"I'm pretty sure I'm going to vote for whoever is most likely to defeat the incumbent, regardless of their party."
Understandably - but not easy with the multi-councillor ward system.
Most parties will only have one candidate in most wards.
I suspect that the Greens won't have candidates in all wards.
I know there are people who would like to see a 'none of the above' party or a 'rainbow alliance' of some sort. But as the single-issue, anti-tram, candidate didn't do very well in the recent bye election I don't see much chance of any electoral success by any other than the existing parties.
Local elections tend to have fairly low turnouts and voting is often influenced by feelings about national parties more than local issues.
So LibDems are likely to do badly because 'people don't like Nick Clegg' more than they have a view on how the coalition has been running Edinburgh.
Likewise the SNP will probably win/retain seats based on performance at Holyrood more than that in the City Chambers coalition.
All parties have core supporters who wouldn't vote for anyone else - though they don't always turn out to vote. Labour is bound to win seats - probably two in certain wards. There are people who won't vote Labour (again) because of things it did or didn't do last time it was in charge of the council in Edinburgh - and/or because of Blair/Brown.
But such people will be a minority. Whether the document above and six months of organised listened and PR will make a difference at the ballot box remains to be seen.
Even if it produces the 'perfect' manifesto and attracts lots of voters this doesn't guarantee 'delivery'.
No party is against re-painting white lines and ASL boxes or sensible vegetation management on cycle paths (for instance) but none have managed to get it done adequately in the last ten years.
(At least there is to be a committee report on ASLs this month.)
In spite of UK and Scottish popularity I expect the Tories to get a similar number of seats as they have now. The Greens will probably get three again - with one new face.
So expect the same sort of people to be elected next May with good intentions but with more problems and less money to spend.
There is little chance of one party getting an overall majority. At this stage it's difficult to guess which party will get most seats. So another coalition is almost inevitable.
The chances of another LibDem/SNP one are close to nil - unless they both have different leaders.
Unless there are two parties whose votes combined are a majority AND they can work together, a formal coalition may not happen.
At this point it's a question of agreeing on policies.
All parties say they are in favour of encouraging walking and cycling - though 'we' might not be impressed with the effectiveness in practice.
I'm sure there will be plenty of people who take Nelly's view of voting based on what councillors/candidates say/do rather than party labels.
Many people will be emailing candidates and analysing replies (if they get any...)
It's probably worth engaging with Labour's new initiative to increase the number of walk/cycle/greenspace/shoplocal/qualityoflife policies in their final manifesto - and encourage other parties to copy them.
Then it's just a case of making sure that whoever gets elected implements them!
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