Marie: It has been a few days since the election results came out and to be honest it is not surprising that SNP won. I was shocked that they actually only won by one seat. In the end I did end up voting for Lib Dems and the Socialist Party because I thought Liberal Democrats because I thought it’s got to be a coalition government really to get anything properly passed. I thought that either way they are going to get in so it wasn’t a wasted vote as such.
Scott: Over all I am fairly satisfied of the election results actually because Labour did not lose as many seats as anticipated.
Mickey: I am not 100% sure I had absolute certainty about my choice.
Graham: Yes I am more disappointed that the Conservatives did not get more seats in the parliament. I am pleased we got more council seats that is going to be good to build our future.
Mickey: There wasn’t a great surprise for me personally. Needless to say that some political changes in Scotland’s political life soon will happen.
Scott: Now it is worrying if there will ever be a coalition government or whether it will be something minor.
Graham: The Conservatives have made it quite clear that they will not go into a coalition with anybody but would support policies that are good for Scotland and it looks like more and more of the parties are going to come round to this idea of thinking.
Marie: Either way the Liberal Democrats are going to have a massive influence over what goes on. The Lib Dems are really going to get some of their stuff pushed.
Graham: And if Labour try and force themselves into power with a coalition made up of say the Liberals, I think this will back fire on them.
Scott: The only bad things about these elections were the spoilt papers and also the confusion at the end of it, that kind of took the, you know, put the flame out of the elections.
Marie: Also with all the spoilt papers I think it is ridiculous, I understand that it is a new, like, system and people were getting confused but there has got to be a way you know like if someone has put a cross instead of 1 clearly that was their first choice so that should go you know like the cross should stand for a 1, just in this instance.
Graham: On the big issues it seems to be the number of spoilt ballot papers and it would appear these are running up to one hundred and forty thousand. That is pretty phenomenal, that is bigger than many constituencies so that has got to be a real problem for the electoral commission.
Marie: What is it like, there are people, there are places with a majority of less than one hundred won. I can quite see why people want to you know, challenge it.
Scott: And it’s a shame because it was, it could be a good voting system to use and I hope they might use it in the election in 4 years time.
Graham: Maybe there is an up side to this, the SNP have not got the number of seats they would have hoped to have achieved. Labour are not far behind them and I think this will put the proposed referendum for independence well and truly on the back burner.
Marie: I’m not to sure if we should have independence I think we do need Westminster for some things.
Graham: There is of course the other scenario. If these guys in our parliament don’t manage to elect a first minister within I think it is 28 days, we could start this process all over again. Lots of leaflets, posters, door knocking - that would really be fun wouldn’t it?
