At long last there is some FUN in sight for those who see and wish to protect the value of unity in keeping the United Kingdom in existence to become a federation.
The mainstream political parties have failed absolutely to meet the persistent continuing challenge offered by the determined, resourceful and well funded SNP campaign for indyrefs 1 and 2.
The baton has now passed – of necessity and by default – to the people, who are all that is left now to protect Scotland from the one-party state it is in the fast lane to becoming; and to save the union one last time.
Opinion polls are putting the SNP nationally at between 49% and 52% of the coming General Election vote in Scotland – taking up to 56 seats of the 59 allocated to Scotland. This is a potential clean sweep that has never been imaginable.
So what can be done about it?
There is only one answer: tactical voting.
Time for FUN
The FUN is that this will be a single action by pro-unity people in each constituency – planning, seeing what they can do and doing it.
The FUN is in just doing it – taking positive action of a kind many may never even have considered before – but taking it, feeling strategic, empowered and not impotent in the face of a equinoctial tide on heat.
The FUN is then watching the score across Scotland to see what the local initiative has achieved – and seeing nationally what this popular pro-union tactical voting adventure has retrieved from the flames.
This sets one big vote against another big vote; and voters for each having every right – equal rights – to be proud of why they are voting as they have decided to do.
Make the sandwiches, get the blankets, duvets and cushions for some snuggle comfort, get the telly on, settle down for an all-nighter, see how an action you have decided to be part of has gone. And if many have to pull-a-sickie on the Friday morning, there has never been a better reason to do it.
So far, being pro-union has been a bruising and unpleasant experience in a defensive bivouac, shambolically ill-led; with the result of indyref 1 in September 2014 bringing nothing but exhausted relief.
This time, everyone can determine to come out to play, with a smile. This is a last ditch communal effort. It may not wholly work but it may prove a decent thumb-in-dike job. Every seat for any unionist party will be a major win.
Whichever side we’re on, we, the people, own this vote.
We have to respect each other’s rights and respect each other’s tactics – and try to better them. This is footie played for impossibly high stakes.
Choose FUN not misery
From the pro-union perspective:
IF every pro-union voter puts party affiliations and interests absolutely aside and votes in their personal objective judgment for the most likely pro-union party/candidate to come second to the likely SNP winner in their constituency, their vote may carry their choice to a win against the current odds.
This is the potential counter sweep; and it will make this the election of a lifetime.
IF tactical voting can dissipate the current focused momentum of this last and powerful push for indy now, it will be an unparallelled achievement.
IF this manages just to slow up that force, who knows what life, events and politics may throw up in that extra time gained, seeing indyfref 2 off the park?
The least this strategy will achieve is the protection to survival of each and every current mainstream party in Scotland – and to a degree none can currently anticipate without large scale tactical voting.
This alone will be a magnificent and hugely worthwhile success, keeping some semblance of plurality alive against the otherwise absolute certainty of letting a one-party-state of Scotland take possession by default.
IF this adventure achieves little, everyone who goes for it will know full well that not one single other action could have achieved as much; that they themselves made the journey of their lives; that they gave it a good go – and that they had fun.
What else is there to do?
- Choosing to be a certain loser?
- Voting for one part of the opposition as opposed to voting for THE opposition?
- Going to bed early on election night?
- Pulling the duvet over the head and blanking out what the morning will certainly bring?
- Waking to a world set firm on a course of action – the break up of the Union, the unstoppable move to an independent Scotland that will incontrovertibly be a one-party-state in full authoritarian fig?
Choose FUN not misery. Have a go.
Go for tactical voting, the pride in strategy, the sandwiches, the all-nighter, the communality and – whatever happens – the achievement of knowing that you really went for it.
Note: infinite credit is due to Scotland’s BIG Voice – a 500-strong group of multi-party volunteers who came together, each bringing skills to the effort of creating the predictive model for Tactical Voting; and for promoting the concept to the point that it has entered public consciousness in a short time. Scotland’s BIG Voice expects local voters in local constituencies, with the benefit of local knowledge, to make the best and selfless decision on which is the most likely party/candidate to come second to the SNP – and vote for them. Every little really does help.
Note: The image above is cropped from Bezold Farbentafel 1874 by Wilhelm von Bezhold which is in the public domain.
Previous articles in this series of For Argyll’s ONE VOTE campaign are in order below: