And another!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
CEC election 2017 (May 4th)
(1269 posts)-
Posted 7 years ago #
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Impressive. In a particularly thin manifesto, the Lib Dems fail to spell out any plans for modal shift ('maintain 10% for walking and cycling' is pretty meagre) but manage to sneak in a mention of encouraging people to cycle considerately. Because that's the real problem here.
Posted 7 years ago # -
'maintain 10% for walking and cycling' is, of course, inaccurate as the 10% is for cycling.
As I've said before, (almost) everyone is in favour of 10% for cycling, therefore I think it's reasonable to expect more money to be put into walking in the next session of the council - and to campaign for it.
Posted 7 years ago # -
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LEADING centre-right historian Michael Fry claims Scottish Tories “seldom have anything to say except on the constitution”.
Fry, a former Tory candidate, believes Ruth Davidson’s party is gripped by a hardline Unionism that seeks to appeal to a hardcore of just 20 per cent of Scots. He said the party had increasingly collapsed into an “unyielding, almost fanatical Unionism”.
"
At the local/council election level there is some concentration on policy, but the PPB was about 'promising to stop IndyRef2'.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08mj8vt
Labour's was worse.
Don't know what the rules on getting free telly slots are, but maybe they need to be looked at in terms of 'appropriate content for relevant election'.
Posted 7 years ago # -
For a party that thinks 'the time is not right' this sort of stuff is pretty indefensible.
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A Tory MSP has called on voters to “back anyone but the SNP” and support other unionist parties in order to fend off a second independence referendum.
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http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/murdo-fraser-back-anyone-but-snp-to-stop-indyref2-1-4420978
Whatever people/voters' views are on parties, Indy, Ref2, Holyrood, Westminster, EU, Brexit etc., this a local election.
This sort of stuff demeans their own candidates and insults the electorate.
In a climate where some people have said 'people who voted for Brexit must be racist', to suggest 'a vote for the Tories (or Labour) is a vote against IndyRef2' is crass.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Somewhat economical with the truth.
We'll ignore whether or not the SNP was particularly keen on 10%, but they were part of a coalition!
Still, good to see this in an SNP councillor's leaflet -
Posted 7 years ago # -
It's the best sign of all when people start pretending something was their idea. That means they own it.
Posted 7 years ago # -
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Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has urged voters against using next month’s Town hall elections as a “protest” against independence.
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That's good.
Clearly she had nothing to do with her party's recent PPB(?)
Posted 7 years ago # -
however one local issue that is on the lips of many voters is the roll out of 20mph speed limits across Edinburgh city centre, which McLellan describes as “hugely unpopular”.
If elected, he hopes to help return major roads to 30mph while maintaining the lower limit on quieter residential streets.
“There’s a lot of support for a limit that’s sensible in residential streets and around schools, but on some of the main roads traffic has been reduced to a funereal place and it’s causing frustration for people.”
Posted 7 years ago # -
I don't think he will win.
Posted 7 years ago # -
There is, as far as I can see, about one mile worth of road in Craigentinny/Duddingston which is arguably "major", but has a 20mph speed limit. That's a section of Niddrie Mains Road, and most of the times I've been down it the average speed of cars has been well below 20mph anyway.
Posted 7 years ago # -
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The SNP and Greens face a dilemma over whether to use their preference votes in next month’s ballot, writes Lesley Riddoch
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http://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/lesley-riddoch-tactical-battle-over-election-strategy-1-4421123
Posted 7 years ago # -
Whether you think the elections are about cycling, local politics or independence (or, in my case, not independence!) or some combination of these and other factors, it seems to me crazy not to use the full power of your vote.
i.e. one should rank all the candidates on the ballot paper. In this type of election system it is not a vote only for those you like, but it is putting the candidates into your order of preference, from most liked to most disliked.
If, for example, you'd hate to have SNP or Tories elected, but of those two you would most hate Tories, then you would rank the SNP candidate(s) in front of the Tory ones (and, obviously, below your favourite candidates). If you don't do this you are leaving that particular decision up to other voters and giving up your chance to influence it.
There's an explanation by @hankchief here.
Incidentally, if cycling matters to you in deciding how to vote, Spokes has done a comparison of manifestos, here. Retweets of that are welcome here.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Interesting Hustings for Drumbrae/Gyle Ward tonight.
I live tweeted it using #DrumbraeGyle.
The SNP candidate didn't turn up due to illness and so I didn't get chance to speak to her about #walkcyclevote or hear any of her views on the issues that matter to me :-(
The candidates kept their views focussed on local issues but the theme of the questions from the audience was about delivering what the local community want.
So there was lots of chat about localism and listening to local community councils and other local groups.
However, at the end the chair of the local community council admitted that they had failed to attract people to their meetings to get any real weight behind their views.
Not sure if it is a bit chicken & egg. The community councils don't have much say and so not many people invest the time to attend, so they don't carry much weight.
Not sure what the solution is. The councillors are elected to do what is best for their constituents and have some accountability to the wide range of demographics in the ward.
Local community councillors are predominantly self selected and no guarantee of being representative of the whole community.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Re: voting preferences.
In Norn Iron they have a slogan for what to do with a Single Transferable Vote:
Vote Until You Boak.
Thankfully that is in Scots so we should be able to understand it well enough!
Luckily I don't have a UKIP candidate in my ward, but if i did that would probably be where the boak would come in...
Plenty of contests last time went down to a 7th round of counting preference votes, even 9 or 10 rounds is not unheard of. So do use your vote...
Posted 7 years ago # -
Posted 7 years ago #
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Portobello & Craigmillar went a full eight rounds last time, with a Green unfortunately* just missing out to a second Labour councillor.
* other opinions on this result are available.
Posted 7 years ago # -
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Portobello/Craigmillar will now elect 4 councillors instead of 3.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Edinburgh_Council_election,_2017
Posted 7 years ago # -
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But while she hopes the election will focus on the UK coming out of the EU, the campaign in Scotland is going to be just as much, if not more, about Indyref 2. The SNP will be seeking a mandate for a second referendum while the anti-independence parties, particularly the Tories, will argue the election is an opportunity to register their opposition to another vote.
The SNP won 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats last time and the signs are that the party will hold on to most of them.
But Labour’s Ian Murray is confident he can win again in Edinburgh South and there is speculation Labour might also be able to take back East Lothian, where Iain Gray was able to fend off the SNP challenge at last year’s Holyrood election.
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Posted 7 years ago # -
@chdot - it's was expanded a bit by the last Boundary Commission review. Now choosing four from a list of seven.
Posted 7 years ago # -
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Active travel is not only the most affordable and, for many, accessible form of travel, it has clear benefits for the environment as well as physical and mental health. Local authorities, in partnership with central government and the third sector should work towards improving their local walking and cycle path network.
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Posted 7 years ago # -
Looks like Murrayfied CC didn't invite the Green candidate to their hustings...
https://mobile.twitter.com/katenevens/status/854690813154144256
"Hi Murrayfield CC I've been trying to email about the hustings in the 25th but without any joy. I'm the local green candidate
Posted 7 years ago # -
Looks like Murrayfied CC didn't invite the Green candidate to their hustings...
I can't find any information about other participants. Have they invited anyone?
EDIT: The kirk has a list. Tory, SNP and Lib Dem taking part, apparently. http://www.murrayfieldparishchurch.org.uk/page35.html
Posted 7 years ago # -
Presumably Greens, Labour and other lefty or independent thinking types are beyond the pale for the staunch bastions of Murrayfield CC?
Posted 7 years ago # -
Another PPB for the local elections where the Scottish party leader thinks it's OK to say (not much more than) 'vote for my party' (throughout the UK)
(SLD)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=party%20election%20broadcasts
Posted 7 years ago # -
I'm puzzled how one can purport to hold a hustings but only invite 3 of the parties
Posted 7 years ago # -
I'm puzzled how one can purport to hold a hustings but only invite 3 of the parties
It's possible that the Labour and independent candidates were invited and simply can't make it. It's also possible that an invitation was sent to the Green Party and the message wasn't passed on to the candidate. Their minutes from 2012 say they invited all candidates and that all but UKIP accepted.
EDIT: As has been noted in the WCV thread, finding contact details for candidates isn't as easy as it used to be, either.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Looks like it's been sorted:
http://www.murrayfieldcc.org.uk/news/news_detail/592
All attending apart from UKIP and the independent.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Excellent! Cynicism quelled.
Posted 7 years ago #
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