Scottish Election 6 weeks away.

I'm going to vote in person so I've got a while to think about it. My decision is almost the opposite of yours Granny23. We have a sitting MSP who is a almost bound to get back in and they are not SNP. I listen to what Anas Sarwar says and agree with a lot of it, but the local Labour Candidate is conspicuous by her absence and I could never vote for a party that not only opposes independence, but is actively trying to stop us even having a referendum about it.

I was going SNP 1 & 2 but the SNP has little chance of getting a list candidate in our area so it will be Green. If Green were standing in the constituencies I'd seriously think of giving them my vote this time.

No way on earth could I ever vote for Alba. Saw something online this morning saying they could have done the SNP a favour in the long run because all the rather extreme indy supporters have gone to Alba. I sincerely hope the SNP won't have them back.

Well I have my ballot paper and want to make a decision as soon as possible but am not finding it easy.
I have voted SNP from the time I was old enough to vote but am most unhappy with the idea of becoming independent only to potentially make the backward step of attempting to rejoin the EEC. I do not wish to be ruled from Brussels.
I am also unimpressed with the state of education and the NHS in Scotland. After all these years in power it cannot be blamed on others. Then there are the unkept promises from the last election. What happened to the reform of council tax for example? Where was it explained to us just what “woke” policies would be introduced in the last parliamentary session?
We are now hearing of wondrous promised changes for the future, all really pie in the sky as there is no suggestion as to where the money is to come from.
So what can I do? There is no viable alternative party. The so called opposition in Scotland is a joke.
Down in Westminster we are being governed by the snouts in trough party which daily is shown to be more and more corrupt. No way can I vote for a party headed by sleazy Salmond. If I vote SNP that will be taken as a vote to rejoin the EEC.
I have never agonised so much about an election. Am I alone in this?

Granny23 I didn't know that about Alba supporters.
I'll be voting Alba on the list because of their stance against self-id of sex (and obviously on independence).
I had intended voting ISP who were first on the scene with that policy but they withdrew when the Alba juggernaut came through.

Greens have been really pushing the woke stuff during the last parliamentary session, by the way, but are keeping very quiet about it now, in their campaign.

This is a serious question FarNorth, I'm not being goady.

How do you square Salmond's attitude to women and his actions with respect to women with your understandable concern about self-id? Or the Alba Party trying to discredit LGBTQ+ groups by saying they were trying to lower the age of consent to 10? I think they are just a bunch of chancers, jumping on bandwagons as fast as they can.

With difficulty, Alegrias1, but less difficulty than voting for people who support self-id of sex.

Wrt the accusations, here's a link to Margaret Lynch of Alba explaining what she actually said.

www.scotsman.com/news/politics/what-i-really-said-at-the-alba-party-conference-margaret-lynch-3202489?fbclid=IwAR2_hiu_OtJVByqmQYjN-zxQBFrGPrqRSJxFOzjmJB61nB-B1YbJMoXhzrU

For anyone in Edinburgh Central - what do you think of Bonnie Prince Bob ?
Link includes a video of B P Bob explaining his political stance.

uk.gofundme.com/f/voteBPB

Thanks FarNorth. I'll read the article from Margaret Lynch, thanks again.

We need more MSPs who put the needs of the Scottish people first, not the needs of the SNP or Alba or any other party obsessed with their own separatist agenda. .

We need more Scottish Liberal DEmocrat MSPs.

twitter.com/willie_rennie/status/1382929179960877057?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

I won't be voting for this, from LibDems.

I do think that the issue you have a problem with, Far North could usefully be the subject of another thread.

All political parties have many proposed policies in their manifestos and we have to balance up what we might agree or disagree with.

All the parties are promising the earth. All we can do is look at what they've actually done. Most manifesto promises are not kept. I've lived through too many elections to believe any one party. Ideally, I'd like no one party to have a majority and for them all to actually work together for the benefit of us all.

esspee. I agree with you. It is a difficult decision.
I feel that the SNP after all these years have had their chance with health and other things . Their record in education is poor. For example 2020 statistics show that the free tuition fees for Scottish students actually results in less places being available for Scottish students . The number of Scottish students is capped to make it affordable.
Also where are the smaller class sizes promised in primary schools.
Highest drug death in the Eu because of SNP cuts .
There is a huge collection of broken promises .
Now there is another huge list of promises ... free dental visits, pilots for trying out a four day week , free bikes for children of low income households , free laptops for every school child . £ 60 million to restore playparks . So many free things . Where will the money come from. ?? They have already been using Covid money to fund free school meals and bus passes etc. storing up trouble for harder times ahead .
Aveline I agree with you too that it is hard to believe in any one party. Think I am getting too cynical now to know who to vote for. But I will use my vote .. still time to decide as I don’t have a postal vote.

I read the Margaret Lynch article and then went down a rabbit hole trying to understand what is going on and TBH, just got completely lost. Its a morass and nobody is coming out of it smelling of roses. varian has it right when she says "All political parties have many proposed policies in their manifestos and we have to balance up what we might agree or disagree with."

But I can't agree with voting for more Lib Dem candidates; Rennie is our local MSP and I find him an embarrassment, its like he's really in over his head and after the "persuade Boris Johnson" comment I am even more convinced of that.

Oh me, what a mess we're in.

varian I have made very few posts in the 5 pages of this thread.
The ones I have made today are relevant to the discussion and are not lengthy. There is no reason why I should go to another thread.

I'm not for a minute suggesting you leave this thread FarNorth but I think the transgender issue is one which might need a thread of its own

I'd certainly be interested to understand it better.

The transgender issue definitely deserves a thread of its own but it was interesting to hear that as a single issue is enough to put someone off voting LibDem. The rights of women as a sex seem to be at risk in Scotland. Quite apart from 'self declaration' of gender seeming to be the thing for SNP, women as a group were excluded from the Hate Crimes Bill - you can say what you like about women but God forbid you say anything about any other group even in the privacy of your own home. So yes. This topic deserves to be in this thread too.

Herald on Sunday this morning is reporting that some Tory backbenchers are urging Johnson to call a snap indy referendum. If he did, it would be sneaky, but clever. Could they do that after all the focus that's in this campaign about avoiding another "divisive" referendum?

Alegrias1

Herald on Sunday this morning is reporting that some Tory backbenchers are urging Johnson to call a snap indy referendum. If he did, it would be sneaky, but clever. Could they do that after all the focus that's in this campaign about avoiding another "divisive" referendum?

You are talking about Johnson?

I have my ballot papers before me. I have a choice of 14 parties and 2 independents but for the first time ever I have no idea who is getting my votes. The Labour candidate is inching ahead at the moment because he is a local lad but that is hardly a political reason to favour him.

As a Scot living in Scotland i could never bring myself to vote snp. My DH is English ( who supports independence) has been abused in shops, restaurant's and in the street, often being called a "English c**nt ( seems to be a favourite of the braveheart yelling group) I myself have been called it too, we are often told to "f**k off back to Westminster. He was refused service in a pub in our local town last summer and told for his own safety he should leave. I did not grow up in a Scotland like this, the country has been dragged to the gutter and the snp have taken it there, it suits there need. Sturgeon will never take the blame for the state of our education system, our health service, our drugs deaths and our poverty, everything is Boris's fault, Westminster's fault or the pandemics fault. Even this morning she was asked about the care home deaths in Scotland and her reply was "it's worse in England" She doesn't have the decency to answer the families of those she sent to their deaths. She can't tell us where the money is coming form to fund her utopia. She still won't tell us who would be guaranteeing the currency she intends to use because she doesn't have a clue. She still believes the E.U are desperate for Scotland, they are not. She wants independence even though she knows the country will e bankrupt, but she would be off to her Portuguese villa they day after we became independent. I can't trust a word she says.

I'm sad to read what you have written Grannypiper.

Many years ago, just after I was married, so maybe 35 years or so, we were at an event and I sat with my DH (born in England) and two friends - one as Scots as they come, but with a "posh" accent, and one English born but a would-be Scot. When we all declined to get involved in a particular event, we all got called English ****s and told to b***** off home. The culprits got a mouthful from me in very earthy Doric about how they were a disgrace to this country and they needed to change their ideas or get back to their caves.

Plus ca change I guess. Nothing to do with the current SNP approach, although many like to fantasise that it is.

If people disagree with a party's policies or manifesto promises, all well and good. But slandering a person's morals because you don't agree with them politically - off limits.

It's not a fantasy Alegrias it's much worse since before the last referendum. It's horrible how unpleasant it all is now. There's a lunatic fringe to the SNP, the 'brave heart brigade', often appearing on marches with blue painted faces in snarling threatening poses which do SNP no favours. Quiet Scots just retreat away from all this and keep their political preferences to themselves. That's what happened at the last referendum.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202104/medium-588292-2.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202104/medium-654396-1.jpg

Oh yes, all those quiet, non-threatening Unionists keeping their political preferences to themselves.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2755259/Scottish-independence-referendum-Orange-Order-descends-Edinburgh.html