Computer says no

God I hate computers. I really hate computers. I spent much of the weekend metaphorically wrestling with a recalcitrant laptop, which on Sunday morning decided to die completely. On the other hand I now have a spotless living room, because as the old saying goes a clean house is a sign of a broken computer. After calling assorted geeks in vain for help, I had to go out and spend a shedload of money that I was saving up for a holiday to go and buy a new laptop. The feelings I have for computers are a real and visceral hatred, an evil contempt matched only by the malignity of a computer’s feelings towards humanity.

Computers are the Labour party of technology, they promise you the earth and leave you with nothing but disappointment and empty pockets after forcing you to waste frustrating hours chasing solutions to your problems that turn out to be useless, producing nothing but a soulless despair at the futility of it all. God I hate computers.

And talking of hate, proof if nothing else that I could get a job writing links for telly presenters if it wasn’t for the fact that the BBC hates me, Michelle the Moan has been moaning again in the papers about how the independence supporting half of Scotland hates her. That’s not true. In order to be worthy of hatred you have to be important or significant, or at the very least impinge onto the consciousness in a meaningful way, like a computer or that really annoying guy from Storage Wars that you’d love to padlock in a storage locker and throw away the key. Michelle, who is to Scottish politics as Joey Essex is to quantum mechanics, just isn’t worthy of hate.

I no more hate Michelle than I hate a wee whining mosquito buzzing about the room. The difference being that the mozzie is harder to ignore, and also probably has better formed views on Scottish politics. Chelle’s expressed belief that the pro-indy half of Scotland hates her is just more attention seeking, and in any case she needn’t worry about Scotland’s yes voters. The half of the country that voted no isn’t too keen on her either.

Scotland has far more important issues to deal with than Chelle’s ego, although you’d be hard pressed to know that by looking at the papers. Faced with the likelihood of a second majority SNP government the Unionist media seems to have collectively demanded their baw back and don’t want to play any more. Which is fair enough, all those highly paid columnists writing their articles about how awfie awful the SNP is and nae bugger pays them a blind bit of notice. There you are, slaving away at your keyboard to unveil all the SNPbadness there is in the world and the only feedback you get from Scotland is a voicemail message saying “We’re very sorry but we’re busy working towards independence right now. Please get back to us so we can ignore you some other time.” It must be a hard life fancying yourself as an opinion former and then discovering that only thing you’re able to form is a surly pout and a pettit lip.

But it’s not just Scotland’s unionist commentators who are feeling ignored. A very real important issue, one which is certainly no laughing matter for those concerned, is the way in which the future of the Clyde shipworkers is being ignored by the Ministry of Defence. Sadly this is nothing new, Scotland has been ignored by Whitehall for generations, and the only time they pay us any attention is when they think that we’re about to vote for independence. You’d think that everyone in Scotland would have learned that lesson by now, but we still have a way to go before it’s got through to everyone. Some people it’s never going to get through to, like Labour party politicians and activists, but they’re heading for extinction even more quickly than the rapidly ageing Tories.

Lie after lie, the promises of the Unionists lie broken and bleeding in the path of Westminster’s disdain. Labour in Scotland is now mounting a campaign to save the shipyards from Tory cuts, that would be the same Labour party which swore blind during the independence referendum that only a no vote could save the shipyard workers’ jobs and mounted a campaign to ensure that the shipyard workers were left exposed to the whims of Whitehall. That would be the same Labour party that campaigned to leave Scotland exposed to the icy gusts of the Tory gales.

It was less than two years ago that Labour was campaigning to keep Scotland exposed to the risk of Conservative rule. They think that we’ve forgotten. They don’t get to run to us now greeting about the evil effects of Tory rule, because it was them who promised and swore blind and vowed in order to allow the Tories to keep destroying the working class communities that Labour claimed to stand behind. But they only ended up destroying themselves. Labour stood behind them right enough, they put the workers in the firing line and sheltered behind them. They campaigned against a solution that would have seen the yards diversify, and insisted that they remain a vulnerable monoculture subject to the MoD. The only use for Labour now is a donor if Scotland needs a heart transplant, Labour’s has never been used. If we wanted to kill ourselves we could climb up the ego of a Labour politician and then jump down to their IQ.

There’s no way back for them now, you don’t get to pose as the party of the workers after you’ve campaigned to leave the workers exposed to a system which doesn’t give a toss about the workers’ jobs, their futures, or their families. If more jobs are lost on the Clyde we’ll know who to blame. And we won’t forget. Labour blaming the Tories for job losses and spending cuts is like the rat blaming the flea for the plague.

The Labour party allegedly has software which is supposed to help it win elections. If at first you don’t succeed you’ve got a lot in common with the Labour party in Scotland. It’s clearly as broken as my old laptop. Computer says no.


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49 comments on “Computer says no

  1. […] Wee Ginger Dug Computer says no […]

  2. Saor Alba says:

    Labour are despicable.

    They were handing out leaflets at Celtic Park at yesterday’s game. The leaflet heading was “Labour Celts” followed by a picture of the wee lassie and a whole gamut of untruths. They were trying to con fans and insinuate that there is some connection between them, the club and their horrible party.

    Many leaflets ended up in bins or on the ground. This is another facet of Scotland’s shame. A party which is unelectable, undignified, bitter and uncaring in their approach to the electorate. They are unimpressive, with no policies, hypocritical, shameful, self-serving puppets of their UK masters, who prey on the weakness and misunderstanding of others.Thankfully, it seemed as if many did not fall for their tactics yesterday. There are always some who do. Though I suspect they may already be part of their mind-set.

    This is the party who prostituted themselves by becoming Tories of a different hue. They teamed up with the Tories to the detriment of Scotland’s interests and that of the Scottish people. Now they are trying to blame the Tories for everything that the Labour Party themselves had a hand in. They were in it together and this also included the Lib Dems. They are like the husband who keeps mistreating his wife, but comes back promising to be different. Why should anyone believe them anymore? They will never see or admit to the harm they have done.

    Labour are like the Dodo.

    Saorsa.

    • Black Rab says:

      Yes, you are so right Saor Alba. Labour act like a dystopian construct in a Philip K Dick novel. They operate in the area of misunderstanding of the uneducated and misinformed. Labour can get tae fuck.

    • tris says:

      And, worse still, as Humza pointed out:

      “And the self-styled “Labour Celts” got the club emblem wrong too – four leaf clover not three! 😂”

      You really would have thought that if they were going to impersonate Celtic supporters they would have done just the smallest amount of research into into their logos.

      If they can’t manage something as simple as that, how can they run a country?

    • mealer says:

      Stand Free With The SNP!.
      COYR ….(not the red Tories though,obviously)

      Labour are a sad and pathetic reminder that London Rule is poisonous.

    • “Labour are like the dodo”.
      Unfortunately, much as though I would like them to be Saor Alba, they are not, at least, not yet.
      What seems to be happening on the ground, and we have been canvassing in a former Labour voting constituency for the past seven months, is that people who still intend to vote for them are extremely reluctant to admit that, much in the same way as happened over the years to the tories.
      And while the M.S.M have been busy promoting Ms. Davidson as the greatest thing since sliced bread, I believe almost 20% of the electorate will still vote Labour.
      We can ask ourselves why this is, and I don’t have an answer, but that I think is what will happen on the 5th, May.
      The most common reason we get for people switching to the S.N.P, is “they stood with the tories, and we will never trust them again”, but it seems that doesn’t apply to all, and that is why the Labour Party in Scotland is still around, and is not yet moribund.

      • Iain Ross says:

        Black Rab gave the answer above and for me it applies to many No voters too:

        “They operate in the area of misunderstanding of the uneducated and misinformed.”

  3. Black Rab says:

    Paul, your to unforgiving on the plague ridden rat…………the Labouriteous Norvegicus are the real scum. The poor poor rat just got caught in the middle….poor poor rat.

    Great post agin Paul.

  4. Black Rab says:

    Rats never knew they were delivering plague but Labouriteous Norvegicus did and still do.

  5. Black Rab says:

    Your also right about computers but my life is so much richer with the internet and your posts to read, I couldn’t do without it……………….one day i’ll get that bathroom and kitchen fitted, rooms tidied etc but I doubt it.

  6. Unkind, inaccurate, and unfair, to equate Labour’s apparatchiks to rodents, for there are some things you just can’t get a rat to do.

  7. If memory serves, it was Howard Hughes who applied his aeronautical engineering skills to design the cantilever bra to enhance Jayne Russell’s already fulsome paps for the movie ‘The Outlaw’.

    An underwired gizmo designed to push up and ooze out, the garment ensured that Ms Russell’s low cut creations were always gaping at the front.
    Indeed it was intended that all ‘red blooded’ males in 1943 America were all gaping at her front.

    Many of us would argue that Ms Mone is of no relevance in any walk of ‘real’ life.
    It appears that she is upset. Aw, diddums.
    Yet another vacuous piece of fluff from the hacks.

    Unless of course one’s life is so shallow that you consider brassy blondes with their tits ‘cantilevered’ into one’s face to be important.

    We are within 10 days of a truly unique election.

    The first Scottish GE since the 2014 Referendum.

    The Unionists’ were trounced last May.

    Lord Carmichael of Portsmouth’s declaration that Scotland would lose the BAE Frigate contracts to ‘best placed’ Portsmouth, and Iain Davidson’s (Chair of the Westminster Scottish Affairs Committee which produced the lies and threats in a series of Referendum Papers) insistence that there be a ‘break out’ clause in the MoD contracts should Scotland have voted YES have not been forgotten.

    Jim Murphy on his Irn Bru podium, ‘pooling and (feckin.) sharing’, and Banks, Insurance Houses, supermarket chains, threatening to leave or put prices up,and Gordon Brown lying to Octogenarians in Lochgelly that their pensions were under threat if they voted Yes, and all the bullying from Barrhead Travel, Alistair Darling, JK Rowling, David Bowie, oh, yes, and ye cannae keep the POUND.

    I can see why Ruth , Kezia, and Wullie would want us to forget all that.

    Like Carmichael lying through his teeth about Frenchgate, it was only ‘politics’; nothing ‘personal’.

    Aye, feckin’ right.

    I approach next Thursday with so sense of rage or frustration. It is with cold indifference that I will enter the booth, and mark my ballot paper SNP x 2.
    I, the collective me that is the Scottish electorate, will decide.
    Our MSM, and indeed much of the Scottish Branch of the London Establishment, despite their best efforts, have failed to stem the flow towards Self Determination.

    We have not forgotten the shameful Project Fear Perfidy of our fellow Scots residents..
    The Better Together Coalition threatened fellow Scotsjobs, income, , social cohesion, and the futures of our children if we had voted YES.

    What makes Davidson, Dugdale, and Rennie think that we would vote for them ever again?
    Roll on next Thursday.

    • Norma Slimmon says:

      Leave David Bowie out of it! My hero who knew fuck all about Scottish politics

      • Saor Alba says:

        He had no business sticking his nose in it then.

      • It depends how you measure your ‘heroes’, Norma.
        If he were an influence on your formative years, and ‘spoke for you’ in his words, music, and outrageous style, well and good.
        You are correct. He knew F all about Scottish politics, yet via a video link from his Manhattan Trifeca pad to a Music Award show, felt obliged to murmur, ‘Please stay’.

        My point still stands.
        We were threatened with Armageddon if we voted YES, and Unionist Scots politicians admitted that if Self Determination were the will of the Scottish people, that they, fellow Scots, resident here, would actively plot against a smooth transition to nationhood once again.
        Hence Carmichael’s visit to Portsmouth, and a front page ‘better placed’ article appearing in the local Portsmouth Blah.
        Iain Davidson was equally as vicious in his threats to destroy shipbuilding on the Clyde and Rosyth.

        Kezia Dugdale is the Branch Manager of the UK Labour Party Up Here.

        She has no authority or power to declare a Ban on Trident, or campaign against Red Blue and Yellow Tory Austerity cuts, of £12 billion in benefits, disability payments, and the introduction of the Universal Credit scheme, nor the cuts to Government Departments of £13 billion, and the £30 billions of ‘Savings’ to NHS England (and the consequential Barnett reduction Up Here).

        UK Labour are as right wing as their Tory counterparts.
        Yvette Cooper, Tom Watson, Andy Burnham, Hilary Benn, and several hundred New Labour MP’s are still working to Tony Boom Boom Blair’s New Labour Right Wing Neo Conservative agenda, to woo back middle income ‘aspirational’ England.

        Putting Scottish taxes up by 1p does nothing to fight Tory Cuts; or Labour Red Tory Cuts for that matter.
        I take it from Sunday’s car crash interview with ‘Hang On a Minute’, that she will defy the democratic will of the Scots electorate, and join Carmichael, Davidson, Darling, Brown, and their ilk in collaborating with the rUK to destroy Scotland as a viable nation from the get go.

        Why the feck would anybody vote for her and her sub branch?

        Norma, SNP x 2. We can be heroes, for just one day.

  8. […] Source: Computer says no […]

  9. Macart says:

    Ayup, bit of a scattershot weekend right enough and deliberately so I reckon. Much like omerta being declared over Labour’s PFI clusterfudge in the press, their better thigitherness campaign on the Clyde is being airbrushed from history by the meeja.

    Being happy helpers though, and our new media being good that way, plenty of sites and bloggers were more than willing to recall and properly source the evidence for all those Clydeside visits by yer actual Labour worthies during the referendum campaign. Folk happily provided links to BT campaign materials, broadcast vids, press releases. Y’know, THE public record.

    Lots of ‘no,no, no need to thank … etc’. 😀

    As for Ms Mone? Is that individual still a thing these days? In fact, was she ever?

  10. Oneironaut says:

    Bet I could have fixed your laptop 🙂

  11. -and Printers. I hate printers too

    • Janet says:

      It’s only recently that they’ve started puting stop buttons on the office lasers. Imagine a machine first made with no way of stopping the creation of gobshite? Scotsman, Record etc take note…and use yer stop buttons.

      And on 5th, it has to be SNP twice over.

  12. katherine hamilton says:

    Didn’t see the Moan thing as I don’t do papers anymore. I leave that to the heroic masochists like you. Apart from rudeness and salacious conjecture as to what use those gorgeous pouting lips and firm yet pliable bosom may have been put, has anybody actually found out why she was enobled, Is the answer blowing in the wind?

    Probably 50% of the Scottish population want independence. Why do Dugdale, Rennie and Davidson continue to pretend we don’t exist, insult us and contend regardless that if a majority of us want a referendum, we’re still not getting one?

    They are Dorks from Dorkland if they think any of us will ever vote for them ever again, even after Indy. They are fighting over half the available votes. Good luck with that. As ever the Yoof will save the day. Us oldies will die off and as we know Yoof are immortal.

    We will be independent as a nation just as, at the moment, 50% are independent in our hearts and minds. Go on Yoons, change a person’s soul.

    • perhaps she has a ‘cousin’ working for the Herald? I only ask. Or is it just a ‘bums and tits’ thing? Is it a measure of how far down the tawdry slippery tabloid rag slope this once venerable Thunderer has slipped?

  13. Andimac says:

    Why is anyone surprised that Michelle Moan is such a staunch supporter of Westminster and the Union? After all, it was supporting tits that made her “famous”.

  14. Jimbo says:

    The Labour party swore blind during the independence referendum that only a no vote could save the shipyard workers’ jobs – what they really meant was: Only a NO vote could save Labour politician’s jobs. That didn’t turn out too well for them, did it?

    They didn’t really give a toss about the shipyard workers jobs. As far as the Labour Party and the unions were concerned those shipyard workers were just there to be used as voting fodder.

    • Saor Alba says:

      As Alex pointed out above, there are still some who cannot drag themselves away from Liebor, even though they know they should and are embarrassed at owning up to voting for them.

      Liebor will soon be like the Dodo, I hope.

  15. Dan Huil says:

    Slab beyond redemption. Put them out of their deserved misery – with bayonets? [courtesy of Ian Davidson]

  16. Robert Graham says:

    Don’t panic Paul yer laptop is no dead just entered a state of un- usefulness if thats a word ? Probably along the lines of the snakes in the nest Labour they are of no particular function just there in the corner f/kd ,Their cries of we wuz robbed next Friday morning I sincerely hope will be loud and long ,Kezia well lets see what the future hold for that poor soul , maybe she should seek a future in some other line of work it is clear her mentor oh can’t remember the crettins name and can’t be arsed looking it up , anyway that arsewipe has done her no favours everyone and their DUG no pun intended can see she’s not suited to this line of intense barefaced lying as per Jabba the hut , now there is one thats got it down to a fine art can’t even force a blush from that one.

    Don’t bin your laptop is can be fixed , just like a car with a wonky engine or gearbox you wouldn’t scrap it because of a fixable fault , a word of caution all your history is on your laptops hard drive so be careful who you hand it to repair , Someone not connected to the Daily Record Scotsman or Daily Mail is advised , someone you can trust just a thought .

    • Marconatrix says:

      Indeed, I´ve just replaced my laptop, but then found I could replace the faulty bits of my old one at a fraction of the cost. Admittedly the new one goes twice as fast and has twice as much of nearly everything, but very little everyday work pushes the limits.

      Don´t junk your old machine (unless it literally went up in flames!) someone can probably repair it or at least use it for spares.

  17. brewsed says:

    Computers are quite simplistic devices living in a binary world of off or on, in or out, yes or no, lights on or lights off, and it often appears, sometimes somewhat frustratingly, that the lights may be on but there is no one at home. These simplistic devices have to exist in a complex world, hiding the primitive processes behind, or under, many thin veneers so as to present a seemingly sophisticated user interface, one which is easily manipulated though by wimps or commands.

    Unfortunately, when something goes wrong, as it will, it will enter a seemingly quantum world of not quite on and not quite off, hung but not quite crashed, possibly requiring a firm boot to reboot. But do not discard into the recycle bin – yet, hidden in some obscure sectors there may be some useful information, some gem of wisdom, some perl, some useful bits which, once extracted, plagiarised and presented as original will then render the former repository redundant which will need to be forcibly destroyed and declared no more.

  18. Jan Cowan says:

    Love the voicemail message, Paul.

    How long are lap-tops supposed to last? Mine gives up for a couple days at a time but then manages, so far, to recover. I blame broadband but that surely won’t be your problem in Glasgow. Must be great to understand all these complicated modern problems!

    • weegingerdug says:

      That old laptop had been giving me problems ever since I bought it

      • gn2 says:

        Probably the software rather than the hardware if it was problematic from new.
        Do you still have the old laptop?
        I would be happy to see if I could get it revived for you by installing Linux.
        Its amazing what happens when you declare independence from Microsoft.
        Or was it an Apple?
        Contrary to popular belief, they too can go rotten.

  19. Robert Graham says:

    Looks like the Tories are holding back the announcement of MOD work relocation to parts of England at the expense of the Clyde yards until after our election , if its a big victory to the SNP the next day the work heads south , thats the tories Reward to even the ones who voted “NO”. Happy Suckersare are you Happy now ? you were warned , did you listen did you f/k .

    • John Edgar says:

      Where is “clunking fist”? Slab needeth him in its hour of need! The self-styled “North Briton” has disappeared. Has EVEL finally punctured his hot air and bluster? A Vow is needed at this hour! You can see him pacing the stage before bedazzled proletarian peasants who are beguiled by a party that no longer reflects their aims and aspirations, yet still hangs on waiting…….. It treats them like serfs; just do our bidding! One more push, Slab cries, before the North Briton goes back to making money for the money institutions of the world swapping stories with his old buddy Darling.
      Regretfully, one must weep for Slab supporters. How they have been used. Slab’s great war cry was “fight the Tories!” Then they danced jigs with them celebrating the No vote before delivering the country to Tory governments and EVEL. No wonder North Briton is in hiding!!

      • Saor Alba says:

        They left out the ‘for’ in their war cry, John.
        We know what Slab really meant.

        • John Edgar says:

          Good point,Swords Alba, I must remember that when pointing out to Slabbers what they did. “You fought FOR the Tories!” Grat punch line.

  20. Davy says:

    Labour has walked head first into every trap the Tories has set for them, they never think even a couple of steps in front of themselves. Nope its just straight head don’t worry the tories must be telling us the truth, swiftly followed by “oh fuck what happened there”.

    Who in their right mind would want the current labour party anywhere near being in control of our government, they will never achieve anything while they are still wanting to be in the union instead of growing a pair of balls and standing for independence.

    As for the tories the quicker they die out the better, they are a disgrace to human common decency so hell mend them.

  21. Saor Alba says:

    Over on Scot Goes Pop, James Kelly has provided an excellent example on how the D’Hondt voting system works for the list votes. He basically shows how important it is to vote SNP X 2. The second vote for SNP counts very much and must not be wasted by SNP supporters.

    I felt that this needed wider circulation as it is a clear exposition which puts to bed any claims by the Unionists, or by RISE about the second vote. It is funny how all the Unionist parties want any supporters they have to vote twice for their parties. Why? Because they know it counts.

    You can read James’ post yourself on Scot Goes Pop, in case you have not done so already. He has much more to say on his actual site. I have reproduced James’ exposition below as this is such an important issue, but please visit Scot Goes Pop for the full post.

    In James’ own words:

    “I want to tackle a line of argument that Tommy Sheridan used in the debate I had with him, and that seems to be taking root in some other quarters as well. Basically he claimed that if the SNP win all nine constituency seats in Glasgow, the d’Hondt formula will ensure that “nine out of every ten SNP list votes will be wasted, and that only one in ten will actually count”. This is complete garbage, because it wrongly implies that d’Hondt literally throws away a certain number of votes, which are then not taken into account at any point during the distribution of list seats. In fact, the d’Hondt calculation is made afresh for every individual list seat, and is always based on the actual number of votes cast. The following hypothetical example in which only two parties are involved will hopefully illustrate what I mean.

    D’Hondt formula – hypothetical example: (using 2 parties).

    Actual list vote :

    SNP 99,950 votes
    Solidarity 10,000 votes

    If the SNP won all nine constituency seats in the region, the d’Hondt formula divides their raw list vote by ten (nine plus one) in the count for the first list seat. Because Solidarity didn’t win any constituency seats, their raw vote remains unaltered.

    D’Hondt-adjusted count for first list seat :

    Solidarity 10,000 votes
    SNP 9,995 votes

    So Solidarity take the first list seat, and on the face of it the SNP’s advantage in terms of votes has been completely wiped out. If you believe Tommy Sheridan’s notion about 90% of the SNP’s original list votes being literally thrown away, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the two parties are now on an equal footing as far as the distribution of the remaining six list seats are concerned, and perhaps will win three apiece. But that isn’t the case at all, because for each remaining seat, the d’Hondt formula refers back to each party’s actual number of votes. For the second list seat, Solidarity’s original vote is divided by two (one plus one), because they now have one seat under their belt. The SNP’s vote remains divided by ten.

    D’Hondt-adjusted count for second list seat :

    SNP 9,995 votes
    Solidarity 5,000 votes

    For the third list seat, the SNP’s original vote is divided by eleven (ten plus one), because they now have ten seats. Solidarity’s vote remains divided by two.

    D’Hondt-adjusted count for third list seat :

    SNP 9,086 votes
    Solidarity 5,000 votes

    For the fourth list seat, the SNP’s original vote is divided by twelve (eleven plus one), because they now have eleven seats. Solidarity’s vote remains divided by two.

    D’Hondt-adjusted count for fourth list seat :

    SNP 8,329 votes
    Solidarity 5,000 votes

    For the fifth list seat, the SNP’s original vote is divided by thirteen (twelve plus one), because they now have twelve seats. Solidarity’s vote remains divided by two.

    D’Hondt-adjusted count for fifth list seat :

    SNP 7,688 votes
    Solidarity 5,000 votes

    For the sixth list seat, the SNP’s original vote is divided by fourteen (thirteen plus one), because they now have thirteen seats. Solidarity’s vote remains divided by two.

    D’Hondt-adjusted count for sixth list seat :

    SNP 7,139 votes
    Solidarity 5,000 votes

    For the seventh and final list seat, the SNP’s original vote is divided by fifteen (fourteen plus one), because they now have fourteen seats. Solidarity’s vote remains divided by two.

    D’Hondt-adjusted count for seventh list seat :

    SNP 6,663 votes
    Solidarity 5,000 votes

    As you can see, and entirely contrary to Sheridan’s claim, the fact that the SNP has ten times as many list votes as Solidarity matters enormously. It ensures that after the initial big hit on the first count, the SNP’s vote only comes down very, very gradually in subsequent counts. By contrast, Solidarity never recover from having their vote cut in half on the second count, and they lose ALL SIX remaining list seats to the SNP. Final number of list seats in this hypothetical scenario : SNP 6, Solidarity 1.  So much for nine-tenths of those SNP list votes “not counting”, eh?”

    Onwards!

    Saorsa.

    • Marconatrix says:

      I admit it took me a while to get my head round this voting system, and the biggest danger it seems to me is that many people may mistake it for some sort of preference system, especially the way we keep hearing about first and second votes, or at least seeing the list vote as a kind of afterthought.

      In normal times at least, when no single party is streets ahead of the rest, the list percentages are what will determine the final make-up of the parliament, in proportion as near as can be arranged to those percentages. At present, due to a weakness in the system, the SNP by coming close to sweeping the board in the constituency poll may well get more seats than it would deserve on a strictly proportional basis. (Not that I´ll be complaining, but all the same …)

      But let´s not get overconfident. Some of the constituency seats will be marginal, so it´s anybody´s guess which way the dice will fall. Maybe the unionists will all vote tactically to keep the Nats out, who can say? In which case it will be the list vote that rules the final outcome in terms of seats … which is exactly how it´s supposed to be … I think?

      So, don´t be distracted by the personalities clashing for your ¨first¨ vote, it´s the list vote that should be and could be and may be the clincher.

      Use it wisely 😉

  22. John Edgar says:

    STOP PRESS. Go online and read the Guardian’latest puff article on Kezia Dugdale. She has a 5 YEAR PLAN to turn Slab around! This is the trailer to the manifesto release tomorrow.

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