General election: Why you may regret voting tactically for Tories or SNP – Brian Wilson

I prefer to vote positively for what I believe in and suggest anyone considering voting tactically in the general election takes care to avoid doing something they later regret, writes Brian Wilson.

Do you share Nicola Sturgeon’s dream of two referendums in 2020? If so, vote accordingly. If not, vote against. If only life was that simple...

Ms Sturgeon asks us, with straight face, to vote tactically (ie SNP) to “stop Brexit”. This does rather rely on short memories about why we are having a general election – on the date and terms of Boris Johnson’s choosing.

From another direction, the Tories tell us to protect the Union by lending them votes while pursuing policies, not least Brexit, which threaten to tear the Union apart. It is all very confusing.

Actually, I used to be quite expert at making the case against tactical voting which was out of necessity when fighting unwinnable Highland seats.

The first point of principle, I would argue, is that no vote for what you believe in is ”wasted”. More pragmatically, there are always elections to follow.

If core support is eroded through tactical voting, it will be that much harder to recover. So stick with it.

Such cautions are now unfashionable. Instead, we are incited to “stop Brexit” or “stop indyref2”. Personally, I still prefer to vote positively – for the NHS, to end homelessness, for more Scottish schoolkids to be able to read, write and count. That’s what politics used to be about and should be again. It’s why I vote Labour.

Regret over voting SNP

I also learned young that, for anyone with a political soul, tactical voting should not be taken lightly. My father, after a lifetime voting Labour to no obvious effect in Argyll, succumbed just once to voting for the Nationalist, Iain MacCormick, to get the Tory out. He soon regretted it.

Iain duly became one of the SNP MPs who voted with the Tories to bring down a Labour government. So what was the point of voting for him in the first place? Tactical voting should carry its own health warnings. Scotland now faces two impositions, unwanted by the majority – Brexit and a second independence referendum. So which should tactical voters prioritise? Naturally, the Tories want to focus on the latter which makes sense in galvanising their base and recruiting others of like mind on that issue.

The mirror image is that Sturgeon has “stop Brexit” on the side of her latest bus, shifting emphasis from the demand for a second referendum. My guess is that, just as in 2017, the SNP have found little enthusiasm beyond their own hard core for indyref2 – far less “two referendums in 2020”.

Yet before anyone lends either the Lib Dems or SNP their votes to “stop Brexit”, they should cast their minds back to the last weekend of October. The House of Commons had just voted against a general election, for which there was absolutely no requirement.

Collateral damage of Johnson-style Brexit

Then, out of the blue, the Lib Dems and SNP offered Johnson the election he craved. The Lib Dems acted out of pure opportunism, believing they would prosper by presenting themselves as uber-Remainers who would cancel the 2016 referendum result. That hasn’t gone terribly well.

For their part, the SNP saw the prospect of a few extra seats and profit thereafter from the election of a Johnson government that “Scotland didn’t vote for”, thereby advancing the grievance agenda and perpetual demand for another referendum.

Making a Johnson-style Brexit more likely was the collateral, as Sturgeon well knew. Six weeks on, it remains implausible that a handful of Scottish seats will “stop Brexit” but absolutely certain that every vote cast for the SNP will be claimed as an endorsement for independence. So be careful with your tactical votes!

I don’t think it is wise to generalise about the virtues or otherwise of tactical voting. It is very much a local calculation and reflection of personal priorities.

For example, if I was a voter in Ross, Skye and Lochaber, I would probably vote tactically, but that would be in memory of Charles Kennedy rather than to stop Brexit or indyref2.

Happily, where I live there is no such dilemma. I have an excellent Labour candidate and a dead loss Nationalist MP. No tactics or calculations required!