WHILST I found reading the Pete Wishart article interesting in respect of the order of boak, I still hold the more simplistic notion of limiting my vote to SNP1 and Green2, where only one SNP candidate is standing in that ward, with the following reasoning (This is why you really do need to ‘Vote Till You Boak’ on May 5, Apr 19).
There are two routes for parties winning under STV. One is being the most popular and getting votes above the quota, which allows a percentage of votes to be critically transferred to the remaining candidates.
The other route is where the candidate is only quite popular, and in receipt of transferred votes from candidates coming last in the vote (getting knocked out), these being added to those votes transferred from the above quota-winning candidate.
READ MORE: Senior SNP MP breaks with party in local elections 'vote til you boak' advice
Without a truly massive turnout of pro-indy voters, the second SNP/Green candidate will in all likelihood be reliant upon two faces of the ConDemSlab axis coming last, and that party face coming last not being able to transfer enough votes to the ConDemSlab candidate coming second-last to overtake and knock out the second SNP/Green candidate.
My view on ConDemSlab remains that they are merely Tories of different hues and “beyond the boke”, in Mr P Wishart’s terminology. So, it remains SNP1, Green2 only, for me, as only one SNP candidate is available.
Stephen Tingle
Greater Glasgow
GOOD advice from Pete Wishart regarding “Vote Until You Boak” in the imminent Scottish council elections. However, his totally unnecessary and unhelpfully phrased comment – “Then I will vote for any fringe anti-SNP “indy-harming” independence candidates from parties such as Alba” maintains an infernal weakness in the campaign. Is he so sold on his longevity and continuing presence in London that he refuses to see the wood for the trees that are destroying the vision of independence for the millions who have not earned a living from it?
As a musician, surely he can acknowledge the merit in harmonising the entire band with respect and tolerance toward its desired finale.
Tom Gray
Braco
OF late I have taken some flak because of my leaflets in West Fife which advocate for ALL of the other Yes candidates in the area.
The order in which the other candidates are listed is purely down to the design alignment and the order I read them from the council list of candidates. Some are arranged two by two, some are four in a row, and some of my literature has one to a line. But where Alba’s candidate is at the top, I have gotten flak from SNP members, and where the SNP are at the top, flak from the Alba members.
READ MORE: SNP criticised over 'incomprehensible' council election advice for voters
I want to set the record straight and be abundantly clear. I am, from what I can tell, the only candidate actually giving half of the space on his leaflets, social media banners, website graphics and boards at polling stations to ALL of the other candidates in the ward. I am first and foremost a Yes supporter. I advocate Yes before any party. I am independent because of that belief, hugely liberating because I am unencumbered by party politics.
I specifically put the word “YES” in the box next to each candidate rather than numbers so as not to advocate one Yes candidate over another. I do not care which party they hail from, I only care that they are Yes supporters because we are ONE MOVEMENT and my leaflets carry only one message: “Let’s Turn West Fife Yes”. I want ALL Yes candidates to succeed in this election because I want our movement to succeed. It has never been more pressing for us to become an independent nation than it is today. It is a moral imperative to protect our people from what is about to hit us due to the cost-of-living crisis. I don’t want the opportunity squandered because of party politics.
I have no interest in getting involved in cross-party disputes or arguments, I will work with any Yes supporter regardless of party colours for the benefit of progressing our shared goal of independence. Period.
I hope this clarifies things.
Martin Keatings
via email
GEORGE Kerevan’s Easter Monday article is headlined “We are not living in a deeply corrupt state, Why does no-one care?” That’s not strictly true, George. You were writing for a Scottish newspaper, and Scots do care and haven’t voted in the Tories who run the corrupt state you talk about for almost 70 years.
We are aware that the current lot lie incessantly and arrogantly dig holes for themselves that get deeper by the day but lack the intelligence, humanity or humility to stop, while continually bringing out fresh legislation that looks remarkably like a crook’s charter, advertising a set intention to turn Great Britain into a fascist state.
They have ruined our economy and are thanking their lucky stars that Putin invaded Ukraine, and then there’s Partygate. Two disasters along with petty criminal acts that rank far higher on the English public’s consciousness than Patel’s brutish Rwanda folly. Then there’s Brexit, the daddy of them all, yet another major policy failure sold to the English public by a farrago of lies that gifted them a huge majority at Westminster under Boozo Johnson, a swindler who lies daily to the English Parliament without any form of censure.
The Tories, in the view of a majority of Scots, are a gang of profligate wastrels who are good for nothing, except robbing Scotland, and England’s public purse, of billions to gratify their excessive cupidity.
Bruce Moglia
via email
YOUR correspondent Alan Woodcock (Apr 19) should have added in Patel, Dorries and Truss on the one-way trip to Rwanda.
Ian Lawson
Milngavie
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