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Poll - 2019 Shetland MSP by-election


Davie P
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Holyrood Election  

94 members have voted

  1. 1. If the election were tomorrow, who would you vote for?

    • Johan Adamson, Labour
    • Brydon Goodlad, Conservative
    • Stuart Martin, UKIP
      0
    • Debra Nicolson, Green
    • Ian Scott, Independent
    • Michael Stout, Independent
    • Peter Tait, Independent
    • Ryan Thomson, Independent
    • Tom Wills, SNP
    • Beatrice Wishart, Lib Dems


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Yes, but there's a big difference between just simply not following through on a 'promise', which we have sorta come to expect from political parties, and stretching a 'promise' out for months and years after first making it, only to finally deliver a smoke and mirrors concoction that only honours it semantically rather than actually.

 

The former you can let slide, just about, with a raised etebrow and a sarky comment, the latter is difficult to view as anything but thinly disguised deceit.

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Surprised at the amount of folk voting for Ryan, given his leaflet just seems full of "I will work with the Government to ..." as opposed to 'I will endeavour to make the Government work for you/Shetland'.  HOW will he work with the Government?  Throw his toys out of the pram when anyone asks him a difficult question?  The LDs have been criticised by the SNP for not working with the Government re budgets; well, they are in opposition and besides, the SNP should know what each region needs.  It shouldn't be down to individual MSPs to go begging because a Government is meant to work for all.  Honestly, you might as well vote for SNP instead of Ryan if all he's going to do is "work with the Government".  What if the Government propose something totally abhorrent to Shetlanders?  Come to think of it, that doesn't leave much out!

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When every other political party in every democracy on the planet makes a series of pledges/promises/actions to try and win votes they call it a manifesto or policies.

When the SNP do it it's called blackmail/bribes/threats/bullying.

Hmmmmm. OK then.

Edited by Capeesh
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On the other hand, I seem to recall that precious few in Edinburgh, Glasgow or anywhere on the mainland had the faintest idea where Shetland was till the oil came in.

 

They weren't much better in Edinburgh 20 years ago when I was there for a month, while almost all knew it was 'up north somewhere', that was pretty much it. "That's a long way away......isn't it?!? and 'How did you get here?' were the commonest questions I remember.

 

Only met one person who had a clue, on account of her gotten to know someone from Shetland at Uni, and had visited her here a few times in later years.

 

Considering it was only 5 months prior to the Scottish Parliament convening for the first time, it was a disappointing display of 'national' knowledge. Hopefully folks have been suitable 'educated' since, but I'm not overly hopeful........

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@tirvaluk - is it not a case of whom the press tends to report on?  I know from speaking to some past councillors, it wasn't a case of them not speaking up but a case of the press not reporting on it or not publishing their letters, etc.

In any event, even if Ryan has been vocal, I think his electoral literature is lacking in detail and the devil, as they say, is in the detail.

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@ Ghostie

 

Quite.  Less than 10 years ago when at ARI Pharmacy, when asking where I lived and my reply, the person asked if we had got electricity!  I can't help but wonder of my reply should I be asked again in a few years' time, only to advise them that we have plenty of power cuts due to the interconnector getting damaged/the wind not blowing and how we no longer have our own power station. ;-)

Edited by Suffererof1crankymofo
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There's a difference here Capeesh with the "manifesto" and the way it is articulated. There's none so blind as those who don't wish to see.

There's absolutely no difference whatsoever. More likely a case of blind hatred clouding a few peoples judgement, or it could simply be the case that people are being misled and manipulated by those with an agenda, it is an election after all.

Up and down the country, every democratic country, every single election, ever since the Greeks invented democracy we've had people promising to do something if elected, guess what? That's politics.

The only difference I can see from other places is here in Shetland we're just not used to being offered anything or having anybody other than the LibDems seriously trying to win our votes. We've provided the safest of safe LibDem seats for decades, our votes have been taken for granted, they don't need to promise or do anything, and I say that as somebody who has voted LibDem myself.

The day that finally changes wil be a good day for Shetland.

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When every other political party in every democracy on the planet makes a series of pledges/promises/actions to try and win votes they call it a manifesto or policies.

When the SNP do it it's called blackmail/bribes/threats/bullying.

Hmmmmm. OK then.

I think youve mixed up two separate issues. Everyone accepts that political parties and individuals will make statements about what they can offer and what they hope to achieve, this helps us decide who we might vote for. This is a completely different issue from the SNPs backhand attempts to basically say, you won’t get anything unless you vote our man in. Most of the SNP top dogs have suggested this and in my opinion that’s where the threats and blackmail lie. Policies are one thing but their vail attempts to persuade us that things can only get better if we vote in Wills is completely unacceptable.
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^I would be interested to see some proof regarding what you claim the S.N.P. are guilty of. I would be interested to see if you could, in any way whatsoever, prove that the Lib Dems, the Tory's, the Labour Party, any other political party at all that hasn't been guilty of this sort of thing.

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