Edinburgh South constituency electioneering

When I implied that Menzies Campbell was less undead than the others on QT last night, it was the buttering up for a dawning realisation. In an imaginary decision tree involving a) having a vote and b) using a vote, a Scottish Lib Dem vote in the South Edinburgh constituency could be a justified action.

South Edinburgh is a marginal seat, currently held by the fragrant Nigel Griffiths, a firmly pro-war Tony-true Nu-Lab instrument whose slavish voting record has been previously noted in these leaves. If ever there was reason for not backing Blair, Nigel epitomises this.



The Guardian gives the best all round accounts for him and his rivals, and more at BBC and Scotshit.

Here's the running for May 5th-

CANDIDATES
Name Party
Gavin Brown Conservative
Steve Burgess Scottish Green Party
Nigel Griffiths Labour
Marilyne MacLaren Liberal Democrat
Morag Robertson Scottish Socialist Party
Graham Sutherland SNP

Several useful UK Election 2005 tools for gamblers, the cynical and the tactical are highlighted at the right sidebar at Lenin's Tomb. Perhaps the most interesting of these are vote4peace (anti-war candidates) and tacticalvoter.net, where one can salve one conscience and get more bang from your buck by vote-swapping. This arrangement interested me because it raised a Prisoner's Dilemma , from game theory. If you make a contract to swap votes with another from another constituency, can you trust them to comply? How does the relative value of the vote vary with compliance or not, and feedback of behaviour?

So Now How Do We Vote, allegedly a resource for 'dismayed labour voters' (perhaps akin to distressed gentlefolk) recommends that South Edinburgh is "A tough call...Vote labour?". Well, thanks but naaw. That's the one option that's absolutely out, at least in this constituency thanks to Nigel's clonelike and plastic qualities.

The options once Nu-Lab, SNP (a mess of porridge) and Tories are dismissed are Green, SSP or LibDem candidates. I could go Green or SSP without needing to slash my own throat, could I vote, but as Colin Fox (SSP) acknowledged last night on Scottish 500 such a protest vote has no realistic hope of electing a candidate. The most emetic of these Hobsons choices, the LibDem candidate Marilyne MacLaren, is not only anti-war but also the only realistic opposition. Her potential success in 2005 is boosted by boundary changes including a SLD/Tory district. If you buy into democracy, or at least its process, using it smart within the restrictions imposed could include voting for Marilyn.



I'll now retire to wash my mouth out with carbolic.