THE General Election next May is shaping up to be one of the strangest seen in Scotland.

People not members of the SNP will be allowed to stand for the party as it hopes to benefit from a 'yes alliance' aimed at giving the pro union parties a bloody nose and ousting a few Labour MPs.

Then we have a Labour figure, Michael Kelly former Lord Provost of Glasgow, encouraging Labour voters in Gordon to back the LibDems to stop Alex Salmond's Westminster return in its tracks.

All that before we even think about Ukip. K they won't win a seat but their success at the European elections winning one MEP in Scotland means they are tapping into a seam of discontent with the usual suspects in working class areas.

With the SNP the government now for seven years and the LibDems blown their credibility, Ukip is the new home for a protest vote and they could be a deciding factor in some seats.

While tactical voting is nothing new it could reach new levels next year with all sorts of people voting for parties they don't support because their dislike of another is even stronger.

Labour backing the Tories coalition partners the LibDems to defeat the SNP, Greens and Scottish Socialists voting SNP to embarrass Labour. Will the Tories also back LibDems in some seats to stave off an SNP challenge?

At a General Election it risks making a mockery of democracy and undermines the campaigning efforts of candidates.

Why a former Glasgow Lord Provost should interfere and tell people in Aberdeenshire who to vote for in order to keep one man out is ridiculous.

But that's not what is most strange about the advocacy of tactical voting.

For a lifelong Labour man to urge fellow supporters to vote for another party for any reason at a time when his party needs every vote it can get is perverse.

Why Greens and Scottish Socialists, who are still building their own movements, would sacrifice their ambitions to boost the SNP is baffling.

Unless the SNP are going to stand aside and campaign for their candidates in some area, which I have not heard.

The whole idea of Labour ad Tories backing LibDems to thwart the SNP's Westminster ambitions or a yes alliance to teach the pro union parties a lesson is merely to re-run the referendum campaign and risks framing Scottish politics in terms of independence debate for years to come.

We have had a referendum and it produced a result, which everyone has to respect.

It may come back again sometime in the future. But until then can we get back to electing governments to govern.