The AMS in Scotland

1. The AMS in Scotland The 2007 and 2011 results - fair?

2. The AMS was chosen deliberately so that coalitions would have to be formed and also that smaller parties would be better represented. From 1999-2003, the ‘rainbow’ Parliament session comprised a coalition comprising Labour and the Liberal Democrats. It also saw a number of other parties gaining representation. In 2007, the SNP won by one seat and chose to run a minority administration. 2007 Multi party politics “The AMS was designed by a Labour government at Westminster with the explicit intention of preventing the SNP from gaining a majority of the seats on a minority of the popular vote". BBC Scotland Political Editor, Brian Taylor

3. 2011 - A historic victory Source: SPICe Against the arithmetical odds, the SNP achieved an historic and unprecedented victory of 69 seats in the 2011 election, which means, for the first time, there is a majority government in the Parliament.

4. 2011 composition of the scottish parliament

5. Labour lost a number of key safe seats and high profile politicians to the SNP in a night of shock results. Iain Gray managed to retain his seat but only with a majority of 150 votes. The losses were felt most acutely in their traditional Glasgow and West of Scotland heartlands with the SNP now controlling 5 out of 9 constituencies in Glasgow. Out of 22 target seats, the SNP achieved 18. The Liberal Democrats saw their vote collapse and now have no mainland constituency MSPs losing twelve of their 17 MSPs. The Conservative performance remained broadly the same as in 2007. A game changing election

6. ELECTION CASUALTIES Former Tourism Minister, Frank McAveety lost in Glasgow Shettleston Former Health Minister, Andy Kerr lost in East Kilbride Former Transport Minister, Sarah Boyack, lost in Edinburgh Central Former Finance Minister, Andy Kerr lost in Hamilton Bill Butler lost in Glasgow Anniesland by just seven votes Former Lib Dem Minister, Ross Finnie failed to get elected on the West of Scotland list. Charles Gordon lost in Cathcart Former Conservative leader David McLetchie lost in Edinburgh Pentlands. Election 2011

7. The three main opposition leaders decided to stand down after the 2011 election after poor electoral performances. The fallout  "It was a dreadful night and there are some very hard and fundamental lessons for the Scottish Labour Party...in the autumn I will stand down and it will be for the Labour Party to decide how we go forward from there." “I am resigning the leadership of the Scottish Liberal Democrats with immediate effect.Thursday's Scottish general election result was disastrous and I must take responsibility for the verdict of the electorate”. "The Scottish election result was seismic. I believe that the time has come for the torch to pass and I can confirm that I will not be a candidate. I want my successor to have the maximum time for him or her to shape the party and its policies and to lead the opposition at Holyrood." Tavish Scott resigns

8. Unlike in 2007 when the SNP was unable to find a coalition partner (the Lib Dems refused to enter into a formal coalition due to the SNP’s desire to hold a referendum on the issue of independence) and had to run as a minority government, the situation in 2011 is very different. The new cabinet Alex Salmond expanded his cabinet after the 2011 election, having opted for a smaller ministerial team previously. All the previous ministers have retained their posts but it has been bolstered by a further 3 additions. New Scottish Cabinet

9. The prestonfield principle – consensus and co-operation? Despite the SNP being a majority government, First Minister Alex Salmond has indicated a willingness to achieve consensus with political opponents in order to take the best decisions in Scotland’s interests. He has claimed that the SNP will not use it’s majority to bulldoze legislation through the Scottish Parliament - the so-called ‘Prestonfield Principle’ - named after the speech he gave at Edinburgh’s Prestonfield Hotel after the SNP’s victory. Alex Salmond's Victory Speech

10. It is something of a myth that the AMS is “good for small parties”. It depends on how popular they are. The ‘rainbow parliament’ of 2003 has failed to be replicated since. In 2007, the Greens were squeezed out by the rise of the SNP and the Scottish Socialists imploded as its leader, Tommy Sheridan, formed a breakaway party after his court appearance. In 2011, the Greens failed to increase their number of MSPs and the expected resurgence of George Galloway’s political career failed to materialise after he failed to get elected on the Glasgow list. Good for small parties? George Galloway’s pitch for the Scottish Parliament

11. Arguably, the creation of the Scottish Parliament with its AMS, saved the Scottish Conservatives from political extinction. It is one of the great ironies of Scottish politics that the Conservatives originally opposed both the Scottish Parliament, and its voting system! In 1999, all 18 of the Conservatives MSPs were from the second, List vote. There were none elected from the FPTP constituencies In 2003, the Conservatives managed to have three MSPs elected from constituencies, but the other fifteen were from the second, List vote. In 2007, Only four of the 17 Conservative seats are from FPTP constituencies. In 2011, there was a slight decline in support, but still enough votes there to enable the Scottish Conservatives to be the 3rd largest party in the Scottish Parliament with 15 MSPs. Good for the Conservatives!

12. A fair result? In 2007, if FPTP was used to elect the Scottish Parliament, Labour would have won 37 out of the 73 seats (50.1% of all the seats), enjoyed a single seat majority over all the other parties combined, and had 16 more MSPs than the SNP You can see why Labour doesn’t like the AMS! However, ironically, in 2011 Labour gained more MSPs through the second vote than they did in the first vote with the SNP winning more of the constituency vote.

13. There are some voters in Scotland who, because of the AMS, are completely unrepresented. For example, if you voted SNP in Edinburgh North (12,263 did), you would have nobody elected who represented your views: your Constituency MSP would be Labour (Malcolm Chisholm) left. There are no SNP List MSPs in the Lothians region, despite 110, 953 people voting for them. Unrepresented voters? Malcom Chisholm, MSP, Labour, Edinburgh North

14. In June 2007, SNP MSP Stefan Tymkewycz stood down as an MSP just months after being elected to Holyrood. He was replaced by Shirley-Anne Somerville as a Lothians list MSP. While Shirley-Anne Somerville may well be an excellent MSP, the fact remains that she, personally, was not elected by the voters of the Lothians! The same was the case with the SNP’s Anne McLaughlin who replaced Bashir Ahmad as Glasgow list MSP when he died in 2009. The Scottish Parliament’s voting system does not allow for by-elections for List MSPs but it does for constituency MSPs. Unelected MSPs? June 2007.The SNP’s Stefan Tymkewycz stands down. So Shirley-Anne Somerville replaced him! Anne McLaughlin Bashir Ahmad

15. Issues with the party list remain Glasgow’s sole Conservative councillor, David Meikle, withdrew from the Scottish Conservative’s Glasgow regional list in 2011 when he finished sixth placed on the list. Citing electoral malpractice, he wanted an investigation into how candidates were ranked. However, this was refused by the party machine who claimed it was not needed. Within the Lib Dems, MSP Robert Brown who had been in the Parliament since 1999, was demoted to number two on the party’s Glasgow regional list.

16. Diversity? Humza Yousaf Hanzala Malik Dennis Robertson The AMS, in theory, is supposed to encourage a more diverse group of representatives to be elected. There are more female representatives than at Westminster, now joined by two BME representatives. 35% of the 2011 MSP intake are female - down from 39% during the Parliament's first session. 2011 also saw the election of the Parliament’s first visually impaired MSP: Dennis Robertson who won the Aberdeenshire West seat for the SNP.

17. The SNP has an electoral mandate to ‘bring on’ key policies: What’s on the table for session 4? An independence referendum to take place during the latter part of the session. Measures to deal with sectarianism and bigotry, targeting football games and the internet. Minimum alcohol pricing, a flagship policy defeated in the last Parliament.