The Keane Green

The result of the Coatbridge North and Glenboig by-election was as follows:

First preferences:

1. Peter Sullivan, Scottish Labour Party – 1,529
2. Allan James Stubbs, Scottish National Party – 1,254
3. Julie McAnulty, Independent – 557
4. Bob Burgess, Scottish Conservative and Unionist – 361
5. Hugh Malcolm Banford, no description – 217
6. Kristofer Keane, Scottish Green Party – 115
7. Fraser Coats, Scottish Socialist Party – 81

And the final round:

1. Peter Sullivan, Scottish Labour Party – 1,759
2. Allan James Stubbs, Scottish National Party – 1,696

I was reasonably happy with my result.  I was surprised at how well Julie and Hugh did.  Julie is a well known local campaigner and kept her deposit when she stood for Holyrood as a Save Monklands independent in 2007, and I imagine she picked up a lot of the protest vote, limiting mine.  I was also restricted by having only a week after my last exam to campaign, plus pretty limited help.

I notice that Iain Gray called the Labour gain a victory, which is somewhat strange given that this is a Labour heartland.  The new local electoral system whereby a ward elects 3 or 4 councillors can lead to strange by-elections where one party had a sizeable majority, but the seat contested belongs to another party, as happened in this case.  Labour was defending a majority of first preferences, but the seat happened to be SNP, so does it really count as a Labour gain?  If anything, Labour suffered a huge swing, and barely clung on in the final round to a  seat which should be ultra-safe Labour.

I also have the European results for North Lanarkshire:

1. The Labour Party – 18,949
2. Scottish National Party – 17,302
3. Conservative Party – 4,695
4. Liberal Democrats – 2,553
5. United Kingdom Independence Party – 2,536
6. Scottish Green Party – 2,407
7. British National Party – 1,993
8. Socialist Labour Party – 1,935
9. Christian Party “Proclaiming Christ’s Lordship” – 1,268
10. Scottish Socialist Party – 769
11. No2EU: Yes to Democracy – 560
12. Independent Duncan Robertson – 543
13. Jury Team – 302

We almost beat the Liberal Democrats, which is excellent for us in North Lanarkshire.  I’m annoyed to have been beaten by UKIP (I’m guessing their huge billboards around the county won some votes, because they had no other presence) but I’m very relieved that we were safely ahead of the BNP.  The Socialist Labour vote seemed very high, and there were a lot of SLP to Labour corrections on the spoilt ballots, so I think there has been some degree of voter confusion there.  The SSP remains in terminal decline, and the Jury Team seems to have been a huge flop.  Labour still clung on to the top spot here, something they only managed in a few counties, but even then the SNP pushed them close.  All in all, I see it as something for us to build on and feel positive aboout.