Quote Originally Posted by Deeranged View Post
All the claims of the SNP letting Thatcher in are complete nonsense – Thatcher was going to get in within six months regardless as the minority Labour government had been struggling for some time, a general election was inevitable and Labour were always getting trampled on by the Conservatives. It was the anti-devolution Labour MPs, who undermined their own government and prevented the majority Scottish opinion from prevailing, that caused the SNP to turn against Labour. And the SNP was quite right to turn against Labour at that point in my opinion and that's even considering in hindsight the ultimate evil and anti Scottish / pro SE England policies of Thatcherism.

Remember Scotland had just been shafted by the Labour government when a 40% rule appeared from nowhere to deny the wish of the Scottish people at the time when a clear majority 'YES' vote for devolution was cast. What were they going to do? 51.6% of the votes were for devolution but it counted for nothing - completely undemocratic but then we are talking about the English so maybe not a total surprise.

Two Ulster Unionist MPs voted with the 1979 vote of no confidence, did the Ulster Unionist Party also 'cause' the downfall of the Labour government and therefore Thatcher to be elected? Or doesn't that fit the agenda?

People love to re-write history though and they just love to post up rubbish on forums in the hope that people will just accept it as truth - and the more gullible reader usually just agrees with it.
That's the point of being a Unionist yes, they helped the Conservatives but as you explained it was the SNP who turned against Labour. The other parties had been voting against Labour as part of the opposition. The SNP changed their support and the rest is history.

You may not like to recall your Tartan Tory roots but it seems obvious that they were getting Tory protest votes against the long years of Labour rule in Scotland under Gordon Wilson. It was a shrewd move by the SNP and undermined the Tory Party in Scotland.