For those of us aged 45 plus, May 7 will be the sixth time we’ve cast votes for Holyrood since the Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999.

We know the drill but for those who’ve never voted in this election before, you get two ballot papers.

The first will be lilac-coloured for 73 constituency MSPs, and the second will be peach, which elects 56 list MSPs.

By polling day, I predict you’ll be sick to the back teeth of the word peach.

As well as a fruit, and an inexplicably popular choice of colour for sinks and cludgies in the 80s, peach also means to inform on someone.

In this election peach informs us that campaigns launched by opposition parties are almost entirely bereft of ambition.

Is everything just peachy?

The Conservatives appear to have abandoned all hope of winning constituency seats and are focussing exclusively on your “peach vote”.

So, what do you get in return, what Tory policies are on offer to improve lives across the country?

We don’t know because the only thing they talk about is stopping an SNP majority. What a dismal, defeatist poverty of hope.

Even if you’re anti-independence, surely you deserve a nugget of positivity for the price of your support.

The LibDems........

© The Courier