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The SNP have achieved a parliamentary majority of 4. This is the first time the
Scottish Parliament has returned a majority, single -party government (previously the
SNP operated as a minority government and before them Labour and the Liberal
Democrats acted together in a coalitio n).

One of the big advantages of AMS is that it tends to lead to coal ition governments
which are more representative of the voter¶s views, while FPTP usually creates a
single party government, which may be seen as strong, but is also seen as being
unrepresentative. The 2010 General Election and now the 2011 Scottish Election
has turned these two points on their head. It is still perfectly acceptable to use these
advantages and disadvantages, but you must say that this is traditionally what
happens and acknowledge that there are current exceptions.

While we don¶t have a coalition, one of the other strengths of AMS is that the number
of votes a party receives more clearly reflects the number of seats it wins, hopefully
ending the feeling of the 'wasted vote'. There are two important points here: The
elimination of safe seats and the new majority government¶ s share of the vote.

Prior to the 2011 election, many of the con stituency seats in Scotland were
considered to be safe seats (i.e. the winning candidates majority wa s at least 3000).
In particular, Labour had held the vast majority of seats in the central belt and were
unlikely to every lose them. HOWEVER, there was a huge swing in many
constituencies from Labour to SNP, which has resulted in many traditionally safe
Labour seats being gained by the SNP.
Glasgow Anniesland now has an SNP MSP with a majority of just 7 votes. Glasgow
Kelvin has an SNP MSP with a majority of 882. In fact, out of the 73 constituencies,
only 25 are now considered to be safe seats.

In terms of the AMS system helping to deliver representation for smaller parties - 2
green MSPs were returned, along with one independent, Margo Macdonald.

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Only 10 constituencies across the UK votes in favour of changing to AV - 2 of these
were in Scotland. Edinburgh Central and Glasgow Kelvin (the school¶s constituency)

The referendum on constitutional reform was one of the issues brough t to the
coalition table by the Liberal Democrats, who believe that the current FPTP system
is unfair and not representative of the whole of the electorate¶s views.

One of the most laudedadvantages ofFPTP is the fact that it is easy to understand
and a tried and tested system. So while the system might be unfair, the electorate
have not backed a change to the preferential system of AV. The reasons for the
voters not choosing to back a change to AV are clearly very complex (including the
fact that it is not actually the truly proportional system the Lib Dems would have
wanted, but a preferential system - an expensive compromise that no-one really
wants), but you could use these results (as I¶m sure the Conservatives will) to back
up the point that the system µaint broke, so why fix it¶.

  
On 19th April, Scotland's biggest selling daily newspaper The Scottish Sun gave its
backing to the Scottish National Party. The Sun is bought every day by 330,000
Scots and probably read by about three times that number.Four years ago the
Scottish Sun warned readers that a vote for the SNP would put the country's head in
a noose. On Friday night,AlexSalmond said: "Thank you to all rea ders of The
Scottish Sun who backed our record, team and vision."

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