RECENTLY I warned about the dirty politics and dark money described in Peter Geoghegan’s book Democracy for Sale. When a friend told me about the confusing long list on her postal voting form, I wondered “Is this an example of that?”

Until recently the Greens have been a relatively small party, so no-one would expect the word Green to appear in more than one voting category. This friend of mine read down the list, pen poised, and nearly marked X for a group she’d never heard of.

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Given parties are listed alphabetically and I and O both come before S, her eye settled on the words “Original & Organic Green”. On researching the full list of parties I discovered this candidate belongs to a party called Independent Green Voice, a group I’ve never heard of despite being an active Green with four decades’ involvement in organic growing.

Luckily something stayed my friend’s hand momentarily – and further down the list she saw what she was looking for: Scottish Green Party. I urge voters to be very careful in reading the list before marking their X.

Catriona de Voil
Arbroath