Labour leader Ed Miliband finally gets it, he backs tactical voting in Scotland to help defeat the SNP, in local news unpopular Nicola Sturgeon is forced to call off Nationalist attack dogs as SNP Candidate Angus MacNeil assists in the abuse of an innocent woman, ‘3 in a bed’ Angus gets it badly wrong again

Dear All

On the blog and on twitter, I have been calling on people in Scotland to get behind the idea of tactical voting. Tactical voting doesn’t get the attention of the mainstream political parties because they would like to get their members elected and thereby claim the sole credit.

‘We have a mandate from the people’.

Things are not normal in Scotland; in fact Iain MacWhirter has just done a piece in response to Chris Deerin’s article entitled "Scotland has gone mad".

Well if it helps, only part of it has gone off the rails.

In September 2014, the majority of the people in Scotland rejected independence, and they were right to do so, the Scottish National Party attempted by deception to hoodwink the people. Some people fell for it, others did not and financial disaster was headed off. You could say that ‘civic’ Nationalists took it rather badly, as 28 out of 32 areas said no!

People who voted No, have decided that the country is in effect seeing the playing out a ‘national crisis’, and they are right. Something has gone wrong in the SNP, case in point; a young woman was viciously abused online called Dawn Rodger, who said she was an undecided voter who had been won over by Jim Murphy. It was another nasty episode in a long line of nasty episodes that has come from the SNP members. This type of behaviour isn’t reserved for just ordinary people. Ruth Davidson MSP got a taste of abuse from someone called Mark Hughes because of her sexuality.

What is interesting is that senior SNP member Angus MacNeil, who is standing for re-election for the SNP in Na h-Eileanan an Iar shared a photo of a Labour campaigner alongside one of Ms Rodger, insinuating it was the same woman.

I first met Angus MacNeil in 2008 at Glasgow East, this was a by-election which John Mason won by 365 votes. In the SNP, there is a lack of a work ethic, MacNeil declared to anyone listening that ‘he was in charge of the sign in sheets’; this isn’t a job at a by-election rather it is a statement of not wanting to work but instead being seen.   

Another senior nationalist who also shared the photo was SNP MSP Christina McKelvie, having failed to ascertain facts; she blindly stumbled into the mess and played her part in this nasty affair. Because of their positions, the mentally dense in the SNP (and there are many) felt they had justification to abuse Dawn Rodger.

So, baring this in mind; is it any wonder that bloggers like me call on people to vote tactically in this election. Today on twitter, some guy called Ian Brennan started a conversation pointing out people who supported the Union have been abusive, I don’t support these people that target innocent people and in one case of mentioned, seriously doubt the people involved had ever been political activists. When I asked for his comment on an Asian man being abused in the SNP, his reply was rather weak; however unlike SNP Candidate Chris Stephens he did managed to find his ‘voice’. Chris Stephens sat back along with all the current SNP Councillor in Wards 3 and 4 while Shona McAlpine abused an Asian man. I put a stop to that not because the guy was a friend of mine, but because he was legally entitled to a fair chance, and he didn’t get it.

Apparently Ed Miliband, the Labour leader backs tactical voting north of the border. This is due to people inside and outside the Labour Party doing a spot of intense lobbying. Miliband isn’t calling for tactical voting in the rest of the UK were Ukip are seen as a possible major player, their time I don’t think has come just yet. I expect them to pick up voters in this election but perhaps the next Westminster election would better suit their plans.

Although it has taken considerable time for Ed Miliband to warm to tactical voting is needed, he has endorsed tactical voting to prevent a Labour wipeout in Scotland. The Labour campaign needs to double its efforts and get its core vote some of whom voted for independence to see that the SNP are attempting to bring chaos to Scotland.

A Channel 4 poll found half of Tory voters and half of Lib Dem voters north of the border were prepared to vote Labour. This is a remarkable achievement which has been people led and not party led to keep the nationalists out. This election is a test bed for future tactical voting, yes, this will not be the lat election this is used, think of this as a pilot programme to be refined.

I have chipped in my ten cents worth on how this is needed and after this election how it can be improved, it seems I have a knack for politics.

At present, unpopular Nicola Sturgeon is screaming that she wants “full fiscal autonomy”, that means the Scottish Parliament take full control of taxation, but how this translates is that Scotland would have a £7.6 billion gap in the Scottish economy.

Nicola Sturgeon wants the means to wreck Scotland and then blame Westminster; Jim Murphy dryly dubbed this nonsense “full fiscal austerity”. The idea is to set in motion a series of disastrous events to demand a second independence referendum. As I said Sturegon doesn’t care about working class people, her stupidity would see a 12 per cent cut in all Scottish spending, including pensions and benefits.

Jim Murphy called the policy as “full fiscal austerity”, claiming Scottish pensioners will on average be £18 worse off a week, or £940 a year, not that this would bother Nicola Sturgeon who is part of a household that has £250,000 a year coming through her front door plus expenses.

Ed Miliband said that Sturgeon should say what taxes she would raise and which services she would cut. But Nicola who likes to talk is strangely silent on the pain and misery she wants to inflict on everyone in Scotland. One of the funniest sights of this campaign is Sturgeon hugging babies and children, what is funny about that?

Well, she is planning to make them suffer, like most despots she is using the youth of the country to make out she ‘cares’, Salmond tried that as he surround himself with the ‘Salmond Youth’. Obviously Sturgeon can’t have her own ‘Salmond Youth’, so she has shifted focus to what some say is the ‘League of Scottish Maidens’ in an attempt to get the women’s vote. Sadly for her, women aren’t so easily conned which is why Scottish independence fell straight on its collective arse prior to the vote.

This election is rather unusual, it isn’t about hope and aspiration from the SNP but more akin to deception and delusion, there is a price to pay for stupidity in life. In trying to wreck not just Scotland but the rest of the UK, Sturgeon will one day find even within her own followers of the SNP Cult she leads, a realisation that she isn’t going to deliver anything. Nicola Sturgeon has one task and one task only; that is to lead the SNP into the political wilderness.

Tactical voting is a realisation that there are some things bigger than party politics. Some people have entered the fight because of different political beliefs, but even if you don’t know anything about politics, the treatment of Dawn Rodger is enough to combat the SNP.

She isn’t the only victim.

The fact that SNP Candidate Angus MacNeil and SNP MSP Christina McKelvie gave the abuse the green light with a retweet which ‘set the dogs’ on an innocent woman is enough cause to vote tactically. I wonder if the SNP wasn’t chasing the women’s vote, would Nicola Sturgeon have called the dogs off.

And is it not interesting that after she did, so many nationalists as if on cue all apologised to the young woman?

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University