Here's something interesting

Well, it interests me anyway, and it has nothing at all to do with Wendy Alexander.


I would bet that it's worrying the bejasus out of Labour and the Lib Dems as well.


Being an anorak kind of guy, I checked on the regional votes cast in the May 2007 election.


We, us SNP types, Scotland's Party, won some surprising victories - we won the regional vote in Edinburgh North and Leith, for example, as well as Edinburgh Central and Edinburgh East.


In fact, the SNP won Edinburgh (all six city seats combined). Here's the result -
SNP 46,137
Labour 44,359
Lib Dem 30,952
Conservative 30,634
Green 16,923

Marvellous. So here are the 28 seats where the SNP won on the regional vote (not in any kind of order, I've just numbered them so you don't have to count them)

1. Edinburgh North and Leith
2. Edinburgh Central
3. Edinburgh East and Musselburgh
4. Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
5. Ross, Skye and Inverness West
6. West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine
7. Dumbarton
8. Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale
9. Aberdeen Central
10. Aberdeen North
11. Aberdeen South
12. Kilmarnock and Loudoun
13. Argyll and Bute
14. Central Fife
15. Stirling
16. Dundee West
17. Dundee East
18. Cunninghame North
19. Glasgow Govan
20. Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber
21. Moray
22. Western Isles
23. Livingston
24. North Tayside
25. Perth
26. Angus
27. Banff and Buchan
28. Gordon

Some crackers there, eh? Wait! I hear you holler, surely the Lib Dems did well as well? Nope -
Orkney, Shetland, Edinburgh West and North East Fife were the only ones they won. Doesn't bode well for them in the Westminster election, does it?


Tory chaps? Not bad considering where they've been climbing from -
Pentlands, Ayr, Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, and, of course, Roxburgh and Berwickshire. Four seats.


Even more fun - the SNP was in second place in a further 41 seats and third in only four - Dumfries, Eastwood, Ayr, and Roxburgh and Berwickshire - we didn't come lower than third anywhere - the only party to manage this.

Interestingly, the Greens beat the Lib Dems and the Conservatives in two Glasgow seats - Govan and Maryhill, but didn't do so well in Lothian which was their original seat capture - only in Edinburgh North and Leith did they climb above 5th, edging out the Conservatives.


The Lib Dems came fifth in Govan and fourth in another 41 seats, third in 18 and second in only nine seats. There were only 26 seats where the Tories were fourth or fifth, and they picked up 36 third places and 7 second places.


Labour - 37 wins, 16 second places, 13 third places and 7 fourth places.


Looks like the SNP is best placed. Now then, let's replicate that at Westminster...