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Nobody Is Disenfranchised in Tomorrow’s Scottish Election

Tomorrow is the election for the Scottish parliament tomorrow, so before I talk about the parties and my local candidates, can I just remind all my Scottish readers that no matter what you beleive, please cast a vote. Even if it’s to draw a big kitten over the paper (and those of you in England could well have local council elections as well).

Right then, onto the election. It’s amazing that this electionhas really caught my spirit. Maybe this is because, even with all the moving around the country, this is first UK election where I’ve felt that my vote actually means something? The major part of that is because in Scotland you have two votes, one for our local constituency in a traditional first past the post (more on that in a moment) and a second ‘regional’ vote that covers 8 regions and is used top ‘top up’ the number of Scottish Members of Parliament (MSP’s) to represent the overall regional percentage.

That means that every single person in Scotland has a regional vote that actually counts. I find that incredibly refreshhing. At the last Scottish election it saw 7 Green MSP’s, 6 Socialist MSP, and 4 genuine Independent MSP’s. That’s almsot as many as the Conservative party had! So the decision on the list vote is something everyone can be enfranchised on. It also menas it’s very hard for one party to gain a stonking majority and make bad decisions (eg go to War, take a Bernie, give Tessa Jowell responsibility, etc).

For fifty years, every national election in Scotland has seen a Labour majority. Will it be different come Friday morning? The sentiment is in the air, as this YouTube song video (which is burning around the email lists of Scottish web peeps) shows…

On the local constituency front, I’ve already spoken about the incredibliy in-accurate Liberal Democraft leaflets I’ve recieved in the Edinburgh North and Leith (summary, using the UK election result with a different catchment area to ‘prove’ only they can win, when the Scottish election results has them in forth place). Since then, the number of Lib Dem leaflets delivered out-numbers all the other candidates put together. They have added the small print now for the 2005 General Election Results but I’m seeing the same stock phrases on every flyer, no originality or deviance, and it’s leaving a very bad taste.

Furthermore, when I made my original blog post, I emailed the LibDem candidate from his own website, and asked if he would care to respond to my points and my feeling that this attitude was close to deception – a quality I would love in my MSP (ahem). I’ve heard nothing. Well, nothing from him. The SNP candidate, Davie Hutchinson, replied in the blog comments (I guess he uses Technorati…) and left me a link to the local Westminster Labour MP (Mark Lazarowicz) addressing the leaflet issue. He was clear, transparent, and honest. And he can communicate on the web. He’s also the candidate not voted in at the Westminster elections – guess you can’t win them all!

I’ still one to beleive in the serecy of the ballot box, so I’m not going to break down my views on the candidates in full, nor state here who’s got my vote. What I am going to say is I will be voting, and I hope you all do too.

May 2, 2007; Politics;

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