Our socialists (I can proudly say Scotland has an increasingly divergent party system
) bombed. Because they split and in fact they were rubbish 40 something ex Militant student political has beens.
The 'intellectual left' in Scotland is found within the Scottish Greens who, unfortunately fell back in 2007 to 4.0% and were punished by the list system which left us with just Patrick and Robin. The Greens themselves in Scotland are nationalist (which has a different meaning in Scotland as most of you should be aware) and socially libertarian. Despite the mathematical, more than electoral set back, they performed well locally and now hold 5 seats on Glasgow City Council (including one in the Gorbals) for example and 3 seats on Edinburgh City council. They have an urban and rural reach, but the SNP were too dominant in the rural areas to allow much progression.