Monday, April 30, 2007

Labour is Dying. STV to Blame.

No, its not a disease, The Herald has the article attached showing how a combination of events will mean that Labour will suffer during the forthcoming council elections in Scotland. Now this is not something to worry or cry about too much as it their just desserts for years of inadequate and dishonest government.

What is really worrying for all involved in Politics is the fact that only roughly a quarter of people in Scotland know about the new Single Transferable Voting (STV) system and only 4 in 10 had even heard about it. Roughly a third of the population had not even heard that STV was going to be used.

James Mitchell, a politics professor at Strathclyde University, interpreted the findings in the Herald as follows:

"People are not only willing to vote differently in list and constituency votes, but also in local council elections. Given that people are showing some sophistication in using their votes in different ways, you can see this would continue under STV.

"But many people do not understand the system, and it is pretty unlikely they will learn about it by polling day.

"This suggests it would have been better to have local government elections on a separate day, running a more successful public information exercise in tandem with what the parties were doing."
Now I would say that there has been plenty of information available, both via the mailshot, in the media and available online.

Unfortunately most of it has been ignored, as it has arrived or been seen to be part of the great "Election Bumph Delivery" that drops on your doorstep, most of which is permanently filed on arrival by a number of methods.

So be aware of the new Voting system and use your vote(s) wisely and of course correctly on the Conservative Party.

A reminder this does not apply to Postal Voters whose votes will already have been mislaid/stolen/removed or just in general tampered with.

The Herald : Politics: MAIN POLITICS

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