Phew!!
What a last couple of weeks it has been in Scottish Politics.
Firstly we probably had the biggest rollercoaster ride in the world. i.e. The Scottish Elections. Lack of postal ballots, breaking down machines, suspended counts, sellotape and a man swinging a golf club. It was certainly memorable.
Not to mention a pretty pathetic turnout, two elections, using three different ways to allocate seats and of the ones that did turn up to vote, a significant number couldn't make head nor tail of what they were expected to do.
Once some results did finally start to come in, there was no way to predict a winner until the very last seat was read out. Just as a result came in that you thought, "right that's it, it is bound to go their way now," along would come another result which would fly in the face of the previous one.
At the end of it all, we had a change of government, which I think the majority of Scotland wanted to see. Although, was it going to be a coalition or minority government? The Lib Dems intransigence made sure that there was going to be no coalition despite the Greens appealing to their better nature.
Salmond has already got down to business and has elected his front bench, slashing the number of departments that the previous administration had left. This is supposed to be a slicker government to work towards making Scotland "Healthier, Wealthier, Safer and Better Educated." Certainly Salmond is going about his business with the confidence expected of a national leader, which I think was slightly lacking form the previous incumbent.
At the UEFA Cup Final which was held in Glasgow on Wednesday, Salmond was rubbing shoulders with UEFA president Michael Platini. Barely 24 hours later, Salmond was staking Scotland's bid to host the European Championships in 2016.
He has also highlighted the fact that Scottish companies have to pay substantially more money to get their electricity onto the national grid than their London counterparts.
Although these two things don't amount to very much in themselves, I think it points to the direction Salmond is taking Scotland. Standing up for its interests and not just lying down and accepting normal practice.
More of the same Alex.
Saturday, 19 May 2007
Thursday, 17 May 2007
What's the price?
Cost of Scottish parliament fit for the 21st century - £414,000,000
Cost of Trident nuclear system capable of human annihilation - £26,000,000,000
Getting rid of Jack McConnell and Tony Blair - Priceless
Cost of Trident nuclear system capable of human annihilation - £26,000,000,000
Getting rid of Jack McConnell and Tony Blair - Priceless
Friday, 4 May 2007
Election 2007 – SNP Victorious
As a famous song once went, "Oh, what a night!"
We had it all. Excitement, drama, controversy, heated exchanges. And that was just in the BBC studio!
There are two big stories emerging from Election Night.
Firstly there is the disaster relating to the issue of votes and how these votes have been counted ( or not counted ).
Secondly, we had an historic result as the SNP emerged as the biggest single party in Holyrood.
First things first though. Let’s look at the issue of the actual vote and all the issues emerging from it.
Postal Votes
It is simply unforgivable that people who have registered to get a postal vote are left wondering where it is when election day arrives. Everyone who is entitled to vote, should have the opportunity to vote and this opportunity has simply been taken away by incompetence somewhere along the line.
Counting System
Last month, I raised concerns about the electronic voting system. At that point I was more concerned about the integrity of the vote and could never imagine the total fiasco that was played out last night in regard to the counting system. Count after count was suspended as the computer software involved failed to function properly. Apparently it was due to the volume of votes!! Well heaven help us if the turnout had been around 80%.
STV/Council Elections and all that
People have got to decide what they want. Do they want council elections turnout to be 20 odd percent? If so let’s have it on a separate day. Do they want proportional representation where every vote counts, or do they want first past the post?
Somewhere along the line people have got to take responsibility for themselves. Despite numerous advertisements in the press and media, despite clear instructions on the ballot paper, despite Labour guys handing out "sample" voting papers, there was still something like 10% of the ballot papers not counted because they were filled in wrong.
What happened to the sophisticated Scottish electorate? Did it let its brother or sister, who are 99 pence short of a pound, vote for them by proxy?
Result
But onto the result and what a result!
For the first time in over 50 years, the Labour Party are no longer the largest party in Scotland. Given the negative campaign the media have bombarded the SNP with and considering how many seats they were behind after the last election, this result is nothing short of sensational.
Alex Salmond should be smiling like the proverbial Cheshire cat, given this result and in his own constituency of Gordon where he came from third place in the previous election to take it. But Salmond is too shrewd for that. He knows there are still a lot of politics to go under the bridge before he is rightly installed as First Minister of Scotland.
The result also saw the bigger parties re-establish themselves and saw the virtual disappearance of the smaller parties. Both the SSP and Solidarity paid the price for their bitter fall out and didn’t gain a seat. The parliament has possibly lost its greatest speaker in Tommy Sheridan. Global warming has taken its toll on the Green vote as this has been cut back to 2 MSPs.
But this election has belonged to one party and one party only. They have constantly been one step ahead of the rest throughout the campaign.
Step forward the SNP.
We had it all. Excitement, drama, controversy, heated exchanges. And that was just in the BBC studio!
There are two big stories emerging from Election Night.
Firstly there is the disaster relating to the issue of votes and how these votes have been counted ( or not counted ).
Secondly, we had an historic result as the SNP emerged as the biggest single party in Holyrood.
First things first though. Let’s look at the issue of the actual vote and all the issues emerging from it.
Postal Votes
It is simply unforgivable that people who have registered to get a postal vote are left wondering where it is when election day arrives. Everyone who is entitled to vote, should have the opportunity to vote and this opportunity has simply been taken away by incompetence somewhere along the line.
Counting System
Last month, I raised concerns about the electronic voting system. At that point I was more concerned about the integrity of the vote and could never imagine the total fiasco that was played out last night in regard to the counting system. Count after count was suspended as the computer software involved failed to function properly. Apparently it was due to the volume of votes!! Well heaven help us if the turnout had been around 80%.
STV/Council Elections and all that
People have got to decide what they want. Do they want council elections turnout to be 20 odd percent? If so let’s have it on a separate day. Do they want proportional representation where every vote counts, or do they want first past the post?
Somewhere along the line people have got to take responsibility for themselves. Despite numerous advertisements in the press and media, despite clear instructions on the ballot paper, despite Labour guys handing out "sample" voting papers, there was still something like 10% of the ballot papers not counted because they were filled in wrong.
What happened to the sophisticated Scottish electorate? Did it let its brother or sister, who are 99 pence short of a pound, vote for them by proxy?
Result
But onto the result and what a result!
For the first time in over 50 years, the Labour Party are no longer the largest party in Scotland. Given the negative campaign the media have bombarded the SNP with and considering how many seats they were behind after the last election, this result is nothing short of sensational.
Alex Salmond should be smiling like the proverbial Cheshire cat, given this result and in his own constituency of Gordon where he came from third place in the previous election to take it. But Salmond is too shrewd for that. He knows there are still a lot of politics to go under the bridge before he is rightly installed as First Minister of Scotland.
The result also saw the bigger parties re-establish themselves and saw the virtual disappearance of the smaller parties. Both the SSP and Solidarity paid the price for their bitter fall out and didn’t gain a seat. The parliament has possibly lost its greatest speaker in Tommy Sheridan. Global warming has taken its toll on the Green vote as this has been cut back to 2 MSPs.
But this election has belonged to one party and one party only. They have constantly been one step ahead of the rest throughout the campaign.
Step forward the SNP.
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