Monday, May 17, 2010

Donnie Macleod takes the Gurn to task

The Gurn has been critical of the local Green Party. Donnie was fair scunnert with that but held off his response until after the election:
'Now that the poor election is over, I would like to respond to some of your interesting comments about the Greens on your website. I have held off from replying before now as I too, like some of your campaigners, believe that there is nothing more annoying than politicians pontificating when there is a major election lomming. How they all agree about the issues that they never deal with afterwards!It would be much better if they pontificated when their isn't an election on. In response to my previous post you stated that 'It simply isn't enough to put out press releases and hope that the media take them up'. You obviously missed the point that I was trying to make. The references were to things that the Highland greens had been actually doing over a long period of time about the A96 proposals. It is not our expectation or fault that the media don't pick them up. The actions were carried out to keep the pressure on the Council and themedia are not necessary. If you rely on the media then you are relying on vested interests. My post was countering your assertion that we were only putting out a press release because of the impending election.Your assertion was like a red rag to a bull but I have waited because of it. My election result may have been pathetic but at least I have 796 people who put their trust in me to represent their views without there being a cat's chance in hell of me winning a first past the postelection. And give the Christians their due they also have over 800 people who had the courage to stand up for their convictions. I accept and agree with you about our failure to build up a grassroots base when we had a paid MSP. Maybe the next time will be different! However, we do need to be careful that public resources are not used to further the interests of a political party such as has happened all too often in the past.The election has really illustrated what a rubbish system we have forelecting our representatives to Westminster. The Scottish result was exactly identical to the result in 2005. The same numbers for all thefailed parties, same seats, same patter, how boring. Middle England does it again!!! What a lot if wasted votes in this constituency!! Danny Alexander was always going to win and the extra 8,000 votes he got weren't needed (8,000 wasted). The Tories, Labour and SNP had no chance anyway and they had other seats to hold. (another 32,000 voteswasted).The voters for the small parties actually didn't waste their votes as they were able to make a statement worthy of comment. This is exemplified by yourself when you congratulated the christians for beating the Greens.
By the way, the Gurn is Great.
Donnie Macleod (Not at Westminster, thankfully)'
Thanks for that Donnie, we'll put the other information you sent up soon plus we'll go back and put that comment from Isla in the headlines too. Gurn advice is to start a blog and just go for it. We could put it in the sidebar with the rest of the local blogs (Ardersier is almost Nairnshire lol and the local paper does claim you). You can see from the facebook groups linked in the sidebar too how this community is willing to engage in politics, by looking out for each other and speaking out. I'm sure your input would be welcome by most.
I remember the days when we got a Green candidate elected to the HC in Nairn, his performance was mirrored by a good performance by I think it was eight other candidates in the Highlands. The apple-cart was upset that time round for sure. It was a shame Eleanor didn't kick over a couple of tables but well there you go. Que sera, sera.
Hope you do better than the Christians next time.
We note also that another consituency candidate has responded on his blog to comments concerning Nairn. Here's what Mike Robb has to say about Liz's dismissal and the Pool issue.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

And why is the Gurn giving political backing to the Greens rather than us Christians?

God will judge you

Graisg said...

Don't blame me I voted for John Finnie :-)

Anonymous said...

could someone outline what the Greens have been doing re. A96 proposals?

Graisg said...

We've got a press release from them we'll put up tonight. It deals with A96 planning issues.

Nairn said...

I read with interest Donnie Macleod's post. The Gurn might be a small local blog, perhaps not as important as say The Nairnshire Telegraph for getting your point across (perhaps questionable) but I have to take Donnie to task for saying that he wanted to wait till post the elections before responding to the Gurn.

His response is contradictory, complaining that Green press releases are not always published and yet here he is given a pre election media platform of which he says "there is nothing more annoying than politicians pontificating when there is a major election looming"

Electioneering is just that, getting your party across before the election, winning over voters with your rhetoric, firing up support for your pledges. To some you might have been "annoying" but surly better than collecting the pathetic tag?

I for one have voted Green in the past. I'm old enough to remember the Green parties emerging in the late 70's and how the environment became a political issue. In mainland Europe Greens are still a force to be reckoned with, but to focus on the Highlands just what has happened to our Green party? Is haranguing Highland Council over the A96 builds and a few failed press releases the net result for Highland Greens in recent years?

In Nairn I saw just one Green poster and no Green street presence. I appreciate that there is perhaps a lack of funds, but does this also equate to lack of support in the form of volunteers who traditionally carry out a lot of election campaigning work? Do we need a 'New' Green party, or at least something to capture the publics imagination, one thing is clear post the election, we need the Greens to seen to be an active political force in office or not in the Highlands

As for the claim of wasted votes. An unfair criticism of our current election system which (until this election) had been first past the post with the party with enough seats forming a new government. In this election people were voting within this system with the knowledge that in this constituency only the largest parties stood a cat in hells chance of winning. I would suggest to you therefore that it was a vote for the Greens (that may have been noble) which was in fact a wasted vote unless it was of course to insure that a deposit wasn't lost!

Do we need to change our voting system? Yes, and however unpalatable the current coalition may be, it has to be worth suffering if it brings us PR for the future, electioneering has to be within whichever system we have

"The Gurn is great" - I'm in full agreement with Donnie on that one!

Kind regards

Nairn

P.S. And just for the record Donnie are you pro or anti the EU?

Anonymous said...

Your on the wrong road if you go with the Greens, & thank God I'm an Atheist

Anonymous said...

The Green Party has, as well as politicians from other Parties, raised concerns regarding aspects of development in the A96 Corridor. In addition to this I was invited to speak at a meeting at the Spectrum Centre organised by the G Party. Councillor Ross, Chairman of the PED, represented THC and various viewpoints were expressed there. I have seen items in the press from the GP.

In the interest of balance, Mrs Scanlon has made various representations on A96 Corridor issues. Peter Peacock helped with questions to Ministers, (Rhoda Grant has listened attentively and asked general questions of the council and civil wervants re general planning issues on our behalf).

Fergus Ewing attended meetings with and also wrote letters on behalf of consitituents re the emergence of the A96 Corridor proposals on behalf of consitituents. (I have not approached him recently. My personal view is that all politicians in opposition may behave differently when they move into government but I am not an expert in these matters.)

APTSec