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Thursday 13 May 2010
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If the alternative vote system is introduced for Westminster elections, Scots could be confronted with at least three ballot papers. Photograph: Chris Young/PA
The new coalition has barely started work and already alarm bells are sounding loudly in government circles about the next general election.
If the Lib Dems succeed in setting the next UK election for 7 May 2015 and win a referendum on a new voting system, it will cause chaos in Scotland; a fact which has already unnerved senior Lib Dem MPs.
It's yet another tedious issue for the new Scottish secretary, Danny Alexander.
By a fluke of timing, the date favoured by the new coalition government as part of its electoral reforms is the same date which is already fixed by law for the Scottish parliamentary elections. Continue reading...
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Wednesday 5 May 2010
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Jim Murphy, the Scottish secretary: anxieties mounting
The Scottish Labour party is getting jittery about losing more seats than expected tomorrow, with the Lib Dems, Tories and nationalists now closing in on at least five key seats across central Scotland.
Party sources and senior figures, including Jim Murphy, the Scottish secretary, admit the race is far tighter than expected in seats once regarded as safe, even though Scotland-wide Labour's poll ratings are holding firm.
Anxieties are mounting that the Lib Dems will grab their first Glasgow seat for nearly a century, in Glasgow North, unseating the low-profile junior Scotland minister, Ann McKechin, who is defending a 3,338-vote majority.
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Tuesday 4 May 2010
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The secretary of state for Scotland, Jim Murphy, gestures towards a poster of David Cameron, in Edinburgh. Photograph: David Moir/Reuters
David Cameron is hoping the Tories will take one of Labour's most significant Scottish scalps on polling day, as he flies into the target seat held by the Scottish secretary, Jim Murphy, as part of his 24-hour UK tour tonight.
Cameron will stop off in East Renfrewshire, a prosperous suburban seat on the southern fringe of Glasgow, to boost the Tory campaign for the party's candidate, Richard Cook. Murphy, comfortably the most assured Labour politician on the Scottish scene, now seems decidedly uncomfortable in his home seat.
Murphy is defending a 6,657 majority and has held East Renfrewshire for 13 years, taking it from the Tories in 1997, when it was known as Eastwood. Significantly, it would need a major swing, of 7%, for the Tories to win this on Thursday.
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Labour candidate Thomas Docherty campaigns in the Dunfermline and West Fife constituency. Photograph: Murdo Macleod
There is one election battle where Gordon Brown's enduring popularity is likely to be the critical factor in a Labour victory: for the marginal Liberal Democrat seat of Dunfermline and West Fife.
This is where Gordon and Sarah Brown live, in a large detached house overlooking the Firth of Forth and some 15 miles from Brown's home town of Kirkcaldy.
Bordering the prime minister's own constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, this is where the Browns will vote on Thursday, and the prime minister's shadow looms large over the area. Dunfermline and West Fife is an extension of Brown's backyard: before boundary changes in 2005, he represented part of this seat for two decades.
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Friday 30 April 2010
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A Royal Navy Trident nuclear submarine. Photograph: Corbis
As every party confronts the huge task of tackling the UK's vast deficit, axing the Trident nuclear missile fleet rather than hospitals and schools seems an attractive idea. It is now the headline demand from the Scottish and Welsh nationalists.
With total lifetime costs for Trident and its replacement estimated at as high as £100bn, the weapon is an "obscene" waste of money, particularly in the post-cold war world, says Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister and SNP leader.
Again this week, challenged over how his government would make its share of the 15% cuts in public spending his advisers foresee, Salmond said that scrapping the existing Trident system would immediately save £2.1bn a year, helping to stop swingeing cuts to services and tax rises.
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Thursday 29 April 2010
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Alex Salmond, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister. Photograph: David Moir/Reuters
So Alex Salmond has got his retaliation in first. After losing his legal bid to force himself on to tonight's leaders' debate in Birmingham, Salmond instead previewed the event by accusing all three UK parties of deliberately concealing "enormous" planned spending cuts of "iceberg" scale in a specially-staged speech on the economy.
Salmond is now on the train to Birmingham, not to stand alongside David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg as he'd hoped, but to take part in a special Question Time immediately after the debate. There, he will accuse all three of colluding in a cover-up.
Hoping briefly to grab the initiative, Salmond said official predictions last week by Scottish government economists that there will be £250bn of Whitehall cuts across the UK by 2022-23 had been substantiated this week by the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
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Wednesday 14 April 2010
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Hat tip to the great Paul Waugh who has spotted that the Labour party has been screening different election broadcasts in England, Scotland and Wales.
Those of us who live in England were treated to a rugged looking Sean Pertwee starring in The Road Ahead. Stick on the correct road with Labour, rather than risk a dangerous looking country lane under the Tories, went the message. A few crumpled newspaper headlines in a dustbin, spotted by Pertwee, illustrated Labour's central argument: that the Tories made the wrong calls in the recession.
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Friday 9 April 2010
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Far from being sacked, a piece on the First Post is arguing this afternoon that Stuart MacLennan should be promoted
The majority of Twitter users, were highly amused, with joan_jane_1239 putting it in true web-speak: "I don't think Stuart MacLennan should've been sacked. They should employ a lolz rule. If what they do brings the lolz, leave them be." ('Lolz' is the plural of laugh out loud.)
If Labour really wants to win over the social networking constituency, it would been far better off promoting MacLennan to a winnable seat: at least he talks the way most people speak on the internet - and gives the Twittering masses the lolz
A few of you – by which I do actually mean a minority – in the comments on my pre-sacking post on MacLennan took a similar view Continue reading...
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A 24-year-old Labour candidate in Scotland who once said "the biggest gaffes will likely be made by candidates on Twitter - what are the odds it'll be me?" should have put some money on himself. Stuart MacLennan's tweets included "God this fairtrade, organic banana is shit. Can I have a slave-grown, chemically enhanced, genetically modified one please?", "Made my connecting train. No first class it would appear. Sitting opposite the ugliest old boot I've ever seen too" and "Lots of chavs at Stirling station". Continue reading...
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Monday 28 December 2009
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Alex Salmond. Photograph: David Cheskin/PA
In the third of a six-part daily series, the Guardian's senior political commentator makes the case for Scotland's leader. Tomorrow: Tony Blair
Continue reading... -
Thursday 19 November 2009
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Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
During the Glasgow North East byelection, opponents of Labour candidate Willie Bain produced a poster asking: "Do you really believe Willie Bain lives in his ma's hoose?"
(He works in London two days a week.)
Looking at this picture of the diminutive MP meeting Gordon and Sarah Brown yesterday before being sworn in ... yes, I really do believe it.
Post your caption ideas below.
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Friday 13 November 2009
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Thursday 12 November 2009
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Paul Owen: Minute-by-minute coverage throughout the day as Labour and SNP clash in key byelection triggered by Michael Martin's resignation
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Thursday 29 October 2009
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The housing estates of north Glasgow are witnessing the third Labour-SNP battle for a rock-solid Labour seat in less than 18 months. But one thing will be different in the battle for Glasgow North East: the reduced presence of the most popular politician in Scotland.
You may remember in the 2007 Scottish parliamentary elections that the SNP drove Alex Salmond's name and appeal hard – registering "Alex Salmond for first minister" and using that instead of SNP on every ballot paper. Happily for the SNP that meant it was the first name on the ballot.
It worked: the SNP won power at Holyrood and Salmond's personal popularity continued – and continues – to soar. It seems more Scots think he's the best first minister than actually vote SNP.
But here's what the SNP has decided will not happen in Glasgow North East: a repeat of Salmond's personal humiliation at Glenrothes a year ago, when he chose to dominate his party's campaigning and where his wide grin and shining self-belief overshadowed his shyer and frequently subdued candidate, Peter Grant.
It had worked in Glasgow East in July last year: Salmond visited the constituency 11 times in little over thre Continue reading...
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Wednesday 2 September 2009
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Live coverage of Scottish parliament discussion of release of Lockerbie bomber with Andrew Sparrow
Continue reading...
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