Labour hold Cowdenbeath after by-election

Still always hoping for a breakthrough, a sign that things are changing, moving in the right direction.
This was not it.
The message is not getting through in Cowdenbeath. How typical is that of so many other areas of the country.
We need something to really give the yes campaign more momentum.
I dread to even contemplate a ‘no’ victory.
What can we do to win?

Spirtle – the message is getting thorough! 11,000 canvassed and in the process asked how they intended to vote in the independence referendum – and the largest percentage said they were going to vote yes. Of the 11,727 people who gave their opinion, 41% said yes, 36% said no, and 23% said they were still undecided. Strip out the undecided voters,that would give a notional referendum result of 53.2% yes, 46.8% no.

Figures from Wee Ginger Dug

And remember that in 1997 the undecided broke overwhelmingly for Yes Yes.

Steady as she goes

I disagree. This close the vote, the impetus for change should be making its presence felt. Significant numbers amongst us still have faith in Labour. I find that worrying,becaus  e frankly the logic is unfathomable.
Even making allowances for traditional loyalties, how can people who believe in socialism approve of means testing and bringing our society with its free health care and prescriptions into line with the UK which has forfeited these? Why do they turn a blind eye to the hypocrisy and vacuous promises which Labour wheel out at will? Postal votes? Are they / should they be discredited? – I don’t know.

I have a theory that most people do not rate the integrity of any politician, and given they’re on such a short leash, it is hard to overcome the cynical inertia of change.

There too many ‘non arguments’ being touted as decisive issues. Take being £500 better off. Meaningless. Why compare the before and after models when…

I suppose 300 years of conditioning doesn’t change overnight. Those not interested in politics or the ignorant will always take the path of least resistance, and will easily be led to the ballot box (if they bother at all) by the culture that surrounds them, without question. This is why labour have lasted so long.

It seems approx. 42% of the votes were postal votes. 8391 out of 20062 votes cast.
Less than 35% turnout. 15% postal votes and 19% at the polling stations.

That tells me there was industrial grade organisation in collecting those postal votes. Everybody knows the potential for fraud in the postal vote system.

These sorts of figures make a mockery of democracy. This potential for jiggery pokery should have been tackled and tightened up in good time for the referendum.
What sort of picture of modern democracy will this give the world if we end up with 15% of the electorate seemingly voting with no control or oversight of the ballots ?