It took a massive effort and a fair amount of money by groups such as Scotland Matters and this website to give arms  and legs to George Galloway’s promotion of the need for pro-UK parties to work together and support tactical voting.

Our provocative and creative social media and press advertising, billboards and ad-vans were seen not just by the half million well-informed voters but also one million people who don’t normally see or hear much about politics, and I think it could really work in the May Council elections – for five  main reasons:

• The Single Transferrable Vote (STV) system reduces the chance of the pro-UK vote being split and there is no need for charts advising people who to vote for. All we have to say is “only vote for the pro-UK party candidates, and rank them in order of your preference… just DON’T Vote SNP, Green or Alba”
• SNP local government incompetence and failures – in schools, social care, potholes, the mess in Glasgow – are staring people in the face every day.
• And then there’s the workplace parking tax that starts on 4th March – which on top of all the other financial pressures is the last thing working people need to face!
• And although the election is about councils, it is easy to link this to Holyrood’s management to the NHS, ferries, Hate Crime Bill and Gender legislation …and their continued kicking of the Indy can.
• The real danger of the vote being split is on the nationalist side, where Green and Alba voters, frustrated by the SNP, may not give them their first preference vote.

For these reasons Scotland Matters has started a campaign to do the job the STV and BBC Scotland TV news and current affairs refuse to do and get the facts in front of the voters. Depending on how much money we raise we can again get to over one million people and show the world a few hundred thousand voters, a shoogly one seat “majority” at Holyrood and an indy case stuck as if it is in Ferguson’s dry dock for an interminable refit does not an Indyref2 mandate make.