An Oasis

Scotland Election Apathy

The Scotsman's Bore war is no way to win back voters asks, "Is this the most boring election campaign on record?" It's certainly the most lacklustre I can remember.

Various ideas are put forward for why there seems to be such little interest; the Iraq war, the markedly un-scottish weather of late and stealth telephone canvassing tactics. Is it possible that people are pretty happy with the status quo?

'Spin' is more associated with London Labour than the Holyrood set. The Parliament building is out of control but it has been for years and the end might, just maybe, be in sight. The allegations of impropriety which brought down First Minister Henry McLeish have been all but forgotten, and were pretty inconsequential at the time anyway. Students and old people, while still entitled to gripe, have a better deal than their contemporaries in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

On top of that, all of the serious contenders are shades of blue, not the spectrum of promise that characterised election campaigns in the days of old labour and nationalists who were making a big deal out of Scottish independence.

In fact the SNP are at pains to stress that there is no "automaticity" - UN SC Resolution 1441 taught me a new word! - in their election spelling Independence, and their critics have got so bogged down in saying that a referendum on Independence would be "incompetent", i.e. outwith the power of the Scottish Parliament, that the threat of "divorce" - probably the most powerful motivator to many to vote against the SNP - is lessened with every Press Release.

The two really little parties currently represented, the Greens and the Socialists, do have some "out there" ideas and policies but we Scots are canny folks and aren't likely to support either in anything resembling a meaningful manner.

It's all a bit disappointing. What happened to setting out a vision and pursuing it? What happened to ideology? What happened to important things - human rights, liberty, economic growth, cannabis? OK, so the Scottish Parliament can't really do anything about reserved matters but its members can and should be making Scotland a more prosperous, more diverse, more cutting edge land of opportunity. Thats what they should be talking about, and fulfilling, and they're not.

Posted by Paul at April 22, 2003 01:31 AM |