OH dear! I really seem to have rattled ex-MSP Dave Thompson’s cage in Wednesday’s National. It was not my intention to thwart his ambition to return to politics via his own newly created indy party, though there seem to be enough of these ex-politicians going around who find an alternative indy party a possible career route. I do not, however, appreciate the personal attacks or pseudo-religious references in his letter. I have been fighting Tories since 1961.
READ MORE: Isn’t having multiple Yes parties on the list a recipe for disaster?
Mr Thompson’s objections are ill-founded. I merely stated the FACTS, which I am happy to re-iterate.
• Professor John Curtice – “Scottish voters do not favour new small parties”.
• To possibly achieve even one list MSP, a party must exceed 5% of the list vote in a region.
• The Greens – after 21 years of contesting the list vote in Scottish Parliament elections – achieved only 6.6% across Scotland in the last election.
• Solidarity – running for a second year – achieved only 0.6% – no MSPs.
• RISE – running for a first year – achieved only 0.5% – no MSPs.
• In the 2016 election, opinion polls put the SNP at 60% in the constituency vote and 54% in the list vote at this time in the campaign. These each reduced by 13% by the time of the actual election.
Obviously, you can’t predict results based on opinion polls seven months out. Especially if you are starting from a far lower level as is currently the case.
Mr Thompson accuses me of doing the Tories’ work. I absolutely refute that. Mr Thompson needs to consider that if his plan to take list votes from the SNP and Greens fails to propel him back to a Holyrood career – will the small reduction in votes taken from those established independence-supporting parties (SNP and Greens) actually mean a loss of SNP or Green list seats? Could they lead to a Unionist majority in the Scottish Parliament? That would be a real disaster!
Tony Grahame
Edinburgh
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