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May 2011 Election


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Like it or not, policies have been announced at the respective party conferences, campaigning has been started, fundraising pleas have begun in earnest, and we're very much gearing up for the off. Its very much time for a specific Scottish Politics thread methinks. And regarding "tribal hatred", the Tory Party group in Holyrood is pretty much the same size (I think 1 MSP smaller) than the Lib Dems. They've got every chance of playing a key role, saying that nobody votes for them is just lazy generalisation that is specific really to Westminster elections.

I have no opinion one way or another on it. It's up to the parties themselves when they decide they want to get into election mode. Most people don't even think about it(if at all) until a few days before the election itself. And the bulk of people will vote out of habit anyway if they bother to turn out at all for this. It will be the usual low turnout anyway.

Fundrasing and whatever goes on all year round now for all the parties. I just put raffle tickets in the bin that the tories wanted me to sell. I haven't been a member of the party for fifteen years or more but they still send me these things every year, two or three times a year. And no I am not going to the Alloway branch beetle drive either. :lol:

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I'll vote Conservative and hope they get a majority. They are the only viable party. The SNP are soft on terrorism, Socialist Scottish Labour are culpable for making Scotland taxpayer reliant and the Lib Dems would only push Scotland further into the Public Sector.

Free Prescriptions are a complete waste of money, council tax rates should be cut and local authorities should be forced to make much better use of their resources and we should reinstate the much fairer poll tax system.

Not voting for whoever is taking over from Jack McConnel? tongue.gif

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If Scotland votes in Iain Gray as FM, it would be a self fulfilling prophecy. It would prove that Scotland was too shit to be independent. And Labour would be loving it.

Scottish Labour embodies stagnation, pessimism and a lack of ambition or passion. I'm more and more beginning to think that's what we embody as a country.

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Voting here is between right wing SNP (we dont get the cuddly left ones around here - we get the likes of Annabelle Ewing) and old Labour (new Labour didnt get here either).

Labour for me - without much enthusiasm.

SNP will win the seat - the local press is full of the sitting MSP's press releases every week - not an envelope is opened - but he's there

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Two words...Iain Gray. Do you know who he is? Do you have a view on him? If Salmond puts you off the SNP, does Iain Gray not put you off life?

Are you suggesting people should vote for a leader and not policy?

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Are you suggesting people should vote for a leader and not policy?

His policies are atrocious as well though. Iain Gray's come up with ONE policy off his own back (raising minimum wage to over £7) and almost everything else seems to be "the opposite of what the SNP say".

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His policies are atrocious as well though. Iain Gray's come up with ONE policy off his own back (raising minimum wage to over £7) and almost everything else seems to be "the opposite of what the SNP say".

Agreed, and the SNP have matched his policy anyway.

Are you suggesting people should vote for a leader and not policy?

And in this case, YES! I could take a mere Labour government, after all, its only natural that government changes occasionally, but this is a Labour Government that will be led by Iain Gray. Iain Gray! The thought of that slow witted, spineless, vapid, third rate, poisonous, policy vacuum of a man, with not one iota of a positive quality in his soul, running my country, fills me with dread. If we vote Gray, then it would be a vote for depressing status quo and an acceptance by many of the voters of this country that they are happy with our limited state of affairs.

So while the lack of policy is depressing enough, I think it is absolutely the right thing to refuse to vote for that particular brand of (and I shudder when I say the word) leader.

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I'm starting to hope that the Iain Gray Party wins, just to see the inevitable meltdown on here by xbl. ;)

I just checked the results from my constituency in the last Scottish Parliamentary elections, Labour won comfortably with the Liberal Democrats in second place. I'll probably vote Lib Dem again but I can't see anything other than a Labour win here. The SNP tend not to do that well in Edinburgh constitencies, the only gain they have had in the three elections to the Scottish Parliament is Kenny MacAskill who won Mussleburgh last time out.

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His policies are atrocious as well though. Iain Gray's come up with ONE policy off his own back (raising minimum wage to over £7) and almost everything else seems to be "the opposite of what the SNP say".

I'm not advocating voting for Labour. That wasn't my point.

Agreed, and the SNP have matched his policy anyway.

And in this case, YES! I could take a mere Labour government, after all, its only natural that government changes occasionally, but this is a Labour Government that will be led by Iain Gray. Iain Gray! The thought of that slow witted, spineless, vapid, third rate, poisonous, policy vacuum of a man, with not one iota of a positive quality in his soul, running my country, fills me with dread. If we vote Gray, then it would be a vote for depressing status quo and an acceptance by many of the voters of this country that they are happy with our limited state of affairs.

So while the lack of policy is depressing enough, I think it is absolutely the right thing to refuse to vote for that particular brand of (and I shudder when I say the word) leader.

Of course, what we need is soapbox politics, grand pronouncements about how the banks should spologise and make restitution to Scotland, and the inference that this would never have happened were we independent. It's easy to be bombastic about the faults of the status quo when you won't be around to do the hard work after independence. Salmond is an obvious snake oil salesman.

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If Gray wins more seats than Salmond in may, does he definitely become the first minister or can Salmond still be first minister in a coalition deal?

If Salmond can remain as first minister, why didn't Mcconnell do a deal with the Lib Dems in 2007?

Labour couldn't get majority through uniting with the Lib Dems in 2007. Could only get 62 (63 with the Greens) seats out of 128* = 3 (2) short...

*129th being the Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson of the Scottish Conservatives

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If Gray wins more seats than Salmond in may, does he definitely become the first minister or can Salmond still be first minister in a coalition deal?

If Salmond can remain as first minister, why didn't Mcconnell do a deal with the Lib Dems in 2007?

Because they'd have lacked a Holyrood majority. In the absence of any competing coalition deal, the SNP formed what pretty much amounted to supply and confidence with the Greens to mean that, short of the Tories forming a coalition with Labour (not happening) no working majority could be formed by the remainder.

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Couldn't Labour have still formed a very close to a majority but still a minority coalition goverment with the lib dems though?

It would have commanded next to no legitimacy and would smack of desperation. It's more legitimate for a minority government to accept their position as a minority on one manifesto, working with other parties on an issue by issue basis than to have a sham rainbow coalition to spite one party, not even reaching a clear working majority in the process.

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It would have commanded next to no legitimacy and would smack of desperation

that Labour shower of politicians wouldn't care about those sort of things

thanks for clearing that up though guys, p.s i am glad labour are not in power at hollyrood just now just wondered as i'm hoping for a coalition of the snp and the tories if Labour get the most seats as i would probably feel like emigrating if Gray was First minister.

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Last time I voted Labour 1st Vote (liked the things the candidate was saying in her flyer), and SNP second vote.

This time i'll probably go SNP 1st vote and Green 2nd vote. A minor party will definitely be getting my second vote (may even get my first vote). The SNP haven't greatly impressed me but the only other likely winner is the absolutely hopeless Labour second XI, with that fecking idiot Gray in change. As long as the likes of him and Foulkes are kicking about I'm always going to think twice before voting for Labour. Jim Murphy did a decent job for Labour as Scottish Secretary. They should 'do an SNP' and get a high profile politician like him to lead the Scottish Labour party and give them some credibility. There are so few decent MSPs that Salmond looks like a god among them.

The parliament was a less interesting place this time around, without the loony fringes hinging about making a nuisance of themselves. Get back to the rainbow parliament.

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Since Labour and the SNP have pretty much launched their campaigns, with Labour offering a "living wage" and stuff like GARL, and the SNP offering a variety of stuff (same "living wage", phase out prescription charges, council tax cuts, scrap GARL), we're actually going to have two very different parties going for the polls, that differ in more than just independence vs. the Union.

The SNP are making cuts in things like Police forces and pointless projects like the Rail Link and no more money for trams, and are offering to keep council tax frozen and continue phasing out prescription charges. Meanwhile, Labour propose to (as far as I can see), keep and fund all of the big projects, while instead raising council tax to cover.

So there we have it, two big parties with significantly different visions. Since we have a Unionist Politics thread, why not a dedicated Scottish one as well?

Edited to add a "no change" option.

You should stick in an option for 'who will get your second vote'. That would be interesting.

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Are you suggesting people should vote for a leader and not policy?

At the last election the SNP changed their name to "Alex Salmond for first minister" - but according to Alex this time the election was going to be about "the referendum".

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Of course, what we need is soapbox politics, grand pronouncements about how the banks should spologise and make restitution to Scotland, and the inference that this would never have happened were we independent. It's easy to be bombastic about the faults of the status quo when you won't be around to do the hard work after independence. Salmond is an obvious snake oil salesman.

Are you seriously also saying you'd rather have Iain Gray representing Scotland to the world? Iain Gray would look out of his depth representing a school tuck shop.

At the last election the SNP changed their name to "Alex Salmond for first minister" - but according to Alex this time the election was going to be about "the referendum".

That rule has been changed now so they can't do it, but I don't see what the problem was with it? It still said "SNP" on the ballot.

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Just out of interest, exactly what policies are the Scottish Tory party offering? Genuine question as even at their conference, I barely heard a peep about Scotland. If you're going to vote for them, can you furnish the rest of us as to their plans and policies?

To be honest I don't know either - but then the SNP have already proved that the Scottish elections have all the relevance of the Womans Guild electing a new committee. :rolleyes:

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