The result:
Labour - 12,231 votes (59.39%)
SNP - 4,120 votes (20%)
Tory - 1,075 votes (5.22%)
BNP - 1,013 votes (4.92%)
Solidarity - 794 votes (3.86%)
Lib Dems - 474 votes (2.30%)
Total votes cast - 20,595
Voter turnout - 32.97%
Rejected ballots - 43
I really wish now I’d followed my instincts on Tuesday and put that fiver on Labour- I’d have been half a pint better off this morning. Not to worry. Labour winning is not a shock, the brakes being gently applied on the SNP juggernaut was predictable. But a 32.97% turnout? Whilst, quite rightly, the SNP can argue it’s hardly a sparkling endorsement of the Brown government, it can equally be argued that the fact almost ¾ of the electorate stayed at home is a sign of SNP (as Labour’s main opposition in Scotland) weakness.
Biggest shock for me though was that 62 voter difference between the Conservatives and the BNP- at one stage during the counting it was though the fascists would actually capture the third spot. Considering it was thought the Tory candidate had run a "good campaign", definite food for thought there for the Scottish Conservatives.
4 comments:
A 33% turnout is disappointing for everyone and certainly not a cogent, nor re-assuring, victory for G Brown.
The Tory candidate was easily the best, sad that talent like that has a colonised mindset..........anyhow I digress.
Can't help but agree with pretty much everything you said, though I will add several things.
The TV mentioned early last night that there were several reports of people showing upto vote but unable to because they had been given a postal vote alledgedly, we were told police were investigating. Then....................nothing, not a word in the papers either I don't think.
The SNP knew they were beat weeks ago, though not by this much. Apart from two pockets, Dennistoun and Robroyston, one mixed working class/lower middle class(mainly Prod and Tory?) and transient immigrants/students. The other aspirational new build family area(mixed) all of GNE was prime labour territory and in most parts more Catholic than Glasgow East. people who responded to their totally negative campaigns, including letting slip early the SNP man was a Catholic. Wee Wullie Bain was a local hence wan ae us! and the totally untrue shite that the SNP are anti-Glasgow and pro-Edinburgh. Lo and behold it was mentioned in passing that Wullie bain was an ex-pupil of St. Roch's, in the heart of the old Irish Garn'gad. part of the constituency.
I could sum it up, in that the people who voted labour are the type of people I come from. generational hereditary labour voters, still got a few in my family but especially the in-laws. With loads interviewed on radio saying that this was the only reason they voted labour and did not consider another party...........ever! I mean, how do you combat that, apart from N.Korea education camps mixed with primary 6 good citizen classes. You may laugh, you may not but they are the equivilant of dugs that have been beat so bad that they do not know or want any change. The irony of Jim murphy tonight pontificating on how bad the SNP has treated GNE in the last two years from Edinburgh was off the scale. They have been incumbent there for 74 years, and 12 at Westminster. Beware of shameless people like this and how far they would go, beware.
There was a big shift in Glasgow east last year but not here. Ok there was a base there, and an excellent unnassuming SNP counciller, and the Catholic vote moved a bit. The SNP just haven't done enough here and ultimately they bear the biggest responsibility. Just don't ask me what else they can do, I honestly don't know.
The postal vote is a strange thing- yesterday morning I was reading on twitter from SNPers that it had started-was ongoing, not a squeek since. I wonder if they've been told to shut up by HQ "pending investigation" as they say?
O'neil
It has gone beyond subjecture, now I know you are not a great one for democracy;¬) but we need to watch out for the sinister twists of the power hungry. We must jump on it from on high.
Post a Comment