Scottish Labour’s Michael Shanks has won the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection in an overwhelming victory over the SNP that the party leadership declared “seismic”, and a clear demonstration that Scotland could lead the way in delivering a Labour government at Westminster at the coming general election.
In a result that exceeded Scottish Labour expectation, Shanks beat his closest rival, the SNP’s Katy Loudon, by 17,845 votes to 8,399 – a majority of 9,446 and a resounding swing of over 20%.
Not really, there are tons of seperatist areas in countries around the world that would like to break away but aren’t permitted to by their central government. The SNP were permitted a referendum and lost, which is more than, say, the Spanish will give to Catalonia or the French to the Basques.
We are in a union between two countries. That’s the key difference.
e.g. our law systems are separate and pre-date the Union itself.