A sensible agreement

Its been announced that the SNP and the Green Party have entered into formal agreement which falls somewhat short of full coalition. To my way of thinking this is a GOOD THING. I'm suspicious of coalitions, people either have to lose too much of their own policies or a minor party gains far too much influence based on their vote share. Why should the fourth party have had the Deputy First Minister-ship in the past? This agreement acknowledges the support of the Green Party and offers benefits without losing the control that a party needs in Government.

I hope that this is enough to secure an SNP administration, but I still feel a bit concerned about the likliehood of a grand Unionist agreement.

Big Bloody Deal!

So the Electoral Commission is ordering an enquiry into the chaotic counts in Scotland last week. That's a relief to all concerned I'm sure....

Here's my suggestion. Let's skip the protracted and undoubtedly expensive enquiry and abolish the Electoral Commission. They are an unelected, unaccountable bunch of inexperienced hacks who know nothing about running elections and nothing that they have done in the past however many years they have been in existence has aided democracy in Britain in the slightest. Despite being the "elections watchdog"(!) they will not employ people who have either worked for a political party or in electoral administration for the past five years. You know - the people who know how elections are run. The Commissioners who do have experience in local government do NOT have this experience in electoral administration but in areas such as Urban Planning. But mostly the commissioners are people who are members of numerous quangos and committees.

And how comprehensive will their own in-house investigation be? Not very I suspect. I was an election agent when a pilot scheme of electronic voting was carried out. In their reviews did the electoral commission get in touch with me to discover my experiences, the experiences of candidates or electors who contacted us? Did they hell.

I hold out no hopes whatsoever for the success of these enquiries. No-one with any common sense will be asked for their opinions and it will all turn out to be someone elses fault.

Margo for Presiding Officer?

Hmmm

Interesting theory - I like it. Although I do wonder if the schoolboy fantasies of a strong woman with a bit of power are starting to get out of control. First Bella, now Margo....

Get on with it

While I'm pleased about the election results on Thursday (ok mid-morning Friday), Scotland hasn't come out of the day well. The counting process was a shambles, the electronic counting was deeply flawed, the ballot papers were dreadful and the decision to introduce STV on the day of a general election was a recipe for chaos. And now the Parliament won't actually start back on time.

Sweet Jesus what is going on? If this is a Labour/Lib Dem ploy to show that Scotland couldn't cope as an independent nation then it's working pretty well. Run the country - this shower couldn't run the proverbial piss-up. Or rather the SNP could run it, the others are just stalling. It's time for Labour and the Lib Dems to accept the result and let the party with the most seats get on with running the country - and show that minority government can work.