The SNP have been in gvt in Scotland for almost two whole terms now and according to all the polls are on track for another landslide victory - in a voting system designed to make it hard to get big majorities - and of course the Scottish parliament is now itself a core institution of the UK. If the SNP are trusted by enough of the electorate to run that UK institution then why on earth would they not be trusted to have 5% or 6% or so of the seats in another UK institution?

Secondly as to portrayal I am sorry but the weekly absurdity of Question Time panels was at it again last night. The female Tory politician on the panel again said that the idea that smaller parties may have any say was "incredibly frightening". Again it was aimed at Jim Murphy of Labour and the idea that a Labour gvt may work to some degree with the SNP.

Then Janet Street Porter said "people in England, without wanting to sound xenophobic, find all this talk of Plaid Cymru and deals very worrying"

Well sorry Janet but whatever way you dress it that does sound a tad kind of xenophobic and to the Tory woman if some people in England are really "frightened" of the SNP then it is only because Tory politicians keep telling them they have something to be "frightened" about. You are using language in a way to try and alarm people.

Now I know voters of a certain persuasion can be worried or frightened about other parties. I have various English Tory voting relatives who worry about Ed Miliband and his party. But this is different in language. The people who are claimed to be frightened or worried are "the English in general" whilst the demons on the door step are the SNP and Welsh Nationalists. It is a drip drip demonising of the non-English parties in a bid to try and scare English voters away from voting Labour which is all the more absurd when there is just as much a chance of the Tories coming to some accord with UKIP who seem to be riddled with racists, xenophobes, homophobes and misogynists. A much scarier prospect than either of the non English nationalist parties. And doubly absurd because sheer demographics ensure that the vast bulk of seats at Westminster are taken up by MPs from English constituencies. They will always have overall control of the house.