Why I'm not afraid of a hung parliament
...or any other General Election 2015 scare story.
Firstly, I didn't start this Tumblr to talk about politics, but basically everyone in Scotland has become political so this stuff has been on my mind a lot. And my other blogs (a food blog, a place to post my fiction, and a blog about my daughter learning to talk) are really not the place for politics.
In case you don't live in Scotland, we just had this referendum on becoming an independent country. I voted Yes (that we should). So did just under 45% of the people who voted (nearly 85% turnout). But that means just over 55% voted No (we shouldn't).
Three Scottish political parties backed a Yes vote: the Scottish National Party (SNP), who currently run the Scottish Government; the Scottish Green Party, who have two Ministers in the Scottish Parliament (MSPs); and the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP).
The day the No vote was declared, thousands of people started joining these parties. I myself joined the Greens around noon that day, after spending the morning watching coverage of the referendum on repeat.
I mention this to make the point that politics in Scotland has changed, maybe (hopefully) forever.
Naturally there's been a lot of talk about how this surge in membership of the three Yes parties is going to affect the General Election.
Traditionally, we have been told we have to vote "tactically". Vote Labour (or LibDem) even when these parties are terrible, in order to keep out the even more terrible Conservative party (this seems to "work" about half the time; the other half we end up with a Tory government in Westminster anyway).
Labour does better in Scotland and in the North of England than it does in the rest of England, and it desperately needs its large helping of Scottish Labour MPs (currently 41) if it wants to win a majority and be able to form a government.
Even more importantly, it needs those Scottish MPs to have the right to vote on anything and everything the UK government does, even though English, Welsh, and Northern Irish MPs cannot vote on anything that has been devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
This is why Labour party opposes what is called "English Votes for English Laws" (barring Scottish MPs from voting on matters which are devolved to the Scottish Parliament to compensate for the fact that English MPs cannot vote on those matters in Scotland).
If this happened, a Labour government could lose its majority on any matter that has been devolved. If you add the concept of "devo-max", which some define as devolving everything except foreign policy and defence to Scotland, that would effectively mean a Labour government can only count on its legislation being passed in those areas.
(This, btw, is a rough and imprecise definition of devo-max, but I'm not intending to go into specifics here.)
So, the general election approaches, and Scotland is now not only more politically engaged than it was, but has shown unprecedented support for parties outside the mainstream. What's going to happen on polling day?
Some still say we need to "get over it" ("it" presumably meaning the referendum) and vote tactically to keep out the Tories. This presumably means voting Labour. After all, why would anyone vote LibDem ever again? Even Nick Clegg must be having second thoughts.
But as the saying goes, Ah'm gaunnae no dae that.
I never voted Labour before. I certainly ain't gonna start now. And it's not because I'm not left-wing (I joined the Greens, after all). It's because I don't think Labour are.
I fully understand that in the first-past-the-post system of Westminster, if we send lots of small bunches of MPs from minor parties instead of a lot of Labour MPs, the Conservatives could still form a government, perhaps in coalition with UKIP. I admit that's a terrifying thought. But it's still not enough to make me vote Labour.
Labour are a party that don't know who they are or what they stand for, and as a result, neither do I. The last time they seemed clear and on message, they were telling me to vote No, and I disagreed with them. What else have they got? Nothing the Greens can't do better (and more genuinely).
The other brand of tactical voting comes from Yes voters who say that no matter what we have to vote SNP as they're the only party that stands a chance of winning a large number of seats.
The Greens have swelled their ranks from less than 2,000 to more than 7,000, but that's nothing compared to the SNP surge. Apparently 1 in 50 adults in Scotland is a member of the SNP.
So, yeah, they do stand the best chance of winning the most seats. And I can fully appreciate the political significance of that, including the hypothetical but certainly possible scenarios of them winning high-profile seats like Douglas Alexander's or Alistair Darling's, or of Labour needing to form a coalition with them (I still think these scenarios are highly unlikely, btw).
But if I wanted to vote SNP I would have joined the SNP. I have nothing against them as a party, and I have good friends in the SNP. I will even admit that I prefer them to certain other parties. But it's the Greens whose policies and ethos won my political heart, and I'm sticking with them.
Plus, I don't see myself voting in 2015 to "punish" any party the way some people seem to want to punish Labour.
But by ruling out both these courses of action I run the risk that either Labour will get in anyway or the Conservatives will stay in.
Let's be clear, I don't want either of these things to happen. I want at least one Scottish Green MP, more if possible and I want the English Greens to increase their share of MPs as well.
I want a fairer, greener, more democratic UK with a progressive tax system and a welfare system that really provides for people's welfare.
I want a ban on fracking and unconventional oil and gas and a phasing out of nuclear and fossil-fuel-based energy. I want increased investment in clean and renewable energy and serious steps to tackling emissions.
I want electoral reform and democratic reform of the House of Lords. I want the UK to become a republic with a democratically elected Head of State.
All of this will take time and effort, lots of it. I am willing to put in that time and effort, even if it means suffering through another Conservative government.
Once again, I voted Yes. I voted Yes because I hoped for a fairer, greener Scotland. If Yes had won, it would have been the beginning of a long, hard struggle to make that dream country come true. I was willing to put in that hard work and effort then. Why wouldn't I be willing to do it now?
So bring on your scare tactics. In 2015 I'm voting my conscience and my principles, and I still hope more than I fear.
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