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News Analysis: Scottish National Party weighs with overall win in Scotland

Xinhua, May 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

Scotland's voice will be heard at Westminster British parliament more loudly than it has ever been heard before after Scottish National Party (SNP) on Friday won by a historic landslide of 56 seats out of 59 seats for Scotland in British general election.

LANDSLIDE VICTORY

Winning the Scottish Labour Party's 40 out of the previous 41 seats, and the Scottish Liberal Democrat Party's 10 out of 11 seats in the Scottish constituencies, the SNP became Britain's third largest party at Westminster British parliament, against the British Conservatives' 331 seats and the opposition British Lobours' 232 out of the total 650 seats.

Nicola Sturgeon, SNP leader and Scottish First Minister, celebrated the SNP victories at the count center in Glasgow, Scotland's largest city.

Sturgeon had said the general election provides an opportunity to make a "positive change" in the Westminster parliament system to serve Scotland better.

Former Scottish National Party (SNP) leader and former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who won a seat for the SNP in northeastern Scotland, emphasized the strongest group and voice for Scotland at Westminster in the history of Scottish politics.

Salmond, who announced his resignation after the Scottish independence referendum on Sept. 18, 2014 when the majority opted to stay in Britain, is returning to the Westminster as an SNP member of the parliament.

From 1987 to 2010, he served as a member of parliament for Banff and Buchan in the House of Commons.

NATIONAL UNITY

The Conservatives' 331 seats, five more than needed for a Commons majority, had been their first such victory since 1992.

Speaking outside 10 Downing Street, British Prime Minister David Cameron promised to lead a government for "One nation, One United Kingdom" and make "Great Britain greater".

Cameron said he would reach out to all parts of the United Kingdom and strive to "bring the country together" in the wake of the SNP's election landslide in Scotland.

He also pledged to deliver the agreed devolution for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland so that "the governments of these nations will become more powerful with wider responsibilities".

On whether there will be a second Scottish independence referendum, Sturgeon made it clear that this general election is not about independence and refused to say whether she will still be pressing for full fiscal autonomy for Scotland.

NO MANIFESTO

A second Scottish independence referendum on the back of a big SNP win is not going to happen, Paul Cairney, Professor of Politics and Public Policy at University of Stirling, wrote in a blog at the website of Center on Constitutional Change.

The SNP leadership has not asked for it. Its manifesto includes no reference whatsoever to a second referendum. Instead, it promises to use its position of strength to make the most of the first referendum: to hold the British government to the promise made by the three main UK parties to devolve extensive new powers for Scotland, Cairney said. Endit