Parties launch Holyrood campaigns against backdrop of voter indecision

Change is being promised across the political spectrum, but no one knows whether apathy or tactical voting will prevail

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Hope, change, progressive change, change with fairness at its heart – from a harbour north of Edinburgh to a hipster arts venue in Glasgow’s Barras Market, Scotland’s political parties spent the first official day of the Holyrood election campaign reaching for the phrase that best encapsulates what people will get if they vote for them on 7 May.

Only one of the main parties did not hold an event to set out their stall on Thursday: possibly Reform UK was too busy firefighting after another of its Scottish parliament candidates quit, bringing to four the number who have stepped down or been suspended since they stood with the party leader, Nigel Farage, under a hail of turquoise confetti last week.