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It is official. I have entered politics! With my first letter to the Edinburgh Evening News, I have sparked two people on the EEN web forum to strongly disagree with me and call me a “career-driven supporter” of the SGP, speaking “no more than blatant propaganda”! Here are the posts in full:

#12
(#10 Climate Truth) – Wow! It is good to hear from someone who can speak knowledgeably about these issues that have been reduced to no more than blatant propaganda by the Greens and too many career-driven supporters. Climate Truth's comment refers to the latest IPCC report allegedly supported by “2,500 scientists” and to the “Summary for Policy Makers” which has been released in advance of the report proper. If I understand correctly, this Summary was issued before the report proper was finalised. However, it was announced that the report would not be changed except to bring it into line with the Summary – completely the wrong way round! The summary should be of the findings of the Report! It is not only Tom Redford who says such untruths with a straight face – Greens as a group are lying their way through the Press. A couple of days ago we had another who stated as fact something that was just not true, not misinterpreted, not misunderstood but just not true. And these people have the gall to suggest we vote for them!

#14
Yes (12), I too dislike this propaganda that the Greens are using to present their argument. It implies that they have a very weak case so have to use the “big lie” to make their argument. Tom Redford says that Helen Martin “writes that the scientific community is divided on the matter of whether climate change is caused by human activities. This is simply not true.” That statement is simply not true, as Climate Truth says with significant references to dissenting scientists. At least Steuart Campbell, whilst supporting TOm [sic] Redford's view, is honest enough to admit the reality – that pursuing the Greens' policy would wreck the economy, a significant factor in my view. I had the privilege to attend the lecture given some months ago by Bjorn Lomborg, who left Greenpeace at the same time as one of the co-founders. They took the view that the argument had been won, that people were correctly concerned about ecology and it was no longer necessary to pursue confrontation to make their case. Too many Greenpeace activists enjoyed confrontation to follow their lead, leading to that schism. Lomborg argues that whilst everyone should be concerned about the planet, Kyoto required far more investment than the improvements that it could create. It couldn't produce a realistic return on the investment, both in activity and financial cost. He even wrote a book about all the other steps that could be taken instead with far greater benefit to the planet and its inhabitants. He has been described as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He also disagrees with the IPCC “findings”.

Full Forum Page

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What a disappointing day for the Scottish Green Party. We lost five of our seats in Parliament, but gained eight in the local councils. The count in Edinburgh was the last to be concluded. I'm not sure where we go from here. In terms of governing with a majority, any coalition would require the Greens to be part of it, possibly also with Margo McDonald. But there is still the option of minority government that Labour seem to be pushing.

My main focus now is to rest. I have had a total of four hours sleep since Thursday (four more than most people at the count). It is really quite shocking how there were so many problems with the count. From what I could see of the contentious papers, most of the spoils were caused by people filling in the papers incorrectly. A lot of people were using numbering where they should have used a cross, and using crosses where they should have used numbering.

I'll be checking BBC News all day tomorrow to find out what is going on.

Full Election Results

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I'm shocked by the number of spoilt ballot papers that are being announced in the Scottish elections. From what I have seen, it seems to be, not that the computers aren't counting papers correctly, but that the electorate haven't understood the papers. I've seen a lot of papers which are filled in completely incorrectly.

It doesn't look good for the Greens or any of the other small parties. We seem to be losing our list seats to the SNP, so the hopes that we had for 15 MSPs are gone. We have returned Patrick Harvie for Glasgow, but lost the South of Scotland. No other regional results are in yet. From what I have heard, the political classes are now losing faith in the electoral systems, so it will be very interesting to see how the next government decides to proceed in four years time. I will be keen to see how we do in the council elections.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/elections/2007/07index.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2007/scottish_parliment/html/region_99999.stm

Update:
SGP has lost the Mid Scotland and Fife Region.