Only way to keep SNP at bay is cast votes tactically

THE Scottish Daily Express has long been an advocate of tactical voting to beat the SNP — that means voting for whichever candidate is best placed to beat the Nats.

- Ben Borland Scottish Express Editor

We are staunch supporters of the Scottish Conservatives, but there are many parts of Scotland where the Tories simply do not stand a chance of finishing ahead of the SNP in elections.

This includes South Lanarkshire, where in previous contests we have suggested that Scottish Labour was the party best placed to loosen the SNP’s vice-like grip on west-central Scotland.

But this is true no longer. It is clear that in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, it is now Reform UK that has both the momentum and gumption to capture this once-safe SNP stronghold.

The status quo at Holyrood has been with us for nearly two decades now, and voting along constitutional lines has become so ingrained in our political culture it is difficult to see how it can be shifted.

And it will always work in the SNP’s favour because a sizeable minority of Scots has been fooled into thinking that Scexit would be economically good for the country — and will therefore vote for the Nats every time.

MEANWHILE, the majority of the population who understand that breaking up the world’s most successful economic, social and cultural union would be a disaster share their vote among three parties.