The Elections in Scotland : SNP still lead.

The results for the local Election have been portrayed by Labour and the  the media as a draw between the Labour and the SNP

And if you look at the BBC summary for instance then it would appear so and that Labour actually gained one more seat than the SNP

ouncil results

Party	Councils		Councillors
	Total	+/-	Total	+/-
SNP	2	2	424	+57
LAB	4	2	394	+58
CON	0	0	115	-16
LD	0	0	71	-80
OTH	3	0	219	-18
NOC	23	-4

However these gains and losses were based on the seats just before the election and included By-election wins and defections.

If we look at the results in 2007 and compare them with that of 2012

 Summary of the 3 May 2007 Scottish council election results^[4]

Parties		First-Preference Votes[5]	Votes %	+/-	Councillors	Net Gain/Loss
	Labour	590,085	28.1	-4.5%	348	-161
	SNP	585,885	27.9	+3.8%	363	+182
	Conservative	327,591	15.6	+0.5%	143	+21
	Liberal Democrats	266,693	12.7	-1.8%	166	-9
	Independent	228,894	10.9	+0.8%	192	-38
	Other	102,897	4.9	+1.3%	10[6]	+6
Total		2,099,945			1,222

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e • d Summary of the 3 May 2012 Scottish council election results^[4]

Parties		First-Preference Votes[5]	Votes %	+/-	Councillors	Net Gain/Loss
	SNP	502,201	32.32%	+4.46%	424	+61
	Labour	487,884	31.39%	+3.24%	394	+46
	Conservative	206,856	13.31%	-2.26%	115	-28
	Liberal Democrats	102,399	6.59%	-6.10%	71	-95
	Green	34,252	2.20%	+0.16%	14	+6
	Independent	184,329	11.86%	+0.98%	194	+2
	Other	36,055	2.32%	+0.9%	11	+1
Total					1,223

The results show the were the biggest winners and that is during their second term in Holyrood.

This was true of Glasgow which was portrayed as labour victory and and a gain in seats where in fact they actually lost one seat overall when the SNP gained 5.

This time however it must be noted that both Parties won by taking votes off others and they may not be actually taking many from each other.

After spectacular gains in 2007 there still no sign of the SNP bandwagon going into reverse and in reality where Labour made advances they should have been doing better and regained much more territory . Though admittedly STV does make that harder.

Scotland is fast becoming a two party system and the Liberal Democrats are joining the Tories as a minor Party and if it seemed they call any further just one week after the election they suffered their first defection when a Ross-shire councillor Isabelle Campbell defected from the Liberal Democrats to the Independents  after being elected in the local elections or the Highland Council and who may be regretting this as the SNP,Labour and LibDems have formed an administration ousting her new Independent colleagues.

This may be some kind of record and if I was running the LibDems  on the Highland council. I would bill her for the cost of running her election campaign.