Scottish Greens Holyrood South Region Count

Just a quick note, now that all the shouting's done bar the counting, to wish good luck to all my fellow candidates in the Scottish Greens internal election for the South Scotland Region List for the Holyrood Parliament elections in 2016.

What has struck me the most throughout this internal campaign is that I have totally confirmed my reasons for doing all of this. I started the campaign with the genuine thought that I was not doing this for myself. I genuinely believed that my main reason for doing this was to get elected so that I could become a truly participatory MSP. I have thought long and weary that most of the present crop of elected parliamentarians do not come up to this high standard and it was time for me to stop moaning about it and to put my head above the parapet, so I did.

Again I wish all of the candidates, with whom I have have made many great friendships with, the best of luck and no matter who gets the members vote, The Scottish Green Party will be assured to have great candidates on the Region Lists in 2016.

Also a big shout out to all the candidates in all the other regions too.

Scottish Green Party General Election 2015 Manifesto

At last it's here. The Scottish Green Party today launched it's General Election 2015 manifesto. As was expected it is full of very good policy and worth a read to anyone thinking of voting for The Green Party in Scotland on May 7th. In fact I would go as far to say that it is worth a read for anybody voting for any party in the 2015 General Election.

It may just surprise you how many of the Scottish Green policies you actually agree with. Just click the image below and have a read.

What's Important?

EQUALITY NOT POVERTY – £10 minimum wage

PUBLIC SERVICES IN PUBLIC HANDS – nationalise the railways

POWER TO COMMUNITIES – more powers for Scotland and local communities 

South Scotland Region Hustings - Ayr Town Hall

A great bunch of candidates and a difficult decision for the members in deciding who to pick as their representatives for the Holyrood South Scotland Region list.

I'm still looking for members to consider me for their vote as lead candidate. If you do consider me for your lead candidate, I promise you that I will work tirelessly for and on behalf of the residents of South Scotland and you can be assured that the causes of the Scottish Green Party will never be far from the spotlight if I'm elected as an MSP. 

Vote For Policies - 2015 General Election Update

After what feels like an age of waiting, the site at Vote For Policies has finally updated and now invites you to compete their survey with quite a few differences from their previous site.

The first and most obvious difference is that you are now asked in which of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom you are completing the survey from. This is because they have included several parties that were not represented in their last edition. The site now includes The Scottish Green Party and the Scottish National Party. Neither of these parties were included previously and although Green interests were represented as the Green Party of England & Wales were included, this was not completely satisfactory as The Scottish Green Party are autonomous.

Vote For Policies Not Parties

I have long been a supporter of "radical' democracy for the basic and simple reason that ours doesn't work properly. It does not provide the framework for all the people in our country to have, as standard, a proper say in the way our country is run and as a result their lives are worse of for it.

I have often seen simple and logical ways of possibly improving our democracy. Ideas like changing the seating arrangements of parliaments. Instead of having all members of the same party together in a bunch, why not have members sit in their respective areas. For me this would lead to less partisan behaviour and more behaviour based on local issues with members banding together to sort out matters relative to their own voters patches. Is that not why we voted for them? To represent our interests? This may have only a small effect and there are possible problems with it too but why not give it a go and see if it makes a difference?

Another idea that I heard muted was that we should not get names of parties on ballot papers,  just the names of candidates. Whilst this would definitely be a radical step, I can see part of the rationale behind those who talk of it. It would certainly make the electorate seek out what the actual person stood for and also make the candidate work much harder to get their personal message over to the voters.

The above may be a step too far for most, but what about the electorate seeing all of the party's policies without seeing which party it belonged to? A blind taste test? Well that actually ALREADY exists..... at Vote For Policies.