coalition governments like those seen on the Continent.

The No victory is not unexpected since most recent opinions polls suggested that the pro-AV camp was headed for defeat.  Voting reform was seen as an example of ‘dog whistle politics’ that only a small segment of the population felt passionately about.  Also, the No campaign was bolstered by David Cameron’s vigorous intervention.

Cameron’s decision to come out so strongly against AV has led to tensions within the coalition government.  Many Liberal Democrat ministers had expected him to lie low in the interests of preserving unity in government and his robust engagement has led to accusations of treachery.  Last week, British media reported that Energy Secretary Chris Huhne got into a heated argument with David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne during a Cabinet meeting over what he saw as the unfair tactics of the No campaign.

The defeat of AV was not the only bitter pill for the Liberal Democrats to swallow.  Yesterday’s local government elections saw them lose almost half their councilors and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is likely to come under considerable pressure from grass roots elements of his party who have long been unhappy with the decision to enter into a coalition with the Tories.  Although it is unlikely that Clegg will face a serious challenge to his leadership, the BBC predicts that he will try to shore up his support within his own party by standing up to his Tory colleagues more often.  It has also been rumored that the Liberal Democrats may get a consolation prize of sorts in the form of a proposal to use proportional representation for elections to a reformed House of Lords.  But given the history of Lords reform, it is not at all certain that these proposals will ever make it off of the drawing board and Clegg may find that he is in for a rough couple of months.

UPDATE: The UK Electoral Commission has released updated voting figures for the AV referendum.  The Noes are now 13,013,123 while the Yeses are 6,152,607.

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The Scottish National Party has secured an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament, triggering a fresh round of uncertainty regarding Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom.

Because Members of the Scottish Parliament are elected by a combination of first-past-the-post and proportional representation, there has never been a majority government in Scotland since devolution in 1999.  But the SNP went on to win 69 out of 129 seats, a net gain of 23 seats from the last Parliament in which the SNP formed a minority government.

Many of the SNP’s gains were at the expense of Labour and several prominent Labour MSPs, including finance spokesman Andy Kerr and former minister Tom McCabe, lost their seats.  The BBC quoted Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University as saying that Labour’s performance in Scotland was the worst for 80 years.  Not surprisingly, Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray has announced that he will be stepping down in the autumn.

Why then did Labour, the party that brought devolution to Scotland in 1999, fare so badly?  Many commentators lay the blame on a lackluster campaign by Iain Gray that saw Labour adopt several SNP policies as their own.  The narrowing policy divide between the two parties focused attention on the leaders’ personalities, and Gray was widely seen as less charismatic than SNP leader Alex Salmond.  Labour’s cause was also hindered by embarrassing footage of Gray taking cover in a Subway sandwich shop in order to avoid the ire of protestors.

Labour was not the only party to feel the pain on election night.  The Liberal Democrats suffered a net loss of 12 seats and are now down to just five MSPs.  Their coalition partners in the UK Government, the Conservatives, fared slightly better and won 15 seats, a net loss of five.

Salmond has promised to hold a referendum on Scottish independence during the second half of the five year Parliament.  But it may be too early to sound the death knell of the United Kingdom since recent polls indicate that only a minority of Scots support full-fledged independence.  Salmond will likely face an uphill battle as he tries to convince the Scottish people that Scotland would be better off outside the United Kingdom.  The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Labour are united in their opposition to independence and can be counted on to campaign forcefully against the SNP in the run up to a referendum.  Since a ‘no’ vote would be a huge embarrassment, Salmond will have to choose the timing of the referendum carefully.

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