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Points of Divergence: Scotland Act 1978 (Part 2)

It's interesting that the Scottish Assembly was intended to use bloc vote, given that had previously been used by the Greater London Council but had been changed to smaller single-member constituencies in 1972. The London version of course had as many as four representatives per constituency and was not very representative (even compared to FPTP) because it was rare for the votes to split that much, so a very close result across the whole of a borough would still elect four Tories and no Labour representatives or vice-versa.
 
It's interesting that the Scottish Assembly was intended to use bloc vote, given that had previously been used by the Greater London Council but had been changed to smaller single-member constituencies in 1972. The London version of course had as many as four representatives per constituency and was not very representative (even compared to FPTP) because it was rare for the votes to split that much, so a very close result across the whole of a borough would still elect four Tories and no Labour representatives or vice-versa.

Indeed, I seem to remember it being purely a temporary system until moving to a different system once the Assembly was up in running. Or temporary until it became traditional when the Labour AMs realise they might be risking their seats by moving to STV or MMP or whatever.

You're right that there would not be that many split seats.

Another possibility for future developments is if the *Alliance comes into play then they stand a Liberal and an SDP candidate in each constituency.
 
The split votes in Sillars' constituency would be deeply sexy.

Would definitely like to see a phresh TL/List with an SNP/79 Group split, but I think if they had more seats (Westminster+Assembly) and therefore more channels of patronage, the discontent and factional bitterness would be less intense than OTL.
 
The split votes in Sillars' constituency would be deeply sexy.

Would definitely like to see a phresh TL/List with an SNP/79 Group split, but I think if they had more seats (Westminster+Assembly) and therefore more channels of patronage, the discontent and factional bitterness would be less intense than OTL.

I can see Sillars standing as the sole SLP candidate in South Ayrshire hoping to draw enough split Labour votes to sneak through, possibly even going so far to call for people to vote for either Labour candidate alongside him. There could be this mentality that "well, I'm still technically voting for Labour, I'm just also voting for Jim." The precedent here would be interesting once the *SDP becomes a factor; in Scotland the chattering classes were not really ready to stop voting Labour to any notable extent during the 1980s but "it's alright because I'm still voting for Labour I just think the SDP make some good points about claret."

As to the SNP, coming so far third behind the Tories (who weren't even trying) in the first elections might cause the same introspection that the failure of the election referendum caused OTL; amongst younger and newer members anyway. The leadership at the time was more intent on avoiding questions of left and right in their entirety, though Wolfe was somewhat sympathetic to the 79 Group. We might still see some conflict. The final straw that led to the expulsion of the 79 Group was the invitation by Sinn Féin for them to send a speaker to their conference, though they rejected it they did not do so without debate and the minutes were leaked. Without the whole Scottish Resistance thing the invitation might never be extended.
 
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