Chris Musson says the campaign has yet to electrify Scotland, with less than two weeks until the Holyrood election Credit: Getty<\/p>\n
He said he can \u2018see why folk seem largely disinterested\u2019 Credit: Andrew Barr<\/p>\n
But I can see why folk seem largely disinterested.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just because of the never-ending Mandelson saga hoovering up people\u2019s attention, or the fact that it\u2019s often looked like we\u2019re on the brink of World War<\/a> Three in recent months.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s face it, a Russian invasion would certainly put a devolved parliament<\/a> ballot into some perspective.<\/p>\n There are myriad reasons for voter apathy, the blame for which cannot be shirked by pointing elsewhere.<\/p>\n Devolution in 1999 was meant to bring politics closer to the people, but we now have a growing problem with Scots switching off.<\/p>\n Pollsters expect turnout next week to be significantly lower than in 2021, when 63.5 per cent of the electorate voted \u2014 hardly a stellar number itself.<\/p>\n It would not surprise me to see 50 per cent or less vote on May 7.<\/p>\n In the wake of the so-called IndyRef \u2014 where the turnout was almost 85 per cent \u2014 there was an air of smugness and complacency from the political classes about levels of \u201cengagement\u201d. But little more than a decade later, things feel flat.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know about you, but the people I speak to tend not to be gripped by discussions about what the parties are, say, offering up in their manifestos.<\/p>\n They are not chatting on the buses or in the pubs<\/a> about the televised leaders\u2019 debates which are now a turn-off \u2014 literally, given the dismal viewing figures.<\/p>\n A lot of people don\u2019t even know who the party<\/a> chiefs in Scotland<\/a> are, as underlined by a reporter from this very newspaper trudging the streets last week and holding up photos of various leading lights in front of unsuspecting passers-by.<\/p>\n A Meh Factor is engulfing the nation, and there is more than one reason why this malaise has set in.<\/p>\n Firstly, there\u2019s the overexposure to elections. Devolution and those two big referendums may have empowered people, but they\u2019ve also tired them out.<\/p>\n General Elections used to be a novelty every four or five years, but devolution \u2014 and the past decade of instability \u2014 has seen elections fly in.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve had nine trips to the ballot box for national votes since 2014 alone, if you include the indy and Brexit<\/a> referendum. And that\u2019s not including the multiple council or Euro<\/a> elections.<\/p>\n Secondly, there is also an air of defeatism, even cynicism, among many people.<\/p>\n \u2018We now have a growing problem with Scots switching off to politics\u2019 Credit: Getty<\/p>\n Parties of government have been squabbling, ousting leaders, and embroiled in scandal Credit: Getty<\/p>\n We have been in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis ever since the tail end of the pandemic and the energy bills crisis, and not only is there no end in sight, but things could be about to get a whole lot worse.<\/p>\n In the meantime, we\u2019ve seen incessant psychodrama at both Westminster<\/a> and Holy\u00adrood, with parties of government<\/a> squabbling, ousting leaders, and embroiled in scandal.<\/p>\n It\u2019s wholly understandable that people look at what\u2019s going on and think our leaders have their priorities all wrong.<\/p>\n Thirdly, the lack of any detailed, persuasive and realistic offer of meaningful change from any party has been a crushing disappointment.<\/p>\n Labour may be deploying that word again, as they did at the 2024 General Election<\/a>, but their Holyrood manifesto is anything but daring.<\/p>\n A fourth reason people are turned off from this election \u2014 and there may be more \u2014 is the way the parties have been carrying on.<\/p>\n This has hardly been a melting pot of big ideas and positive visions. Meanwhile, the Nats and pretty much all of their rivals have been issuing daily press releases with accusations about who\u2019s going to do a deal with who, should there end up being a hung parliament.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\tSCOTTISH Tory boss Russell Findlay may be regretting having a pint of lager during his interview with celeb wrestler Grado.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Findlay was maybe a bit too relaxed, at one point joking: \u201cThere\u2019s people in the Borders who probably don\u2019t have tellies.\u201d<\/p>\n Presumably he forgot the Scottish Borders are among the Tories\u2019 few heartlands in Scotland. <\/p>\n Or maybe he did remember \u2013 as the words left his mouth \u2013 given he turned to someone off camera and said: \u201cCan I say that?!\u201d<\/p>\n Findlay also told Grado that the food in the Scottish Parliament canteen is \u201cdreadful\u201d. <\/p>\n I hope he\u2019s looking forward to being served some cold soup on his first day back if he\u2019s re-elected.<\/p>\n This is, frankly, boring \u2014 and wilfully ignores the reality<\/a> of the electoral maths. If it comes down to it, and there is no overall majority, of course deals will have to be done.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how the Scottish Parliament<\/a> was set up to work. The electoral system \u2014 partly proportional representation \u2014 may be head-scratcher at times, was intended to make it very, very hard to get a majority.<\/p>\n It turns out the parties of the devolution area, who said they\u2019d be different, don\u2019t actually want to be different after all, having spent the past few weeks decrying the idea of working with each other.<\/p>\n The big irony of the high levels of disinterest is that most people ARE interested in politics \u2014 even if not the kind that\u2019s being played out by our leaders.<\/p>\n People are fed up with the cost of living. Fed up struggling to get hospital<\/a> or GP<\/a> or dental appointments. Fed up with the state of the roads, or the lack of bin collections.<\/p>\n Fed up with the growing rules and regulations and charges making life more difficult for them.<\/p>\n The solutions to these issues lie in politics.<\/p>\n Parties should be pushing at an open door to engage voters.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, they seem to be doing their utmost to make people tune out.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen incessant psychodrama at both Westminster and Holy\u00adrood Credit: Getty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IT\u2019S an understatement to say the campaign has yet to electrify Scotland, with less than two weeks until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[939,748,487,35,4884,476,712,213,16,15],"class_list":["post-920808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-bills","tag-britain","tag-cost-of-living","tag-energy","tag-great-britain","tag-inflation","tag-scotland","tag-sun-club","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116473977068821208","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It\u2019s been the same old sleight of hand from the SNP with their red herrings and freebies, chiefly a supermarket<\/a> \u201cprice cap\u201d gimmick which they know they won\u2019t be able to implement and is designed to provoke a scrap.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/scottish-conservative-leader-russell-findlay-1072083978.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n