Scotland’s vote
THE SWING against New Labour across Britain was also
reflected in Scotland where New Labour lost 4.5% of its 2001 vote and five MPs,
with the Lib Dems being the main beneficiaries. Their vote increased by over 6%
putting the Lib Dems in second place in both the number of seats and share of
the vote in Scotland.
Interestingly, the anti-war protest vote went mainly to the
Liberals and not the Scottish National Party (SNP) who were pushed into third
place, as their share of the vote fell by 2.5% to below 18%. It was the lowest
share for the SNP since 1987 and, despite hoping for a bigger impact under their
newly elected leader Alex Salmond, the fourth election in a row since 1999 where
they have lost support. The SNP did however win six MPs in total, defeating
Labour MPs in Dundee East and the Western Isles.
The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), which the CWI in
Scotland is part of, stood in 58 of the 59 Scottish seats. Nationally the SSP
won 42,000 votes (1.9%) of the vote compared to the 72,000 votes (3.1%) the
party won in 2001.
In Glasgow, where the SSP has two members of the Scottish
parliament (MSPs), the vote fell to 4% from 6.8% in 2001. Unlike four years ago
when the SSP held nine deposits (5% or more of the vote) out of the then ten
constituencies in Glasgow, this time only one deposit out of the seven new
Glasgow seats was secured. In Glasgow, the Greens polled higher than the SSP
candidates in the four seats that they contested. In Edinburgh, where the SSP’s
national convenor Colin Fox is an MSP, the SSP vote fell to 1.48%. The Greens
picked up an anti-establishment vote by winning 4.88% across the city.
CWI members stood in six seats for the SSP. Ronnie Stevenson
won 1,303 votes in Glasgow South (3.4%), the eighth highest share of the vote
for the SSP. In Dundee, the SSP polled just over 2%, with Jim McFarlane in
Dundee West securing 994 votes (2.7%) and Harvey Duke 538 votes (1.4%) in Dundee
East. Jim’s vote was joint 12th highest for the SSP out of 58 seats contested.
For the SSP, with a national profile and six MSPs in the
Scottish parliament, this result is a setback. This was the first electoral test
for the party since the events surrounding Tommy Sheridan’s resignation as SSP
convenor in November last year.
Without doubt this was a significant factor in the drop in
support for the SSP, alongside the swing amongst a section of voters to the Lib
Dems and to an extent the Greens (who stood in 19 seats in Scotland), in order
to punish New Labour. Despite our political differences with him, the CWI has
argued that Tommy Sheridan has significant authority amongst the working class
in Scotland. We explained at the time that the actions of the SSP leadership,
which effectively forced his resignation, would damage the standing of the
party. It would also put a question mark in the minds of workers and young
people as to the future viability of the SSP.
Despite this setback the CWI believes that the SSP can
recover and move forward. There are big opportunities for the SSP around the G8
summit in July. The third-term New Labour government will see an unprecedented
attack on the working class. Under these conditions the SSP can rebuild its
support. However, this means there is a big responsibility on the SSP leadership
to draw all the lessons from some of the mistakes of the past period. Above all
it requires the SSP to turn outwards to the working class and young people with
a fighting programme to combat New Labour’s assault and advance a clear
international socialist alternative to capitalism.
Philip Stott,
International Socialists, Dundee
|