Spontaneous Monotony

A new era has begun in Scottish politics. True, the most central ambition of most SNP voters - namely Scottish independence - now looks unlikely to be realised ((Unless of course the Liberal Democrats decide to hold true to their name and allow the people, rather than the politicians, to decide this important issue)). That does not change the fact that Neo Labour is no longer in power in Scotland.

Their campaign was nothing short of disgraceful. Instead of telling people their policies, they spent almost all of their time spreading misleading FUD ((Readers in the west of Scotland should note the capitalisation of FUD - it is an acronym, not an expletive. A definition is available on Wikipedia))about the SNP, for example:

• ‘The SNP will increase income tax by 3%’. Yes, this is true. What they didn’t mention is that it is the Local Income Tax, and that the 3% rise will be offset by abolishing council tax altogether. The end result would be that people on low and average incomex would be better off than they are at present - not worse off as Neo Labour’s FUD claimed.
• ‘Separation [sic] will bankrupt Scotland’. The first problem with this is that Scotland would take control of 100% of its revenue (instead of its natural resources and taxes going to Westminster coffers and the Chancellor giving us pocket money in return). Second, Scotland would not have to pay a share of the extraordinarily expensive, unnecessary evils enacted by Westminster - £70bn for new treaty-violating weapons of mass destruction, £20bn for compulsory, human-rights violating ID cards.

I could go on for ages, but Neo Labour’s campaign has been consigned to the bin by the Scottish people, where it belongs. What is important now is for the other four parties (plus Margo McDonald) to vote on a policy-by-policy by basis to honour the commitments they made to the people in their legitimate, positive campaigns.

Well, it seems that the Lib Dems have (for once in their lives) stuck to their manifesto commitments and refused to go into coalition with the SNP. I don’t see why they wouldn’t accept the compromise on offer though - coalition government, but without any requirement to support an independence referendum. In other words, they could go into government, and have the direct ability to put their policies into practice, without breaking their promise not to support an independence referendum.

Whatever the reasons and counter-reasons, the most likely end result is that the SNP (possibly in an insignificant coalition with the 2-MSP Greens) will form a minority government in the Scottish Parliament. The Labourslave newspapers (chief among them the Daily Record and the Scotsman ((Both had a habit of printing anti-SNP Blairist propaganda as fact during the election campaign))) are predicting all sorts of doom and gloom - that the SNP can’t possibly expect to get its policies into law, and that it will result in an electoral hammering for them next time as voters see a lack of result from their SNP vote ((I’m not sure whether this is actual analysis or wishful thinking, giving the political persuasion of the newspapers we’re talking about here)).

Unfortunately, people (many of the same people, in fact) were saying the same thing about coalition government in 1999, and that turned out fine. There is no reason why, for example, local income tax (one of the SNP’s main commitments in the ‘other than independence’ section of the manifesto) will not end up a reality. The Lib Dems might not be in coalition with the SNP, but Nicol Stephen has said that they will promote their own, positive policies - local income tax is one of these. The same can be said of policies in other areas -the SNP voted in favour of a significant number of Labour policies they agreed with during the last Parliament, and I don’t see any reason why the reverse will not be true this time.

The governance of Scotland looks likely to be different from anything we have seen before, and not just in terms of party makeup. That doesn’t necessarily mean it is going to be worse than what went before.

Aside from the issue about some people not knowing the difference between a number and a cross, this Scottish Parliament election will be remembered not for the battles between Labour or the SNP, but for the disgraceful screwup in the electronic counting system. Suppose that’s what happens when you let private companies get their grubby paws on the running of an election.

External links

• BBC News - Elections marred by vote problems

In case you hadn’t noticed, there is an election on Thursday. Whatever your opinions - for or against independence, for or against nuclear power (or whatever other issue) - go along and vote. The proportional representation system ensures that votes are not wasted - just because a particular party is dominant in your area does not mean that there is no point in voting if you support another party. If your party of choice has as little as 10% of the vote, that could be enough to secure an MSP.

Whatever your beliefs are, this is your chance to make your voice heard. Don’t end up with a crappy government just because you were too lazy to walk (or more likely drive) half a mile to a polling station.