SNP leadership campaign

[RoyalCorgi]

I thought it would be fun for the leadership campaign to have its own thread.

According to Wikipedia, the timetable for the election is:

"Nominations opened on 16 February, and will close on 24 February. Those nominated will then be put forward as options in a ballot of party members, which will open on 13 March, and close at noon on 27 March, with the result announced on the same day by the SNP's national secretary, Lorna Finn."

So quite a short campaign. I don't completely understand how the voting works - it's not first past the post, but a "type of single transferable vote", according to Wiki, which is clear as mud.

Kate Forbes seems to have lost some key supporters by saying she was opposed to same-sex marriage, which perhaps means some of them will transfer to Ash Regan. The only other candidate is our old chum Humza Yousaf, author of one of the most deranged and authoritarian pieces of legislation, the Hate Crime and Public OrderAct, to pass through a UK legislative body in the past 100 years.

Those of you in Scotland, how do you see this playing out?

The SNP in recent years have deliberately opted to have policy dictated by a party which received less than 2% of the vote. Slater came last out of 5 in the constituency vote with1,727 votes and Harvey last out of 4 with 3,251 votes, yet both hold ministerial posts.

It is risible for the SNP to talk about "independence" and "democracy" whilst dancing to Patrick Harvey's tune. Allowing this tiny, unrepresentative cabal to dictate policy is demented.

It is risible that the SNP think this position is tenable yet Rishi Sunak's lawful and justified use (welcomed by many in Scotland) of the section 35 process isn't.