Scottish Elections

[nino_savatte]

I heard this morning that Nu Labour plan to take legal advice and challenge the election results. I know that there were problems with the ballots but does anyone here think that Labour are being bad losers?

 

[TAE]

I think NewLabour need to be careful.

 

[lewislewis]

I heard this morning that Nu Labour plan to take legal advice and challenge the election results. I know that there were problems with the ballots but does anyone here think that Labour are being bad losers?

What you heard is one Labour candidate plans to take legal advice. There's been no word from Jack McConnell or Gordon Brown yet. Other candidates, Labour, SNP and the others could also challenge their respective results. Unless 80% of those 100,000 missing votes were for Labour, the SNP will still have won the election, so it's lucky that that much is clear.

That said, the election seems like a farce up there. Neil Kinnock's company runs the counting computers and they largely couldn't deal with the votes. There should be an independent inquiry, nothing to do with any of the parties or indeed with central government.

My sources tell me that the whole logistics of the operation was crap too, as the UK government insisted on the Scottish Office running the election, rather than Scotland itself.

 

[lewislewis]

same here, but have the lib dems stopped being pissy about having a referendum?
incidentally, i think that full indepeneddance would create more problems than it would solve, but i wholeheartedly support having a referendum on the matter

Of course, why don't opponents of independence support the referendum anyway? Then they can vote against it, and the popular mandate will win the day.

It will be very interesting to see if a progressive SNP govt can be built, and whether it will actually be any different to New Labour.

 

[geminisnake]

That's an irrational view.

No it's not. Voting isn't a right in every country so if you do have the right it's my belief you should use it. Sod all irrational about it

 

[lewislewis]

No it's not. Voting isn't a right in every country so if you do have the right it's my belief you should use it. Sod all irrational about it

It's mainly because UK politics is so crap and not focused on the people anymore. There used to be really high turn-outs.
A good way to get a high turn-out is to connect to the people (for a start, being one of 'the people' helps, rather than some distant politician that only appears every 4 years and expects your vote).

Forgive me for making a party political point here, but if you list the turn-outs of Welsh constituencies in our May 3rd vote, all 7 of the seats Plaid held or won are in the top 10. That's because the Plaid Assembly Members work as politicians should, knocking on every door throughout their 4 year term, staying in touch.
In the Valleys where it's Labour one-party rule you'd be lucky to get a 40% turn-out, and people haven't got a clue who their AM is, because she sods off after the election to the Cardiff Bay gravy train for the netx 4 years.

I don't say 'people should be ashamed if they don't vote' but like you, I encourage my friends to vote because it is worth doing if you want to influence the government.

The fact is, the people that didn't vote on May 3rd were not sitting at home organising the socialist vanguard or being anarchists, like some users of this forum would like to believe There IS an alternative to perma-tanned, suit-wearing strangers who knock on your door every 4 years then sod off, and in Wales that alternative is Plaid (not sure about Scotland or England). The best way to ensure this is to have a party where the membership is ordinary people, and where there are no outside interests like big business funding, cash for peerages, trade union bureacracy, etc.

 

[TAE]

Neil Kinnock's company runs the counting computers

Are you serious?!

 

[Fullyplumped]

Are you serious?!

I think lewislewis is being a wee bit dramatic here. Neil Kinnock is a non-executive director on the board of DRS Data & Research Services plc, the company that provided the technical services for the count. According to its annual reports he owns no shares in the company. He was paid £13,000 in 2005 and £20,000 in 2006 for his services. It is not "his" company.

 

[TAE]

Even so ... that's very very dodgy IMO.

 

[lewislewis]

He received money for it...
Anything that man touches is a disaster, but yes I was being a bit dramatic.