LONDON (Reuters) – British voters punished the Liberal Democrats for their role in a deficit-cutting government on Friday, rejecting the party’s efforts to reform the electoral system and deserting it in local elections.
The outcome points to a rockier future for Britain’s Conservative-led coalition government, with analysts predicting a more combative stance from the Lib Dems, the junior partners.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) scored a bumper haul, winning an outright majority in Scotland’s assembly — which has limited powers devolved from London — and opening the door for a referendum on secession from the rest of Britain.
A fully independent Scotland could change the handling of profits from North Sea oil fields, a crucial source of tax revenue for cash-strapped Britain.
It might also have implications for the Royal Bank of Scotland, bailed out during the global financial crisis and now 83-percent owned by the state.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed reform to Britain’s voting system in a blow to the Lib Dems and their leader Nick Clegg, who had championed the change.
The campaign for Thursday’s referendum on voting reform strained the year-old coalition, prompting angry exchanges between Lib Dems, who backed change, and Conservative defenders of the current system.
Both Conservative Prime Minister David
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