CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
sticky“
That revivalist air suits Sarwar. His party’s fortunes appear to be improving, on the eve of his first electoral test as Scottish Labour leader, the local elections in May. For the first time since 2017, opinion polls this year have consistently shown Labour coming second in Scotland, replacing the Tories as the main challengers to Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National party.
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/09/scottish-labour-revival-polls-may-elections
But even that is unlikely to dent the SNP’s vote next month, Curtice believes. Repeated attitudinal polling shows that in Scotland a voter’s preferences are almost entirely defined by where they stand on the constitution. The normal policy and service delivery disputes are “irrelevant” to most voters, he said.
Ugh, I wish Curtice and Sevvers would stop pushing this nonsense. Why is it so difficult to grasp the idea that a voter might *begin* with the notion that the SNP are the best option on the menu for "service and delivery"(an indictment of the opposition parties more than a ringing endorsement of them, perhaps, but still) and reason their way to support indy from there? This perpetual effort to depict The Constitution as some overriding issue that blanks the minds of ~60% of the populace turning them into drooling drones who have to be saved from themselves by the LibLab Centrist Dads biles ma pish.
@yodhrin, indeed.
The independence depate is irrelevant if you look 10 years ahead and see what will be happening to the environment by then. Currently the only parties apparently willing to alter the fossil fuel status quo are those that support independence. I find almost all the unionist parties unpalatable despite that being the area I have historically supported.
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Mr Briggs MSP said: “Voters in Glasgow and across Scotland will be recoiling in horror at the thought of SNP-Green coalitions running their local councils.
“We are already seeing the damaging influence of the extremist anti-business, anti-motorist Scottish Greens on the SNP Government.
“If they are in power at town-hall level, it spells disaster for local residents looking for roads to be upgraded and potholes to be filled and for those fearful of swingeing workplace parking taxes.
‘
Of course it could be argued that any coalition is ‘anti-democratic’, though with the voting system in Scotland that is probably not too valid.
Certainly for some people there is logic for links between the SNP and Greens - if only because of Indy.
But, it seems the Tories REALLY want to be seen as ‘the motorists’ party(?)
@acsimpson. Is the division for/against indie really the same as for/against fossil fuel? Scottish Labour and Greens both spoke out against proposed oilfield Cambo well before SNP did.
@yodhrin. Watching a recent party political broadcast for SNP I don't think they even mentioned any local council services, they just promoted indie.
@Stickman, in fairness I hadn't looked as far afield as Highland Council, I was thinking closer to home: Edinburgh, Lothians, Fife. Anyway I recall the Highlands (and the isles) have a long tradition of independent candidates for council elections. Might this be a factor?
@slowcoach What the SNP choose to use as their messaging isn't the issue, the issue is the constant and insulting implication that having a position on the indy debate somehow renders you unreachable by logic and incapable of critical thought. The idea that someone could look at the policy offerings, individuals proposing to deliver them, and track records of them and their parties and decide that, of those likely to have a shot at holding the reigns, the SNP might be the best of the bunch despite their manifold shortcomings without someone's view on the constitution coming into it at all is apparently completely beyond the bounds of reason.
It's exactly the same condescending guff that gets levelled at people who vote Green even if they're not members(ie, people like myself); "oh you're just obsessed by the environment, you'd vote a cup of mung beans if it promised to put up a wind turbine hurr hurr". That someone might think their policy platform in general is worth supporting on its own merits is dismissed out of hand. All three of the "traditional" parties and their cheerleaders in the media have this deep-seated sense of entitlement to our political landscape that renders them incapable of grasping why anyone could ever possibly vote for anyone but them - a vast gaping blind spot that is incidentally one of the big reasons I don't trust them to run things.
Fun bar chart, presume stats are accurate -
https://twitter.com/edinburgh_mews/status/1511584491655020545
@slowcoach, I'm maybe putting fossil fuels when I mean wider environmental/pollution issues. Labour coming out against the WPL is one such illustration of it.
Contains anecdotes and partisan conclusions -
I haven't voted Green in Scottish Parliament elections in the past because of not agreeing with them on Scottish independence, while voting for them in local elections where Scottish independence isn't an issue and their views and policy on local issues is.
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THE SCOTTISH Greens will focus on local decisions that can impact global climate action as the party unveils its manifesto for next month’s councils election.
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https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/scottish-lib-dem-leader-backs-26704231
"There is no chance we would be propping up failing administrations, by which I mean look at Glasgow, look at Edinburgh, SNP-led administrations. There is no way we would keep those parties in power to continue their record of failure.”On whether he would close the door as firmly on a Tory deal in Edinburgh, he said “no”.
He added: “The Tories are not in administration in the city of Edinburgh council. If we can lay aside some of their, I think, more vehement and unhelpful views around the environment and transport, things like that, then if we can find enough common ground, and my group leaders felt compelled to forge such an alliance then, you know, I would support that. I would be in favour of that.
What disagreements do the Lib Dems and Tories have on transport!?
@jonty - the Tories consider it gauche to wear your gasmask outside of a dungeon.
Cole-Hamilton seems to have been cloned.
Or maybe he has different policies when facing out of Ed from those when facing in…
A sad fact is that (to a greater or lesser extent) all LAs are failing due to a mix of Westminster and Holyrood policies.
With so many SNP councillors (some actually ’in control’) it remains surprising (to me) how little SG sometimes seems to care about local government.
The state of UK politics suggests that Labour will accidentally benefit from increasing disenchantment with the Tories.
In Scotland I expect the SNP to increase the number of councillors slightly (a lot may depend on voting in wards where they and/or others have 2 candidates).
And the LDs????
So
If you were minded to vote LD, would this confirm your choice?
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The Scottish Lib Dems have pledged to channel extra powers to local authorities as part of the party's campaign for May's elections.
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How?
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The Lib Dems won 67 seats in the last round of council elections in 2017, the party's lowest total since 1995.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-61080978
SNP committing to introduce congestion charge on the same week as academic research comes out recommending it as the most effective single intervention.
https://theconversation.com/12-best-ways-to-get-cars-out-of-cities-ranked-by-new-research-180642
(a shorter guardian article on this came out today too)
Will be a toss up for my 2nd preference vote after greens. Labour not doing themselves any favours with work place parking levy opposition.
Asked morningside green candidate about his active travel engagement and priorities and so far his main point (alongside generic manifesto commitments ) has been the ‘Friends of Quiet route’ initiative.
Subsequently had a more substantive discussion.
I feel really let down by the Workplace Parking Levy u-turn by Labour. That sort of thing probably plays well in focus groups but at the end of the day you've got to have some principles.
In terms of ordering your preference of votes. Make sure that you all number ballots right down to the end. Lib Dems and Conservatives are the main 'bike bad, parking good, one more consultation please' challengers in most seats. It's worth putting them at the end of your paper and giving votes 4, 5 and 6 (or however many) to the meaningless independent candidates and others who have no chance.
Although you need to be careful doing that. At least one of the ward 3 candidates is a rabid conspiracy theorising anti vaxer. At least the Lib Dems are just useless.
I would suggest if you don't want a candidate to be elected, you don't vote for them at all. Even placing them last on the ballot might help them get in if other candidates are eliminated.
I won't be voting for Tories, Lib Dems or Labour. Nor any of the wingnut right wing small parties. As for the SNP, the candidates in my ward are uninspiring, to say the least, so I'm disinclined to give them my vote too. Which leaves me with a choice of three or four candidates to list in order of preference.
@crowriver It's quite the opposite. By ranking all the candidates, my understanding is you kinda "dilute" everyone else's vote who's doing the same. Since a lot of people only vote for their preferred party and leave the rest blank, or only use their first and second preferences, that can increase the chance of some batty wingnut sneaking in on transfers.
It's better to look at it as first you pick the candidates you want, and when you run out of those, then you begin voting against those you absolutely don't want.
For example, for all their heel-dragging and simpering and petulant demands for "more consultation", I'd still take a Lib Dem over a Tory(paper thin though the distinction often is these days), and I'd certainly take a Lib Dem over a rabid climate-denialist Libertarian(from what I can tell that's not party policy per se, but an awfy lot of their candidates on social media do seem a bit flat-earthy on the subject), or the Family Party bigots. By ranking everyone, you ensure that your vote is always used - either for the candidates you want or, if they don't make it, at least against the ones you don't.
See discussions under "vote till you boak"!
https://twitter.com/spokeslothian/status/1516045993082560517
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Council election 2022 – manifestos analysis
With the main party manifestos for Edinburgh’s May 5th Council elections now published, Spokes has assessed their support for cycling, and active travel more widely, as everyday transport…
Our conclusion…
Tops – Green
Good – Labour & SNP
Medium – LibDem
Disappointing – Conservative
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http://www.spokes.org.uk/2022/04/council-election-2022-manifestos-analysis/
@Yodhrin, I disagree. You seem beholden to the "wasted vote" fallacy. My point is simple: only vote for those you actually want to see elected. In a close contest, transfers from eliminated candidates might mean the difference between, say, a Lib Dem or a Green being elected. So even if you (hypothetically) put the Lib Dem last, then they might benefit from your fractional vote at the expense of the Green, if enough others put the Lib Dem second from last, for example.
If none of my preferred candidates get in, that's life. But I'll not be giving even a tiny fraction of my vote to the other chancers on the list. Let others take that responsibility if they want.
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