Ayr by-election 2000

'A senior Labour source said: 'They (Mr Dewar's administration) were meant to be the best and the brightest that Scottish Labour had to offer, but they have displayed a naiveté and incompetence that's quite extraordinary. People are appalled by the sheer naked incompetence of it.''
Jenny Percival, Gary Duncan and Alison Hardie in the Scotsman, 28 th January 2000.

Thursday as usual for Ayr by-election

By Stuart Nicholson in the Scotsman

THE Scottish parliament’s first by-election will be held on 16 March, a Thursday, after the Presiding Officer, Sir David Steel, ruled out the idea of a ground-breaking Saturday poll, it was announced yesterday.

The contest for the Ayr constituency follows the resignation of the Labour MSP, Ian Welsh, who has decided to quit for family reasons.

Sir David said he had seriously considered making a break with electoral tradition by holding the vote on a Saturday.

He said: "As a parliament, we are always trying to be innovative and forward-looking, and for that reason I gave serious consideration to the possibility of holding the Ayr by-election on a Saturday, which would have avoided disruption to schools.

"However, the position as to the legality of holding a poll on a Saturday is unclear and I’m not prepared to take a risk with such an important event."

The contest is an unwanted distraction for Labour, which faces a tough fight to hold on to the most marginal seat in the parliament.

Labour won the constituency by just 25 votes from the Tories in May’s elections, and the Scottish Conservatives now have high hopes of capturing the seat.

Earlier this week, Labours elected Rita Miller, 54, a former school teacher, as the party’s candidate.

The Conservatives have chosen a local farmer, John Scott, as their candidate. Mr Scott, 48, has pledged to make local issues the centrepiece of his campaign.

28 th January 2000

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