The "Make Mine A Double" voting craze that is sweeping the nation: why all the most fashionable trendsetters - and Stew - agree it has to be BOTH votes SNP in May

 

There's actually a serious point here, because Stew is far from the only right-wing commentator who has argued that a Green return to government would be an unmitigated catastrophe - we've heard the same message repeatedly from the Express and the Telegraph.  But the problem they all have is that by far the most likely way of preventing an SNP-Green coalition is to vote SNP.  

If the SNP win a majority or get very close to one, the likelihood is that they'll form a single-party government.  The more inconclusive the result, the more likely it is that they'll have to cut a deal with the Greens.  And this time the Green involvement in government will probably be much more extensive than it was under the Bute House Agreement - on the basis of current opinion polls, the Greens might have a claim to as many as one-quarter of the ministerial posts.  Paradoxically, that's what people will be making more likely by voting Labour or Reform to try to harm the SNP.

By the looks of it, Angus Robertson and the other SNP constituency candidates who are in a battle with the Greens thought it was Christmas when the Green candidate Kate Nevens made her now-notorious comment about wanting to abolish prisons.  Even I, who would like to see the justice system reoriented towards rehabilitation, think abolition is too extreme a policy because I don't see how it's viable not to lock up the most serious violent offenders.  The big danger for the Greens, though, is not what people think about the policy in isolation - it's any sense that takes root that the Greens are a bit nuts, and that was pretty obviously what Angus Robertson was trying to cultivate.

*  *  *

If you are enjoying Scot Goes Pop's election coverage so much that you start to feel an inexplicable urge to buy me a hot chocolate or a ham-and-cheese toastie, donations are very welcome.  There are three main options: 
a) you can donate by card HERE 
b) you can make a direct PayPal donation to my PayPal email address, which is: jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk
c) you can make a donation by bank transfer - for the necessary details, please drop me a line at my contact email address, which is: icehouse.250@gmail.com

*  *  * 

Over the last few months, I've been building up the Scot Goes Pop channel on YouTube - you can check it out HERE, and don't forget to subscribe.