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Oh the irony. I’ve just closed the door on Nicola Sturgeon and she’s left me with a bit more of a voting dilemma than I’d expected. Heck, I’m now actually considering a vote for the SNP.

I’ve already been somewhat impressed with the SNP’s performance so far in the election campaign. Sure, we’re clearly in one of their top priority target seats (They only need 500 votes on the last election to overturn Labour’s hold), and they’ve got the big name of Nicola Sturgeon standing as the candidate who is very well recognised in Scotland (and I suspect also by the politically aware down south?)

Last weekend she was out in Shawlands, and I managed to avoid her, although in reflection, I regretted having done so, after the event.

So I was rather taken aback just a few moments ago when the doorbell rang, and she and a local helper were there, in person, asking for our vote.

Of course, the advantage was hers. She’s an accomplished politician, and my mind was on some database work I’ve been dealing with today. Frances had met her first, and called me down to meet her. I trotted out my main reasons for not being so keen on the SNP, and she gave the expected retorts. The sensible point regarding the referendum is that a vote for the SNP is not a vote for independence, but a vote for a referendum on the matter. Queries re. their spending commitments were well returned, and she left me with things to think about, which makes it a successful house call for her.

She also struck me as a much more pleasant, considerate and thoughtful person than the nay-saying character she comes across, to me at least, in the media.

So my thinking in the first week or two of the campaigning proper has led me to reach one decision. I’ll not be voting Labour – who’s policies so far have been very lack lustre and overwhelmed by anti-SNP sentiment rather than cohesive on their own – or the Socialists, whose ideology I simply disagree with. The rest are still in the mix, and judging by the strength of the campaign the SNP have hit the ground running. I’m more than a little bit surprised at this to be honest, as I’m not what I would consider a natural supporter of the SNP, and still have some serious concerns about their spending proposals and how a win by them would affect the Union. But the consistency and strength of their campaign, as well as being a bit of a sop to my generally liberal sensibilities, makes me think I need to rethink my concerns.

She’s also the first candidate to ask for my vote, and that still should count for something when we’re talking about representational politics. There’s still plenty of time left for the other candidates, and I’m far from decided, but certainly it’s just got a little bit more open.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2007 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Glasgow, Media, Politics, Scotland, Scottish elections, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.