The SNP must not be allowed to use the pandemic to suppress the activities of their opponents - Alex Cole-Hamilton

It’s a curious thing, but right now in Scotland, you can deliver mail if you’re a postie or takeaway menus if you’re a restaurant owner, but if you want to deliver leaflets which might criticise the SNP government or set out an alternative point of view, that’s illegal. Ministers have decided that the risk of viral transmission is higher on political leaflets than it is on any other kind of paper.

Scotland is set to go to the polls in May

These are the same Ministers who insist that we can proceed safely with the Scottish general election planned for May 6.

I’ve no problem with an election in the spring. I relish the idea of putting forward a positive alternative to the SNP. If votes can be both cast and counted safely then we should have it, but we have to allow socially distanced election campaigning to accompany that. I’m concerned that we cannot ask the public to render a judgement on who they wish to serve them in Parliament, if the only voice they hear in that campaign is that of the First Minister from her lunchtime briefings. An election is not just about one day where you cast your ballot, it is about the clash of ideas, the different visions for our country and the months of public meetings and conversations on doorsteps that accompany them.

Aside from telephoning those precious few numbers that are not registered with the telephone preference service, no kind of election campaigning is permitted right now. While your doorbell will ring most days with the arrival of Amazon or DPD, political canvassing, like leaflet delivery is prohibited.

I won my constituency from the SNP in 2016 against the odds, literally (at one point you could get 65-1 against my victory). I did so by personally knocking 20,000 doors and delivering tens of thousands of leaflets. Through that local activity, coupled with a thousand seemingly tiny acts of public service, we were able to move a mountain of public opinion and deliver an electoral upset.

The Representation of the People Act allows for the festival of campaigning and engagement with voters that our elections have become. But like every other festival in this city, Covid restrictions cast a long shadow over the preparations for this year’s Scottish Parliamentary Election. Our public health advisers have suggested new and innovative solutions to allow the election to go ahead safely. They’re encouraging uptake of postal votes and suggesting that we cast and count ballots over several days, as opposed to the frenetic bustle of a single polling day. But without normal, safe campaigning, any outcome will be skewed to the governing party, particularly at a time when the electorate feel obliged to tune in to the leader of that party every day for news of the pandemic.

If the government believe it’s safe enough to invite people to go to the polls, then it must be safe enough to allow the important activities of public debate and campaigning that precede that vote to take place as well. One must walk hand in hand with the other. Make no mistake, I’m happy to fight the election, but the SNP must not be allowed to use the pandemic to suppress the activities of their opponents.