The British general election in May told two different stories. The first concerns the United Kingdom as a whole. Despite last-minute conflicting polls and speculation about hung parliaments, minority governments, and new coalitions, the Conservatives received 37 percent of the vote (24 percent of those eligible to vote), meaning this government has been elected with one of the lowest voting shares in history.

While there certainly hasn’t been a massive swing to the dominant party of British capital, the vagaries of the UK electoral system mean the Conservatives can now extend the previous coalition’s savage austerity program. Over a third of the electorate did not vote, and perhaps the most striking feature of the election was the total failure of the Labour Party to convince them to do so.

The second story of the election concerns Scotland. The scale of the earthquake that has just occurred is demonstrated below. There are 59 Scottish seats in the British House of Commons (out of a total of 650).