I’ve written a column for Scotland on Sunday today looking at the SNP’s transformation into a proper national party:
[T]wo SNP approaches have helped the party attain its present supremacy. They can be labelled the Hampden and Murrayfield strategies. They are different but complementary, designed to appeal to different branches of the electorate.
The Hampden strategy appeals to working-class and lower-to-middle-class voters. It is populist, Saltire-wrapped and keenly, proudly Scottish. The Murrayfield tranche of the electorate is older, wealthier and more likely to consider itself Scottish and British. Though outnumbered by the Hampden vote, its influence – especially in business and the media – is disproportionately powerful. The Hampden voter, to put it crudely, reads tabloids and is, comparatively speaking, more likely to work in the public sector; the Murrayfield voter reads broadsheets and works in the private sector.
[…] The manufactured rumpus over last week’s Economist cover illustration was designed to stir up the Hampden vote.
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