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I realise it's difficult for politicians to call for the delay of elections. Nobody wants to appear as though they are trying to avoid the judgement of the electorate. But is it really feasible for anything remotely resembling a genuine electoral campaign to commence on 25 March? https://twitter.com/ScotParl/status/1357355750952165377
There seems to be an assumption - one presumes among people who have never organised an election campaign before - that we can dispense overnight with public meetings, stalls, leafletting and door knocking and engage instead only through phone calls, broadcasts and social media.
I've helped run a few parliamentary campaigns and in every one of them the final few weeks - the "short campaign" - has been based entirely around what had been learned from extensive one-to-one engagements on the doors, at stalls and at public meetings over the previous year+.
And isn't there a danger that the more we rely on broadcast and social media, where production costs money, and the less we are able to facilitate one-to-one conversations between volunteers and voters, the more we'll skew our politics in favour of those with the deepest pockets?
I would wonder too about many of the other nuts and bolts of electoral campaigning. Are our under-resourced electoral regulators equipped to properly scrutinise such an election? How can agents safely keep track of turnouts during polling day, or observe at the counts to follow?
I know folk across all parties share some of these concerns. And especially when we look at the target dates for completion of the COVID vaccination programme, are we really sure it's wise to push ahead with an election running from March to May? I'm really not. Not in the least.
A fair question. It's important to remember that a Scottish election is actually 73 local elections (and 8 regional ones) not just a counting exercise to deliver lobby fodder to party leaderships. We vote for candidates and judge their character too. https://twitter.com/DavidBassett3/status/1357371566456242191
That is true, but the most often cited example - the US election last November - is a very different kettle of fish from a Scottish parliamentary election. It is already a media-based contest engaged in only by the super-rich. $14 billion was spent. https://twitter.com/OliviaG37717638/status/1357371666628808704
But what are the implications of there not being a genuine campaign? Might that not favour the incumbents in constituency seats? I mean if you don't get the opportunity to meet the alternative, you're not going to vote for them are you? https://twitter.com/Pastillekoala/status/1357376836276264967
