We’ve been talking to people around the country about this week’s general election. Here we share perspectives from political activists in two very different constituencies – one currently held by the Lib Dems and one by the Tories.
North East Fife
‘This is presently a Liberal Democrat seat. Wendy Chamberlain took the seat from Stephen Gethins of the SNP in 2019. This week there will be six candidates including Labour and the Tories, with the Scottish Greens and Reform also throwing their hats in the ring.
‘Realistically this is a two-horse race between the SNP and Lib Dems. The SNP lack the “boots on the ground” that they had during past campaigns and the major travails of the Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP Government in Holyrood will be hard pushed to take the seat back.
‘However, the Liberal Democrats don’t have much of a social base either. They are invisible until election time when the number of Lib Dem posters sprout up all over the place, which gives an impression of a Lib Dem stronghold as you travel through the constituency.
‘The other four parties will scrabble around for the remaining votes. Both the Labour Party and Tories saw their votes collapse in 2019 taking 16% between them. The Greens stood aside in 2019 to allow the SNP a free run for the independence vote but this year are standing which could make a difference in a close Lib Dem/SNP race.
‘If you want to vote in line with socialist principles, it’s an uninspiring choice in North East Fife - with perhaps the Scottish Greens being the most progressive of the bunch’.
Dumfries and Galloway
‘This seat’s been held by Alister Jack, the Tories’ Secretary of State under Johnson, Truss and Sunak. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to punish him personally at the polls for this contribution to the life of the nation, as he’s standing down. His successor as Conservative candidate, John Cooper, has very helpfully issued a whole series of leaflets claiming that it’s a two-horse race between him and the SNP: based on the last election result and polling over the years since, Cooper claims it’s only the Nats who can beat him. Cooper’s argument is persuasive to me - and so my vote’s going to Tracey Little of the SNP.
‘All that said, recent months have seen SNP support fall, and the Labour candidate James Wallace has started putting out leaflets saying that in fact it’s him who’s best placed to defeat Cooper.
‘Under this Westminster election’s First Past the Post system, your vote can be a bit of a roll of the dice. You have to be an expert political analyst, or a good guesser, to cast your vote so that you might contribute to the result you want – or avoid the one you don’t want. Surely it would be better if constituencies were redrawn, perhaps regionally, so that if 30 per cent of voters in Southwest Scotland voted Tory, 30 per cent of the region’s MPs would be Tory, and so on. Peoples’ votes would then translate directly into representation, and that would surely help rebuild confidence and interest in politics’.
Published 1 July 2024