You know it, we know it, votes for Labour or the Greens in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine on July 4th won’t count for anything.

Neither party has any local councillors, which is a reasonable measure of support on the ground. Neither have ever won this seat, or come close.

Under first past the post, every vote for a candidate who doesn’t win in a constituency is wasted. Votes for the winner over and above what is needed to win are also wasted – a seat won by thousands of votes and a seat won by 2 votes both still send just one MP to Westminster. In the General Election in 2019, 71% of votes were wasted.

Parties with a broad base of support can end up with more votes and fewer seats than those with a regional focus. For example, in 2019, the Liberal Democrats got three times the number of votes of the SNP, but the SNP got four times as many seats. The Social Democratic and Labour Party got 118,737 votes and two seats, the Green Party got 865,697 votes and one seat.

The upshot of this is parliament can be vastly unrepresentative of the UK population. Liberal Democrats want to reform the voting system, so all votes matter. Even parties with policies the antithesis of ours (like Reform) would get a voice in Westminster if they got enough votes. Proportional representation would mean no more ‘safe’ seats, no need for tactical voting, would encourage more people to actually turn up and vote, and more accurately reflect the political makeup of the British people.

A vote for Labour or Green in this area probably won’t matter, but the Lib Dems want it to.

This is the bit where I ask for your support in this general election – hopefully for the very last time.

You’ll have had multiple leaflets through your door in the past few weeks. The Tory and SNP ones highlight the 2019 election result, as it’s in their interest for you to believe that there’s only a choice of two parties this time. The Lib Dem ones highlight our strong historical record here – 18 years straight. To be quite honest, this is the first election since we lost this seat in 2015 that we’ve had a proper candidate with a proper campaign. Michael Turvey was selected last year, and has been out knocking on doors and sending out newsletters ever since. Labour (sorry Kate!) are relying on a ‘North-East’ opinion poll.

We want you to lend us your vote, join the folk turning away from the toxic Tories and backing us instead. Join with those voters who won’t lend their vote to the SNP (now that they’ve announced that they consider a vote for the SNP to be a vote for independence), and are coming back to the Liberal Democrats. Have a look at our manifesto, and you’ll see policies to improve the lives of working people and the most vulnerable in our society, as well as a strong environmental focus.

Vote for us this time, so that you never feel you have to vote for us again! (Though of course, we’d love it if you did 😉)