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Originally Posted by joeysteele

I totally agree Jack_
I think they have made a massive mistake, had they suggested a Labour and Lib Dem coalition format, it would have made more sense.

It seems they have only made this choice because of the SNP possibly having influence.

It annoys me when newpapers scream on about free speech and democratic rights,then when it appears the free choices and democratic rights as to voting in Scotland for the SNP, reaches what is seen as new heights, then democracy goes out the window.

The SNP is felt by the Conservatives,Lib Dems,(yes Lib Dems, those so called defenders of rights and democracy),UKIP and most of the press, that they should have the right to go to Westminster if elected but in effect say and do little, and never ever dare be involved in any governmental activity.
Utter hypocrisy.

Surely this is the Labour stance as well? Everyone knows that the SNP are likely to hold the balance of power yet Labour are ruling out any sort of agreement at every turn and it seems like their attitude is basically going to be; "support our policies or it's on you if the Tories benefit from their defeat".

This article explains well why the SNP are not the great progressive force they are being made out to be and why their rabid nationalism is at odds with the interest of the UK as a whole:

The argument for steering clear of the SNP isn’t that Labour has a monopoly of progressive virtue. It clearly doesn’t. The real reason for being a Nat-sceptic is that, aside from nationalism, the SNP has no ideological core of its own and simply instrumentalises progressive ideas to advance the regressive goal of separatism. For the non-Scottish left there can be no question of a principled and trusting relationship with the SNP because you can’t build a common project for social change with someone whose first and only purpose is to smash up the political community to which you both belong. The left in England and Wales may want the UK to work differently, but they definitely want it to work. Nicola Sturgeon and her party want it to fail.

The SNP could have proved otherwise by refocusing its priorities on areas of shared interest with the rest of Britain when it lost the referendum, but it spurned the opportunity. Like true vanguardists, the self-styled ‘45’ decided to set democracy and majority opinion aside and behave as if they were real voice of Scotland. Their pledge that the referendum would be a “once in a generation” event was immediately ditched in a frenzy of debate about how soon a rerun could be engineered and what ruses would be needed to secure a different outcome. Everything the SNP does is now framed with that solitary objective in mind.

The effect has been to foster a dominant attitude that is highly sectarian and trending towards totalitarian. There is only one truth and one way to be authentically Scottish – the nationalist way. Anyone who disagrees with this is, as one SNP parliamentary candidate put it, the moral equivalent of a Nazi collaborator. There is no space for pluralism and honest compromise with a movement in this state of mind. The normal rules of democratic conduct don’t apply because it answers to destiny alone. When Nicola Sturgeon says that she wants to help the Labour Party, she does so in the same spirit that Lenin once advised his British followers support the Labour Party of Arthur Henderson: “as the rope supports a hanged man”.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics...ce-think-again

Nationalism is always dangerous imo, however much the SNP dress themselves up as 'civic nationalists' or progressives. Let's be frank that none of the main parties want to have anything to do with the SNP - and with good reason