So after the scare tactics, do English voters really see the SNP as a threat?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/26/english-voters-snp-threat-exeter

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So what does the English voter really think about the SNP? It’s not easy getting a straight answer in Exeter. Leanne Bowden, a mother of three on her way home on the school run, looks puzzled by the inquiry. “Well, I’m done with procreating,” she says. “Oh, the Scots! I thought you meant statutory maternity pay – SMP.”

Whatever Westminster election strategists say about the Scottish National party “threat” being a game-changer in this election campaign, there was little evidence of that among undecided voters in this marginal west country seat. Most people want to talk about the NHS, jobs and low wages, with immigration and housing close behind.

“I’ve just gone back to work after the kids. I’m having to do shift work on low pay and juggling childcare with my husband – it’s really difficult,” says Bowden. “I’m interested in affordable childcare and better pay, not deals with the SNP. I’m not really interested in what David Cameron says any more – he’s so pompous. I didn’t vote last time and I wasn’t going to this time, but Ed Miliband has grown on me. He appeared a bit snooty in the beginning but he’s getting a lot better.”

A few streets away in the St Thomas area of the city, Paul Anderson stops his vacuuming. He’s an undecided, though “probably Labour”.

“Labour working with the SNP wouldn’t worry me at all,” he says. “I haven’t got a problem with it and I don’t know why anyone has. You can see it’s the Tories trying to damage Labour, and that’s what politicians are good at, creating animosity. I’m quite fond of the Scots myself.”

Neighbour Karen Roast, 59, is equally dismissive. “I can’t stand that woman Nicola Sturgeon, but I don’t have to vote for her, do I? It’s just tactics. I can imagine maybe older people might fall for it, but I’m not thinking about it.”

Though Tory elder statesmen, such as Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Lord Tebbit, have voiced disquiet at the strategy, Cameron is gambling on ramping up the fear factor over SNP influence in the next parliament. Both Labour and the Conservatives believe it’s working, despite reports from candidates fighting marginal seats that negative campaigning is putting voters off.

Exeter, a red island amid the blue-and-yellow political map of the south-west of England, is one of only four Labour constituencies in the region, with the Tories holding 36 and the Liberal Democrats 15. The west country is as close to a heartland as the Lib Dems have in the UK, but Nick Clegg’s party is predicted to suffer heavy losses here. It has left the Conservatives worried that Lib Dems who have lost faith could transfer their votes to Labour. With Ukip already eating away at a lot of Tory grassroots support in the deprived rural and coastal communities of Cornwall and Devon, the hope is that the spectre of Labour forced into coalition by a domineering SNP will bring wandering votes firmly back to the Conservatives.

Four years in the 1960s aside, Exeter had traditionally been a Tory stronghold until Labour’s Ben Bradshaw won in 1997. He has held the seat since but with a sliding majority that in 2010 was just 5%. The polls show a straight race here between Labour and the Conservatives.

“I’m being quite honest in saying I’m not hearing a lot about the SNP-Labour thing on the doorsteps or in the hustings. It feels like a lot of sound and fury,” says Bradshaw. “I don’t believe it’s shifting votes.”

At the annual general meeting of the Devon branch of the National Pensioners Convention, Bradshaw is taking questions from a politically mixed audience of 30 about PFI, Europe, nuclear weapons, the Hunting Act, police commissioners and the NHS. After an hour, the Scottish question is raised. “Would Ed Miliband be strong enough to stand against Nicola Sturgeon?” asks Jean Hadley, a former Lib Dem city councillor.

“The Labour party would have no truck with the SNP,” replies Bradshaw, pointing out that the SNP “are our mortal enemy in Scotland”.

At Exeter Castle, the Festival of South-west Food and Drink is in full swing, with mulled cider and “posh sausages” on offer. Devon-born Toby Burgess and his friends are students at Exeter University and Tory voters. “I think Cameron has really nailed it with this. Alex Salmond is a nasty piece of work and Labour can’t be held to account by a bunch of Nats. It’s a break-up of Britain they want.”

His friend Charlotte Haning points out that Salmond is no longer the leader of the SNP. “I like Nicola Sturgeon,” she says. “I’m voting Conservative and I think they will win, but I’d like to see David Cameron working with her. She might perhaps persuade him to look at Scotland and tuition fees.”

Dom Morris is the Conservative candidate for Exeter. In a social media Q&A on Friday, he said the notion of a Labour-SNP alliance “destroying” the country was a bit extreme, but added: “I genuinely believe the prospect of a Labour-SNP coalition is concerning. Putting Trident on the table and risking our independent deterrent is not an acceptable political bargaining chip.

“Furthermore, numerous press reports make it clear that the SNP wants to hold Ed Miliband to ransom to negotiate a chipping away of Scotland from the union – which the Scottish people voted against in a democratic referendum.

“An unstable, chaotic alliance between Labour and the SNP would severely damage our economy, irrevocably setting back our recovery.” He added that he believed the people of Exeter and Devon would lose out. “They’d only see taxing and borrowing,” he said. “The spending would happen north of the border.”

As the floating voters of Exeter find themselves hotly pursued, Samantha Sedgebear, a mother of three who uses a disability chair, is still undecided: “I was Ukip but they haven’t been very impressive, so I’m open to whoever wants me.” She laughs. “It worries me that we’re going to be buggered come the results, no matter what. I don’t suppose being Scottish changes that.”