As regular visitors will know, I took a particular interest in the election race in the constituency of Glasgow Central. Not least because my own, tender little ballot paper wended its way here and (I trust) discreetly found a place beside its papery fellows. As a Scottish Nationalist, elections in Glasgow can be grim prospects. Labour majorities seem unassailably vast, their constituencies stubborn fastnesses resistant to every challenging influence. Beyond heroic measures, then, would have been necessary if Nationalists were to have prevailed here.
Unfortunately, that was not to be in 2010. By the standards of the election, Glasgow Central's turnout is low, at 50.9%. My congratulations to the victor, my commiserations are with those who were defeated. All eyes now front for what promises to be a curious day. Labour leering with dealer's eyes and undead caresses. Bashful minorities titter coquettishly, heart-a-flutter, all uncertainty, all flirt and anxious about commitment. Meanwhile, Tories opposed to proportional representation may find that their desire for power nevertheless compels them to press beyond their cognitive dissonance - and appeal to arguments they, themselves, apparently dismiss as irrelevant - to justify forming an new administration. Interesting times. I've no doubt that there will be more, much more to say later.
Unfortunately, that was not to be in 2010. By the standards of the election, Glasgow Central's turnout is low, at 50.9%. My congratulations to the victor, my commiserations are with those who were defeated. All eyes now front for what promises to be a curious day. Labour leering with dealer's eyes and undead caresses. Bashful minorities titter coquettishly, heart-a-flutter, all uncertainty, all flirt and anxious about commitment. Meanwhile, Tories opposed to proportional representation may find that their desire for power nevertheless compels them to press beyond their cognitive dissonance - and appeal to arguments they, themselves, apparently dismiss as irrelevant - to justify forming an new administration. Interesting times. I've no doubt that there will be more, much more to say later.
At any rate, for those interested in the detail, here are those 2010 Westminster General Election results from Glasgow Central, in full...
Glasgow Central Westminster Constituency 2010
Labour, Anas Sarwar: 15,908 (52%) +3.8SNP, Osama Saeed: 5,357 (17.5%) +2.7Liberal Democrats, Chris Young: 5,010 (16.4%) -1.4Conservative, John Bradley: 2,158 (7.1%) +0.8Green, Alistair Whitelaw: 800 (2.6%) -2.3BNP, Iain Holt: 616 (2%) -0.4SSP, James Nesbitt: 357 (1.2%) -2.8UKIP, Ramsay Urquhart: 246 (0.8%) +0.8Pirate, Finlay Archibald: 120 (0.4%) +0.4
This result depressed me no end, and it's a perfect example of the pig-headedness of the Glasgow voters and what an uphill struggle the SNP still face here. Osama Saaed would have been an excellent MP, and yet the people here have voted for the son of one of the worst politicians of recent times.
ReplyDeleteHigh expenses? Check.
Criminal family ties? Check.
Lack of appearances in Westminster? Check.
Self-admitted absences from constituency? Check.
Seriously, what do Labour have to do to lose the Glasgow vote? Mohammad Sarwar hardly replied to any email either me or my sister sent him, and when he did his answers were pathetic and showed a complete lack of basic understanding of the points being made, never mind agreeing with them.
Anas Sarwar's ENTIRE campaign (and I have the election leaflets to prove it) was: "only us or the Tories can win here. Don't let them back in." That's it. No positive message at all. But why should he have bothered? We've just witnessed the proof that it's a complete waste of time for a Labour politician to even think up policies, never mind actually making promises and subsequently trying to keep them. It was a massive lie, the Tories would never have won here or anywhere else in Glasgow... BUT PEOPLE FELL FOR IT!
I'm really starting to think it's time the northern parts of Scotland decided to move on with independence for itself and leave everything south of Perth to rot in the UK. After all, we've got the oil in Aberdeen, and we would no longer have to waste it on Glasgow's self-imposed problems. I would say Scotland has just gotten the result it deserves, but it hasn't - it's gotten the result Glasgow wanted.
I hate to hear the media talking about Scotland is all red. Outside weegie and fife ghettos they have little support. Glasgow is a disgrace to Scotland and working people.
ReplyDeleteAs you say Anonymous, it is worth taking seriously not only at the hues of the electoral map - which tell their own tale about geographic concentration - but also how the whole country actually cast its votes. As I type (hence excluding Argyll & Bute which has not yet been declared) the Labour Party received a handsome 42.4% of total ballots cast. Namely, 57.6% of Scots voted for a party other than Labour.
ReplyDeleteI'm not denigrating Labour's win - they did well in Scotland. However, they did well on a flawed and unfair electoral calculus. While Labour will be marching at least 41 MPs from Scottish constituencies - if (a fairly crude) proportionality reigned, on yesterday's showing, this Labour cohort would only translate into 25 of 59 Scottish MPs.
Can't say I was cock-a-hoop with happiness myself last night when this result came in, Doug Daniel! In fact, I reacted thus -
ReplyDelete"Huzzah. I'm now represented by the Dowdy Dauphin of Pollokshields. A smarmy 27 year old dentist whose primary qualification is his father."
While I think we ought keep the point I made in my response to Anonymous firmly in mind, your question still stands. What, just what will it take for particular parts of Scotland to loose their seemingly indestructible, nigh unshakeable connection with Labour Party politics? What sin would be sufficiently egregious? Can such a thing even be imagined?
That said, I doubt an emancipating answer and nationalist solution is to be found in too much negativity about this section of our electorate. However, in the context of last night, I'm not sure if I'm a fiddle well-tuned to play that sort of sweet melody today.
In my post-election fug, I'll admit, seeing Glaswegian majorities, my mind turned of this acid, sickly Shakespearean sonnet...
Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend,
Nor services to do, till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are how happy you make those.
So true a fool is love that in your will,
Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.
~ Sonnet 57, William Shakespeare
Yes Doug, depressing indeed. Cue the 'feeble forty one'.
ReplyDeletehttp://scottsrepublic.wordpress.com/
Actually, having the day to sit and think about what we've just witnessed, I've realised that maybe there is something to be positive about after all: namely, that Scotland has just had an unofficial independence referendum, and has overwhelmingly voted against being governed the same way as the rest of the UK.
ReplyDeletehttp://albamatters.blogspot.com/2010/05/last-nights-result-unofficial.html
Hamish Scott,
ReplyDeleteA feeble but also a predictably churlish forty-one, which apparently dismissed Alex Salmond's mere mooting of a progressive alliance - which would require SNP votes - as "a desperate attempt by Alex Salmond to make himself look relevant".
Charming.
Thanks for the link, Doug Daniel. Will add you to my blogroll imminently.
ReplyDelete