Conservative leader Ruth Davidson urges supporters not to vote tactically in general election, that might be in her personal interest but not in the interests of Scotland, Tory Canvassers find Tory support willing to vote a Labour candidate to shut SNP out of a seat, tactical voting is all the rage!

Dear All

At present, there is some considerable talk for the need for tactical voting in Scotland.

So, what is tactical voting?

Tactical voting is when people vote for a party in an area not because they believe in the party or the candidate but to ensure that the candidate of another party doesn’t win the seat.

During the European elections, I urged people to tactically vote for David Coburn of Ukip, and I voted for him at the ballot box, it was a tactical vote to try and ensure Tsmina Ahmed-Shiehk currently in the SNP wasn’t elected to the European Parliament.

Many of my fellows Scots agreed with me and voted Ukip, David Coburn by default of this action benefited.

Lucky old David Coburn!

It didn’t matter to me if Mr. Coburn didn’t understand politics, was ignorant of how the European Parliament worked or didn’t do a jot of work, ensuring the SNP didn’t get the third seat. Alex Salmond during that election played the ‘race card’ on behalf of Ahmed-Siehk which doubly convinced me to vote Ukip and encourage others to dos the same.

Ukip therefore was a means to an end, job done;move on to the next problem.

Ruth Davidson is the Conservative Party leader in Scotland;she is tasked with trying to turn round the fortunes of a party in decline. The Conservatives have one MP in Westminster from Scotland, he is David Mundell, since the Conservatives are a major brand this is an embarrassment. The Conservatives have been in the wilderness politically for over 30 plus years, nothing Ruth Davidson has done so far has changed their fortunes.

You would think after such a long time, people in her party would twig what the problem is as to why Scottish people have abandoned them. If you understand the problem, you can then develop a solution to regain voters.

Ruth Davidson wants her supporters not to vote tactically in this year’s general election, by doing so, she is being selfish. The Conservatives have a tradition of getting rid of unsuccessful leaders, so she has to satisfy the ‘men in the grey suits’ that she is making ‘progress’. This election is her first major test as leader; if she was to get even two MPs; it would be seen as a good day for her and buy her some time. In Scotland, there are some seats which the Conservative Candidate could be the main challenger, if you were to ask would she like Labour voters to switch tactically to vote Conservative, would she say No?

Hardly!

Ruth Davidson says she doesn’t want a Labour Government, but more than that she says she doesn’t want a Labour Government which relies on the SNP for support. That being the case; that the greater evil is a Labour Government which relies on the SNP support, the case for voting tactically is made.

The Conservatives in Scotland are in decline, they have few elected representatives in comparison with the other main players, small voter base, aging membership and few activists. It therefore makes sense for them to pool resources and specifically target seats which they could possibly win in. However Ruth Davidson wants to spread out her resources to shore up her voter base in all areas, this dilutes any chance of winning.

It is a poor strategy and even if you didn’t know anything about politics, it is ultimately doomed.    

Ruth Davidson isn’t in a position to mount an effective challenge all over Scotland, quite simply the Conservative policies are wrong, and turn people of particularly in working class areas.

In an unprecedented appeal telling her supporters to keep voting Tory, she said:

“I didn’t fight to secure our future last year just to see Ed Miliband or Nicola Sturgeon throw it away.”

Davidson is out of touch, a first step on getting stabbed in the back by her masters further down the line, it stinks of desperation, now is the time to show leadership, sacrifice is called for, it is a bitter pill to swallow.

Conservative canvassers in many parts of Scotland have reported that traditional Conservative voters were prepared to “hold their noses” and vote Labour to stop the Nationalists.

In the main in Scotland, a Labour candidate who holds a seat is only going to lose to a Nationalist at this time, if at all. Campaign groups have been formed to supply people to whatever candidate has the best chance of stopping the SNP regardless of party; politics in Scotland is still in flux.

People haven’t worked out that the Scottish National Party is irrelevant yet, they had their chance on 18^th September 2014 and people said No! They said no to the vision of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. The current Nationalist lie of ending austerity is just another watered down version of their land of ‘milk and honey’, it was bullshit in September and it is still bullshit come the Westminster vote. They are stringing the gullible along making promises that they have no power to enact or indeed keep without a third party.

Lord Ashcroft 10 days ago suggested that the SNP might win 35 of Labour’s present 41 Scottish seats, I see that number as highly doubtful, however the Nationalists have had their cause boosted by Labour who are current wrapped up in ‘fitba’ mode. The Labour Party need to drop their campaigning about introducing booze back on sale at football games, this makes the SNP look credible by default.

The big injustice in Scotland isn’t being able to get pissed in a football stadium, the Scottish Labour Party better wise up to that sobering fact pretty quick, and start talking about matters of substance or they will be helping put themselves out the door. If Labour leader Jim Murphy thinks gimmicks work, then he should think back to how Alex Salmond profited from that ploy last September.

A bad result at this election will see an even worse one in 2016 at Holyrood!

One Tory activist and former candidate, who received the Davidson letter at the weekend, said he agreed with ‘the plea’, and added:

“She’s right to firm up some spines and we should do all we can in that regard. But asking Tories to vote Tory does smack a little of desperation. Quite a lot of our traditional supporters are considering what to do in the election. They don’t like the idea of voting Labour but they might hold their noses and do it to stop the Nats.”

Ruth Davidson just flunked a key requirement of leadership; refusing to sacrifice personal ambition in favour of the wider good. I guess the ‘men in the grey suits’ will less understanding as they sit down and work out how she is not putting in a Conservative Government into power but increasing the chances of the SNP controlling the Labour Party if there is a hung Parliament.

Davidson has to put her own house in order first, then and only can see ‘come out to play’ and win seats, and that means a radical change to social policies to get back onboard the working class. Clearly the Conservatives still don’t get it as demonstrated by their pledge for a ‘forced Labour’ programme for poor working class young people who claim benefits.

Where is Ruth Davidson’s opposition to that; like the bedroom tax, this is one type of silence that isn’t golden and isn’t going to get her votes. Ruth Davidson famous made a joke that it was ‘harder to come out as a Conservative than as a Lesbian’. That is in no way the hardest thing she has yet to do, saying No to David Cameron and standing up for Scotland is, so far she is just rubberstamping everything Westminster does.

To recap, how many Westmintser seats do the Scottish Conservatives hold?

One; and even that is looking shaky, internal change first, and speaking of ‘spine’ maybe that should also apply to Ms. Davidson.

This election is all about voting tactically to ensure the influence of the SNP is limited, it would be a disaster for Scotland if the current Nationalist selection of cannon fodder got in.

Some of these people are pond life.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University