My thoughts on Independent candidates

I have always found party politics to be largely off-putting.

It inevitably attracts careerists, especially to the most popular party, who want the party money, machinery, and status to add legitimacy to their campaign and careers.

Independent candidates, on the other hand, choose to reject all those advantages.

Some will be doing this because they have fallen out with, kicked out, or been rejected by the established parties.

Others will be standing on single issues, probably not expecting to win, but hoping to raise awareness of whatever issue it is they feel is not being addressed.

Then of course you'll get the people doing it for a laugh or the attention, the joke candidates who are not stealing any votes from serious candidates and can be safely ignored.

It doesn't need to be said that the chance of an independent candidate beating the favourite party candidate in any constituency is low, but the chances are better standing as a list candidate.

It can only really be done by somebody with a high profile who commands the respect of the local voters, Margo McDonald being the best example.

So in this upcoming election are there any independent candidates worthy of your consideration?

Martin Keatings is standing in Mid-Scotland & Fife.

He will be best known amongst independence supporters as the man behind the Peoples Action on Section 30, and he is primarily standing because of the ruling that he and the 10k people who backed him are not of sufficient standing to bring the case.

In other words, only parliamentarians can ask a question of the law in Scotland, not the people who are meant to be sovereign.

If he wins, the courts will not be able to reject his case and will have to provide an answer to the question that the SNP should have asked a long time ago but still refuse to ask.

So this alone might make him worthy of your vote.

Mid-Scotland & Fife is SNP territory with them taking 8 of the constituency seats, with Willie Rennie taking the final seat.

This meant that the SNP didn't gain any list seats for the regions, so list votes for the SNP will be wasted.

I do wish that Alba had adopted Martin as a candidate after AFI stepped down.

In my view that puts voters in that region in a difficult position and could split the list vote.

Bonnie Prince Bob is standing in Edinburgh Central.

This is an interesting one, there is the element of a joke candidate with the name, but watch his video to the end and it's clear he is serious.

He has the backing of Craig Murray.

He is standing as a constituency candidate so he's going head to head against Angus Robertson.

Indeed it seems that the main reason for him standing is to prevent Angus Robertson from winning in the constituency.

He has already managed to beat Angus Robertson's crowdfunding total, which is impressive.

The real question is can he get the support of the wider population of voters who are not on Twitter or Facebook, to them he will probably just look like a joke candidate.

Angus Robertson may be the continuity candidate for the leadership of the SNP, so if you are unhappy with Nicola Sturgeon's management of the SNP, Bonnie Prince Bob may be worth a vote if only as a protest vote.

If I was in that constituency I think I would probably end up voting for him for that reason alone.

Of course, there are other Independent candidates out there, but to date, it is only these two who have been getting noticed, even if that's just online.

If others managed to raise their profiles I will cover them in due course, or if I missed someone, let me know in the comments.