Impending elections
I passed my vetting today, and am now able to stand as a candidate in May.
Kudos to the LibDems for being the first to do a Council election mail drop. It may have been largely policy lite, but at least they have their candidates in place and are letting the public know who these candidates are.
I understand Labour have (virtually) all their candidates in place, even allowing for the loss of one of them to the Health Board, and their launch is imminent.
I have received two or three invitations to apply for vetting as an SNP candidate over the past two months, which seems strange given my public statements on the matter, but may be explained by the fact that no senior member of the party has ever spoken to me about my decision, so maybe they thought I would change my mind. I understand that vetting won't take place for another week, so they might be the last out of the blocks.
The really interesting and intriguing campaign will be the Scottish Christian Party campaign. Not the campaign being run for the list vote for Murdo Apple, but how it impacts locally. Both Labour and the SNP are going to lose activists to the SCP, and some of these people are already actively campaigning against their own party at regional list level. What their own parties make of that is going to be anyone's guess, but it is going to be messy.
However, and much more worrying is the SCP candidates/supporters/activists/representatives who are going to be standing in the Council elections. I know of members of the two biggest parties actively working for SCP-supporting candidates for the Comhairle, whilst trying to remain active in their own parties. How they can square this circle is their concern, but when I know the effort they have put into voter identification for SCP people against their own party, I can only doubt their integrity and reliability. Perhaps because the SCP won't have a slate, it can put their mind at rest; or possibly they intend to resign before the elections; but, either way the SCP will be getting a lot of inside information from the "Holy Moles".
To be anti-theocratic is by no means to oppose religion. On the contrary, as Tocqueville argued, the American anti-theocratic tradition has by and large proven a great boon to religion, practically and morally, and essential to the maintenance of healthy religious commitments.
One only has to look at the success of the theocratic governments in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Israel to see that the future is not an intolerant, prescriptive government at any level; or worse, with the US governed by a bunch of fatalists desperate for a war to bring forward the Rapture to prove that they were right(sic).
However, Rev Stanley Bennie possibly proves the exception. Who can forget the "Bloodhound Gang" thrice on Isles FM.
Incidentally, the vetting was my wife and I, and by a clear majority I can now stand as an independent in May.
Kudos to the LibDems for being the first to do a Council election mail drop. It may have been largely policy lite, but at least they have their candidates in place and are letting the public know who these candidates are.
I understand Labour have (virtually) all their candidates in place, even allowing for the loss of one of them to the Health Board, and their launch is imminent.
I have received two or three invitations to apply for vetting as an SNP candidate over the past two months, which seems strange given my public statements on the matter, but may be explained by the fact that no senior member of the party has ever spoken to me about my decision, so maybe they thought I would change my mind. I understand that vetting won't take place for another week, so they might be the last out of the blocks.
The really interesting and intriguing campaign will be the Scottish Christian Party campaign. Not the campaign being run for the list vote for Murdo Apple, but how it impacts locally. Both Labour and the SNP are going to lose activists to the SCP, and some of these people are already actively campaigning against their own party at regional list level. What their own parties make of that is going to be anyone's guess, but it is going to be messy.
However, and much more worrying is the SCP candidates/supporters/activists/representatives who are going to be standing in the Council elections. I know of members of the two biggest parties actively working for SCP-supporting candidates for the Comhairle, whilst trying to remain active in their own parties. How they can square this circle is their concern, but when I know the effort they have put into voter identification for SCP people against their own party, I can only doubt their integrity and reliability. Perhaps because the SCP won't have a slate, it can put their mind at rest; or possibly they intend to resign before the elections; but, either way the SCP will be getting a lot of inside information from the "Holy Moles".
To be anti-theocratic is by no means to oppose religion. On the contrary, as Tocqueville argued, the American anti-theocratic tradition has by and large proven a great boon to religion, practically and morally, and essential to the maintenance of healthy religious commitments.
One only has to look at the success of the theocratic governments in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Israel to see that the future is not an intolerant, prescriptive government at any level; or worse, with the US governed by a bunch of fatalists desperate for a war to bring forward the Rapture to prove that they were right(sic).
However, Rev Stanley Bennie possibly proves the exception. Who can forget the "Bloodhound Gang" thrice on Isles FM.
Incidentally, the vetting was my wife and I, and by a clear majority I can now stand as an independent in May.
5 comments:
All the very best with your re-election Angus - by far the best councillor on Comhairle!
A load of utter rubbish. No invitations were extended to you by the SNP.
well as everyone else.
Anon 1: that's not what the emails show .....
I hope your not going to show us your emails. Surely the Comhairle have banned the flashing of emails in public? If not why not? Oh nearly forgot Cheery..Tws..
Post a Comment