You know, it would have been really lovely to think that all of us bloggers supporting Alba on the list would be pulling in the same direction today of all days, the most crucial election day since September 2014. But Stuart Campbell has made that impossible with the stupidest, most irresponsible blogpost in the history of the independence movement. He has chosen pollling day – polling day – to issue a recommendation to his readers to vote for unionist parties on the constituency ballot in no fewer than TWELVE specific seats. Either the man is on drugs or he’s ceased to be an independence supporter.
The point he’s making is that if unionist parties win those seats, it’s slightly more likely that Alba will win a list seat in the corresponding electoral region. And in the literal sense that’s true. It’s a point I’ve made myself – the advice Alba have put on their leaflets to vote SNP on the constituency ballot is self-sacrificing advice. Because here’s the thing: Alba’s purpose is not to maximise Alba representation, it’s to maximise pro-independence representation. Six Alba seats in an indy-majority parliament achieves something. Ten Alba seats in a unionist-majority parliament achieves absolutely nothing.
If the SNP perform exceptionally well in the constituencies in any region, what it effectively does is crowd out all of the other parties and makes fewer seats available for them than their share of the list vote would otherwise justify. Alba would suffer from that a bit, but the unionist parties would suffer from it a lot. The latter point is far more important than the former.
If for some reason your objective is to have Alba MSPs in a unionist parliament, that means you have an agenda which is unrelated to independence. Which all adds up, because it’s hard to escape the impression that Stuart’s first love these days is the trans issue. But Alba itself is about independence – first, last and always.
No matter where you live, I strongly recommend that you vote SNP on the constituency ballot, and Alba on the regional list ballot. You can read my reasons for supporting Alba HERE.
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Catch up with Episode 7 of the Scot Goes Popcast, in which I speak with the Alba Party’s Chris McEleny, HERE.
