Hearts and Minds 1: Vote for what you believe in

That's what we all would like to do.

Vote according to our beliefs, confident in the knowledge that we then get our fair say in how we are governed.  

But that simple ideal is currently polluted by fears of our votes not counting, a desire than X shouldn't win, overwhelming the desire to vote for the real preference, etc.  

The Greens sister party in England and Wales ran with a strap line on their literature that seemed to resonate :

Vote for Policies: Scotland

But realistically, people vote on impressions of parties, history, family associations, knowledge of individual candidates (but not half as much as most candidates believe!), and all kinds of other things.  Few sit down and do a line by line comparision of policy.


But there is help.  They aren't by any means perfect but sites like Vote for Policies and Vote Match try to advise individual voters how in a blind (ish!) comparision of their stated preferences match up with parties. 

Now it could just be that Greens are rather more inclined to complete such surveys that other parties - or it could be that there is a genuine wish to see a shift away from the neo-liberal concensus that seems to be breaking apart anyway.

The more detailed analysis of surveyed people's choices by topic is very interesting indeed.  

Vote for Policies: Issues

Across a range of topics, Greens have a strong showing and Greens or SNP are the most preferred party on every topic.  If - and on some issues (fracking?) - it is a big if, Green and SNP co-operated with each other on issues, arguing out differences, would we really have a government that reflected our collective heart and mind?

It's a thought. 

Part 2: Gaming PR?  discusses how we could help make that a reality. 

How popular are Green policies?

Since the middle of last year, the Green parties have been growing with an explosion of members aroudn the time of the IndyRef in Scotland.  And still they come. 

We've always known that, at least amongst people who like that kind of thing, 'blind shopping' of Green policies against other parties has produced very favorable results.    But until now, the Scottish Greens have been lumped in with our sister party in England and Wales (OK - but we are different) and the SNP shamefully hasn't tended to be included at all.

www.votematch.org/ agreed to include Scottish Greens for their new version due to go live in March.  Fantastic. We are really looking forward to the launch.  The process of being included was made very easy.

Vote for Policies 2010 for Gordon

But www.voteforpolicies.org.uk, after first being keen to include us, then decided that as we didn't have an MP or MEP in Scotland, we wouldn't qualify.  Rachel Waugh and I made a bit of a fuss on Facebook and lots of others joined in by email and on twitter - and within hours, a decision that look immoveable through January and most of February, was reversed : they did #invitethegreens.

Thank you. 
 

Vote for Policies  21st Feb 2015

Grand.

But how would we Greens fare now?

Well, not bad. See that nice big patch of Green.  That's us.  It's a small sample so far - but very promising.

It's difficult to compare the others as VoteforPolicies 2010 didn't include the SNP. But if I were UKIP or the Tories, I'd be worried: the purple and blue areas are shrinking.

No analysis of the situation across Scotland is yet available (I've asked) but on the UK scale, the picture is very interesting indeed.

There is the Green Party of England and Wales, sitting at the top of the leaderboard on 26.5% of the UK national vote - and with the Scottish Greens 3.2%, the Green total is 29.7%.  WOW!

On a UK national basis - and therefore a Scottish basis as neither party stands candidates outside Scotland - the Scottish Greens, narrowly defeat the mighty SNP.  WOW!

So we have a serious challenge on our hands.

We have to convert that good will towards our policies into a belief that those policies can be implemented and that it is worth voting Green to get them implemented.

See you on the doorstep. 
We've work to do.
We've seats to win.

It might take a while but we will win.  And so will the country.