The Celtic Bloc - General Election 2010

In the lead up to the Election the Scottish Nationalist Part and Plaid Cymru have decided to team up and form the Celtic Bloc,

As they are working as a Unit I shall treat them as such in this post though if requested I will do separate ones for each party

1) Support the English Democrats - although there is confusion about whether or not the English Democrats are just a slightly nicer version of the BNP or just the English version of SNP/Plaid the Celtic Bloc should try to help the English Democrats if the Latter is the case. Why? Because even if the EngDems get only one or two seats that is one or two seats to add to the Celtic Bloc (which may need to be renamed if the EngDems do get a seat) and every seat the Celtic/Nat Bloc gets the more they become a challenger to the Lib Dems.

2) Woo the SDLP - Pretty much the same idea again with the Northern Irish SDLP, problem is they already support Labour so it will take a bit more work, however as the SNP and SDLP share similar constitutional goals it wouldn't be to difficult to see either the SDLP defect to the Celtic/Nat bloc if the Conservatives wind up on top but short of overall control, This could give a Nat bloc of somewhere around 15-20 seats, enough to give someone the support if one of the Big Two fall only a little bit short of overall majority.

3) Nationalist War - Make it as clear as possible the lack of racial motivated policy within the Celtic Bloc so as to demonstrate as many differences as possible between themselves and the BNP, it's an obvious point but there are alot of people running around with nationalist in their name so it can't hurt to point it out.

4) Don't go Overboard - I aim this one particularly at the SNP who are more pronounced than Plaid in their ideas. If the SNP go crazy with what their demands for support are they are giving Power to the Lib Dems as they will scare off any chance that Lab/Con will come to them for help.

5) Criticise the Pact - The Tories have an electoral Pact with the UUP of Northern Ireland, it can be a huge target if played right, particulary in regards to getting the SDLP into the Bloc as they too aren't happy with it and also in getting the Tories to think about their relationship with the UUP if they need the Celtic Bloc's help.

6) Pick the Right fight - Labour is a Bleeding Giant of Seats right now, if the Celtic Bloc pick the right ones they could steal a couple of seats and put themselves in a more comfy position for the next 4 years.

7) Watch Out for the Other little Guys - the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition "TUSC" (made up of; Socialist Party, Socialist Resistance, Socialist Workers Party and Solidarity) are running just under 45 candidates, 10 of them are in Scotland with a few in Wales. Since they have all decided to play nice this could hurt the both the Bloc and Labour since theses seats are already left leaning and could either weaken the Bloc enough for another party to take the seat or if the electorate decide to really punish the more well established parties give them a seat or two.

The Engdems have signed up with the Alliance for Democracy (made up of; Christian Party, English Democrats, Jury Team, Popular Alliance, UK First Party and Veritas) It is doubtful these parties will make a break through in terms of seats (except the Eng Dems, and the independents will be vague have their own positions) but the AOD could still hurt votes for the other parties depending on where their candidates pop up.