Scottish Elections who do you think will take the majority of Seats?

[Fundays12]

As a Scot I genuinely have no idea who to vote for.

I dont trust the SNP and find John Swinney completely incompetent. I wouldnt trust him to run my household budget let alone the countries so he is out for me. I cant stand labour, the tories well are not my cup of tea, lib dems and green would never get my vote.

However i dont seem to be alone in having no idea who to vote for which leaves me wondering who will take the majority of seats across Scotland. What do others think will happen?

I've voted, it's the first election where I have not wanted anyone to win!

I thought you got to rank parties on the list vote so was surprised that you only got one choice. I'm already regretting who I have voted for on that paper.

I think Tory second vote works well as if they do badly on the candidate list they get more weighting on the second vote.

(sorry I can't remember the proper terms for the different types of votes)

WTF? Please don't tar Scout leaders as abusers.
Would you think that of any volunteer who does stuff for kids, sports coaches etc?

The majority of Scout leaders are either kids who have grown up Scouting who love doing different things and the opportunities it brings. And got involved in Young Leader schemes.
Scouts like Guides recognise growing their own leaders through Young Leader schemes is a good move.

Or parents who get roped in to make it happen for their own kids.

There's the occasional leader who's trying to get something to put on their CV, that maybe want to go into Police, Social Work or Teaching and trying to get experience working with kids.

But the majority of leaders start to benefit own kids or are scouts who never left!

I am as anti-SNP as they come but I think this is a bit of a reach. It's verging into the conspiracy theorist territory that there is this group of powerful people controlling the world and sacrificing children (or something). Named person was awful legislation and a really shit idea which would never have got as far as it did if there was a second chamber for oversight in Scotland as there is in Westminster.

I think Named Person was the usual SNP incompetence and stupidity rather than anything sinister and nefarious.

Whatever was driving it, it was absolutely open to abuse. And would have been abused.

Oh agree, and any of the many people who raised concerns were pooh-pooed and told that having the headteacher making parenting decisions for your child was perfectly normal.

Plus, what do they have do do with the named person legislation?

Absolutely agree. It may have started off with the usual SNP incompetence, but anyone with an ounce of common sense could see how it was going to go - quite terrifying really.

That wasn’t what it was about.

Well i've cast my vote. I've voted in every election since I turned 18, the very year it became legal for 18year olds to vote.

I know it's normal as a person gets older to be more cynical about politics but i'm surprised by my level of lack of any expectation of things getting any better whoever I voted for today.

In the past I've always been pro the person or people i vote for. Today it was more a matter of a process of elimination and having discarded the objectionable parties and candidates I was left with my usual choice. So they got my votes by default rather than my enthusiasm. SNP candidate and Scottish Greens list vote in case it's of any interest.

That was absolutely a consequence of this ill-thought out plan.

And that before the child abusers saw their opportunity.

I voted SNPX2 as I have a great MSP and I want the person I chose on the list to get a seat.

I’ll just add, I voted for the Bute House Agreement. I like the SGP. 👍

the mind boggles

How depressing.

I agree in that all my life I was fiercely interested in politics, even from a very young child. My father was a local councillor and Labour Party and Trade Union activist. So politics was discussed a lot in my home and we had lots of visitors because of hus political involvement.

I was a staunch LabourSuppoerter and party member until Tony Blair became party leader and the party moved to the right and abandoned Socialism.
After that I was still really interested in politics so my more recent diisenchantment and cynicism is quite depressing for me.

Are there any exit polls or do we just have to wait till tea time tomorrow?

Some men go into roles in the Scouts because they are paedophiles. It's well known. In fact when I was in college I had a male friend who had been sexually abused by a scout leader when on a scout camping trip. He didn't tell. I have no doubt that those men are very much in the minority.

This man was finally jailed recently:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/30/former-scout-leader-richard-burrows-jailed-46-years-sexual-abuse?

And here's an article about an interactive map showing over 250 convicted scout leaders:
More than 250 convicted of child sexual abuse in UK and Ireland while in Scout movement | Scouts and scouting | The Guardian

What they have to do with the named person legislation is that if, for whatever reason, there is an opportunity to have one to one access to children, boys or girls, paedophiles will take advantage of that. The Named Person scheme would have provided access to and power over every child in Scotland.

That's not what I was depressed about on reading your post.

I'm actually starting to think that in our age people are not grown-up enough for a democratic system to work. Leaving aside Scottish politics specifically, someone in England was saying that they're voting Reform. They knew that Reform have said that they're going to get rid of the Equality Act, but hadn't bothered to look up what the Equality Act covers (basically everything that protects women from discrimination and gives them all their maternity rights, also protects older people, the disabled, ethnic minorities, and more) and thought that it wasn't worth keeping because the government wasn't acting on the For Women Scotland judgement. Might as well just scrap the Equality Act entirely, apparently.
When I explained what was in the Equality Act, they just abused me. And are no doubt voting Reform as we speak.

They're all as useless as each other, so it'd be equally depressing voting Labour/Tory.

The whole choice available to voters is depressing.

I think it's pointless to say voting SNP/Green is depressing as if there are any real alternatives available!

We need some opposition to the SNP (and Greens). They've been in power for almost 20 years, they are highly corrupt, they focus their attention on ideological beliefs that actually harm large sections of the population, they have destroyed the Scottish education system - academic attainment and behaviour are now at rock bottom - NHS Scotland isn't fit for purpose, and they can't even sort out the roads and the ferries. Because of the Indy issue it seems impossible to get rid of them, but we should at least try to get more people into the Scottish Parliament to speak up and challenge them. I don't actually care that much which parties those people come from, as long as they provide some kind of opposition. Labour or Tory - I'd just vote for whoever has a chance of getting in.

I have voted Labour on both papers. Our local candidate is wonderful and we need to see change, the SNP have destroyed our education system and the NHS is on its knees.

Okay 😬. But what’s that got to do with named person?