Sunday, April 15, 2007

Dangers of PR and Hibs have to replay Cup Semi Final on April 24th!

I am still following the Scottish Parliamentary Elections and the Edinburgh District Council Elections with interest and not a little concern!! For the first time the City Council Elections will be using a system of Proportional Representation in line with the Parliamentary Elections.
There are a lot of smaller parties in the frey including somewhat bizarrely a Senior Citizens Party! Overall I support the development of new parties but think that many are actually essentially lobby groups who have become political groupings due to the possible electoral opportunities open to them under a PR system, ie they could never win a straight "first past the post" constituency contest but can gather lots of small levels of support to cross the line and have someone from the Party list shoe-horned into the Scottish Parliament. on a negative note I witness the Party Election Broadcast from the Scottish BNP which was very disturbing and fronted by someone who looked like a serial killer (or at the very least a Rangers supporter)!! They specifically request a vote from the Party List and say that even one BNP MSP wopuld make a difference! Rumpours are that all the Scottish Socialists will be wiped out but good old Tommy Sheridan might hang on in in his one man band with him obviously at the top of the list! He is a survivor and a shrewd politician even if some of his other personal traits are somewhat less desirable!
As someone once said the first past the post system allows the largest minority party to rule and PR allows the smallest minority party to rule!
The Edinburgh City Council elections are also be be run under PR for the first time so already the horse trading has begun with the ever reliable Lib Dems seeking deals with whatever is on offer!! They promised that they would not deal with the SNP on the basis of a Referendum on Independance in the first year buit apparently the offer is for a wider referendum which looks like a deal has been struck between the SNP and Lib Dems or at least an understanding, the Lib Dems really will jump into bed with anyone wont they??? Good to see Sir Alex Ferguson urging voters to Vote Labour and Save the Union!!

On the Hibs front they are in Glasgow a few hours away from the Cup Semi Final against Dunfermline. More on that later!! More info in press today on fallout with the Players list of grievances with John Collins running to some 6 pages!!!!
After a week of turmoil there are rumours of an end of season clearout with some new players already pre-signed for next season:
Clayton Donaldson from York City is known to have already signed but rumours suggest that Brian Kerr from Motherwell and even Julian Brellier from Hearts(!!) have signed up for next season as well so interesting times ahead!

The match has just finished at 0-0 with a replay on Tuesday April 34th at Hampden again. Dad and I listened opn the radio and it sounds like Hibs had most of the play with Dunfermline defending for most of the game. the truth is, that after the week on unrest within the dresing room, having another go is not that bad a result as I really felt that we would go down today! Roll on the 24th!!! (Below are images from the Scottish Cup Semi final match between Hibs and Dunfermline today at the National Stadium, Hampden Park)

1 comment:

Mark Lazarowicz said...

Thanks for your message of support for the elections, John. (Pity about the draw at Hampden today, though!)