The very roughly proportional electoral system for the Euro elections gives us no more nuanced a vote than Westminster, a simple crude X with not even a second preference. As with all systems that don’t let us express the range of our views, tactical voting becomes inevitable, and indeed the dominant debate on Twitter has been about whether the Greens or the SNP are better placed to stop that sixth seat going to UKIP.
It’s a double shame – personally, with a proper preferential ballot paper I’d vote Green 1, SNP 2, Labour 3, Tory 4, Lib Dem 5 on the tactical level if I could (the Tories and the Lib Dems being separated purely by honesty, i.e. both seem determined to grind the faces of the poor, but at least the Tories admit it). That way I know I’d definitely 100% be casting a vote designed to block UKIP. I’d even rather see George Lyon go back to Brussels than whichever swivel-eyed racist happens to top UKIP’s Scottish list.
The SNP would come second for me, incidentally, primarily for fairly poor reasons: the referendum is more important to me than whether one more Labour MEP or one more SNP MEP is elected, and the results from tomorrow will be seen in that light. In terms of values, the third on the SNP’s list, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, was “unashamedly enthusiastic about the virtues of the Conservative Party” just 15 years ago. No-one who felt that way that recently can be one of us in any meaningful sense. It’s also incidentally amusing that the SNP leadership promoted someone who described Alex Salmond as “hopelessly out of his depth” and “utterly naive”.
But the absence of a preferential vote of some sort is a shame on a non-tactical level, too. I know SNP and Green voters who have been convinced by the other’s tactical arguments, and who are voting accordingly. I understand why, and I’ve done it myself, but I’d always rather vote my principles first, and a Green MEP in the form of Maggie Chapman wouldn’t be just yet another voice in the European Parliament backing unsafe oil exploration in sensitive waters, like all our current MEPs, just to pick one issue.
Anyway, we’re stuck with a partly tactical election, although attention has been unduly focused on the final seat. Personally I think the final two are in play, and between the two they could go to any of the following parties: Tory, Green, SNP, UKIP, and even the Lib Dems. The nature of the electoral system makes it very hard to predict how votes will divide down for the largest party, the SNP, and polls are also less accurate for the smaller parties jostling in the 6-12% region. My best guess is that the Tories will indeed win a seat, and that it could in fact be between the Greens and the SNP for the last one, with UKIP beating the Lib Dems. But it’s just a guess.
That list leaves out one party, what looks like the one great certainty of this list. The Labour Party will surely win two seats comfortably but be nowhere near winning a third seat. In a way, this should make their less dogmatic voters most susceptible to persuasion to go elsewhere.
If defending the Union is their priority, then a Tory or Lib Dem vote might make more sense. If their priority is stopping UKIP, or indeed if they’re Labour For Indy voters, then maybe a Green or an SNP vote could be considered. If climate change or inequality are the most important issues for them, maybe they’d decide they could make more of an impact again with a Green vote. If they’re racist “Blue Labour” and “concerned about immigration”, well, they can draw their own conclusions. Or, of course, they could stick to their usual party. But, ironically, it looks to me like folk who normally vote Labour are those who should most obviously consider putting their X next to another party tomorrow.
#1 by Thomas Widmann on May 21, 2014 - 11:30 pm
In Denmark, parties tend to form electoral alliances to prevent wasted votes. If the same happened here, the SNP and the Greens might form such an alliance, which would mean that they would be counted as one party for the purpose of establishing their combined number of MEPs, and afterwards d’Hondt would be reapplied to those two parties only to work out how many MEPs each of them would get. It’s not perfect, but better than not doing it.
#2 by Gaz on May 21, 2014 - 11:30 pm
Actually, there is a not too far-fetched scenario where SNP wins 4, Labour 1 and Tory 1.
Remember Labour only just polled above 20% last time. While they are doing better at a UK level this time round (only 16% last time!!!), they are making a habit of performing worse than last time in Scotland wide elections recently.
If the SNP can push on to around 40% and Labour slips below 20% then, if the Tories take their usual 13 or 14% and the ‘smaller parties’ all end up with roughly 8% or 9% of the vote, you could be looking at a 4 or 5 way fight for the last seat between SNPs 4th, Labours 2nd, and the first for Green, UKIP and LibDem.
My hunch is that the SNP and Green vote will be inflated by the activism being generated by the Yes campaign while I think the least likely element of the above scenario is the LibDem’s being in with any sort of shout!!!
#3 by James on May 22, 2014 - 9:47 am
Utterly far-fetched!
#4 by Gaz on May 22, 2014 - 12:39 pm
As far fetched as winning all constituencies in a Holyrood region and still taking a list seat?
#5 by Derek on May 22, 2014 - 11:19 am
Slightly more likely would be high ‘YES’-motivated turnout putting SNP on around 38, Labour pushing up to high 20s (but still just under three quarters of the SNP number), and a slack or split Tory vote seeing Con, Green and UKIP all around 9%. That might just about get you 4 SNP and 2 Labour. But although I think one poll had the Tories down at 9 or 10%, I don’t see the SNP/Tory ratio being as high as 4:1 in practice.