Scottish Parliament Elections
Interesting times in Scottish Politics which I don't currently have time to talk about substantially - 7 Greens, 6 Socialists, a Hospital campaigner, a senior citizens representative, the ex-SNP Margo MacDonald and Dennis Cannovan were all elected to serve as MSP's (Members of the Scottish Parliament) along with the usual Labour, Lib Dem, Conservative and SNP bunch.
SNP seemed to make a mess of the whole thing, losing some key people including Andrew Wilson, their economic spokesman, who was one of the few coherent voices. Is it a reflection of devolution being enough for some ex-SNP supporters? Did they underestimate the 2nd vote potential for bringing in all the Greens, Socialists and Independents? Was the way they organised their party lists as big a shambles as it seems?
The low turnout undoubtedly was a part of the losses of New Labour blamed on voter apathy, the weather, Iraq etc. Is it perhaps more the case that when the main parties are seen to be so similar, and the current state of affairs is hardly a disaster, people by nature are more inclined to vote if they are voting against something rather than for something.
It will be an interesting four years at Holyrood certainly and hopefully the increased exposure of the SSP and the Greens will cause the Executive to fashion policies on Social Justice and the Environment which are fair to the people and the planet rather than fighting the little folk just for the sake of fighting and discrediting them.
Margo MacDonald, standing on a broadly left of centre independence ticket, has in the past been a vocal supporter of Prostitution Tolerance Zones, an idea which accepts the reality, often the grim reality, of prostitution and addresses the issues head on rather than sweeping the whole business under the carpet.
The hospital campaigner lady, can't remember her name, is a problem for me simply because I have no idea where she stands on anything apart from the closure of Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow. Now, perhaps that hospital ought not to be closed, perhaps it should be closed, I don't know but are we really going to pay her fifty thousand quid a year for four years just to talk about one hospital? Where does she stand on Independence? the Environment? Health (aside the hospital that we know about)? Education? Fishing & Farming? and so on - more importantly do the people who voted for her expect her to take sides on any issues, what can they expect? This too will be interesting.
In closure, in general, I think this is all pretty good. The system was set-up to represent the people more accurately than the Westminster first past the post system and it seems to be doing that. Lets hope the people have something worth saying and that the Executive deem it worth hearing.
Posted by Paul at May 2, 2003 06:12 PM |