Sunday 17 January 2016

Sturgeon bolsters the Scottish Greens


It may be simply that in calling Sturgeon is to back Patrick Harvie’s case for the Scottish Greens to be regarded as a “large party” in a bid to give it parity of television coverage during the Holyrood election campaign is simply being fair and democratic..

The National  says that


Discussions have taken place between the two party leaders – who joined forces to campaign for a Yes vote in the independence referendum – and it is understood the First Minister will be putting forward her support in a submission to the BBC Trust which is consulting on the issue.

A SNP spokesman said last night: “The SNP will be responding and we will be making the case for the Greens to be included in the debates as a large party.”

Harvie said he was “optimistic” the BBC and broadcasting regulator Ofcom would revise its guidance, which currently regards the Scottish Greens as a “minor” party, meaning it can secure less airtime than the SNP, Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The “minor” party status would also weaken its chances of taking part in any leaders’ debates.
 Survation had a new poll of Scottish voting intentions in the Holyrood election this week. As usual in the present Scottish political scene they show a towering SNP lead, with Labour second and the Conservatives in third. Constituency voting intentions are SNP 52%, LAB 21%, CON 16%, LDEM 7%; Regional list intentions are SNP 42%, LAB 20%, CON 16%, GRN 9%, LDEM 8%, UKIP 5%. Tabs are her

So it looks like some SNP voters are intending yo vote Green in the Regional lists

Harvie also drew attention to last year’s general election televised leaders’ debates, which included the Green’s leader Natalie Bennett, as well as the SNP leader and Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood.

It would be wrong of me with not to point out   while the Lib Dems are  bravely due to fight all first past the post seats, the Greens have plans to fight only three constituency and  with the additional Scottish seats being  filled from regional closed party lists, under the d'Hondt method, with constituency results being taken into account, supposedly to produce a degree of proportional representation for each region. Altogether,Should a party ot fighting every seat in a region benefit what is intended to be Top up of seats for those Parties that have received a significant Constituency vote  .

I would hate it if a Unionist Fat Right Party  did this so while I would welcome a number of Scottish Greens  being elected in May  to act somewhat as alternative to having Unionist there I would prefer for them to fight for constituency votes as well.


As I have often stated here in Wales I would consider voting Green  in the Welsh Assembly if I thought Plaid because they were going to well in the Constituencies or if I felt Plaid was abandoning some of its principles. for instance like the SNP supporting an Independent Scotland joining NATO.

Wings over Scotland has claimed that even switching your vote in the Regional vote in Scotland will not significantly  favour smaller parties like the Scottish Greens  and to not gove the SNP its second vote as well, will possibly favour Unionist Parties.

Its not for me to tel the people of Scotland how to vote but Democracy is not about getting the result you personally want  and as I said while welcoming a clutch of Green MSP and AMs elected in Scotland in Wales they may well be "cheating the system" if they don't fight the constituencies  as well,.





6 comments:

Scot by choice said...

{Pardon me saying so Glynn, but some of your assumptions are not 100% correct. Constituency SNP voters figures switching to the Greens on the lists are but estimates at present, and vary a lot depending on the source.

Also the Greens present candidates in many more than three. I haven't counted them, mind. See here: https://yournextmp.com/election/2015/party/party:130/scottish-green-party

The reason why SNP goes down to 42% from 52% is the much bigger amount of TOTAL voting in the lists compared to constituencies, which is estimated to be 30%, mainly greens, ukipers, libdems and others.

Aprox 94% of the SNP voters in the cons, will be voting SNP in the lists too.}



glynbeddau said...

The Information of the Greens fighting are only three seats comes from the National and whilst I agree its only an assumption but its does look rather stark in the correlation between the drop in the SNP vote and rise in Green vote for the regions. It might well be coincidence of course.

agentmancuso said...

"So it looks like some SNP voters are intending yo vote Green in the Regional lists "
True up to a point, but it makes more sense the other way around: many Greens/ socialists/ non-aligned Left will vote SNP in constituences where there is no decent Left choice i.e. the vast majority.

Unknown said...

My impression is that most people voting SNP for the Constituency will also vote SNP for the Region. Many voices are trying to persuade people to vote Green, SSP etc but the fear is that we MUST have a strong Majority of SNP members with Scotland's interest paramount. Sorry but even with my green leanings I just do not trust them. They would sell out for a windfarm or one less road if you see what I mean. Wings have been discussing this and Stuart did a good analysis.

Anonymous said...

The regional vote problem for the SNP is also faced here in Wales in the three southern regions. Those that vote Labour in these regions votes are wasting their votes. Labour has never had a regional AM elected in these three regions in the history of the Assembly. With Labour begining to recognise the threat that UKIP poses this may begin to bring this issue into sharper focus. The other factor to consider is that the AMs that are elected in the regions are often elected on very small margins.

Anonymous said...

Er if anyone has 'sold out' helena it was the snp to the right wing millionaire owner of stage coach brian souter. He gave them a whacking big donation and they dumped their policy to reregulate buses in scotland.