Why support the SNP

Unity makes a point as to why free marketeers in Scotland should not be supporting the SNP, despite their giving a bloody nose to Labour. This also shows why libertarians south of the border should support them. The SNP, as Unity points out, it to the left of Labour, their growth in support comes not from pulling voters away from the miniscule Scottish Conservative Party (there wouldn't be enough of them to make much of a difference) but from the Scotish Socialist Party. Labour isn't getting beaten up jus because they of their sustained attacks on civil liberties of mistakes over foreign policy it is also because they are not economically left wing enough and the SNP is to the economic left of Labour.

With even the Conservatives left of what most Libertarians would like why should one like the success of a party to the left of Labour? Because their success shows just how different the polities of England and Scotland are. One national government cannot truly represent the wishes of such different national moods, so should they reach their primary aim of separating Scotland from the rest of the UK finally they would be able to get a government that was able to give them the legislation that so many of them seem to think would be best for them. This freedom to pursue what you think is best for you with the minimum amount of coercion from outside is one of the core ideals of Libertarianism and so the coercion of the English power over so many areas of national life forcing them to follow sensible policies is not ideal.

To those north of the border my commiseration's, but if so many people really do want to retry the old, failed, socialist model then they should be able to. Maybe Scotland will be able to make it work where nobody else (outside the Kibbutz movement) could. Freedom has to mean the freedom to make mistakes, and luckily in a democracy these can be corrected by just voting them out later.