Election: Fifth Leaflet

Well, I was quite surprised to get more than two but we are now up to five and this one is wonderful.

Okay, so as the previous post mentioned, there's the odd issue with these fiddly internet address things.  There's also a superfluous 'the' in the first paragraph and the leaflet is pointedly absent any mention of the Bigot-Finder General.  

I would point out that despite the nice MacBook Pro on the back, Meg Lauder isn't all she seems.  Now, you could take this as an interesting case-study in the lack of privacy in the Web 2.0 age but, she's here (and here), here, here and here and commenting on the new Falkirk Labour blog here. Not an ordinary voter. In fact, I don't think she's a voter at all (mutters - no I'm not stalking her but all of her blurb say's she's 17.)  And she's a pupil, not a student ...

Election: Epic Eric Fail

Got a new leaflet, will blog it later.

Epic fail on the part of May McIntyre, Election Agent for oor Eric^*.

This leaflet claims Eric's facebook account is at "facebook.com/ericjoyce1", who is actually an ice-hockey enthusiast from Toronto.

The actual PPC Eric can be found here and possibly here.

Oh, and 'facebook.falkirklabour' isn't a URL

and www.facebook.com/falkirklabour doesn't work - however, www.facebook.com/pages/Falkirk-Labour/292327709511 does.  It's not hard ...

* I've linked the MP blog because the man himself - or some minion - looks (or looked?) at track-backs.

Election: My Thoughts (and Votes)

Okay, so, where should my vote go?

Well, VoterPower reckons it really doesn't matter - this is an "Ultra safe" - aka Labour - constituency:

But, the SNP clearly believe that they have a real chance of winning the seat - and, on the Holyrood record, they should do.  Michael Matheson¹ is the local constituency MSP (having previously been a list MSP for Central Scotland).

And the 2007 election results for what was then Falkirk West show a 2.7% lead:

Candidate	Party	Votes	%age
Michael Matheson	SNP	12,068	41.9
Dennis Goldie	Labour	11,292	39.2

Now, of course the constituency has changed, the turn out was terrible (just above 50%) and the personalities are different.  It would be difficult to argue that Labour are more popular after 3 more years of Westminster misrule or that the SNP haven't demonstrated that they can competently run Scotland.

Eric Joyce has done his reputation some good by finally publicly disagreeing with the party machine but came a cropper with the advertising hoardings around his new Denny office.  John McNally is a nice guy and a good local councillor (in an area with some considerable reputation for some oddity amongst its elected members).  No-one else has a chance ...

If I was in Buckingham, I would be voting UKIP.  But that's as much a negative vote - Bercow the 'sleaze fighter' has not impressed - as what I am expecting to cast here².  If I was somewhere with a Tory candidate with half a chance, I would probably vote for them.  Here it is a simple choice between a party I despise with a candidate who has proven personally despicable, and an overly socialist bunch whose core policy I oppose but will have a decent local MP.  Oh well, localism is the new Thatcherism, I suppose ...


1. I am surprised by this inclusion on his site though, especailly as it is linked from his official Scottish Parliament page:

Demo Information
NOTE: This demo is purely for demonstration purposes and all the content relating to products, services and events are fictional and are designed to showcase a live site. All images are copyrighted to their respective owners.

2. Apart from the basic policy of withdrawal (or, de minimis, repatriation of much of our sovereignty - in effect, withdrawal) from the EU, I am skeptical about much of the UKIP policy: doubling the size of the TA is impractical (we're not currently recruited to strength anyway) and banning the burka et al is simply un-British ...

Election: Dennis's Revenge (Third Leaflet)

Well, well, well.  I went in to get my hair cut earlier in the week and was really surprised to find John in there working - I would have expected him to have some election-y things to do.  But no, I get my hair shortened and had an interesting discussion with him about the issues.

He did say that the reason we haven't seen any posters is that they've been banned by the local council.  Frankly, I wasn't nearly as unhappy about this as John was - some of the smaller (aka loonier) parties just didn't bother to remove their placards after the 2007 Scottish and Council elections - so this was left to the council. And I probably should have read the Herald more to find out about it (I normally rely on Mrs S-E to point out anything of significance.)  Apparently, as well, the leaflets via Royal Mail are getting out much more quickly than usual - he ascribed this to volcano-induced lack of international mail and may well be right.  He actually had stopped volunteers putting the larger version of the main leaflet through mailboxes because the mail leaflet had already arrived.

He also said that there would be another leaflet out at the weekend.  Here it is:

Oh.  Wow.  When Dennis ran as MSP for this constituency (then Falkirk West) as an independent candidate, he had the highest majority (Ed: you've done it again. Stop it!) of any MSP.  His backing is going to be very significant to John's personal campaign and the wider "Anybody but Eric" movement.

As a note - does anybody know how to get blogger to display two images side by side?

Election: Second Leaflet

And, I suspect, the last - neither the Lib Dems nor the Tories have any realistic change of doing anything more stunning than retaining their deposits.  Anyway:

So what have we here?  It's fairly sustained attack on the record of one (never actually mentioned) Mr E Joyce - on expenses, on his previous role as cheerpuppet in chief for the Iraq War.  It majors (Ed: yes, I saw what you did there :( ) on John's local connections (born and bred - works here, on the council - although he does live just outside the constituency).

Policies get a mere paragraph - council tax freeze (devolved), new schools (devolved), police (devolved) - although it is less of a cheek for an SNP candidate for Westminster to mention these, I believe (as he is actually intent on have his own job defenestrated).  Lots of mention of community, none of independence (well, he's probably right that we do sort of know this.)  Surprisingly, no mention of the Scottish Government or wee Eck - although the local MSP does get a photo and a brief mention.

Frankly - this is a "Vote for me, I'm not Eric" leaflet.  Which I will do and for that precise reason.

Election: First Leaflet

And it's from oor Eric ...

This is two-horse tournament stuff.  No picture of his glorious leader, no mention that he resigned from the government, no mention of the Scottish Government - in fact no mention of the SNP - his only credible opposition in this seat.

He talks about new hospitals and new schools - but education and health are devolved matters.  Nothing to do with the Falkirk MP - whoever they happen to be, or the Westminster government.

Scream "evil Tories" loud enough and the sheep will knee-jerk vote Red.

And, I have to say "Regeneration in Denny" - not obvious from where I am sitting.  The eyesore flats were going to be demolished - cancelled by the Labour council ...

No mention of the disastrous state of the British economy - although the "Scottish economy" has apparently been rescued by Labour, no mention of his appalling record on expenses, lots of mentions of pensions - none of his glorious leader's single-handed destruction of the British private pension system.