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Before we went to the Tramway, we walked through Shawlands Arcade. For the first time in my life I had to get down on my knees to get some money from the bank (I was using a ‘disabled height’ cashpoint machine: Fun when you’re 6′2″), and just as I’d finished putting my wallet in my pocket, another first: I almost bumped into Nicola Sturgeon who was campaigning on Kilmarnock Road. Some serious mid-distance focused gazing, and I was past before I had a SNP branded Saltire thrust in my hands.

Sturgeon is one the SNP’s most public faces, indeed she’s deputy leader. I’d almost say “think John Prescott“, but as much as I’m no fan of Sturgeon, I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. She’s certainly a much more public face (Prescott is positively hidden from view these days), and in Salmond’s absence from the Scottish Parliament so far, is (or was) the most senior MSP in the previous parliament.

I knew there’d be no point, for her or her band of activists, much less for me to have an encounter and have them try and get me to vote for their policies. I’ve certainly a grudging admiration for the way the SNP seemed to have started it’s campaign ages ago, and how they seem to have capitalised on their support as the strongest alternative to Labour. But that’s a long way from grudging admiration to wanting to actually vote for them. Still, I’m sort of regretting not having given them an opportunity to talk somebody who considers themselves British into voting for a party seeking the dissolution of that very country

Anyway, the SNP have certainly been the most visible party here in Shawlands. As far as visibility of the parties, leaflets-through-the-door is as good a measure as any I can think of, of the local campaigning teams for the parties.

We’ve had a grand total, over the last month or so, of:

• Labour: 1 posted letter from Labour: so no activists in the area? Looked like an electoral role ‘entitlement’. Seemed very focused on anti-SNP comments than anything constructive.
• Conservative: 2 delivered “leaflets” (they’re printed on heavy paper in full colour = expensive): So enthusiastic and money activists/campaign? Strangely little local content in the “leaflets” though.
• Socialists: 1 badly photocopied, possibly dual-colour leaflet.
• Lib Dems: 1 locally delivered leaflet.
• Greens: Ditto. 1 locally delivered leaflet.
• SNP: At least 1 locally delivered leaflet (possibly two). Spotted activists on more than one occasion in the street. Plus today’s ‘meet the voters’ effort by Sturgeon.

So the campaign is certainly starting in ernest. But my earlier comments about the negative nature of the Labour campaign, along with their focus on the benefits of a Labour led national government (rather than specific, distinctive policies for Scotland) are sealing my view that Labour are going to take as much of a pounding as they can expect to receive in an area with a heavily Labour-dominated vote.

The next month or so will probably change much of the above as the campaign machine swings in to action. It’ll be interesting, at least for this floating voter, to see how they emphasise their own policies, rather than slate the others, and distinguish themselves from their UK-national equivalents.

But I’ll definitely not avoid Sturgeon next time. I’m regretting not having given her the opportunity to try and convince me into the merits of the voting for the SNP, when I disagree with their core policy of an independent Scotland. As a political experiment, you understand