It’s all a matter of preference
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WHAT’S happening on May 3?
When asked this question, most people will either give you a very puzzled look or come up with the wrong answer, such as ‘It’s the day the ospreys return to Strathspey’.
It is, in fact, the day when not only those of us living in the Highlands but those in the whole of Scotland have a chance to elect their local council.
No one could blame people for not knowing about these elections, given the shortage of publicity in the media or generated by the political parties.
The Nationalists are saving their war chest for their propaganda war ahead of a referendum on the break-up of Britain. The Tories aren’t wasting too much money on the campaign because they know they have little chance of winning, and the Liberals just want you to forget about them for now, having sold their soul to the Tories.
Scottish Labour, on the other hand, has little money to spend, but thankfully is running a candidate here in Badenoch and Strathspey.
This in itself is important, because it does give us all a choice which we didn’t have last time round.
As you would expect with the arrogance of Alex Salmond’s Nationalists, they are not content to allow Independent candidates to have a chance to represent us, as is the tradition in the Highlands.
They alone, among the major parties, are standing two candidates.
With the changes in the voting system, it is now much harder for Independent candidates to win, but we the voters can help a balance of representation by using our second and third preferences.
You may be inclined to vote Nationalist, but do we really want them to control the Highland Council, which is what will happen if you give them 1 and 2 on the ballot paper as they will demand? In any event, why should we vote for a party locally whose only reason to exist is to break up the United Kingdom?
This is not a national referendum, but an election to elect local people to represent us in Inverness. Alex Salmond may think it’s all about him and his ego, but for us it’s about local issues.
It is very difficult to be sorry for the local Liberals at the moment, who for so long were seen as the defenders of local democracy.
It is in fact their demand for change in the voting system that destroyed forever the idea of having an independent Highland Council where local issues are genuinely put first.
But it is what the Liberals have done in Westminster that will most shock former Liberal supporters.
As the independent Institute of Fiscal studies showed last week, Scottish families with children are £511 a year worse off as a result of the changes made by the tax, benefit and tax credits.
At the same time, we have seen tax cuts for the mega-rich, ending forever the pretence that ‘we are all in this together’.
And who has been jointly responsible for this robbing of the poor to pay the rich?
None other than our very own Liberal MP, Danny Alexander. I bet the local Liberals will hope he stays in Westminster during the campaign, especially if they are asked about the price of fuel here in the Highlands and Danny’s promises to cut it!
We learn this week that the millionaire Tory chancellor is ‘shocked’ that his pals in the city avoid paying most of their tax; funny thing is that no one else is shocked at all.
Having just cut their tax, he must think we are all idiots, and the local Tory candidate will be wishing, like his son, he was in UKIP and not tainted with such a toxic brand.
Whatever your politics, though, the most important thing is that you go out on May 3 and vote.
Remember, too, that you cast your vote in order of preference. And may the best candidates win.
