Tag Archives: liberal democrats

LibDems and their stance on Scotland

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I’m getting quite annoyed by the Liberal Democrats stance in Scotland.  Take for example Michael Moore on Newsnight Scotland two nights ago.  He stated that the SNP’s stance on tax raising powers for Holyrood is “a lot of assertion and not a lot of detail” but when asked whether the LibDem’s idea of home rule include Corporation Tax being devolved, he couldn’t answer the question of whether it might be considered.

Instead the talk was of building consensus and “looking what is best for Scotland and seeing where Scotland wishes to go” 

Talk about a lack of detail.

I think it is pretty obvious where Scotland wants to go, and if it doesn’t involve quite a lot more fiscal autonomy, then the other option that to be picked will be independence.

The other problem with the Scottish Lib Dems today (apart from having just 5 MSPs) is the language being used.  I think it is totally counterproductive to use talk such as “SNP’s “bulldozer” approach” or “bullying” or “a national embarassment“(sic)

The “bulldozer approach to the single police force, like it or otherwise (and I don’t) was in the SNP manifesto and it is right that they implement it.  When did doing what you said you were going to become bullying?

I don’t think it is a very good idea to call the party that most people in Scotland voted for a national embarrassment.  Instead of snipping, look at what the people are saying.  If you don’t like it, try explaining why your ideas are better.  Don’t say “you voted for Alex Salmond, you are an idiot”

Increasely, you look like overlords from a foreign country telling people what to do, and why they are wrong.  Michael Moore and Danny Alexander might be Scottish MPs but they are representing a Coalition government that was not voted for in Scotland, so appears not to be Scottish.

The people of Scotland want more powers, and Michael Moore should be talking about finding out what the people want (working with the SNP on those referendum questions rather than trying to force then to ask just one question) instead of “building political consensus” which is just nonsense talk to the general public.

Lothians Results for #sp11

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A historic result for this election, an incredible night for the SNP, taking an overall majority which was supposed to be impossible.  A disastrous night for Labour and the Liberal Democrats and disappointment for the Greens who stuck on 2 seats (2 regions to be declared).

In the Linlithgow constituency, SNP candidate Fiona Hyslop was returned 49.8% of the vote, a massive increase of 10.8%

Name Party Votes % +/-%
Fiona Hyslop SNP 17,027 49.8 +10.8
Mary Mulligan Labour 12,936 37.8 -2
Christopher Donnelly Conservative 2,646 7.7 -2.9
Jennifer Lang Liberal Democrat 1,015 3 -4.6
Mike Coyle National Front 558 1.6 +1.6
Turnout 34,182 52.5
Majority 4,091 12

In Almond Valley, Angela Constance turned a micro majority into a huge majority of 5542.

Name Party Votes % +/-%
Angela Constance SNP 16,704 54.3 +14.6
Lawrence Fitzpatrick Labour 11,162 36.3 -3.4
Andrew Robert Hardie Conservative 1,886 6.1 -1.9
Emma Sykes Liberal Democrat 656 2.1 -4.2
Neil McIvor National Front 329 1.1 +1.1
Turnout 30,737 51.1
Majority 5,542 18

In the Lothian Region, 3 Labour members were returned (Sarah Boyack, Kezia Dugdale & Neil Findlay) 2 Conservatives (David William McLetchie & Gavin Brown), Green (Alison Johnstone) and Independent, Margo MacDonald

Party Member Seats Votes % +/-%
Labour Sarah Boyack, Kezia Dugdale & Neil Findlay 3%E Labour 11,162 36.3 -3.4
Andrew Robert Hardie Conservative 1,886 6.1 -1.9
Emma Sykes Liberal Democrat 656 2.1 -4.2
Neil McIvor National Front 329 1.1 +1.1
Turnout 30,737 51.1
Majority 5,542 18

In the Lothian Region, 3 Labour members were returned (Sarah Boyack, Kezia Dugdale & Neil Findlay) 2 Conservatives (David William McLetchie & Gavin Brown), Green (Alison Johnstone) and Independent, Margo MacDonald

Party Member Seats Votes % +/-%
Labour Sarah Boyack, Kezia Dugdale & Neil Findlay 3 70,544 24.9 -1.3
Conservative David William McLetchie & Gavin Brown 2 33,019 11.7 -1.5
Green Alison Johnstone 1 21,505 7.6 +0.5
Independent – MacDonald Margo MacDonald 1 18,732 6.6 0
SNP None 0 110,953 39.2 +12.7
Liberal Democrat None 0 15,588 5.5 -7.3

All the West Lothian region results can be found on the West Lothian Council website.

Linlithgow Constituency Preview

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The Linlithgow constituency promises to be a very tight battle between the incumbent Labour MSP Mary Mulligan and the challenger, SNP Lothian Region MSP Fiona Hyslop.  Playing bit parts this time are Conservative and LibDem candidates, Chris Donnelly and Jenni Lang.  There is also the frankly repugnant option of the National Front.

In the Linlithgow constituency at the last election, Mary Mulligan had a majority of 1160, but boundary changes have reduced that to just 294.  The seat is the number 2 SNP target and requires a swing from Labour to 0.4372%

The current poll results say the swing to the SNP is much greater than that and if you believe the polls, Fiona Hyslop will be coasting home.  We’ll see if the polls are much closer to reality this time.

Judging by the activity in my <street>, you’d think this was the safest seat in the country. But Labour have sent in multiple leaflets, trying to imply that daughters of East Renfrewshire Labour councillors live in my street and will be voting Labour.  Not likely.

Tomorrow, I’ll give a summary of the Lothian regions where the 2nd vote will go, give a short view on the AV referendum that is also on the same day.  I sent the candidates some questions that would help me decide who to vote for and will let you know the candidate’s responses (if they reply) and then on Election Day, I’ll actually say who I will vote for as at this stage I’m still not sure.

Linlithgow Candidate Profile: Jenni Lang

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Jennifer Lang has been active in politics for almost 20 years having been originally motivated whilst at school after meeting Paddy Ashdown, then leader of the Liberal Democrats.

After leaving University, Jennifer worked for the Scottish Liberal Democrats to organise Conference and Events and played an active role in organising the Leader’s visits during the elections of 2001, 2003 and 2005. She is a member of the Federal and Scottish Committees to organise the annual conferences.

Jennifer has good taste in daughter’s names and went to the same school my daughter would have gone to if we hadn’t moved away from Reading.

[Taken from the LibDem profile page]

 

Don’t Blog Back in Anger

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Yesterday, Jeff at Better Nation posted what might be described by some as a diatribe against the Liberal Democrats, Only the Lib Dems Can Disappear Here

How can we sympathise with Chris Huhne attacking the No to AV campaign for spreading lies when his party is doing the same thing up here in Scotland? I can understand why the Lib Dems would want to wish the Green party away but it doesn’t seem to be working as the (hitherto) 5th party of the Parliament is finally gaining some traction in the polls.

Part of the problem was Caron Lindsay’s refusal to sign Jeff’s “include Patrick Harvie in the Leader’s Debate” petition, so it was unsurprising that Caron responded in kind :-

There’s been a lot of excitement in the SNP section of cyberspace – with a bit of cheerleading by the Greens as well – at a couple of polls published over the weekend which put them well ahead of everyone else in the Holyrood race. They are talking about the SNP beating Labour leader Iain Gray in East Lothian, of winning Orkney from us, and ousting the one really talented person on Labour’s front bench, Jackie Baillie. But we know what comes after pride…………

Alls bitchy in love and politics.  Malcolm Tucker would think it very tame.  However, one thing really got to me about Caron’s post :-

As for the Greens, when people get to realise that their proposals for Land Value Taxation are going to hit pensioners, students, people who rent their homes, single parents and people who live in city centres hard, I don’t expect that their vote will go up by as much as they think. I don’t remember them being particularly constructive or achieving anything during the time in Parliament when they had 6 MSPs either. I can’t see the point of voting for them.

Setting aside the point on Land Value Tax and the opinion about what the SGP managed to achieve between 2003 and 2007, Caron can’t see the point of voting for the Green. This just stood out at me as being plain wrong.

I’m currently reading Robin Harper’s autobiography. It is full of quotable comments.  One statement reads :-

Environmental issues grew steadily in importance, and by the time we began campaigning for the 2003 election I was measuring our success not only by how well the Green Party seemed to be doing but by the extent to which the big traditional parties were falling over themselves to cherry-pick our agenda to prove which of them was the fairest Green of all.  It was a fundamental Green dilemma [...] that the better we performed the more others would take on environmental issues and try to squeeze us out.

More than ever before I see political parties take environmental issues into their manifestos and policies.  Great, but they take them for the wrong reasons.  One, they think it will win votes.  Two, they see it as a way to boost the economy (“the goal of generating the equivalent of 100% of Scotland’s own electricity needs from renewable sources by 2020 would [...] power the re-industrialisation of Scotland”) rather than for any environmental issues.

Time after time, I read about environmental bills and targets being watered down from what is really needed.  The point about voting for the Greens is that they are the only party to put environment issues first.

Further to this, the Liberal Democrat’s don’t exist in West Lothian.  I’ve been trying to keep a positive outlook for all parties standing locally (except the NF) but I’ve had absolutely nothing from the Liberal Democrats, not even a posted leaflet.  Even the Liberal Party have sent a leaflet. It can’t be because they don’t have the money or funds.  The SGP must be even smaller, yet Alison Johnstone has been seen in West Lothian and talked about it lots.  How can I cast my constituency vote for Jennifer Lang when she she doesn’t appear to exist?

UPDATE: Mea Culpa: As Caron rightly points out, her post wasn’t a response to the post from Jeff that I thought.  I look forward to any response it does receive!  Luckily my point, about there being a point to voting Green, and that LibDems need to do more locally in West Lothian,  doesn’t fall on it being a response to a different post.

Suitably Despairing’s Green Guide to Manifestos in #sp11

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I did plan to go through each of the Manifestos with a fine tooth comb looking for Green commitments, but the excellent Suitably Despairing has already done the job for me.  I’ll just give links to each below and summarize the key points from each.

Scottish Conservatives

Transport projects based on economic benefit with the Forth Crossing the top priority, wanting to stretch rail to breaking point, and breakup the ferry services. Anti-localisation and with no commitment to reduce carbon emissions except for the unproven Carbon Capture technology and the dangerous and expensive nuclear “industry”.

UKIP

UKIP don’t believe in climate change.  I don’t believe UKIP will ever have a say in Scottish Government so that’s okay then.

Scottish Liberal Democrats

Commitment to biomass power plants (but they oppose the one in Leith). Setting a target of Scotland to generate the equivalent of 100 per cent of Scotland’s electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2025 (not, not energy).  No new nuclear power plants, hoping to work with the UK government on transmission charges, a Scotland wide transport smart card. I see conflict with public transport commitments and the desire to build more roads and bridges.  A program for insulation (details lacking), a strategy for on-street recycling across the country.

Scottish Labour Party

Any application for a new nuclear power station will be considered, any replacement coal power station will have to have the imaginary carbon capture technology, a target of 10,000 electric car charging points, a “zero waste” Scotland.  Pledging to reduce the tax on fuel for rural areas – would be better to invest the money from that tax and better and cheaper public transport.

Scottish Socialist Party

Free bus, rail, underground and ferry travel.  A bold challenge but incredible expensive. A system of ferry pricing based on the Road Equivalent Tariff.  (Selfishly I’d like this, but can it be extended to trips to Ireland?).  A national strategy on cycling and training for children in P6/7 (which already exists).  No new nuclear and plan to decommission existing ones. A ban on GM foods.

Scottish National Party

Scotland will produce 100% of its usage of electricity by 2020 from renewables, exporting excess, a Futures Generation Fund for the renewables wealth, carbon capture (coming shortly after cold fusion nuclear power I believe). £50 million towards home insulation, funding for a Climate Challenge Fund, and a young Climate Challenge Fund.  All good stuff.  But a giant new bridge casts a shadow over it somewhat.

(Aside: you can tell the SNP have considerable more money available; and get social networking)

That is just a brief summary of the points in the manifesto’s and you should click through to @cowrin’s posts to get the full details (and extra commentary)

UPDATE (19th April) : The Scottish Green Party manifesto is now out and Suitably Desparing reviewed it here :-  #Sp11 Manifestos: Scottish Green Party

The review is, as expected very positive with the only negative being the storage of nuclear waste.  Briefly, no large biomass, universal home insulation, developing plans for the “supergrid”, 100% renewable electric by 2020, no nuclear, no coal, cycle hire schemes (yes! big win), extra public transport infrastructure investment, peatland restoration, an increase in native woodland cover to 40% by 2050.

Newsnight Leaders Interviews, Series 2 No.1: Tavish Scott

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Newnight Scotland, or is it officially #newsnicht now are doing another round of Leader’s interviews so I’ve got to keep up. Here is the first, in the second round, Tavish Scott

Note that I don’t set the title of the video as it is from YouTube and Baron Sawar of Govan but you will have to admit that Tavish Scott did not give the most accomplished of performances, unprepared for the harsh questions from Gordon Brewer. I’m surprised because there was nothing that wasn’t really asked before and Tavish normally handles himself well.

The tone was set when answering the introductory question with the fact that the campaign had “had its ups and downs”. This was one of the downs, I’m afraid.

Livingston Constituency Results 2007

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Following on from my post on the Linlithgow 2007 results, I’m looking at the sister constituency of Livingston.  In the upcoming election the boundaries have changed and there is a new name, the beautifying Almond Valley.

The interesting point about the 2007 vote was an independent, Ernie Walker, campaigning to save the services at St. John’s Hospital.  Here are the results of the constituency vote in 2007 :-
Here are the constituency results :-

Angela Constance, SNP 13,159
Bristow Muldoon, Labour 12,289
Ernie Walker, Independent 2,814
David Brown, Conservative 2,804
Evan Bell, Liberal Democrats 2,158
Majority 870

Here are the regional voting results (click to enlarge) :-

As in Linlithgow, the most faithful voters are the SNP.  82% of those that voted for Angela Constance followed up with a vote for the SNP on the Regional List.  Apart from the independent voters, again the Liberal Democrat voters were most split with only 63% staying with the LibDem.  10% gave their vote to the Green Party.

The Greens polled 3% of the list vote in total, whilst Margo MacDonald polled 4.5%.  Margo picked up most of her votes from SNP Constituency votes (29%) but it was pretty even from all the parties.  The Greens picked up a quarter of their votes from the SNP and Labour.  As in Linlithgow, the LibDems were twice as likely to vote Green than Margo.

Why I’m no longer a Liberal Democrat Member

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This is a post long in the thinking and indeed, the writing. I’m sure some of you will be delighted, some disappointed, some I already know understanding and some thinking, “Oh, I didn’t know he was a member anyway”.

I was planning this as a two parter as it is so long, but if you are not interested in the history and just want to get to the dirt, skip forward by clicking here.

Joining the party

Once upon a time I was a not so young fellow who had little interest in Politics but liked his football.  I’d just moved into a new area and was seeking advice about taking my son to see Livingston. I came across the blog of a certain Stephen Glenn, Livingston FC fan, blogger and political activist.  Well, I skipped all the boring politics stuff and emailed Stephen about the football.  Eventually, I worked out that we went on the same bus to work, and struck up a friendship.  Stephen introduced me to the evil drug called politics.

By March of last year, I was really enjoying getting into and learning politics.  I mentioned to Stephen that I was going to start a blog and the theme was deciding who I was going to vote for in the election.  However, it was patently obvious I was going to vote for Stephen as my local candidate as my views were broadly similar to Stephen’s and I’d always preferred the Liberal Democrats to Labour or the Tories.  I gave Stephen a lift to a local party meeting where Stephen was formally chosen as the candidate for Linlithgow and East Falkirk.  At the meeting, Stephen wondered if I’d like to join the party and I readily agreed.  I was interested, and wanted to learn more.

On the election night I went with Stephen to his count, another fascinating event (don’t scoff it was) and whilst the results were a lot poorer that the opinion polls had suggested for the LibDems, it was clear there was going to be a hung parliament and that the LibDems were going to hold the balance of power.  I was 100% in agreement with the decision to form the Coalition government, despite the unease of a Conservative Prime Minister and the cuts agenda to come.  However, I was disappointed that the voting reform agreement was only for AV and not PR.

Conferences and Tuition Fees

Fast forward to October and the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference.  Stephen had left for his home land of Ireland and was to begin campaigning for the Yes to AV team, so I went instead with the wonderful Caron Lindsay.  I blogged about the day here, but the highlight was the debate on tuition fees where I saw for the first time a proper political debate with good arguments from both sides.  I voted and helped keep the Scottish Lib Dem parties policy that tuition fees remain free.

However, this was the high point.  The Browne Report was a huge shock and instantly deflated all the good feelings I’d had from the conference.  I can now only look back at that conference with disappointment.

That said, I still think the LibDems were right to go into coalition, and I don’t think the Lib Dems are on the wrong course, especially not the Scottish Lib Dems.  I think without the coalition, a minority Conservative government would have limped along until about October and then won outright another General Election.  The Lib Dems are bringing some good liberal policies and tempering the worst excesses of the Conservatives.  I do worry about policies that are not in the Coalition agreement as the Tories appear to invent ad-hoc policies such as the dreadful Forest sell off and the modifications to Child Benefit and the NHS and expect the LibDem MPs to fall into line.

They are, of course, going to get a hammering in the up-coming Scottish elections because this.  But this is none of these things are the reason I’m not renewing my membership.

The Reason for Not Renewing

I’m not renewing my membership because I don’t think it is right for me at this formative time of my awakening into politics to be aligned to any party.  I’m enjoying learning about politics and want to comment more on it.  I feel unfaithful to the Liberal Democrats if I happen to praise something Alex Salmond or Nicola Sturgeon or Patrick Harvie have done (note that it is unlikely to see me praising Labour or the Tories).  If Tavish Scott comes up with something wrong, I want to feel that I can comment on it without feeling disloyal – not actually that there has been that I can think of.

The other point is that the local party is not really very active.  Even when Steven was around, the activity was in Edinburgh.  This is understandable given the resources, both in manpower and material, but it doesn’t exactly help me, and therefore it isn’t really a reason to stay in the party.

I was being a toddler last year, now I’m going to have my rebellious teenage years.  Maybe by the next general election it’ll be time to settle down and maybe I’ll be rejoining the party.

Despite what James at Better Nation might hope, I will not be joining the Green party.  I’m not leaving one party for “blogging and tweeting freedom” to join another one.  I think I live somewhere between parties.  I don’t think the Liberal Democrats are green enough, but there are still things I don’t agree with from the SGP (shouldn’t preempt anyone’s manifesto though)

Linlithgow Constituency 2007 Results

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The wonderful @PeatWorrier posted a link to a positive data bomb of election results which you can download yourself at http://www.scotlandoffice.gov.uk/scotlandoffice/files/updatedversionJune08.xls

The detail is quite extraordinary. Not only has a constituency breakdown for regional and consituency votes, it has a box by box count of votes per party, the boxes linked to the postal district. It also gives an incredible useful Cross Paper Combination of Regional Candidate by Constituency candidate so you can see how many SNP voters, for example, voted for Liberal Democrat, or Green or even Labour in their second vote.

So detailed is it, that I know that for my postal district that the SNP outvoted Labour, the Conservatives outvotes Liberal Democrats, and Margo polled better than the Greens.

My constituency is Linlithgow in the Lothians region. The boundaries have changed for 2011, but it ranges from Whitburn in the south, Winchburgh in the east and Linlithgow in the north.

Here are the constituency results :-

Mary Mulligan, Scottish Labour Party 12,725
Fiona Hyslop, Scottish National Party 11,565
Donald Cameron, Scottish Conservatives 3,125
Martin Oliver, Scottish Liberal Democrats 2,232
Majority 1160

Now look at the Regional Vote by Constituency Candidate (click to enlarge) :-

The most faithful votes are from the SNP where 78% of people who voted for Fiona Hyslop voted SNP on the regional list. The least faithful are Martin Oliver’s voters, only 55% of voters for Martin Oliver voted LibDem on the list. Not called Liberal for nothing.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the biggest gainer of votes from the constituency candidates was the Independent, Margo MacDonald. She picked up nearly 5% of the list vote in the Linlithgow constituency. After their own Party, Conservative, Labour and SNP constituency voters were mostly likely to vote for Margo.

The exception was the Liberal Democrats who were more like to vote Green (13.9%) than Margo (8.1%). This might actually be Green voters voting LibDem because they didn’t have a choice of voting Green. The Green vote was actually very evenly split between Labour, SNP and the Liberal Democrats (310,307,310).

There are few other surprises. Both BNP (of which there were 490 in the constituency) and UKIP voters where more likely to vote Conservative and Socialist voters were not likely to vote Labour; 3 times more voted SNP and indeed, just as many voted LibDem.