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For an outfit supposedly challenging the & #39;old politics& #39;, All4Unity boasts a prodigious sense of entitlement. It speaks proprietorially about & #39;Unionist& #39; votes*, as if they were its birthright. As if it& #39;s everyone else& #39;s job to ensure & #39;Unionist& #39; votes end up in A4U& #39;s column.
That& #39;s not how elections work. If you& #39;re unhappy with the major parties, you& #39;re free to set up your own party. But that doesn& #39;t entitle you to a single, solitary vote. You have to go out, put the work in and convince voters to support you.
No one owes you their vote. No party is duty-bound to do your electioneering for you. If you think politics is about being handed whatever you want on a plate, God help you if you do end up in Holyrood. It& #39;ll be an eye-opener for you.
A4U’s campaign seems to be: the main parties are rubbish, they should tell the electorate to vote for us instead. Okay, well… no. More to the point: for a party criticising how others perform in the constituencies, I notice A4U hasn& #39;t put itself forward in a single one of them.
*I say & #39;Unionist& #39; because, while many of us use it as a shorthand, not all votes for the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems are & #39;Unionist& #39; votes, just as not all SNP or Green votes are pro-independence votes.
*Some A4U types seem not to understand this point and demand the main parties stand aside for each other in the constituencies. It& #39;s an appealing thought to me, too, but unfortunately a non-starter in competitive, multi-party politics. In fact, it doesn& #39;t even work as arithmetic.
*Labour standing aside for the Tories in an SNP-held seat would not hand the Tories the seat. It would likely mean the SNP winning a bigger majority. Most Labour voters don& #39;t vote Labour for its constitutional stance and, in a straight fight between SNP and Tory, would vote SNP.
Sales patter only gets you so far in politics. You need the goods as well.
