ELECTION ANTE MORTEM

Not only am I writing this before the count; I sit incredulous that in Edinburgh, Fife, East Lothian and Perth, at the very least, not all postal ballots have yet been delivered by the Royal Mail, though Scottish school holidays have begun, families departed on holiday so many parents and young teens, first time voters, won’t vote.

In addition, Sally Hughes, Independent for Independence candidate in Perth and Kinross-shire, has incontrovertible corroborated evidence proving that her election communication has been delivered by the Royal Mail, more than once, to thousands of homes outside her constituency and not to thousands of others within; to that extent her visibility is damaged. That will erase her vote and affect the outcome. Indubitably.

These two episodes however they have come around damage the integrity of the election. Their impact strongly suggests that results declared without remedial action will be unreliable and lack trust. Politicians lost trust as is without processes also becoming suspect. For a believer in democracy to turn a blind eye is an impossible ask.

But set aside a little the ‘technicalities’ vital though they are and consider the level of engagement voters have been able or encouraged to have with candidates – it has been unforgivably miniscule I suspect for deliberate reasons. 

Within Alloa and Grangemouth, a target because of the refinery, there’s been two hustings, one arranged by ‘Keep Grangemouth Working’ and the other by Alloa Community Council. They’d a combined audience of less than 300. I respect the organisers but worry about why so few were willing to attend let alone pose questions to the panel.

Politicking on doorsteps has been sparse; many have told me, a part timer as I’m self employed so need to keep a hand in making a living and fulfilling a professional duty, that I’m the only one they’ve encountered in the streets and on the doors. You only have to check social media against pics of paid staff and elected members to vouch that claims of huge numbers of supporters for individual parties are pure bunkum and spin except if your party, founded to create Home Rule for Scotland and abolish the House of Lords, boasts of bringing to Clackmannanshire on a day trip a Member of the House of Lords. 

Tell me how a fellow paid £320 per day or part of a day for turning up, excluding food, drink and travel, explains that to a bairn in the Mar Policies whose family ‘survives’ on Universal Credit, whose Mum depends on food banks, can’t afford her heating bills, is malnourished, ill clad and cuts her own hair, does without so her bairns are fed ? 

 There’s a major ongoing kidology and the electorate deserve and pay for far better.  Candidates are unwilling to be scrutinised because in the main they have nothing reliable or trustworthy to say, cannot defend the records of their own parties, let alone justify the promises made in manifestoes of spin and twirling fairy dust.

Overall electorally and democratically the losers are naturally the people, the public, the electorate, especially those with most to gain from political change – this is where the heart and spirit start to divide us in Scotland into those who will demand and agitate for change and those who might become dispirited and stop. Some have the natural or financial resources to endure; others just don’t. 

In the High Street and Mar and Mill Streets in Alloa, in La Porte Precint in Grangemouth, these last few weeks, I’ve met dozens of women and men keen to talk about how we can fix Scotland and they’ve all been right – we need to be led and governed with honesty, integrity and an overriding sense of public duty and accountability. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear, but that should apply to the politicians this time, not the people.

Overwhelmingly I’ve listened to voices of experience talk of the impact of the cost of living crisis, Brexit, fuel poverty, the educational attainment gap and lack of hope in a Scotland in bondage to a remote government out of touch and disinterested in the needs of the people.

I met women for whom I’d argued in court for interdicts, protective orders, divorces, men who had won residence and contact orders, tenants who’d retained their homes, children who kept good relationships with both parents; most of all I remembered the humanity of the village where I have spent most of my life and the value of friendship and care. And I regret the unnecessary losses through poverty and inequality that are all too familiar in the landscape of Scotland I know at times too well.

Most of all I have learned beyond any shadow of doubt that the vast majority of people in my wee part of Scotland desire Independence equality and fairness without delay; they expect need and deserve representatives who are honest and tell it how it is.

That honesty requires an explanation about the health and social inequalities in Scotland, the reasons why we are energy rich yet fuel stricken, asset rich but hungry, the inventors and the engineers, the builders and creators of the world but a quarter of our bairns are poor and thousands of our single working men and women go without.   #Scotland Free Not A Desert.