Both Votes SNP?

Site Administrator/ February 17, 2016/ Political Issues/ 0 comments

Why is it important to cast both our constituency and regional list votes for the SNP? Not a single vote has yet been cast for the Scottish Parliament election. Those who want an SNP Government cannot take anything for granted. The SNP, of course, aim to win every seat at every election, but we cannot assume we will win enough constituency seats to form a majority. There is a lot of hard work to be done before polling day to turn encouraging opinion polls into a decisive victory.   Using regional list votes for any other party will not help deliver another SNP government. And we know that when the SNP is at our strongest, independence and Scotland’s interests advance. Look at the big advances we have made in our home rule journey and you’ll see it’s been driven by SNP strength and success. Even the Labour party admit that the Scottish Parliament was designed to “kill nationalism stone dead.”   The SNP never takes votes for granted and that is why we continue to operate the most sophisticated Get Out The Vote operation in Scotland: working for every vote right up until the close of poll. Taking voters for granted by splitting your vote will not help deliver a strong SNP government or take us a step closer to independence.   The SNP needs regional list seats. In 2011, we won that historic majority thanks to a combination of constituency AND regional list seats. We need 65 for a majority. We got 69 due to a combination of 53 constituency seats and 16 list seats. Without these regional list seats, there would have been no SNP majority, no majority for independence and no referendum in 2014. We need every vote and every seat possible.   The SNP can win regional list seats, even if we win a majority of constituency seats. In 2011, despite an amazing result – winning 53 constituency seats – we still won regional list seats in 7 out of 8 regions. In that same election, we won all 10 constituency seats in the North East AND a regional list seat in the form of Mark McDonald MSP. Not only do we need regional list votes, the 2011 results have proven that we can win regional list votes even if we win every constituency seat in a region. That can only happen though when as many people as possible use both their votes for the SNP.   But won’t voting for a smaller party help hold the SNP to account? Here we see the flaw in the arguments of the smaller parties, who say of course the SNP are on course to a majority so “Vote for me!” But this forgets that the government are ultimately accountable to the people, not to one minor party or another. If the SNP do get a majority of parliamentarians, then by the very nature of the majority they don’t need to pay heed to one minor party or another. What they do need to listen to is the voice of the people and the SNP majority government has shown time and again that it will listen to the people, regardless of other parties.   So remember it’s got to be “Both votes SNP” Use your constituency vote to elect Bob Doris as MSP for Maryhill & Springburn. Use your regional list vote to elect an SNP Government & Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister.