Phew! We have nearly made it to the end of an election campaign for Westminster which overlapped a long run up to the council elections on 4 May.
The Edinburgh Reporter will be at the election count on Thursday night to bring you news of our constituencies as it comes in.
We have interviewed some of the candidates already and you can read those, watch our video reports and listen to the audio interviews here.
This weekend Nicola Sturgeon will begin a campaign tour of 30 constituencies, and today alone she will visit 6 of those covering 300 nautical miles by helicopter.
The SNP has candidates in every constituency in Scotland and say that they are the only political party to do so. They have almost 8,000 volunteers out delivering 2 million leaflets and manning their street stalls.
Nicola Sturgeon said: “Now, more than ever, we need strong SNP voices standing up for Scotland at Westminster and standing up to the Tories.
“The SNP is the only party who are serious about being that strong voice for Scotland — contesting every seat across the country, while our opponents run lacklustre campaigns in just a smattering of seats.
“That’s why in the final few days before polling day I’ll be campaigning alongside thirty hardworking SNP candidates standing up for communities across Scotland.
“While the Tories remain on course to win the election UK-wide, Scotland could be pivotal in reducing the size of their majority. Electing strong SNP voices is only the way to keep the Tories in check.
“Tory MPs will simply rubber stamp whatever toxic policies Theresa May wants to railroad through — whether that’s a smash and grab on pensions, deeper cuts to welfare, the abhorrent rape clause or further cuts to public services. SNP MPs will never give her that free hand.
“The only way to stop the Tories and the only way to stop more cuts is to vote SNP on June 8th.”
Scottish Labour have Alistair Darling, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and chair of Better Together, will join Blair McDougall, Labour’s candidate for East Renfrewshire and former Better Together campaign director, for campaigning in Clarkston. He has been busy along with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown writing to 100,000 Scots asking them to defeat the SNP by voting Labour.
Willie Rennie leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats continues his tour of Scotland with a stop in St Andrews today, continuing to campaign in seats that the Liberal Democrats are targeting to gain from the SNP.
He will say that in those seats it is a straight race between the Liberal Democrats and the SNP and people should rally behind the Liberal Democrats to gain seats and stop the SNP.
Mr Rennie is expected to say: “We are targeting to win seats like Edinburgh West, East Dunbartonshire, North East Fife, Caithness, Argyll and the Highlands. In those seats we are the people that can change the direction of this country.
“In less than seven days time people have a straight choice. Do they want a MP who will do nothing more than advance the cause for another divisive independence referendum, or they do want an MP that will stand up for the local community?”
Alison Johnstone MSP says that Greens will go to Westminster with a pledge to stand up for everyone’s “right to live with dignity”.
Speaking at Glasgow West Carers Centre, Johnstone gave her backing to Patrick Harvie, who is standing in neighbouring Glasgow North, and said that by electing Scotland’s first Green MP, voters will get a local champion who will speak up and represent those who “continue to be ignored by Westminster”.
Johnstone also highlighted the importance of care work in Scotland and how the profession can often be “undervalued and underpaid”. Meanwhile, Harvie outlined Green proposals for a Universal Basic income that would see people live “free from the fear of poverty”.
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Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
