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.
stickyhttps://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/edinburgh-council-elections-2022-if-you-want-capital-to-tackle-climate-emergency-vote-green-claire-miller-3664514
The keywords for the article include 'Alex Cole-Hamilton', 'Anas Sarwar', 'SNP' and 'Labour', not 'Green' or 'Climate emergency'.
"odds are we'd not have a Scotland act "
We wouldn't need one, because the UK would be federal republic and Scotland would be a state within that, with its own legislature.
curious to know which historical juncture you think would have delivered a federal UK with written constitution?
As someone who thinks we should get rid of the monarchy, I will note that the country which tops the Democracy Index has an unelected king as head of state (Norway). Hard to overlook the rankings that experts give and the factors they weigh for these things over other musings.
UK is ranked 18th out of 167 countries (with 94% of the world's population living in less functional democracies). We should of course strive for first place (realistically you always need to constantly fight to keep your current placement), but to say we can't be on our "high horse" to countries beneath us makes no sense. I note The USA's constitution and elected head of state hasn't saved them from the classification of "flawed democracy" rather than our "full democracy". (would rather we pulled out a larger lead in the next rankings though).
"The Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties."
What our recent problems are according to experts "Many administrations are struggling to address social problems that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, which in turn is undermining trust in government and institutions. In the UK, this has combined with a growing perception about a lack of transparency, with a scandal about party financing and a string of controversies undermining confidence in government. A Brexit-related take-up of party membership and political activism has waned, with weaker citizen engagement with politics. These developments led to a decline in the UK’s score, from 8.54 in 2020 to 8.10"
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In the last council elections in 2017 the Tories ousted Labour as the second largest party in local government behind the SNP, winning 164 more seats and claiming ones in wards long held by Labour.
But a survey by a top pollster earlier this month suggested the Tories' position as the “voice of unionism” in Scotland is under threat at the May 5 poll and they could lose their second place position.
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We checked this with Electoral Reform Society (Scotland) @ERSScotland at previous election
Numbering someone is not voting 'for' them:
you are 'placing' them, 1st, 2nd, .. or Bottom!
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https://twitter.com/spokeslothian/status/1519263623784370176
I see Fife Labour are also getting in on the "say no to the [Edinburgh] commuter tax" act.
Didn't hear them saying "no" to every Scottish taxpayer coughing up £540 towards the Queensferry Crossing.
@SRD, I was answering a hypothetical comparison to the US constitution.
If there had been a revolution in these islands in the 18th or 19th century, as happened in many other European countries then we would perhaps have ended up with a federal republic. Instead, the British state managed to keep its grip on power through a variety of means. For example, transportation of undesirables to Australia; opening up of opportunities for the ambitious in the expanding Empire. There was also the fortunate )for the ruling class) coincidence of the Industrial Revolution. This led to the clearing of the poor from the countryside through a combination of "agricultural improvement" and migration to rapidly industrialising cities, where work in factories could be found.
There was very nearly a revolution at the end of WW1 too, but that might have had a rather different outcome if it had taken place, as there was the example of Russia at the time.
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Does Scotland stand where it did? The poll of polls has Labour 6 percentage points up – but its votes increasingly pile up wasted in Labour wards, while Tory votes are well-spread, Prof Tony Travers of London School of Economics told me this week.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/27/labour-tory-strongholds-worthing-johnson
@toomanybikes, sure Norway has a monarchy, but it also has a written constitution, modelled on that of the US. Adopted in 1814.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Norway
Most real democracies have one. That the UK doesn't, clearly suits the powers that be.
@SRD the last invasion of the UK was (yes genuinely!) on 5 November 1688, when with the Stuart 'King' swithering the Dutch & the Battenburg clan landed in Brixham - instead of Harwich, as originally planned and took control - we've had them since
From 1688 we've had at least 3 major 'civil wars and associated 'genocides'/ ethnic cleansing in Scotland and Ireland - all internal - Given the spacing its high time we had another civil war in this series....
@crowriver the US constitution draws on the model, much praised, which was drafted in Arbroath in 1320 and ratified by the HolyCee in 1328 (the Holy Cee being an equivalent to the UN in its time), and whilst the United Kingdom has no constitution, and WM debates under standing orders modelled on those of Glasgow University Union, Scotland DOES have a constitution with a clear quorum of 100 Scots to determine who is head of state (Clause 8)
This is further endorse by the details
- Scottish regiments stand at ease for 6th verse of UK National Anthem
- Scottish heraldry is governed by Lord Lyon, English by College of Heralds
- Lion & Unicorn reversed for Scottish heraldry & other details - including motto Nemo Mi Impune Lacessit (Dinnae Mess Wi Me)
- Scottish Crown used for cap badges, Royal Mail logos &c in Scotland
- It should be ER not EiiR on badges &c
Now back to May elections...
Per voting use #1 prefernce to vote for the candidate you really would like to see as a councillor - perhaps an Independent, Green, or other who has less of the canvassing power of the big guns
If that candidate gets dropped though having the lowest number of #1 votes then the #2 person should be the alternative you'd want to see as a councillor
As the transferred votes accumulate for each remaining candidate, the ones that get dropped have their 2.3.4... preference vote added to the remaining candidates.
If you don't number the candidates you don't want elected they don't get your transferred vote
@Tulyar, I suppose Magna Carta had a similar role historically in England and Wales. Some clauses still in force. Also influenced the US Constitution apparently.
@Tulyar They don't get your vote, no, but you also lose all influence over which of them are chosen by others. Lib Dems are(largely) craven and Tories are Tories, but even if there's little enough distance between the two of them, do people genuinely believe there's no difference between either and the Family Party medievalists who want to outlaw abortion and sex-ed? Or the Libertarians denying climate change or ranting about Holyrood and the council being run by "cabals of feminist harridans"? If you're not ranking them, then others will choose for you, and given the typically dismal turnout in local elections there's no guarantee upsets can't happen - the BNP had a few good years down in England at the local level, there's nothing about Scotland that makes us immune to similar fringe loons nipping in on the last count.
Another way of looking at is is that you always cast a vote at every round regardless of what you put on your ballot paper, but your vote becomes fractional if you don't express a preference. So if it comes down to the hypothetical tories/family party showdown where they've ended up with 50% of cascaded and first preferences each, if you have expressed a higher preference for the tories, you cast 1 vote for the tories. If you don't express a preference at that stage, you cast a fractional vote in the proportion of what others voted, giving 50% to each.
This is just a slightly different way of expressing that if there are two parties you dislike but one you dislike less, the only thing not expressing a preference downballot can ever change anything is by helping the party you dislike more.
Using the same preference number twice in a Scottish election will I mean your ballot is invalid if they get that far, but there's no intrinsic reason why it couldn't be counted as an equal share of one vote for each candidate at that rank that hadn't yet been elected. Perhaps if the ballot paper was actually an online form, after expressing your preferences, all empty boxes could be auto-filled with the next number down, to highlight the point that by leaving the boxes empty is exactly equivalent to giving each remaining candidate an equal share of your next preference.
One advantage of putting a number next to ALL candidates is that you can say ‘I voted for you’ (truthfully) - if you think that might increase your influence…
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Should I just rank the candidates from my favourite party?
There can be inaccurate information spread around elections, and the purpose of this blog is to debunk the myth that there is any advantage at all in not ranking a candidate in an STV election.
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Worth a click for the pic!
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Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has ruled out formal coalitions with the SNP or the Tories after these elections. This strategy has proved unpopular with Labour councillors who have spent five years running coalition administrations. However, Mr Sarwar’s approach has been backed by Sir Keir Starmer. It is a gamble. In 2017’s local elections, polling shows seven in 10 Tory, Labour and SNP supporters used their transferable vote to express preferences for other parties. With Liberal Democrat supporters, the figure was even higher. If Scottish Labour cannot recover because of constitutional polarisation, it’s hard to see how Sir Keir can win a majority in Westminster. Labour is the largest party in only four Scottish councils – a tally that is behind the Conservatives. Mr Sarwar’s bet will have paid off if Labour reverses its fall.
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They’ve got plans to make it unbelievably expensive to drive to work in our capital city.
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I'm a bit worried I might have humped myself - was it necessary to re-register to vote if you already were and there's been no change at your address? Because I'd have expected my polling card to arrive last week based on previous elections but there's been no sign of it.
Think you do need to tell them annually that there's not been any changes. This can be done very quickly online or by text, so hopefully you did that and have just forgotten?
From Lothian VJB's page on checking whether you're registered: If you live in the Lothian Area, you can check by telephoning the Electoral Registration Office’s general enquiry helpline on (0131) 344-2500.
Of course you don’t need a polling card (or take it to vote) - but obviously you have to be registered (somewhere).
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In Scotland, the local authority umbrella body Cosla is working with Police Scotland to develop personal safety briefings for the new cohort of councillors, a move welcomed by Pippa Hadley, who is standing for re-election as a Scottish Green councillor in the Highlands.
Hadley was assaulted on the street by a member of the public last year who told her she was “a cow who should be shot against a wall”. The man was later charged and received a custodial sentence.
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