There's a very good chance that some otherwise SNP votes will go to the conservatives because the majority of Scots don't want to leave the Union and a million voted for Brexit. It's quite possible that they'll win a couple more seats and be able to say that there's a change away from the SNP.
Well there is a chance, although I wouldn't describe it as a good chance. For those who are opposed to another independence referendum once article 50 is concluded, they are as likely to vote for Labour as conservative. But then how to define a shift away from SNP policy? After all the brexit result shows you don't need a lot to declare a 'mandate'.
It's a negotiation. If she's elected with a large majority, whatever deal she does, she - and the EU - know that it can be delivered. It denies the EU a negotiation tactic.
Well I could be optimistic and think that a larger majority would mean she didn't feel obliged to capitulate to the hard right of her party, or the Daily Mail. But I'm not that optimistic. She seems intent on unilaterally acting on her own views of brexit which appears to be single-minded ending of freedom of movement, regardless of the costs. She could have recognised the closeness of the result, or that half the countries voted to remain, and at the very least continued in the single market. Not only would it have made it harder for Nicola Sturgeon to argue for independence, she even argued for this as an alternative, it would have made it easier for Northern Ireland to maintain the Good Friday agreement.
Instead her manoeuvring so far, even before negotiations have begun, have served to only harden the resolve of the 27 EU states.
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