Voting today? It’s not only about who wins

THE first time I ever voted, I made a holiday out of it. This was in

June 1983. I was a student at Stirling University at the time, but term had finished, and I was back in Northern Ireland working.

That didn’t stop me, though. I took a week off and travelled back to Scotland just so I could vote in the general election at Airthrey Castle.

For all the good it did. Michael Forsyth – or Lord Forsyth of Drumlean as he is called these days – was still duly elected by the people of Stirling without my vote.

And so began a long history of voting for the losing side (including the independence and Brexit referendums). Even in

1997. Some lingering suspicion about Tony Blair meant I didn’t vote Labour for once. I still enjoyed staying up for Portillo, right enough.

In the years since I have voted for all the major political parties bar one (anyone who reads this column on even a semi-regular basis can probably guess which). Plus, the Greens (who maybe qualify in Scotland as major now).

And at some point today I will troop along to the local education centre to register my preferred choice(s) for Falkirk North.

Local elections inevitably attract a lower turnout than general elections. Just 46 per cent in Scotland in 2017, though that was actually a big improvement on 2012 when less than 40% of the electorate bothered. Over the last

Billy Connolly’s famous saying, ‘Don’t vote, it only encourages them,’ doesn’t get us very far

50 years less than 50% turnout has been typical in Scottish local elections (with the exception of 1999 when it reached almost 60%).

We clearly don’t think local government matters as much on the whole, although the emptying of your bins or the siting of a new housing estate may have just as much impact on your life as anything in Rishi Sunak’s next budget. Then again, maybe it’s because we have a close-up view of how local government works and are suitably cynical as a result.

But while it’s easy to have some sympathy with Billy Connolly’s famous saying, “Don’t vote, it only encourages them,” I’m not sure it gets us very far. It’s perfectly legitimate to believe that no-one deserves your vote. The problem is that unless the rest of the electorate agrees with you, no politician will care.

Voting at whatever level has an impact. In the turbulent politics of the last decade that’s clearer than ever. And it can have a long tail. The reason Roe v Wade is now under threat from the US Supreme Court is down to less than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan in the 2016 Presidential election, according to Vanity Fair. Or 0.057% of the vote.

And if nothing else, maybe like sport, we can console ourselves with the notion that it’s not the winning but the taking part that counts. The first time my daughter was old enough to vote was in 2014 and the Scottish independence referendum.

As she cast her vote the polling staff all burst into a round of applause. That’s easily my favourite voting memory. May any first-time voters get the same joyous treatment today.