Elect 8 MSPs from Scotland's Local PEOPLE PARTIES

Aim: I predict! IF Royal Mail delivers 2.5 million STOP THE PARTY WHIP PETITIONS, 8 MSPs will be elected in 2026 from Scotland's 8 People Parties

Hello! I am Marc Wilkinson* from EDINBURGH PEOPLE, a different kind of party that aims to mend our broken democracy. *(+44 7791 843 702)

We want to get rid of the Party Whip and end Block Voting. We want elected representatives to represent their constituents.

Our plan for Scotland’s eight new Regional PEOPLE PARTIES to win eight MSP seats in the May 2026 Scottish Parliament elections hinges on 2.5 million printed copies of our STOP the Party Whip and Block Vote Petition being distributed by the Royal Mail to every home in Scotland during Summer 2025.

The key to our predicted success is that almost everyone agrees with the objective of the petition. As such it will become a unifying vehicle for real change which could not be more apt given that our mission is:

Let’s set aside party-political differences! Let’s come together! Let’s fix politics!

The printing and distribution of the petition will cost in the region of £320,000. I predict this will trigger a sequence of events which will secure eight MSPs elected.

I truly believe our petition will become known as the petition that changed the world more than any other: watch my video above where I explain everything in twenty minutes, and you can be the judge. 

For the 2024 General Election, EDINBURGH PEOPLE was founded just in time and five of us stood in Edinburgh's five constituencies. We crowdfunded £15,000 which covered our deposits, website and the printing of 273,000 election leaflets distributed by the Royal Mail at no cost.

In the Nov 2024 & Jan 2025 Edinburgh Council Fairmilehead/Colinton ward by-elections, I stood. I worked very hard and in the ten weeks between these two by-elections in the same ward, I increased my share of the 1st & 2nd preference votes by +79%. 

7.9% of the voters gave me their 1st or 2nd preference which puts EDINBURGH PEOPLE on target to securing one MSP from the Edinburgh & Lothians East Region in the May 2026 Scottish Parliament Elections. We only need 6% or around 25,000 votes on the Regional List to secure one MSP. (In the P.S. below are links to the results for the Edinburgh Council by-elections which prove why we can be so ambitious).

On the 30th of April 2025, three of us signed SOUTH SCOTLAND PEOPLE into existence. On 1st May, as Interim Party Leader I submitted my nomination papers to stand in the Holyrood By-election in Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse on the 5th of June 2025.

So, as a priority we need to raise £3,400 to print 40,000 election leaflets which will include our STOP the Party Whip and Block Vote Petition for the Royal Mail to deliver for free in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. This will be the first test to see what proportion signs our petition. 

My prediction so far is that one in five hundred homes who receive the petition will result in one signature. So, 2.5 million copies delivered would result in five thousand initial signatures. Word of mouth, sharing and media exposure should see our petition gain a further 75,000 signatures over the subsequent eight months (Sep’25-April’26).

If 10,000 people per region in Scotland sign the petition by May 2026 that means probably around 50,000 people per region will have read and agreed with the petition. This should then secure around 25,000 list votes, which is all that is needed to secure one MSP per region.

In 2021 the Scottish Green Party secured 220,324 votes on the eight regional lists and secured eight MSPs and as a result partnered with the SNP to form the Government.

On 23rd of June 2025, I will also be standing in the Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart Council by-election, for which we need to raise £3,000 to £5,000 as the plan is to attempt to knock on every door in the ward to ask them to sign our petition. We will have three candidates working as a team. By pooling our spending power means we can spend up to three times that of the other parties.

Our long-term target is for 6.2 million people to sign the petition UK-wide before the 2029 General Election thereby making it the most signed UK petition ever! In May & June 2025 we will launch sixty-four websites for sixty-four new Local PEOPLE PARTIES for every region of Scotland, England, Wales & Northern Ireland.

Anyone in the UK can sign the petition now to STOP the Party Whip and Block Vote and in due course it will be sent to your Councillor, your MP, your MSP/MS/MLA and your Mayor or Leader of your Local Council. Sign now:

https://edinburghpeople.org/petitions/stop-the-party-whip/

We will inform you when your local PEOPLE PARTY website is ready and you can share it locally. Our petition will feature on the home page of all sixty-four local PEOPLE PARTY websites.

Scotland needs eight members of the general public as MSPs elected to Holyrood Parliament in May 2026 one from each region of Scotland to directly represent the interests of the people from each region and to hold the other MSPs & the Government to account.

This Crowdfunder is to raise £320,000 for the Royal Mail to deliver ASAP an introductory letter from each of Scotland’s eight new PEOPLE PARTIES with a copy of our petition to Scotland’s 2.5 million homes. The eight parties are:

CENTRAL SCOTLAND & WEST LOTHIAN PEOPLE, EDINBURGH & EAST LOTHIAN PEOPLE, GLASGOW PEOPLE, HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS PEOPLE, NORTH EAST SCOTLAND PEOPLE, MID SCOTLAND & FIFE PEOPLE, SOUTH SCOTLAND PEOPLE & WEST SCOTLAND PEOPLE.

Their slogan is: Do not elect politicians! Elect people!

Please watch the video above where I discuss why the Party Whip and the Block Vote are the single lynchpin flaw in our current system of politics. I also explain our potential solution – lots of small local parties, whose constitutions mean their elected representatives must represent the views of their constituents - and most importantly how the unique electoral system for the Scottish Parliament Elections means that it is easy for small parties to secure 8 MSPs.

In a nutshell, this is the clincher! Everyone has two votes on two ballot papers and elects up to two MSPs. This means that people can continue to vote for their usual party for their Constituency MSP whilst at the same time voting for their Local PEOPLE PARTY on the Regional List.

Conversely, with 99.9% of elections it is one person one vote so it is very hard for a new small party to secure votes as that relies on persuading people to stop voting how they would normally vote which is very hard.

For the by-elections the key line on my leaflets that got me most votes was "Elect me and you will be my boss! And I will take instructions on how to vote in the City Chambers directly from the members of the party from within the ward. As soon as there is an agenda for voting I will email it to the members in the ward informing them how I would like to vote and why and they will instruct me on how to vote.”

This solution restores Representative Democracy. The constitution of your Local PEOPLE PARTY gives you a form of Direct Democracy where people retain direct power over political decisions and cannot be ignored.

Scotland has been responsible for many inventions. 

In my opinion this new structure for real representative democracy through small local parties may become Scotland’s most important invention.

Thank you all very much for reading this far.

I really hope that you join us on this exciting journey to change the world.

If you don't donate right now, please sign the petition. Alternatively, subscribe and we can keep you informed about the progress of this extraordinary project.

If you do decide to donate, thank you. Please do consider donating far more than you would usually. If you contribute to this project being a success, then it will have implications throughout the UK and even worldwide. 

To achieve our £320,000 target, we need 16,000 people who can afford £20. However, we only need 320 people who can afford £1000 each or 3,200 who can afford £100 each.

If you haven’t watched my video yet, please do as I expect it to persuade anyone who can afford £1000 and who cares about the future of our democracy to come forward.

Let's Fix Politics! NOW! There is not time to waste – we need to mend democracy.

Spread the word. Share this far and wide – with everyone.

Yours faithfully,

Marc Wilkinson

Party Leader EAST LOTHIAN & EDINBURGH PEOPLE

Interim Party Leader SOUTH SCOTLAND PEOPLE

M: +44 7791 843 702 E: [email protected]

P.S. Here are the links to the by-election results:

14th Nov 2024 By-election: 7401 votes. 173 1st preference votes + 156 2nd preference votes. 329/7401 equals 4.4% share of 1st & 2nd preference votes.

https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/35966/preference-summary-ward-8

23rd Jan 2025 By-election: 6223 votes. 256 1st preference votes + 238 2nd preference votes. 494/6223 equals 7.9% share of the 1st & 2nd preference votes.

https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/36251/preference-summary-report

My vote share grew by +79%. 7.9% smashes the target needed for one MSP from the Lothian Region. Especially when you consider that everyone can continue voting how they always have for the constituency MSP, and they can use their 2nd vote to give EAST LOTHIAN & EDINBURGH PEOPLE a vote on the regional list.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 14th August 2025 at 8:51pm