Quote Originally Posted by OsloHibs View Post
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Yes this is what I see too. The problems go to the back of the queue and only the benefits to the front. And many fall for it.. Everytime!
I dont like the phrase fall for it - it suggests being duped, which i genuinely dont think parties set out to do.

The SNP have been a highly strategic, focused and slick election machine in recent years, modelled very much on the new labour approach. Strict discipline, well funded, good people wih a unwavering focus on what they wanted to achieve - and most importantly - how it would be achieved.

I think under sturgeon, they have lost some of that sure footedness amd broad appeal, they have lost quite a few of the key advisers and strategists from salmond's time, and the indyref result and the WM success actually helped muddy the water about how they could achieve their goal.

Ad they worked this out, the time marches on and as with every party of government, they hollow-out their own reserves of talented people and vision amd their record is chipped-away at by the atttition of run of the mill problems of governing that you can no longer blame on your predecessors.

I think its clear the SNP are starting to suffer from these favtors now. The problem is with such extensive gains into non-traditional nat territory, they are more vulnerable to losses which can create a sense of decline or crisis.

They arent there yet, but they have already fallen backward at Holyrood, and are likely to do so again at Westminster, amd while the council elections went well, they did miss a few of their main objectives.

Apols, a very long winded way of saying that i dont think people were wrong to back the SNP - they were head amd shoulders better than anyone when they came into power full of ideas, and ambition and energy. But they cant sustain it, no party can.