So, what’s a Green to do with their constituency vote?

Chris Napier

So much has been written about the tactical usage of the regional list vote in this election based on the assumption that the SNP will easily win most if not all of the constituencies. That has made the constituency vote – once seen as the more important – seem a bit overlooked.

Like most Green party members or supporters, I don’t have the option of voting for a Green on both ballots, so I’ve got a real decision to make with where to mark my constituency ballot.

This is made even more meaningful because the incumbent and favourite in my constituency is none other than First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon…

Beyond the ‘Strivers and Skivers’ Narrative

Claire Hamilton Russell

Listen to any member of the Westminster government pontificate on their policies towards disabled people and the word “work” will come up again and again. The premier reason given by many of the Tory MPs who voted to reduce the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) entitlement for those in the Work-Related Activity Group (WRAG) to the same level as that of Jobseeker’s Allowance was “to help incentivise those people to enter employment”.

Wealth, Envy, Boots & Showers

Chris Napier

It is often said that rich people are the source of all wealth, and, that anyone who objects to that orthodoxy is an underachieving layabout afflicted by envy. Furthermore, if we annoy the rich, they’ll go elsewhere and take their wealth, which tumbles from their pockets like a shower of gold, with them.

That is total bullshit.

Let me be clear. Rich people are not wealth creators, they are wealth extractors. That is why they are wealthy.

Parliamentary Majorities Suck

The Virago

Okay, here’s the deal: I’m confident that we will make independence happen in my lifetime with or without the SNP getting ever larger majorities. I want to do it with a healthy parliament with diverse voices from across the political spectrum. Because I am a nerd.

Mhairi Black – do you want my vote back?

A response to Mhairi Black by The Familiar

Dear Mhairi,

You were my #SNPGOOD.

I had a bit of a crush on you. I read your column in the National and shared videos of you in parliament. This time last year I convinced members of my family to vote for you.

Every so often a politician comes along who transcends party politics.

I thought you were the SNP’s Charlie Kennedy.

I thought you were the one.

I was wrong.

Politicians gonna politics.

Ding dong Labour’s dead!

The Familiar

So there’s a dog fight for second place and a (growing) chance that Labour might lose.

People feel betrayed by Labour.

I get that.

I remember the elation when Blair was elected followed by a raft of genuinely progressive legislation. I remember my youthful enthusiasm when protesting Afghanistan and Iraq which was snuffed out so hard it took a baby and the referendum to rekindle.

I have never voted Labour.

And I don’t intend to.

But it mystifies me why people are HAPPY that Labour could get beaten by the Tories.

No (Effective) Representation Without Taxation – How Greens Will Shake Up Council Funding

Allan Faulds

Following on from David Allison’s piece yesterday about how important local empowerment is, as a matter of democratic principle rather than cynical policy, it seemed a good time for to follow up by getting a little  bit more technical on some of what we need to put that principle into practice – namely, an enormous shift in the level of responsibility our local councils have over their own revenues and expenditure.

A Local Post, For Local People

David Allison

Many valid reactions to the above image are possible, but for me it brought a bit of clarity to something that I’d been uneasy about for a while now.  Does it look like we’re shifting power from the centre to local communities or indulging in a tactical strike?

Commitment to local democracy was one of the things that drew me towards the Greens during the indyref – if the people of Scotland were the one’s best placed to manage their own affairs, would the same not be true for the people of Dundee, or Thurso, or East Kilbride?

Trust Me, I’m A Doctor. Or Not…

A Crow

‘Well, I maybe trust you a little bit’.

Not too much of a compliment there, you might think.  Actually, you could be completely wrong.

Never mind the bollocks – here’s the manifesto!

The Familiar

I used to vote because mum hammered it into me that ‘women died so that you could vote’. It was normally a joyless tactical vote.

In 2010 I voted Lib Dems.

To keep the Tories out.

That went well – didn’t it?