CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

We need a Scottish Parliament election thread

(1355 posts)

No tags yet.


  1. Stickman
    Member

    Lothian list: Sarah Boyack, Alison Johnstone and Lorna Slater all supporters of active travel.

    Will Cllr Webber remain a councillor?

    Posted 3 years ago #
  2. chdot
    Admin

    The new list MSPs for the Lothians are Miles Briggs, Susan Webber, and Jeremy Balfour (Conservatives); Sarah Boyack and Foysol Choudhury (Labour); and Alison Johnstone and Lorna Slater (Greens).

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/scottish-election-2021-results-huge-voter-turnout-fails-to-shake-up-edinburghs-political-make-up-3229686

    Posted 3 years ago #
  3. crowriver
    Member

    @Stickman, given that her leader is now both MP and MSP it's an interesting question.

    Will they both brazen it out, or will there be Westminster and CEC by-elections shortly? Time will tell.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  4. Stickman
    Member

    Not according g to the word on the street no. Not does she have to. But a fellow Tory councillor said she may have to give up her brief

    https://twitter.com/edinreporter/status/1391131872554520580?s=21

    Posted 3 years ago #
  5. chdot
    Admin

    Not much headline change but quite a few new MSPs.

    No independents or small parties (unless you count the LDs!)

    Posted 3 years ago #
  6. Rosie
    Member

    Jeremy Balfour was former Ward Councillor of Murrayfield and opposed to the cycle route.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  7. gembo
    Member

    SNP 1 and 2 added two list seats top and bottom

    SNP 1 Green 2:might have been better?

    Posted 3 years ago #
  8. chdot
    Admin

    “might have been better“

    Better is always an option in most things.

    Hoping/waiting can lead to “better” opportunities being missed.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  9. chdot
    Admin

    “and opposed to the cycle route“

    Has he changed his view(s)?

    Posted 3 years ago #
  10. chdot
    Admin

    Scotland’s ‘least popular politician’ warns that his party would be more vigorous post-election

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/09/while-salmond-tanked-pro-unionist-tactical-voting-made-its-mark-in-scotland

    Mmm

    Posted 3 years ago #
  11. Rosie
    Member

    @chdot - Not that I know of. I remember one of his arguments that an extra crossing at Roseburn would make drivers impatient and more likely to run people over (the gist, not the actual words). Also he has a disabled mother who needs to park her car in front of shops.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  12. chdot
    Admin

  13. SRD
    Moderator

    intrigued by the relative lack of discussion. everyone just happy it's over?

    Posted 3 years ago #
  14. urchaidh
    Member

    Has Weber, the toxic Tory transport turnip, handed in her badge to the council yet?

    Posted 3 years ago #
  15. steveo
    Member

    intrigued by the relative lack of discussion. everyone just happy it's over?

    I wasn't really expecting any change in the staus quo and tbh I'm a little politiced out.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  16. chdot
    Admin

    “I wasn't really expecting any change in the staus quo and tbh I'm a little politiced out.“

    I think that sums it up.

    If/when/why IndyRef2 is perhaps for a different thread.

    ‘New transport minister’ would probably be worth another thread.

    Other things like ‘influence of Greens on SG policy’ might get a discussion sometime.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  17. PS
    Member

    ‘New transport minister’ would probably be worth another thread.

    Other things like ‘influence of Greens on SG policy’ might get a discussion sometime.

    Think this is right. I suspect a lot of us would welcome a SNP/Green coalition for a number of reasons, and I could just about see it happening, perhaps even with a Green Transport Minister, as it would give the SG in coalition form a strong "look at my pro-independence majority" line; however, there'll be plenty of other political reasons, on both sides, why the two parties won't want to do it.

    For a start, I cannot imagine the Greens and Fergus Ewing agreeing on any rural issues.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  18. SRD
    Moderator

  19. chdot
    Admin

    Not surprised, something was obviously going on to cause the tactical voting.

    Just alarmed at how effective it was for so little money.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  20. Rosie
    Member

    @PS - It would be lovely if eg Alison Johnstone became a transport minister but the last thing this Scottish government will install will be "green" transport. This government that builds trunk roads, count trains as "active travel", boasts about that motorway over the Forth aka the Queensferry Crossing (yes, it looks very pretty) and whose manifesto had a budget for active travel as low as the Tories. The Greens will do a little green-washing for the SNP and that's all we're going to get from them.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  21. Rosie
    Member

    Also it seems that around half of Green supporters do not support independence.

    https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,less-than-half-of-scottish-green-voters-in-favour-of-independence?fbclid=IwAR3aeI217TDGXqleaNK8AdAjPhTIYYTc42NIv__0gjDN_iw3pAC4u1KE0TA

    We're in for another crappy five years of constitutional wrangling.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  22. crowriver
    Member

    @Rosie, I'm not particularly surprised by that. Historically Greens were somewhat ambivalent on independence per se. Seeing it as rather a way to bring democracy and decision making closer to local level. The "small is beautiful" idea mixed with localism. Certainly when I joined the party in 2010, independence was adopted policy but wasn't top priority.

    Indyref in 2014 changed things, and in its wake brought thousands of new members for whom independence seemed to be the priority. It was a bit odd having discussions with new members and pointing out that independence was just one objective among many.

    Anyway the party changed quite a lot after that, I gradually became less involved as certain issues of identity politics came to dominate political discourse more broadly, creating highly polarised positions which were ultimately reflected in the party. I left last year along with a number of others. I still vote Green because frankly there is little alternative currently.

    For this parliament, I hope that an SNP administration can be persuaded to drop some of its road building plans and pursue a greener transport agenda. However it will be all too easy for the SNP to turn to the Tories, Labour or even the rump Lib Dems for support to get its road building programme through. Similarly I'm not sure we'll see meaningful progress on important issues such as land reform. More likely we'll have legislation that pays lip service while doing next to nothing, too late, or even makes things worse. A bit like the pavement parking "ban" in fact.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  23. chdot
    Admin

  24. chdot
    Admin

  25. jdanielp
    Member

    @SRD only found out about the latter part of this when the regional results came in on Saturday - really frustrating.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  26. LaidBack
    Member

    @jdanielp - fake Greens should have bee stopped. Probably cost them an MSP. New voters faced with 2 feet long peach papers could be confused.
    But...
    @rosie - the 'not the Scottish Greens' may have resonated with those that think constitutional politics shouldn't be a green issue. My own view is that status quo is long gone and all UK parties have an opinion. Labour most likely to relax view as their decline will continue until they are clear.
    @chdot - SNP missed chance for yet another seat although being minority government is European norm in line with why we (majority in devo vote) set up Holyrood.
    LibDems now rightly in fourth place. Driven there by Willie Rennie in a Lamborghini Huracan supercar. This in the year of COP26!
    FM resisted helicoptering around.

    But... what of George Galloway?
    He'll be saying something like.
    "Once again the Scottish people have decided to hurt themselves. Etc."

    Finally BBC Sunday Show had young first time voters on.
    One believed Scotland should / would be independent but had voted Labour and Green. Anas should take note.
    Also enjoyed seeing diverse voters settled here from around Europe and world - Westminster take note. Democracy should engage as many as possible and high turnout was great to see.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  27. crowriver
    Member

    The word from my eldest at high school is that young first time voters voted mostly SNP and Green. Or at least, those who were prepared to admit publicly how they voted did.

    Sturgeon's air of competence compared to Johnson's perceived dithering seemed to sway some into voting SNP. Interesting snippet that the Green policy on decriminalising weed caught the eye of quite a few teenage voters... :-)

    Posted 3 years ago #
  28. SRD
    Moderator

    my teenagers are in the bizarre situation of hearing all about their octogenarian grandmother's experiments with cannabis gummies since Canada decriminalised. it's hilarious.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  29. crowriver
    Member

    Go grandma! :-)

    Posted 3 years ago #
  30. wingpig
    Member

    When I got the ballot paper I was reminded of the elections years ago when there was reported confusion over which voting system went on which ballot paper and even concerns that a fold in one of the longer papers meant that some people hadn't see the full list of options. I noted the peach paper was folded inwards so that it was obvious when it was still partly-folded.

    Posted 3 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply »

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin