A search is under way in Donald Dewar’s old fiefdom, for the seven men and women that delivered a resounding punch on the nose to the hallowed ground from which the Nu-Labour project was accidentally born.
Anniesland, the Glasgow constituency once held by Dewar himself, whose untimely death opened the door to Blair, should have been a safe Labour seat. It was a safe Labour seat. Boundary changes were predicted to increase their majority to over 5,000. Bill Butler, the Labour candidate, was a ‘safe pair of hands’, he’d been a Labour MSP since 2,000. He stood for the deputy leadership of the party, he was heavily supported by the Trade Unions, he’s married to another Labour stalwart. It would take more than a 10% swing to unseat him – what could possibly go wrong?
Yet, yet – eight solid Labour voters stayed home and watched Jeremy Kyle, confident that the national teat would still be there when they awoke. When they got up this morning they discovered that Bill Kidd, the SNP candidate ‘who didn’t stand a chance’ had unaccountably taken the constituency by a meagre seven votes.
There will be reams of blogs written today on the referendum and the yawn inducing AV voting system, many more on the other local election results, but none will hurt Labour pride as much as the loss of Anniesland right in the heart of the Glasgow political sewer.
A cracking win for the SNP – all credit to them.
Anna is the landlady of the Raccoon Arms. She lives in the Monbazillac area of South West France and still takes a keen interest in British politics.
{ 38 comments }
The ungrateful swine. Don’t they know it is their duty to vote Labour? How dare they? They should string a couple of them up, as an example to others unless they agree to sign over their postal votes like all good pliant Labour (and some non-Labour) voters should.
I think you will find that it was the death of John Smith that led to the emergence of Blair as Labour leeder. Donald Dewer died whilst he was the first Scottish First Minister in a Scottish Parliament. The devolution bill was a Labour government bill when Blair was PM. If you are going to comment on Scottish politics please get you facts right.
You are quite right TomM, my bad, lack of sleep……still a stunning victory for a party which wishes to relinquish its hold on the national teat – something of great interest to the English. The devotion bill was a watered down version of the SNP proposed referendum on Scottish nationalism. As for ‘if you’re going to comment on Scottish politics’ – jasus, you lot have been down in Westminster for years commenting on English politics. We just return the compliment. We’d be quite happy to return all the Scottish politicians too -
Far be it for me to bemoan the demise of the Labour Party in Scotland (which I’m actually quite pleased about – where’s your fightback now, Red Ed?), but it does seem that the Scots have simply replaced one bunch of socialists with another bunch of socialists.
Credit where credit is due to the SNP – they’ve come a long way. But their policies are still problematic. Their public spending is heavily subsidised by England, and are campaigning to reform Barnett to make them even more subsidised, their micro-economy is heavily reliant on financial services, most of which involves doing business south of the border, and their hallmark policy is a referendum on independence!
I’m all for the Scots being independent, if that’s what they want. But if they go down that route, surely they must realise that their continued subsidy from England must end? Which means the end of their mini-soviet public services, which will be rendered completely unaffordable by the pitiful tax take north of the border, and the collapse of their economy as the major financial services firms move south in a hurry to where their customers are.
One of the reason the Scots want out of the sick UK is demonstrated here. Your ignorance of the actual situation is predictable and sad. Scotland is NOT subsidised by England. What are you going to do when we reclaim our natural resources? The only reason the UK clings on to Scotland is that it would have been bankrupt a long time ago without Scottish oil. Now we also have the prospect of being World leaders in renewable energy as well. Can I suggest you get an education with regards to the Culture, politics and economy of Scotland.
Be careful with the oil argument. Revenues from the North Sea are diminishing, and reserves are becoming harder (and more expensive) to exploit. It’s unlikely that this source of tax revenue will remain substantial beyond the next decade or so.
Scottish oil?. I would welcome Scottish independence, but lets get an international ruling on the anomalous north sea border between English and Scottish waters. The standard is that this be drawn as a tangent from where the land border meets the coast. This would leave a large chunk of probably the best acreage properly in English waters. And of course Rockall is probably rightfully Irish, so bang goes that oil and fishing. I realise the Scots feel that they have worked hard making those oil fields, and this has swollen a nurtured sense of entitlment beyond what is reasonable.
That’s right, let’s put the maritime border back where it should be, at Berwick-on-Tweed, and not near Carnoustie, to where that nice Mr Blair moved it some years ago.
Now, why would he have done that?
what tangentreality said.
I am more and more attracted to the idea of Scottish independence. And rebuilding Hadrian’s Wall.
Rebuild the wall by all means, but make sure it’s further north. No reason in giving them the beauty that is Northumbria.
As an expatriate Scot living in England, I agree, so long as I can stay on the English side of the wall.
Gildas,
Indeed. Though we should ensure that there are no import duties for fine Malts. Most importantly, no more Scottish Labour MPs to rule over England and fuck us up just because they can.
Whatever answers the West Lothian question is fine by me. Clearly, Scotland has had it with Labour as well as England. That leaves just Wales – time, therefore, for them to be devolved. Labour in England will hence be restricted to the welfare-dependent &/or immigrant constituencies (they pretty much are already – see here – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/region/48.stm) and will in effect be history in England.
Please.
I have always been an ardent unionist, but I have to say that i think there is a real constitution issue here. There is over representation of Scotland (don’t know about Wales) and without Scotland’s “block vote” Labour would be a busted flush. Maybe Hadrian had it right after all…
At the next General Election the boundary changes as a result of having more equal size consistences will result in 19 fewer MPs in total from Scotland, Wales and NI. That should address the over-representation in Westminster by MPs from those countries.
England however will lose 31. As an educated guess most of those will be from the cities, which will probably affect Labour more than it does anyone else.
The Scots would be independent for roughly one yoctosecond.
As I have said before (and been roundly castigated for saying) before the very first champagne cork lands, the newly independent nation will be on the horn to Von Rumpouy begging for entry into the Stupid Club.
An “independent” Scotland?
It will never be so. Mark my words now.
CR.
Don’t see why you should be condemned CR, I wouldn’t expect them to do anything else. Scotland gets a lot of money out of the EU taxpayer so its politicians won’t want to lose the income.
Interesting point. Does the existing EU membership simply get split , or would Scotland have to go through the whole accession process again ?
For so many years the malign influence of Scotish labour party MP’s at Westminster, has been so corrosive that it has unfairly damaged Scotlands’ image south of the border. Well, OK, so has Barnett!
As I understand it, since the UK as a whole is signed up to the EU, the accession treaties would become null and void. Scotland would have to renegotiate terms if she were ever to become truly independent of the Union. The same would apply to England in that the UK would no longer exist! That’s the theory at least but they’ll never let it happen.
If we did it right, Scotland could have its independence and with a quick sleight of hand, all the UK’s EU rights and obligations would stay with Scotland in the EU and England would get out. We’d take the Welsh if they want to come with us.
Great idea, Dave H. I’d vote for it.
Let’s not bother with the Welsh eh! Labour can stay over there and rule them. That’s what they want. As somebody tweeted yesterday “Wales = Labour Voting Chimps”
I took a swing at the subject here:
http://captainranty.blogspot.com/2011/05/what-next-for-alba.html
Am I obsessing on the EU angle? Quite possibly.
CR.
Fantastic results for all those opposed to the Spendthrift Party, sorry, Labour. I hope Salmond achieves his aim of devolution, as my tax bill should be reduced when we are no longer forced to subsidise the feckless & workshy scots (& I’m a quarter scots – my leg won’t work anymore).
Don’t forget, folks, that the only reason the SNP want independance, is that they want all the oil revenue to squander in their own particular way. When that is gone, they will be back, saying that it was all a misunderstanding, and that England owes them a large subsidy again.
The best bit of England (Northumberland – or most of it) is North of Hadrian’s Wall.
Are you seriously proposing that we abandon that to the Scotchers Mr Gildas – or are you just a f**kw*t
Forgive me for getting all in a flap, but this is the most exciting political event of my life, and will be on tenterhooks until the results of the inevitable independence vote comes in.
Sure conventional wisdom is that only a third of scots want independence, but conventional wisdom also said that an outright majority was impossible in Holyrood, much less for the SNP who it was biased against yet they achieved it anyway.
If Scotland break off from England taking their socialism with them, my country will finally be free of that fat soviet leach on our northern border. It is unlikely that Labour will ever win many elections in the remains of the UK again. We will not end up paying out for a country that hates us.
I don’t give a damn the terms. Take ALL the oil field with you. Take NONE of the debt the Scottish banks have left us with, but please please please just GO. It will cost us plenty short term, but long term it will be easily the best thing to ever happen to England and will finally kill of Labour, probably north and south of the boarder.
Aw for goodness sake. Independence has naff all to do with this result. The SNP got re-elected for 3 good reasons.
They have run a competent minority administration which has been characterised by a lack of internal party bickering and a lack of overt corruption.
The Labour leader in Scotland had zero charisma. And ( for Adenoidal Ed’s benefit ) I heard people on a vox pop by those bastions of impartiality the Beeb complain that they didn’t like his voice.
The LibDems have been gloriously set up as fall guys by Cameron ( playing a blinder ), and are being brutally bashed by the voters. On that form Cameron will win an election called any time in the next year.
We are not stupid here. We know how to use the various voting systems to get what we want and get rid of what we don’t want. And we know we will get a referendum on Independence which if I was a betting man I’d put a large wager on being voted against. But we will elect the SNP as long as Mr Salmond is leading it.
Neither is Mr Salmond stupid. With him leading the Yes vote against an English old Etonian regularly demonised on the beeb leading the No vote, there is a decent chance Mr Salmond could once again surprise us all with a victory.
At least that is what I am praying for.
My heart will be ruling my head when the day comes too. And I’ll be voting for the divorce. So we are in agreement on something which is a start.
I hope you are right.
I’d love to see the shower calling themselves Nu Labour ousted from any serious power in the UK forever. Never thought of this as a way to help.
I cannot forgive what those shysters have done to the UK, in many ways.
By the way my nickname was never meant to imply socialism. It’s rather an allusion to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_the_Devil
Can we have Berwick back now?
If the Scots get independence, does the UK become the Untied Kingdom?
alba.org.uk/scotching/greatdeception.html
Have a read at the creative accounting of the treasury.
A Scottish Forensic Accountants report including all data tables, source documents.
Then take a drive through southern England and compare to Scotland. Spending on BEHALF of Scotland is very.different to spending IN Scotland.
I’m not a unionist, and the country in which I have felt most foreign has always been Scotland.
They can go if they like, but they won’t be back begging for more subsidies anytime soon. National pride will see to that. They will probably wind up with a joint defence agreement, and constitutionally it would make sense to keep the Act of Settlement, to retain access to all those shiny baubles in Holyrood, and to stop Tommy Sheridan or his ilk becoming President.
Then perhaps we can make progress on the reformation of the English Constitution. Keep it flexible (written ones cause civil wars, as the Americans found out), but a much reduced Parliament would be a start. I’d like to see a citizenship qualification for starters: it would need to have a low threshold (minimum NI payment/public service/reaching majority without a criminal record), but it would remove the “useless mouths” from civic life unless they got off their backsides and contributed.
I am pleased SNP won Glasgow Anniesland. Labour Have raken
thw voter of Glasgow for granted. The SNP won this first past
the oost seat by 7 v0tes. Labour have dreadful record in
Glasgow. The Labour are rotten after 13 years as British
government. SNP power to their elbow in beating Labour
in Glasgow Anniesland.
Well someone has to obsess about the EU.
I’m taking that as support, Saddy, and not a hint that I should seek counselling.
CR.