Scottish elections

[winterbadger]

Friends in Alba: Are you voting in today's elections? Do you feel that the BBC party platform summaries are a fairly accurate, if brief, description of the different stances of the parties? What issues are most important to you?

Comments

[rethought.livejournal.com]

I voted for ybunny since he's in Egypt. But, I voted as instructed, so I didn't do much investigation into the party differences. I'll do that when/if I ever get sufferage.

[ybunny.livejournal.com]

Don't know about all of them but a couple look ok. although they say very little about each topic so its difficult to say.

things I'm most intrested at the moment are the environment, the NHS & other public sectors, and transport (particuarly public)

[aitkendrum.livejournal.com]

Not a bad summary but there some key issues underlying the whole fight that don't seem highlighted. The nuclear weapons issue (UK needs to replace Trident) is one and the whole question of independence. If the SNP get in we might not have any nuclear weapons in Scotland which would make a change from having Trident based here (Holy Loch).

For me NHS, Anti social behaviour and council tax (local tax) are the issues for me.

I *shiver* at the thought of being fully independent. The turmoil and upheaval just scares me.

[wolfette]

well, I must admit a good part of what I was looking for on the voting form was a real politician. "the Publican's Party - bring back smoking in pubs"? Give me a break. Some religious nutters, some old age pensioner farts, a "ghost" who normally does walking tours of the old town.

Then once you find one or two, try to match their philosophy up with mine, as far as possible.

[cmlc.livejournal.com]

The descriptions seem OK as far as they go, but as aitkendrum says, some major issues aren't mentioned there at all. The issues mentioned there are the ones you would expect to be covered in a normal domestic election. But Scottish elections are never quite normal: the overarching issue is of Scotland's constitutional status and its relationship with England, whether the country should be independent, whether the parliament should get more powers short of independence, or not, or even be destroyed altogether.

Also, a lot of people vote on what a party has done in the past, or on the reputation a party has built up, at least as much as on what it promises it'll do in the future.

And also individual politicians can be a far bigger pulling factor than the party they're in - a politician's personality and record of helping people (or not) can count for a lot.