Results (from Wikipedia).
| Glasgow East by-election, 2008[7][8][9] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Scottish National Party | John Mason | 11,277 | 43.1 | +26.1 | |
| Labour | Margaret Curran | 10,912 | 41.7 | -19.0 | |
| Conservative | Davena Rankin | 1,639 | 6.3 | -0.6 | |
| Liberal Democrat | Ian Robertson | 915 | 3.5 | -8.3 | |
| Scottish Socialist | Frances Curran | 555 | 2.1 | -1.4 | |
| Solidarity | Tricia McLeish | 512 | 1.9 | N/A | |
| Scottish Green | Eileen Duke | 232 | 0.9 | N/A | |
| Independent | Chris Creighton | 67 | 0.3 | N/A | |
| Freedom-4-Choice | Hamish Howitt | 65 | 0.2 | N/A | |
| Majority | 365 | 1.4 | +45.1 | ||
| Turnout | 26,219 | 42.25 | -5.95 | ||
| Scottish National Party gain from Labour | Swing | 22.54 | |||
I actually thought Labour were going to scrape through - it's absolutely extraordinary that they were able to lose this.
Well done to Frances Curran the Scottish Socialist Party for rising above the field of "others" just a shame they couldn't over run the Lib Dems who are clearly heading into oblivion with Labour, but completely unnoticed - which is far more humiliating in my view.
The Greens did pretty badly here - it was always going to be a squeeze, but still, pretty disappointing for them I would have thought.
I wonder how Labour would have done if Gordon Brown had bothered to visit the constituency during the election? Could that have been the edge they needed - or would it have pushed down even further?
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9 comments:
What do you people here think of the Scottish Greens?
Im seeing myself more as an eco-socialist these days, and am more sympathetic towards the Greens in England as there isnt really a viable socialist alternative in much of this country.
However the Scottish Greens, like the candidate in Glasgow East, are basically liberals I wouldnt have much to do with I dont even know why they stood in this election
I'm gonna be lazy and ask you to tell me why you think that the Scottish Greens are liberals.
Another eco-socialist... welcome to the fold!
i suppose this is an odd comment but i just spotted something.
i know this is percentage increases but Solidarity's percentage of the vote is more the SSP lost since the previous election. so i assume that means the two 'socialist' parties got a bigger percentage vote between them
Together the SSP and solidarity "beat" the Lib Dems - although this is obviously because the lib dem vote has bottomed out, as in London.
But there are no prospects for the two organisations to unite, they have very different cultures and are sadly bitter rivals.
I suspect Solidarity stood with its focus on beating the SSP rather than a wider, healthier agenda.
On the Greens, I can't comment on the liberal thing although from the little I've seen they appear to be a clear progressive voice, the the left of the main parties (oh how hard could that be?) and tactically they seem pretty astute.
It certainly made sense to stand in the by election - they have councillors on Glasgow council and have a base of activists and supporters... but whether their were problems with the campaign, plus the squeeze between Labour and the SNP - they didn't make any significant mark at this particular by election.
Not all of s Scottish Greens are liberals.
The "Scottish Greens are just liberals" analysis is unfair. My dissertation was in the ideology of the Scottish Green Party, its members, activists and supporters. I'm happy to pass on the findings to anyone, but the Scottish Greens are clearly the main left party of Sottish politics.
As we saw in this election, we do still fail to win working class votes in poor areas of Glasgow (and elsewhere) and this is something we need to address. But this is equally true of most of GPEW.
Adam, I'd be really interested in seeing that. Would you like to email me a copy?
adam,
I'd love to see it too, if you have the time to email it to me...
The Green candidate was an ex liberal democrat, and their votes and councillors are in the main middle class parts of town, near the Uni, which is also where most of the libedem votes come from..
Its true though thats similiar to Liverpool, where I live now, with a few exceptions.
Im not using liberal in an insulting way, by the way. Its more about thinking within a conventional capitalist political framework, which I think most of the Green parties internatioanally do.
Im not disputing they are a 'left' party of sorts either, but as a liberal sort, they won't connect in traditional working class areas, as this result shows very starkly.
The profile, activities, campaigns and demographic base of support of the socialist left are generally quite different.
Im more sympathetic to the GPEW because its like the USA here, the socialist left isnt a credible national alternative. And eco-socialism makes a lot of sense to me now.
However I never had much to do with Scottish Greens as a socialist and trade unionist when I lived there, our paths rarely crossed, and dont think Id have a lot in common with them if I moved back now either
Danny
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