Coalition budget approved. 10% cycling commitment safe (for now)
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
CEC election 2017 (May 4th)
(1269 posts)-
Posted 7 years ago #
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CEC politics is so tame!
http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/15085853.Tom_Gordon__SNP_and_a_game_of_unhappy_families
Posted 7 years ago # -
@chdot - in the olden days when labour ruled North Lanarkshire and Monklands in particular it was nothing like this. NO it was even worse. First you had to be called Jimmy. Then you had to be blood relative or related through marriage to the Don and be in The masons or on the flip support the tic. Next you had to have at least twenty years of illegal sleaze activities before you could even stand for election.
Must be something in the water in Coatbridge.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"
Support for Scottish Labour has more than halved since the last local government elections in 2012, a new poll suggests.
"
Posted 7 years ago # -
"Only about half (53%) of those who voted for Labour in last year’s Holyrood election said they intended to give the party first preference under the single transferable vote (STV) system used to elect Scottish councils, with 21% opting for the Tories and 19% for the SNP instead."
Labour voters switching to the Tories for local elections is just crazy. Are they really thinking about local services and democracy? Or instead is this just an anti-SNP vote with voters focusing on the constitutional issue?
Posted 7 years ago # -
"
SPOKES PUBLIC MEETING – COUNCIL ELECTION HUSTINGS
THURSDAY 6 APRIL 2017 - 7.30pm – doors open 6.45 for coffee, stall and chat
Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge, EdinburghOn May 4th this year, every Council in Scotland will be re-elected. Our Spring Public Meeting on 6th April will be an election hustings for Edinburgh Council…
Attending
Con – Cllr Nick Cook Morningside candidate, Conservative Transport Spokesperson
Green – Cllr Nigel Bagshaw Inverleith candidate, Green Transport Spokesperson, Spokes member
Lab – Cllr Maureen Child Portobello/Craigmillar candidate, Convener of Edinburgh Council’s Communities Committee, Spokes member
LibDem – Hal Osler Inverleith candidate
SNP – Adam McVey Leith candidate, Vice-Convener of Edinburgh Council’s Transport CommitteeFormat:
The meeting will begin with the candidates giving short talks, from the platform, on their party’s concerns and commitments on cycling and any related transport policy issues they wish to mention.We hope then to use the very successful format of our Scottish Parliament hustings in March 2016, where the audience splits into groups and the candidates spend 10 mins or so in each group. This gives you a much greater chance to engage with the politicians, rather than the usual format of a speaker panel sitting on the platform and a limited number of questions from the floor.
Finally, the speakers will close with a brief summing up of what they have learned from the meeting.
"
Link to our site and download the poster.
http://www.spokes.org.uk/2017/02/spokes-council-hustings-6-april/
Posted 7 years ago # -
@crowriver (sigh) - I do wish party interests would only play about 10% in a local election and forget about the constitutional issue, however much it dominates our politics these days.
However I can't see us leaving this particular hamster wheel for years to come.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@Rosie, what I can't understand is why voters are not focusing on local issues and services instead. However it appears we're getting a re-run of Holyrood instead.....unless we're seeing a 'Brexit factor' coming into play?
Posted 7 years ago # -
@crowriver - What I can't understand is why turn out for local elections is so low. You can see results of Council decisions in full plain sight & as a local punter you have a reasonable chance of influencing them.
However not as exciting as waving a saltire...
Posted 7 years ago # -
"However not as exciting as waving a saltire..."
Or a Union Jack, in the case of those switching to the Tories. I mean really, how on earth can Labour voters switch to the Tories? Mind boggling!
Posted 7 years ago # -
".... how on earth can Labour voters switch to the Tories? Mind boggling!"
There has always been a very socially conservative soft Labour vote. We see similar swings across Europe and the US.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Won't the 21 per cent switching to Tories and the 19 per cent switching to SNP cancel each other out!?
We live in strange times. But I have never heard of a labour voter switching to Tory? In Scotland in recent years. Maybe lib dem for tactical voting.
I think the poll is possibly cahones.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"I have never heard of a labour voter switching to Tory"
Sheltered life(?)
You've fallen for the Labour 'taken for granted' notion that there is such a thing as a "Labour Voter".
In Scotland there are clearly people who will never vote for the SNP for tribal/Unionist/other reasons.
Now there are people no longer willing to vote Lab - for whatever reasons.
Some will/already vote SNP.
Others might prefer Ruth to Kezia.
Recent elections prove that things are no longer decided on 'policies'.
Much more random.
Hard to know how many people want/expect 'something', 'anything - as long as it's different' or ?
Expect a low turnout.
Posted 7 years ago # -
(See also Copeland.)
Posted 7 years ago # -
I know plenty of former labour voters who now vote SNP. They never left the Labour Party, the Labour Party left them.
By which I mean the people I know feel they stayed true to their principals.
Suppose it is all quite self selecting, I don't know many Tories. I know some, some are decent folk. Some are mentalists.
I just don't know any former labour voters who are now Tory voters. Maybe they are just keeping it from me as they know I will cry.
The poll remains pants.
Posted 7 years ago # -
The majority of people who vote aren't dyed in the wool Labour/Tory/SNP. There is a significant degree of flexibility and churn based on a whole range of things, not necessarily on principles. Just as an example, several who have voted Labour in Edinburgh might decide to change because they've taken a dislike to Leslie Hinds, notwithstanding she's not standing and the voter may not even be in her ward; that's how unscientific it is. I would say it's easier for a Labour voter to change to Tory (or UKIP in England) than to take the more logical step to Lib Dem or Green. The advantage of local elections is that turnout will be low so the voters will tend to be more committed and principled.
Posted 7 years ago # -
I can see the reasoning of UKIP angling for traditional labour voters in England. Also the reasoning of labour voters switching to Left of centre SNP. Further, this bloc of SNP. Voters who used to vote labour all used to vote Tory (not the same people but the same bloc). So I can see switching happens.
I also agree that the turnout in local government is boiled down to more political parts of the population such as adherents or members of certain parties.
So the conclusion I draw is that the poll that claimed to have Scottish actual voters actually switching from labour to Tory is a pile of pants
Posted 7 years ago # -
@ Gembo
You'll prefer this poll -
Posted 7 years ago # -
Lot Of fake news in the Rochdale herald.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Donald Trump has just renamed Fake News as Very Fake News.
(True)
Posted 7 years ago # -
Man, not just normal fake, that is just all news, but VERY fake. Fake sake
Posted 7 years ago # -
Posted 7 years ago #
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Fox News always been fake
Fake Fox News
Posted 7 years ago # -
Do two fakes make a true?
Posted 7 years ago # -
(Not Edinburgh)
Posted 7 years ago # -
I find it hilarious UK parties complaining about fake news when they pretty much originated the practice with those election pamphlets masquerading as newspapers which drop through the letterbox in handfuls pre-elections (I have it my head that the sanctimonious LibDems started it, at least in Edinburgh?)
Posted 7 years ago # -
Also to an extent is even the bbc in part not there to provide a certain perspective of news the foreign office funded the word service for decades possibly best to rely on an independent source such the world fact book for some objectivity. Although BBC documentaries are good like British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley, perhaps news take time and reflection.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"best to rely on an independent source such the world fact book for some objectivity."
You mean, the CIA world fact book?
No such thing as objectivity. There's always bias or a point of view. Hence why BBC current affairs (e.g. Newsnight) attempts "balance" i.e.. having different, opposing points of view.
Posted 7 years ago # -
lots more money for motorways and bridges but not so much for cycling, walking, and buses
Interesting proposition from Mark Lazarowicz for Labour's approach to this election on their open-access blog;
http://labourhame.com/two-ways-labour-can-oppose-snp-in-the-local-elections/
Seems to think reducing urban car use is a vote winner.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Well he's right about Option 2 - seems to be the preferred option of some of his colleagues.
I'm sure there are well understood reasons why people vote less at local elections when it concerns things that directly affect them and elects people that can change some things.
Seems odd though.
Posted 7 years ago #
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