Spoiled Papers Gave Deprived Areas Less Say In May Elections (from The Herald )

Amazing news that the deprived areas managed to spoil more votes in the 2007 Scottish elections than the more well heeled areas.

Apparently 8 of the 10 constituencies with the most spoiled votes were in Glasgow, with Shettleston being the worst despite the relative youth (or perhaps because) of its population.

According to the Herald this is "astonishing news", I would say it is exactly what you would expect.

I said last night that the farce created by Douglas Alexander had likely affected proportional more of the likely Labour Voters than others and this appears to have been borne out by this report.

Spoiled Papers Gave Deprived Areas Less Say In May Elections (from The Herald )

Labour "Soor Plums"

According to the Telegraph and other sources Labour have taken the hump, a bit like their future Leader MaCavity Brown, and are apparently looking to challenge the result of the vote in Cunninghame North constituency which was won by just 49 votes by the SNP. This is the constituency which includes Arran and had a problem getting the votes delivered by boat. According to Labour

When the ballot boxes arrived they had been opened and some of the papers inside were wet.

Which is not surprising considering what they had gone through, anybody who has seen the boxes might understand why they might have been a bit battered, even if they hadn't been attacked by a golf club waving senior citizen.

Whilst this might appear to mean they would then be back in control of the Scottish Parliament, it is more likely that they would then drop one from the regional list which would go back to the SNP, which means no change in the number of MSP's for either party. The BBC has more on the story here.

If Labour does press for a review of this, they are more than likely going to open up a huge can of worms that they may prefer to leave closed, but as the columnist in the Telegraph says

... as I learnt from reporting on the murky world of Scottish politics, it pays never to underestimate the Scottish Labour party's arrogance and stupidity (a fatal combination in the affairs of a country) when it is backed into a corner. And so it is proving in Thursday's aftermath.

Continuing in the Telegraph is a litany of how the Labour Party in Scotland is having a severe sour grapes problem (should I have said soor plums). These include

• Jack McConnell stuttering and muttering about how he still wants to form a Government.
• Others saying it was just one seat so they are still within their rights to govern.

Nobody like a bad loser and this is what they are, granted that if after 50 years it is a bit of a shock to them, their supporters and their lackeys in the Scottish Media.

Any attempt to back-door a win in this election will inevitably create a huge backlash against them so let's hope they try and then fail.


Humility and guile: a plan to save the Union

Salmond's Victory in Gordon gives him the keys to Holyrood

Alex Salmond has led his party to victory in the Scottish Elections but has still to form a government in Scotland as he will have to go into coalition with other parties. It is likely to be the trough slurping Lib Dems as the major partners. I can't see the SNP managing to get into bed with any of the other parties. Even this won't be enough to give them a clear majority so it may just be a minority Government.

Alex Salmond meanwhile has claimed a great victory for himself by getting elected in Gordon. He took on a long shot and his victory gave the SNP's the seat they needed to best Labour. Anyone disputing his right to be First Minister will have a tough job.

So onwards to the Referendum. Once we have got that out of the way and rejected it, we can really find out what the Scottish Political Landscape is like, as the SNP lose their reason for existing and scatter to the other parties. Could be interesting, especially as England will be suffering under MaCavity for the next couple of years.

Hat Tip to Blue Moon on PB for pointing out the impact of the result in Gordon.

P.S. Lost in England one grumpy dour Brown bear, answers to the name of MaCavity. Known to hibernate in strange faraway places when bad news is on the go.

Salmond achieves Holyrood victory

SNP biggest party in Holyrood. McConnell Humbled

They will have 47 Lab 46. Macavity now gone into hiding in England somewhere. Will he ever come back to Scotland.

Scottish Elections ruined by vote problems

The Scottish Elections in 2007 for the Scottish Parliament and Local Councils will go down in history as the most inept and inadequate ever. They are worse that those that dogged the 2004 American Presidential elections and to hear Labour, as usual blaming it on anyone else but the Scottish Executive is beyond belief.

At the moment it looks like over 100,000 spoilt ballot papers have been (not) counted in the Scottish Parliamentary elections, no figures for the council elections are appearing yet but they will likely be as bad.

In addition to this the count has been suspended in seven places either because of system problems or recounts because of the vast number of spoilt ballots and what must now be a complete lack of faith in the system.

None of these problems will be news to people who have been reading the Scottish Blogs during the election as they have been highlighted many times.

What happens next, there will be an inquiry and as usual no one will be held responsible, but there is a likelihood that there may be legal challenges as this size of problem has never been encountered before. I foresee a number of challenges that may go on for some time leaving the real result in doubt for many months.

Human rights lawyers will no doubt be rubbing their hands with glee this morning with the thought of how much money they can make from this.
Rumours will soon be going round that Cherie Blair has arrived in Scotland to see if she can get her snout into the trough as Tony has given up his day job.

No doubt there will also be a number of former or budding politicians who will also be looking at challenging the results.

So what does this mean to us the voter (spoilt or not).

Without a doubt it shows that our level of interest in Politics has diminished when we cannot be bothered to learn how to vote. The information has been there and the help has been there. If we can't be bothered to notice that there were new ballot papers and new forms of voting then to an extent we have only ourselves to blame.

However we have also the fact that various organisations warned the Scottish Executive about combining the two types of voting on one day. Whilst it was no doubt cheaper and should have been more efficient, it has confused voters as to whether they should mark with a cross or with numbers. Scotland managed before when the elections were not held on the same day.

Right now we have become a third world country in terms of Electoral Competence, we will be a laughing stock to many countries whom we have looked down on in the past years. This is yet another in the long line of incompetent decisions made by the Scottish Executive and will live on to embarrass them for many years.

The result of the election will not now be known until much later today, though from indications it will be very close. After watching the coverage last night I was appalled at the stumbling and mumbling Jack McConnell after his declaration, if he retains his position as First Minister it may be time to flee the country, he is nearly as much of a joke as the elections. I just hope the SNP do get most seats and we get a change, it can only be better for Scotland.

Update: This story from one of the returning officers is worth a read.

More stories of incompetence appearing all over the place. A Wifie was on BBC Radio Scotland news at lunchtime as I was driving home saying at her Polling Station the plastic boxes had failed/broken and the returning officer was stacking the papers up on the floor next to him. So much for secrecy/security/honesty etc etc etc. Apparently she complained and the officer was rude to her. She is chasing the matter up with Chief Returning Officer.

Another woman from Aberdeen detailed how she had not received her postal vote which is again appearing to be a common problem.

Counts still going on.


Elections marred by vote problems

Bruce Luffman and Marcus Humphrey Retain their seats.

My local Conservative councillors have both retained their seats, Congratulations. Aberdeenshire Council - Elections - Ward -

Spoilt Ballot Party ruins Scottish Elections

As previously warned both the E-Count system and the complications of new voting methods is making a joke of the Scottish Elections. Anniesland has just declared over 7% spoilt Ballots. If this goes on the Spoilt Ballot party will come in either 4 or 5th in the Election defeating the Greens.

This is shocking, it is a travesty and makes us look like a third-rate nation. A total rethink will be necessary and I would suggest their will need to be an Official Enquiry.

Don't also forget with the rate of spoilt ballots the whole election could now be in jeopardy and open to legal challenge. The rate is now overall at about 4-5%.

Countries like Zimbabwe and Nigeria will just be laughing at us. This is just another low point for the Scottish Executive.

Live Blog 3 - Last one just won't edit

From PB

Sean T; there are no exit polls because they’re vastly expensive. I led national polls for Harris for ITN in the 1987-92 period and they cost a couple of hundred thousand pounds even then. Regional polls really wouldn’t be much cheaper, as they still need the sample size and the number of sampling points to be valid.
The audience for other than a general election will not justify the cost for the media. We’re just going to have to keep watching real results - elsewhere and here!

by Robert Waller May 3rd, 2007 at 11:08 pm

23:36 Fog stopping Ballot boxes from Barra. Will be midday before count complete.

23:38 BBC reports turnout may be up to 60%

23:44 SNP contact in Inverness East Nairn and Lochaber still taking down signs,

23:48 5 mins to Wishaw declaration!

23:57 Mr Eugenides reports: Stirling is Michael Forsyth's old [Westminster] seat, and the Tories are trying desperately to take it "back". They require a swing of just under 5% to capture it from Labour.

My man inside the Stirling Tory campaign says - and this is hard information, by the way - that the Tories were ahead on the postal vote, with the SNP pushing Labour into third. With half the ballots now counted, the SNP are in pole position - just - with the Tories second and Labour still third. The remaining votes are, they think, from more rural areas of the constituency, which tend to be more Tory. It's going to be tight.

00:26

Nick Robinson of the BBC says Our boffins behind the scenes are analysing in detail the results in a few key wards. They tell me that the the early signs suggest this may not be as bad a night for Labour in England as had been anticipated. It may instead be the Lib Dems whose support is down on last year.

00:33 Mr eugenides reports

Radio Scotland have Annabel Goldie ahead in West Renfrewshire. Our Lady of the Doilies, much maligned (and rightly so) has had a good campaign: it would be a terrific result if she can come from third to boot out the egregious Trish Godman, of Labour.

00:34 Jack Mcconnell holds Wishaw, majority cut by 3500 and he is struggling to put brave face on it. This is dire, If he is our leader again we might as well flush the toilet on any hopes in the future.

00:38 hearing reports SNP doing well in ABerdeen south (Nicol Stephen), Please god let that be true.

00:43 Nearly 1,000 spoilt ballots in Wishaw. How thick are some people? Jesus.

00:51 Nick Robinson is continuing with the BBC line as follows

Some early signs of how the Tories are doing in the north. The party says that they are on course to become the largest party in Bury and to make gains in Crewe and Nantwich. The official results are not yet in. Sounds good - at first.

These areas used to have Tory MPs and these are councils they really need to take control of. So, the verdict will be likely to be good, but not good enough

00:52 Mcconnell back on the BBC, very nervous and halting, What a Gawwp. Hopes he has won confidence of Scotland. Almost stuttering, and mumbling and now onto pathetic manifesto speak.

00:56 he's getting worse and worse, he is dying on screen, He accuses others of being arrogant but declines to name them, what a prat.

01:01
God he is awful, accusing others of being arrogant but afraid to say who. Worst interview of a winning candidate I think I have ever heard.

If he is still our First Minister we should just turn into lemmings and jump off the nearest cliff.

01:10 Dr Hfuhruhurr has information from Gordon that Salmond is neck and neck there.

01:11 Parliamentary vote in Kelvin has over 1100 votes spoilt!

01:13 Dundee West to the Nats from Labour, Meltdown starting hopefully.

01:15 Swing was 6.8% Again spoilt votes very high. This will cause a big problem for the new parliament.

01:17 Everyone remarking on spoilt votes. I spent ages educating people how to vote what is so difficult about it. Next time we will have to take names and go round with the heavy mob.

01:22 Looking really bad for Lab in Wales may it continue.

01:28 Tartan hero reports
1.10am Gordon Jackson has just been overheard saying "there is no coming back from this" ... more or less conceding defeat... Nicola Sturgeon about to be declared the new Govan MSP.
On the three results declared across Scotland, the SNP vote is up 10%, Labour down 1%.

01:39 Tories holding Galloway & Upper Nithsdale.

01:40 With 3 results in nearly 3400 spoilt ballots, last time less than 500. What a disaster!

01:48 , What a prat Bill Butler a rant about heckling made him look stupid. Yet again a huge number of spoilt votes in Anniesland.

01:58 Shock News Spoilt Ballot Party take 4th place in Scottish Elections just behind Tories

02:13 Dundee is now totally SNP, Their first ever city.

02:29 my final entry I have to be up in 4 hours. It looks like Alex Salmond has won Gordon, great result for the SNP and kick in the teeth for the Lib dems. Hopefully this will continue into West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine and the Tories kick out the Lib Dems.

Have fun!

03:10 One final entry as Salmond wins Gordon and says that Postal Voting arrangements were totally inadequate, Also the fact of having the two different elections at the same time has invalidated thousands of votes. It's going to be tight, it will probably go down to the Western Isles tomorrow.

Now must go.

Live blog 2 - Live bloggers in Scotland

23:13 Picked this up from Doctor Vee ,just having a wander around.


23:15 First result from Motherwell & Wishaw expected within 30 mins. ?

23:17 Live coverage of Scottish Elections on BBC Parliament here

Voting is over, roll on the Count

Voting has stopped, now all we need are the results, here's hoping for a change in Scotland.

Voted

How to vote in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine

Well after getting home from work, the wife and I have wondered down to the Polling Station and voted.

I surprised myself by adding an extra vote on my council election slip by giving a 3 to the SNP candidate, it might just help ensure that Labour and the Lib Dems don't get in. This is the first time in 30 years of voting I have ever given any part of my vote to anyone else but the Conservatives, which just goes to show how much this country needs a change from the current government.

Whilst the polling station wasn't very busy there were a few people wandering in whilst we were there, so if you haven't voted, get down their and get voting.

Stewart Whyte or Trough Feeding Lib Dem

Just received the latest version of what purports to be the West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine News. It is in fact an election document from the Lib Dems full of their usual bar charts, half-truths and deceptions.

The biggest deception is of course the format and title. Have a look at the image below. The first thing to notice is that nowhere on the front does it say this is a piece of Lib Dem propaganda, no it purports to be "News" and tries to look like a free newspaper.


In fact it has nothing to do with news as can be seen from the next image which is the main headline.
Are the lib dems so dim they don't know who their opposition is. Good though to see that they are predicting a close contest here.

The title is just so typical of the Lib Dems who though purporting to be the "nice" party are in fact the most underhand, sleazy, condescending and just plain dishonest of all the major parties, which when they have Labour to compete against says something.

Perhaps if the headline had said

STEWART WHYTE or the Trough Feeding Lib Dem

it might have been more honest.

Then we could have had a couple of bar charts of number of mortgages taken out by the Lib Dem and then a profit from our money bar chart (£40000 and counting).

If you had any doubt about who to vote for before this should have made your decision just that little bit easier.

Vote early, vote often

According to David Hencke, the Guardian's Westminster correspondent, this Thursdays elections across the country

could go down in history as the point when fraud, corruption and mismanagement made a mockery of the electoral process in Britain.

The reason is because of all the new experimental voting and counting procedures which have not been properly thought out. Worse, some of the experiments have been based on laws that, ministers have just discovered, were not properly drafted in the first place.

I have already taken a look at the demise of the secret ballot here. The BBC has a report here that over 20,000 postal votes have dropped off the register in Birmingham since the last election, when massive fraud was discovered after the elections. And I posted earlier on the new E-Count system where I said

As this is the first large scale use of the system you would have thought the numpties on the Scottish Executive (Labour/Lib Dems) would have had enough sense to at least follow some of the calls of the Electoral Commission who asked for e-counting to be independently verified more than three years ago to boost voter confidence but nothing has been done.

So what confidence can we have in the election counts being correct, secret and fair. It's time to rethink this mess and get back to some semblance of fairness to both voters and candidates, before we become as suspect as countries like Zimbabwe or Nigeria.

Vote early, vote often

Last gasps from a dying Labour Party

Are these the final plaintive gasps from the dying Labour Party.

According to the Independent, Jack McConnell has launched an appeal for a cross-party alliance of Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat voters to stop the SNP winning.

Apparently

Mr McConnell said Tory and Liberal Democrat voters should back Labour as the "only way" to stop Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, taking power after a YouGov poll put the SNP on 38 per cent, eight points ahead of Labour, and on course to become the biggest party at Holyrood.

I can think of only one appropriate response to this suggestion. Turn away if easily offended!



Labour braced for dual Celtic challenge

How to Vote in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine

The above picture(Click to enlarge) show you how to vote in the West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine constituency for elections to the Scottish Parliament, for Stuart Whyte and the List vote, and also for the Local Government Elections in Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Upper Donside for Bruce Luffman and Marcus Humphrey.

So if you are at all confused just follow the above instructions and all will be well.

Remember not to to fold your voting slips.

This is a follow onto to the entry here about Labour dying in Scotland.

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

Stewart White - SexyMSP.com

After a tip from Iain Dale I find out that my prospective Conservative MSP is/was leading the voting for the sexiest male MSP candidate, this may be a shock to him!

It was definitely a shock to my kids and their friends who were quite amused by this and have maybe helped a bit in the voting! They are pupils of his at Aboyne Academy.

If the results of this vote are anything to go by, he will be a definite for West Aberdeenshire amd Kincardine MSP.

Sexy MSP

Labour getting riled in Hamilton

According to the BBC,

In Hamilton, Labour candidate Tom McCabe was involved in a confrontation with an SNP activist as his leader Jack McConnell appealed to undecided voters.

One possible reason for this is the number of knockbacks he is getting in Hamilton from his constituents. One of these was my wife's Aunt , who when asked by Mr McCabe if he could count on her vote simply replied

"Indeed you cannot"

She has apparently, after years of voting solely for the Conservatives, decided to vote tactically for the SNP and Conservatives to help get rid of Labour. She is also on the trail of educating her fellow older voters on the way to vote as she feels the new voting system is going to cause confusion in these elections.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Election scuffle as tempers fray

Cameron's Auntie

Nice to see Annabel getting some praise during this election.

She has been back to her best and is doing a good job, even if this is not showing up in the Scottish Polls. I expect the Tories to do much better than the current polls show, particularly at the council level, as Scotland is notoriously difficult to poll in. The only real and accurate poll will be the elections.

The main problem at the moment is the amount of voters who are supporting the SNP to ensure that Labour and the Lib Dems do not get back into power. Many people want change and are willing to back the SNP to achieve this. The problem, though, may come in 2-3 years when the SNP hold their referendum and it fails. The SNP will then be left to pick up the pieces and work out what their "raison d'etre" is and how they will go forward.

Looking at the other party leaders and how they are getting on, we see, that the Lib Dems Nicol Stephen has shown his true ability and is fading quickly. Jack McConnell is struggling to cope and has had to call in the B team from London to hinderhelp him. The only other major leader doing OK is Alex Salmond and he faces a bit of a battering today from all sides about the SNP's tax policy.

Oh, and just remember to vote to get rid of Labour and their pointless poodles the Lib Dems.

Cameron's 'Scottish auntie' steals the show

Tell me no secrets - Postal Voting

John M Morrison has the following article in Comment is Free at the Guardian. In it he states

Absent voting is fundamentally incompatible with the secrecy of the ballot - and without this principle elections are neither free nor fair.

His contention , which I would tend to agree with, is that the voting is not secret unless it is done in person at the ballot box where it can be done fairly and in secrecy. No one can see your vote and no one can check, if you are being coerced, that you have done what you said you would do.

Continuing on the secrecy theme he points out

Gladstone understood the strange paradox of the secret ballot: the honesty and integrity of the electoral system as a whole is underpinned by giving each individual voter the freedom to lie to family members, neighbours and community leaders about how he or she has voted. Postal voting, by shifting the voting process into the family and the community, reopens the door to the abuses that Gladstone's great reform successfully eliminated.

Basically what he is saying is that the nature of the secret ballot, is, that it allows us to vote in the way that we want, despite outside influences that say voting for a particular party is a betrayal of your upbringing, your colour, your creed or your religion.

He also points out that if France can manage an 85% turnout with no postal voting then why can't we in the UK manage this. They have much the same sort of lifestyles but take the time to vote.

His other problem with the postal vote is how it is administered and used. This has been the subject of many stories in the press , a few are here and here and some more here.

The last article shows how lessons learnt in England are not being followed up in Scotland as ballot signatures are not being checked and date of birth checks on some papers will happen south of the Border, but not in Scotland.
He has the following to say on this

The government pays lip service to cleaning up postal voting, but has no real intention of putting the clock back to the days when it was only available to those voters who could not get to the polling station. Labour's increasing reliance on dodgy postal votes explains why it has resisted calls for individual voter registration, and why it still allows political parties to go around banging on doors collecting up completed(or in some cases uncompleted) ballot papers. Instead of relying on the ballot box and the polling station to stop abuses, it has brought in a voluntary code of conduct for parties on how they should handle applications and postal ballot papers. Behind closed doors, who knows how many people are being influenced or instructed about how to fill in their ballot papers? The police have been briefed to be on the lookout for abuses in the May 3 elections, but how many people are going to shop members of their family/ community to the police for insisting that they vote Labour?

He finishes off by saying

Perhaps postal voting on demand really is as popular as the government says it is. I doubt it. Most people know it is a scam far worse than anything perpetrated in the world of TV phone-ins. When dodgy elections are held elsewhere, in Nigeria, Russia or Zimbabwe, the UK government would be well advised not to be too critical.

I agree with him that we should curtail postal voting, we are already on the way to becoming a third world nation under the current Labour Government, we shouldn't allow our voting system to become third rate as well.

Tell me no secrets ...